The Living Nativity

We spent our Saturday afternoon at a
live version of the nativity.
It was amazing-- it really was put together so well. We got to walk around to different stations and see parts of the nativity story acted out. They had a Bethlehem market street set up, and lots of animals to see too (including camels! We had never seen camels before in real life.. they're huge!).
It was perfect for the kids to visualize the story. The girls were so excited to find baby Jesus.

I think this will become a family tradition.
It was so nice to focus on the true meaning of this Christmas season.

Pretty Princesses

Halloween

The cousins had a blast trick-or-treating together. 

It didn't take Belle and Bella long before they caught on to what it was all about.

 We went to some serious decked out houses. 

We also took the girls through a family friendly haunted house. It really wasn't scary, it was done well. I may have jumped at a couple parts though.. and Oakley screamed bloody murder in my ear the whole time. 

Trevor didn't want Bella to be scared of the big spiders, so he told her to say hi to them.. and so the whole time she was all nervous but would say "Hiii Spider" in a really timid voice. Then afterwards she just kept saying "I saw scary spider. Scary spider!" in a deep voice to everyone she saw.

It was such a fun Halloween!

Halloween Cruise

We went on the halloween cruise down the Provo River with the fam.

The cousins played ring-around-the-rosie (all snug in their life jackets) while we waited for our "boat".

The girls loved the canoe ride.. the pirate steering us, the pretty lights, and of course all the carved pumpkins along the river. They have hundreds of lit pumpkins to see.

The girls were so excited to meet a real pirate too! Our favorite part was when a pirate swung from a rope above our canoe. We had so much fun.

Bella's 2nd Birthday

 We had a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party for Bella this year.
Mickey is her absolute all-time favorite, so I just had to.
I made a Mickey pinata, Mickey cupcakes, and had a Mickey coloring station for the kids.
(That top picture makes me laugh because Bella seriously loved those water bottles. She kept saying "baby water bottle!" and would hand them to people throughout the party.)
We had Mickey Mouse clubhouse music playing that the kids danced to in the living room.
Bella was beyond excited to see all the Mickey stuff. She kept screaming, "Mickey!!" to everything in a high-pitched, happy voice.
I also loved that all the other kids were so excited for everything Mickey too. I knew Bella would enjoy everything, but it made me so happy to see each one of the kids light up.
(I mean, what kid doesn't love Mickey?!)

All the kids were so excited there was a huge Mickey there. I wish I got a picture of each one of them with him-- they all would randomly go up to him and hug him, sit on his lap, kiss him, etc. It was so cute to see.
The real Mickey Mouse even called Bella to wish her a Happy Birthday!
I loved that the kids really thought they were talking to Mickey. So fun.

The pull-string pinata was perfect for this age group.
We all sang Happy Birthday to Bella and then each kid got to pull a string to release the candy. You can hear Bella's excitement in the video as she screams, "Mickey!!" when all the candy comes out. It took the kids a minute to realize they could take more than one piece of candy-- they each just took one at first, started eating it, and were content.
(I kinda liked that the pinata didn't get ruined too, especially since it took me 5x the amount of time to make than the tutorial said it would.)

 It was a great time with great people.
Love that our family and friends can join us for these fun memories.