Bellevue Botanical Gardens

On Saturday night we went with Shane's family to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. It's so beautiful. They design lights into the shapes of flowers, trees and animals. It's a close second to temple square, but I still so miss going to Salt Lake. I remember my first few years away from Utah was so hard! I felt like it wasn't even Christmas if we didn't go to temple square. 15 years later, and I still miss it. :) I told Shane someday I want to do a little temple square weekend away. Fly down, stay the night, have dinner and enjoy the lights. It would be so fun!

Anyway, at the gardens it started to snow, which is crazy for Seattle. It was so fun to be there with everyone, although I spent most of the night trying to figure out how to take a picture of lights with my camera. I never did figure it out, but here are some pictures.

Letter to Santa...

Tonight, while Shane was at work we decided to bake some treats and write a letter to Santa. We had some great stickers from the Target One-spot (I love that place). I think that's where Santa got most of his stocking stuffers for Emma this year. :) Emma's still requesting a Wall-e toy for Christmas. She decorated her letter with stickers and with pictures of Wall-e and Eva. Very cute. We'll take it to the special post office at Macy's tomorrow! Can't wait!

Now we're going to taste the new recipe we found for banana bread, out of the ward cookbook (thanks Amy!). It smells yummy! Emma is watching Frosty on TV while we bake...it's been quite a relaxing evening. :)

Peppermint Emma

Here's full shot of Emma's Tutu dress. The tights really make the outfit. :)

Last one, I promise!

I left my camera at my mom's and finally got it back today, so I'm trying to catch up on lost time, hence all the posts. Tonight was our ward's Christmas party. We had so much fun, and I made this Christmas tutu for Emma. I haven't had time to sell anything online lately, and thought I at least needed to make one for Emma to have at Christmas time. It's a little overkill, but she looked cute. It was her first time on Santa's lap, and she thought it was so cool. She asked him for a WALL-E toy and movie. We'll see if she's good enough for Santa to bring it to her. Here she is with her little friend from church, Maggie. They both looked so cute!

Christmas decorations & crafts...

So let me just say, that it totally works to plan and schedule things, because I've been amazed at how much I've been able to get done with my Christmas plans. Remember the advent calendar I loved from the pottery barn? Well, here's my version. Not quite as cute, but worth all the $ I saved. Emma has been so excited to get the ornament of the day out of the little pocket and hang it on the button. Her favorite so far has been the little train.



Today, the kids and I tried these little snowflake ornaments out of pipe cleaners. Super easy & super cute! We just tied them with ribbon and added them to the tree.

Here is our "spiritual" advent calendar. I found the idea for the baby socks on Martha, but instead of putting chocolate or tiny gifts inside for each day, we have a scripture, Christmas song, and a Christmas story to read together. We already read some super-sweet stories, and I feel like I'm enjoying Christmas more with Shane and Emma this year, and it's only December 6th! Can't wait for the rest of the days. :)

Finally, here is our tree. Shane insisted on LED lights, so I'm calling it our NEON christmas tree. There is something that is just so comforting about sitting at night with all the lights off, enjoying the tree. So beautiful. That's why I put up a tree as soon as possible, and leave it up as long as we can! Also, here is one of our nativity sets. I have a tradition porcelain set that has a safe place on the counter, but this is my little fun nativity. I love the bears, but realize that it might now be 100% appropriate. I love it though.

Christmas tree farm!

Last week, we went out to a local farm and cut down a Christmas tree for the first time since we've been married. Shane finally put his foot down and said we no longer would be allowed to use a fake tree. His family always went and cut down their own tree, and he's now enforcing that as one of our traditions. We had a great time! The overall experience was fun until Emma fell down in some "pokeys", and Shane and the kids cut down the tree while she and I were at the car getting first aid. Still fun. It just started to rain, so it was the perfect Seattle evening to get a tree. Aunt Heather, Uncle Mikey and the kids all came.

The girls

Emma has had so much fun with her cousins, while they've been here with us. She calls them her "friends". She wakes up in the morning and asks, "Where are my friends?" Very cute. Hailey and Emma are only 6 months apart, and their favorite game right now is to run around the house playing kittens. It's cute for a while, and mostly nerve-racking. But, I'm glad they play so well together.