Christmas Eve

I am all about traditions, so now that I have my own family I want to create and keep many traditions. For many families, Christmas is one of those times that there are tons of traditions. On Christmas Eve, as many families do, we read the Luke 2 nativity story and then act it out. My girls love to wrap up baby Jesus and put him in the "manger". After this we open up a present, which will be pajamas, and then a new tradition that we started this year will be to open up a new movie and watch it. This year it was Up. My girls really enjoyed it all, even though we didn't get through the whole movie before it was their bedtime. It was a peaceful and low key night. It was great!

Posing with 'baby Jesus'

Modeling their new pajamas

Emily, as Mary, wrapping up Baby Jesus

They adored their pajamas; here they are dancing with them,

but Ashley never wants to take hers off in the morning.

I guess we did good this year with our pajama selection! :)

Festival of Lights

Last Wednesday we went to see the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork. None of us had ever been before. It was really neat. My girls loved it and kept asking us to go around again and again. It definitely got us into the Christmas spirit too. I think it just might become an annual tradition for the Day family!

Santa and reindeer lights as we were entering

The girls absolute favorite one, a castle!!

Santa Claus was even there!

Ward Christmas Party

Last Saturday was our ward Christmas party. It was really neat this year. When you arrived you had to wait to go into part of the cultural hall as a small group. The theme that night was keeping Christ in Christmas. We started out and saw the angel who declared glad tidings to the shepherds, then to the inn keeper who challenged us to make room for Christ. Then we went from room to room and different people from the nativity talked to us about the Savior and symbols of Christmas. After we were all done, then we went into the gym and ate our dinner. I thought it was really neat. To end the night, Santa showed up (which was probably the girls favorite part of the night, but they're still young so it's okay :-) ) It was a nice night to remember the reason for this Christmas season!

Not the greatest picture, but they were excited to tell Santa what they wanted!

Emily's Story

This was a few months ago, but I keep forgetting to put it on. Emily is quite a good little artist for her age and she LOVES it. She had this little journal and drew the whole Sleeping Beauty story and then wanted to tell us her story one night. It was so cute that we had to record it. I'll admit that it's probably not going to be as neat for you as us, but if you watch at least the first minute you'll hear two of the cutest phrases that she uses. The "clever" princess and a "glittering" gown. (Where she came up with those words, who knows, but it's dang cute!)

I love you, Emily!

Some funnies

Kids say the darndest/funniest/cutest things sometimes. I want to write down a couple before I forget them.

Ashley, my 2 year old: Whenever she tells me she loves me, she always says, "Mom, I love you too much!" No, Ashley, you really can't! :)

She has started this one in the past couple months: Whenever we tell her she is a cutie pie, she says, "no, me is a cutie pie brat!!" Unfortunately, she couldn't be more right!

Emily: It's so wonderful to see Emily grow up and start to learn bigger vocabulary words. The other day she came in and said, "Mom, I'm having a 'situation' with Ashley." I said, "What kind of situation?" She then gave a normal 5 year old answer, "Ashley's not sharing her toys!" What a 'situation'!

At Grandma and Grandpa's the other day, Emily saw a present that's probably hers for Christmas. Grandpa and Grandma were trying to tell her it was something different, but she wasn't buying it. She looked Grandma straight in the eye and said with her arms gesturing, "Grandma, if you would just get it down, I would prove it to you." She's one smart cookie!

I love my girls so much!!

My Birthday Present

Sunday was my birthday. It was a nice day and I got to enjoy it with my family. It was the first year that Emily gave me a present. Here lies the story.

On Thanksgiving, we were up at my mom's house and Emily found this lifesize doll that was my mom's when she was little. Emily loved it and played with it all night. The next day, Kenny and I split up to do some Black Friday shopping. Kenny took Emily and went to Walmart. While they were there, Emily saw some lifesize dolls for sale and exclaimed to her dad, "Dad, let's get one of these for Mommy! She would love it!" So she picked out her favorite one and they got it "for me" :)

All weekend Emily kept begging both of us, "Can we please give Mommy's present to her early? I can't stand it!" But Kenny kept saying, "No." Finally Sunday arrived and Emily's just dying to give me my present. Finally about 3:00, he let Emily go upstairs and wrap it. My mom had come over to give me a gift so she got to witness this too. Emily came downstairs holding the present so proudly and said, "Open it; You're going to love it!" So I proceeded to open the doll as Emily squealed with excitement. As soon as the wrapping paper was off, Emily said, "Mom, can I play with it?"

My mom piped in and asked Emily, "I thought you got this doll for your mom." Then Emily looked right at her Grandma and said, "My mom is big. She doesn't need more toys!!" :-) So, needless to say, Emily has really been enjoying my birthday present for the past week!

BYU vs. Utah

Yesterday was another match in the 'Holy War' in Utah a.k.a the BYU vs. Utah game. Kenny and I have season tickets so of course we went. It was a great first half and I thought we were dominating Utah and had the game wrapped up. Not so!! Utah came storming back in the second half and I got a sinking feeling that we were going to lose. Utah tied it up at the end of the 4th quarter with a field goal so we went into overtime. Utah got the ball first and we held them to a field goal!! So now it was our turn. We had a few runs and passes that moved the ball about 10 yards, then Max Hall threw the ball to Andrew George up the middle and he ran all the way into the endzone for a touchdown!! BYU won, 26-23!! That moment was awesome. It wasn't quite as euphoric as the Las Vegas Bowl a couple years ago when we blocked the field goal to beat UCLA, but it was close. What a game!! Rah rah, rah rah rah, go Cougars!!

Kenny and I enjoying the first half

The final score on the scoreboard

After our victory, about 20,000 fans ran onto the field to celebrate. What a great sight!