It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house too, now! YAY!!

We got out our boxes of Christmas decorations during the day and the kids and I put up a lot of the extra stuff like my nativity sets. Then when Nate got home he whipped out the tree real quick- such an EASY tree to set up!! LOVE THAT!

This was our beautiful Monday night Sunset. It was incredible! I sent Charity out to get a picture of it since I knew it wouldn't do it justice and that just frustrates me :) But it was really beautiful.

Then after dinner for Family Night we decorated the tree. It was SO FUN!! I can't believe how excited I feel this year for Christmas. I mean, I'm always excited, but usually there is this nagging "here we go again" feeling with this stuff. But not this year!! I totally love it!! Maybe it's just because last year was so unusual. I don't know what it is, it's just really fun for me this year. The kids are way excited this year too. I hope we make time to do all the fun things that we always want to do. We were supposed to go to Temple Square on Saturday but I was so sick (no, I am not pregnant) we decided to reschedule for next Saturday, but I am SO excited to go to Temple Square again!! Nate and I spent like our whole dating time at Temple Square , so it's very sentimental.

It's fun to watch Luke experience it all for the "first time" again. He doesn't remember much from last year. The kids all teach him the songs and how to be good while Santa is watching you. It's fun. Kids so make holidays more enjoyable!! It's totally like being a kid all over again.

We had fun getting out all of our ornaments. Most of them (very few are not) are VERY sentimental. We got rid of a bunch when we moved to Alaska and then some when we moved back, so it's just the most sentimental ones left. My mom always gives my babies a "baby's first christmas" ornament, so they all had fun finding their's and hanging it where they wanted. Then there are Alaska ones for each of them as well that we bought during that week that we were "stuck" there. We have a few from old neighbors and friends that we always have to reminisce about. (It's really just such a sentimental holiday for me. I love that it gives us something to look forward to all month. We need to make a chain.) And then we have the fun Disney ornaments from last year that have become VERY sentimental to us just because of how much it meant to us last year to have a tree and Christmas when we got back here. In fact Nate and I both have been reminiscing about all that happened last Christmas. It's so hard for me to keep back the tears when I think about the whole thing. What an awesome Christmas that was. I think it will always be my favorite. All the help getting to and from the airport, all the help with the hotels and plane tickets. The Manwaring's generosity. Their house, their BED!! Their family Christmas party! Christmas Eve in the Seattle Airport. Christmas and a furnished house to come home to......I can't even begin to scratch the surface, and it almost feels too precious to talk about still, but what an AWESOME experience the whole thing was. As much as it felt like a trial back then- I really wouldn't trade it for anything. Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning to me from that experience.

I like this picture because Brad was helping Luke :) They're becoming such good buddies- it's just fun for me :) long awaited too. Ever since we found out Luke was a boy I have looked forward to the day when they would be able to be friends and it's taken a lot longer than it did with the girls.

This will be Noah's first Christmas! This is his first time holding a candy cane :) He was really enthralled by the whole tree and all that was going on- it was way cute. I made him stay in his walker till all the ornaments were on though.

This picture almost makes me cry because I can't believe how HUGE Charity is!! She's grown up WAY too fast! She just looks so funny in Nate's arms- too big to be lifted up- but anyway- she's still little :) I'll try to just enjoy it while it lasts.

It was Kelly's turn this year to put the angel on the top. (I STILL haven't made my blue angel- not sure what's wrong with me. WAY back when Nate and I were dating-jk, it was only 8 years ago- they had these nativity displays- like lifesize ones- at Temple Square. They had different ones for different nationalities- it was WAY cute I wish they still did it- but anyway the one they had for the African Americans had a BLUE skinned angel. The people were all BROWN fabric (or whatever they used) and the angel was BLUE! I seriously couldn't get enough of it. Not sure what the implications were supposed to be :) Mostly I just thought it was funny. But so I decided that we were going to have a blue angel on our tree when we got married......well, I'm still working on it :) I think I bought some fabric the first year, then a ball for the head the next year, now I'm not sure where either is or if they made the cut in the moves, but anyway- maybe I'll try to do it this year... not sure. Anyway :) There's my long lame story about the blue angel. I probably could have made it in the amount of time I just took typing the story out.) Kelly was excited to put the angel on nevertheless :) And next year is Bradley's turn :)

Noah had fun crawling around under the tree once we had it all finished. I like that he wasn't too anxious to pull the ornaments off right away. He's of course gotten more comfortable with it. We'll see how long those ornaments on the bottom last.

This is pretty much a tradition now too. After we get the tree all up and with it's lights on we all whip out the glasses from Sister Ashton (Charity's Primary teacher in AK 2 years ago) and look at the cool designs that they make with the lights. They are the FUNNEST glasses!! We're totally going to have to get online and order more someday because they're getting hashed. But they're so fun....if you come over during Christmas time remind me and we'll let ya check 'em out- they're the coolest! In this picture Charity was amazed that it did a REALLY BIG one with the camera flash :) She's such a fun girl.

I had to use this picture because of Kelly's face :) (and can I just say how adorable I think kelly looks in jeans (maybe I've said it before) but I so wish she would wear the hundreds of pairs she has more often- she's so cute!)

And yes, this is Charity's bumb in the middle of my "final picture of our Christmas tree". This will be a good show-to-the-future-boyfriends picture I think :) What a cute bumb it is.