LaFeber Life Lately: What a December!!

December has been a blur of fun, traditions, and festivities!! I seriously don't even know where to begin so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. I can't believe as I look back on these that we fit it all in and still managed to have a rather relaxing, enjoyable Christmas despite the fact that I am 9 months pregnant!!

We rolled into December with beautiful weather and plenty of falling leaves at the parks to play in!

This was such a beautiful day and the kids everywhere were having so much fun with all these leaves!

Dad works a lot and the kids take any chance they can to cuddle with him and spend time with him. It's hard for he and I to find time for our own relationship because these two demand so much of him! But it makes my heart melt to observe their sweet relationship.

Austin met his Accelerated Reading goal and got to take home this sign to put in the front yard and go to a movie party! We were so proud of him for stepping up and working hard to earn this achievement!

Evie has been working hard at preschool and loves every minute of it! She is such an intelligent, social child and does so good in school without even trying. She has so many friends and seems to be the popular girl in class because the second I drop her off, the entire class comes running up to hug her!

Evie and I had a girls night/sleepover and it was so much fun! The boys had a sleepover of their own downstairs and while they were playing video games and snacking on junk food, we were having a spa night, watching movies, playing barbies, and also eating lots of junk food :). The kids still talk about this night with so much love. It really was nice to spend one on one time with the kids.

We went to the movies and saw Frozen 2!!

Austin had a day off of school and Evie had preschool, so we got a whole day to ourselves to have a Mommy&Austin day! We played games, had a play date with his little buddies, and ate Chick Fil'A for lunch!

Since I can't teach yoga right now with being huge and all, we went to Yoga Story Time at the Library and it was a lot of fun!

Decorating the Christmas tree!

While Austin is away at school, Evie asks to have learning time and we work on puzzles, counting etc. Seriously, I've never seen a child who loves to learn this much!

We also do lots of baking!

And of course we had to decorate our house with snowflakes!

Our Ward Christmas Party this year was extra special! We all got to dress up and go to Jerusalem! The whole church was decorated like a Bazaar in Israel and we ate on the ground picnic style. It was so much fun!

Evie got really sick and Daddy brought home flowers for her! She was squealing with excitement and kept saying, "I've never gotten flowers before! Usually only Mommy gets flowers! Isn't Daddy wonderful?!" It was the sweetest thing in the world and made me once again count my blessings that I married such a wonderful man.

She was still sick for her Preschool Christmas Program but refused to accept it so we loaded her up with Tylenol and let the little reindeer do her thing! It was so adorable to watch her sing the songs she had been practicing all month long around the house :).

Aunt Sadie was also able to be here for her program because she flew in this week for her baby shower! It was really fun sharing that experience with her!

Austin also had a Christmas Program at his school for Instrument Club at the exact same time as Evie's program. Insert major stress here! Josh wouldn't be able to get off work in time to help take one kid while I took the other, so I recruited Grandpa to come help! He took Austin to his Program where Josh met up with them right when the program was starting. I was so sad to miss his performance because I really wanted to see what he has been learning in Instrument Club but it was just one of those unfortunate things.... Another unfortunate thing was Josh's lack of picture taking so this is all I have. But both kids did so good and we are so proud of them! Plus it was fun to share the experience with Grandpa :).

I have been having severe pregnancy insomnia this pregnancy which has really sucked because I know I won't sleep for years after the baby is born.... But mornings like this when I sit downstairs enjoying this view while the rest of the house sleeps is hard to complain about :).

I started crocheting a baby blanket for Austin when I was pregnant with him and never finished it. So then I tried finishing it for Evie. But once again, life was busy and I never finished it! So I knew I HAD to get it done this time around since this is going to be our last baby! So every time I pull out the yarn and crochet needles, the kids are right by my side making necklaces and ropes and all sorts of jewelry :). It is such a good exercise for hand eye coordination and tactile skills and Austin especially loves to just sit there quietly and create. It has been a nice activity to do with each other in the afternoons by the fire and now I have officially finished the baby blanket! :)

Evie and I spent a whole day washing baby bottles etc and she got to keep a few for her own babies. Hence Baby Mini Mouse in this pic :). She has totally caught the nesting bug and has been right by my side the whole 9 months preparing for baby sister!

Austin is growing and changing every time I turn around. Lately he has been asking me to drop him off in the carpool lane instead of walking him up to the gate and kissing him goodbye. That broke my heart. Along with the fact that he won't let me kiss him anymore and insists that he can only kiss me on the cheek because it's embarrassing.... My baby boy is growing up right before my eyes! But fortunately he still holds my hand whenever we walk together so I still get to enjoy that :).

Austin at school with his friends building a shelf for their class elf. He told me this was a really frustrating project because everybody had different ideas of how it should be done. It made me smile to hear him explaining things and hearing how he handled it :). Oh how I love this boy!

The morning of Sadie's baby shower was also the day of our Community Winter Festival! So we got up early and spent the morning at the park with all the neighbors enjoying the sunshine and playing in the bouncy houses! It was a blast!

I was so happy Josh had this Saturday off so we could have fun with him!

Aunt Sadie is moving to North Carolina next month so we were happy to get to see her once more before she moves!

The corndog truck is our family favorite at these events!

And of course we had to say hello to Olaf and Elsa!

And the kids got to say hello to Santa and Mrs. Clause so they could tell him what they wanted for Christmas! Austin always wants Nerf Guns even though he has wayyyy too many of them. He did, however, ask for a bow and arrow this year so that was new. Evie wanted anything Princess Elsa related and anything cheetah related because lately she has been obsessed with pretending to be a cheetah haha!

Sadie's baby shower at our house was a beautiful experience and it has been so fun to be pregnant right along with her! She's about 4 months behind me but we have had fun calling each other and sharing woeful pregnancy stories or happy moments. This has always been a dream of mine and I am so happy my sisters have finally settled down and gotten on board with the baby thing!

I had my last day of work at 37 weeks and boy was I ready to leave! This pregnancy has been so hard on my body and has made working almost unbearable. I seriously don't know how I made it most days. I used vacation time for the last two weeks of my pregnancy so I could rest at home and enjoy Christmas without wanting to die!