December Happenings

It's been a busy month! My goodness! We're not used to having this much going on. I've loved it. I've also failed to blog it. So here are lots of photos from lots of events. Enjoy!

We had a Polar Express play date at our friends' house. The kids made candy trains and watched The Polar Express. Their movie attention span was as you'd expect for a two, three, and four year old, and they had a ball running from toys to treats to movie.

Shelby helped add the marshmallow "snow".

Cameron was really excited about this marshmallow.

Then he was really excited about how tasty it was.

Cameron, Nash, Shelby.

Shelby is still on her museum kick. One day she said she wanted to go to a museum with bones. Interesting request, but ok!

In Santa Paula is the California Oil Museum in the beautiful Union Oil Company Building. They have a temporary exhibit on California's prehistoric animals (makes sense - the oil source!), so we went to see some fossils.

The museum is small and I liked it that way. I could let the kids wander without losing track.

Cameron loved the big oil rig.

The biggest hits of the day - for Shelby, the gift shop. Toys galore. She forgot all about the bones.

For Cameron, this toy oil truck. He came and told me about it around six times, each time sounding like he'd just noticed it. So cute.

 

Cameron sent a pretty clear message when he was ready to go.

I'm bored now!

Shelby got to sing at an outdoor mall performance with her singing class. We got there just as the class was lining up on stage. Tom lifted her onto the stage at the back and sent her up to join the line just in time. Nice!

Shelby is on the end closest to us, in the orange and pink stocking cap. She paused singing long enough to give us a little wave.

She jumped up and down at the end of the song. Excited or cold? I'm not sure.

You can't see super well, but her cute teacher leaned up to give her a high five at the end.

Tom snuggled both kiddos after Shelby came off the stage.

Afterward we stayed at the mall to play. 

There was a train, and that's all my kids need!

 

Tom is good at playing along!

Shelby and her friend JJ found a great climbing tree.

We stuck around long enough for...snow! Yep, the fake bubble stuff that smells like Windex. It was awesome!

Catching "snowflakes".

Santa!

These daddy-daughter moments are too cute.

She had plenty of "flakes" in her hair. I think it looks gorgeous.

I dropped my phone right as I took a photo - this is what happened. Looks pretty cool!

Our ward Christmas celebration this year was a breakfast and service project. We made gingerbread houses and delivered them to families in the ward. Tom had a big hand in the planning and the morning came together very smoothly. Our family had a great time.

 

I was so proud of Shelby. After she joined the Primary kids for their activity, she came back to the gingerbread houses. She chose some toppings, found an undecorated house, and took charge. She worked so hard to make it beautiful and she did! It looked amazing. I never thought she'd want to finish the whole Tootsie Roll fence, but she unwrapped and unwrapped and made it happen.

Our cute friends Brock and Julia joined in to help decorate. Shelby said today that she's so glad they were there to decorate with her.

Cameron made a Christmas tree! We "planted" it at Shelby's house.

My husband took me to a ball! How fairy tale is that? Haha. We went to the historic (and absolutely beautiful...and maybe haunted...) Biltmore Hotel downtown for the company's Winter Ball. We got to eat and dance in a ballroom. It feels cool just to say that. I enjoyed meeting people that Tom works with each day. There were some familiar faces but most were new friends. 

I tried my best to be a good "boss's wife", but I did have to drag Tom to the photo booth to be goofy.

I have a confession to make. Yes, I haven't kept up on blogging because there has been so much going on. But I also started watching Project Runway reruns on Hulu. We all have our guilty pleasure reality shows, right? So my computer has been a little occupied. I'm ok with that.