Christmas Time!

 I have way too many pictures for this post, so bear with me!

Other events from December:

Left: Daphne went through a phase of begging me to buy any stuffed animal bigger than her. Right: Watching another Saints game with daddy at Grandpa Crandall's apartment.

 Making Christmas cookies with Grandma Jasmer and Boston when she babysat the two of them.

 Daphne has an obsession with stickers and thinks they are only meant to wear, not put on paper. She often will use them as bandaids. She helped me fix all my owies one day.

Daphne has her own Christmas tree in her room. We have given her a new ornament for it each Christmas, plus we let her pick out a few other ornaments from the big tree to put on it as well. My mom used to do this for my brother and I as kids so we have kept the tradition.

 Greysen and Ada came over to play one day while there mommy had a doctor appointment. Daphne was obsessed the whole time with wearing Greysen's shoes.

Meeting Santa for the first time this season at the ward Christmas breakfast... it went over great as you can tell:) She pretty much called Santa "Scary Grandpa" the whole season. She has never been too fond of men, especially those with facial hair, so I can't really blame her.

 When we left the Christmas breakfast Daphne was so excited to see it snowing! She didn't really remember it from last year since she was so little, so it was her first real experience where she was excited to play in it and try to figure out what it was.

Our neighborhood did a super fun potluck soup night and sledding in the horseshoe area above our house. It was so fun to bundle up, eat yummy food, and visit while the kids were sledding. Best part of all is that it had snowed so much we felt like we were snowed in. Normally that isn't too fun, but I love when it happens when you have no place to go and can just enjoy the snow.

 Daphne looking cute in her winter gear

 We also had Carson Deaton over one day to play while his Grandma and my mom went to the temple.

We saw Santa a second time with the Frandsen's at a neighbor's daycare Christmas Party. For some odd reason, I kept on thinking that maybe this time she would like him and that last time was just a warm up to the situation....nope! She did sure love the candy cane that she got from it though:)

 Christmas Sunday. She wasn't too thrilled about me taking her picture, especially while wearing such an itchy dress.

 Left: Helping mommy shop. Right: Helping daddy shovel.

 Dan and I took Daphne on a hay ride around Layton Park to see the Christmas lights. The hayride began and ended at Burger Stop, so we had to enjoy some yummy food and force her to meet Santa (again) there, of course:) She didn't scream this time, but didn't necessarily love it either. He was the coolest Santa though and taught us how to help her get used to Santa in the future. We had so much fun! I look forward to being able to do it again.

 Forcing Daphne to sit on so many "Scary Grandpa's" laps must've warmed her up more for her to handle her real Grandpas. I was shocked when she ate her dinner sandwiched between Grandpa Black and Great Grandpa Black at the Black Family Christmas Party and didn't even cry! I was at an entirely different table than her even!

 Pulling down one of the small Christmas Trees... I am just glad it wasn't the big one!

Christmas Day!!!! We start off Christmas morning by writing 3 gifts to Christ (a tradition from Dan's family), which is basically goals we make for the coming year that are centered around us becoming better as a gift to Christ. We do three, since Christ was given 3 gifts from the wisemen. It is similar to the idea of New Year's Resolutions but we feel since we tie it into Christ and the Christmas season we tend to work harder on achieving those goals.. We first talk about the 3 gifts we wrote the previous year and then take a minute to write new ones before opening presents.

Daphne LOVED her McQueen slippers we got for her and didn't take them off for weeks (other than when I forced her to for activities such as bathing and church on Sunday...mean mom I know). Side note: I can't believe how skinny she was! Daphne is so much healthier now (August 2014) and has filled out and become a normal chubby toddler. It is so strange to see her so skinny!

 Left: Dan was pretty excited about his Reese's Puffs. Even though we didn't buy each other any gifts, we did decide to get a small treat for each other's stockings. I also made Dan and ornament for the Christmas tree.I have a slight obsession with Christmas ornaments. I blame it on my mom always given us ones with special meaning growing up. I collect one every place we go, usually find one each year that represents something important about the year, give one to Dan that has significance for the year, as well as one to Daphne. At the rate I am going....we will have to have like 10 Christmas trees as time goes on to sport all the ornaments I give. Haha.

Oh and I also made Dan a special gift from stuff we had around the house. I took all the ticket stubs I had from when we were dating and modge podged them on a mat. I placed that inside a picture frame with a picture of us from our family BBQ the night before our wedding.

Daph went through this funny phase of randomly pretending to sleep in daddy's arms on Christmas Day. She would tell everyone to be "Quiet!!!" and start to snore. We didn't even know she knew that word. It was pretty funny.

 After presents, we were off to breakfast at the Jasmer's house.

 ...and then dinner at the Black's house.

 Left: Daphne got a little mischievous while at dinner there. My dad took her downstairs and accidentally fell asleep on the bed while she played in there thick cream container in the bathroom. Right: Helping Grandma and mommy work on the puzzle.

 I made stockings for my parents as well for Christmas.

 The Saturday after Christmas was the Jasmer Family Christmas Party. Daphne had fun being pushed around in one of the cousin's scooters by Gabe (or riding on one of the wiggle cart thingys with him) for almost the entire party.

 Playing play dough with Grandma and Grandpa Black.

After another Young Service Missionary Devotional one Sunday evening. The Palmers are a missionary couple that help supervise the missionaries at Dan's work. The take on a role similar to what a mission president and his wife would do out in the field. I absolutely adore them and will be sad when they no longer are serving with him.

 

 A few more pictures from Christmas Sunday. Baby Tori was blessed and afterwards we went to her house for a yummy brunch. It was fun to be with all of Dan's family on Christmas Sunday.

 ...and last but not least, a picture of Daph and her good friend Ada.