'Twas The Week Before Christmas...

The week before Christmas we got hit with another major snow storm-- dropping almost 15 inches and cancelling school for the second time since moving here to Colorado! I had it on good authority that "snow days" were few and far between here, but so far we've had two in less than a month this winter and we've barely begun!

This was the view out our back window all day. Not too bad when you've got no place to go, the kids at home, a Christmas movie is on, and the fireplace is going!

Baby it's cold outside! Here's the little rascal at 34 weeks. I swear it looks like I've stuck a basketball up my shirt, but there she is-- proof she's growing by the minute! The "puffiness" stage has hit and I feel like I'm always walking around on swollen feet and with a puffy face, but that's life I guess.

Lucy and Zach's classes both had pajama parties on the Thursday before their Christmas break started (December 18th), and Lucy's teacher emailed these pictures to the parents. They had a yummy Christmas brunch, and then changed the lyrics to Christmas carols to their own version and performed them in front of the class (and yes, that is a boy named Jay who is her partner. He has long hair and talks like a girl, and is SUPER smart, so of course everyone makes fun of him. Lucy says she is the only one who will volunteer to be partners with him or sit by him at lunch. Gosh, I love her!!)

Lucy's selfie with her teacher Mrs. Younge and their twinner ornament earrings!

The Saturday before Christmas, instead of hitting the shopping malls like millions of Americans on the "biggest shopping day of the year," we decided to hit the mountains for a day of glorious sunshine and sledding. We headed north of Boulder, to a little area in the Rockies called Nederland Lake. It was a GORGEOUS blue-skied, 50 degree December day! We had ourselves a lovely little picnic out in the snow.

Then we tried to find some decent sledding hills which proved much, much harder than we'd anticipated. The snow melts SO fast here! So although we'd just gotten the 15 inches (probably more here in the mountains) on Tuesday, in most places it had already melted. We trekked (well, I waddled very slowly) up to this little hill near our picnic and ((TRIED)) to sled down, but it took forever to get up the steep hill which had too many trees anyway, and the snow was crusty and icy, and the kids only got about one run in before we threw in the towel. Ironically we have some really decent hills right here in our neighborhood!

At least we had a beautiful view to look at and we definitely got our vitamin D quota for the day!

The best part? Finding a Starbucks back in town and sipping peppermint white hot chocolate on the drive home!

We had a gift card from Uncle Beans to Olive Garden that we stopped and used for dinner on the way home. This is Zach's all-time favorite restaurant (he can eat at least 25 breadsticks) so he was in heaven. It was such a fun way to end our winter outing!

That Sunday I had to take more pictures of my cute children in their Sunday best because they all just clean up so nicely!

Miss Leah and her gingerbread man dress! She has officially graduated out of nursery and will be a Sunbeam next week. I can't believe it!

My handsome little man, Zach-O!

Cute little kiddos ready for 9 a.m. church! Which has incidentally been no easy feat. The five of us have had a pretty good track record as far as not being late, but next week we switch to 1 p.m. church and I am totally dreading it. It will be easier with a newborn most likely, but I sure love our lazy Sunday afternoons!

Monday afternoon we dropped Leah off at Sophie and Isaac's house so Jon and I could take the other two to see the new Star Wars movie. Lucy and Zach (and Jon for that matter) were SOOOO excited to see "The Force Awakens." They've been watching the movie trailers for months!

We'd bought our tickets online and gotten to the theater about 10 minutes before it started and it was PACKED! Jon and Zach sat together on one row.

And Lucy and I sat together on the row just below them. Jon surprised the kids and bought popcorn and drinks (which we never splurge on)-- but this was an epic moment and rite of passage as this new generation become die-hard Star Wars fans! They loved it.

Tuesday was our crazy, run-around, complete ten million errands, and almost-put-mom-into-labor-day. Looking back I'm not sure how we squeezed it all in! I taught Body Pump that morning at noon, we ran out to IKEA to look at some new baby furniture, then headed to Walmart for all of our Christmas groceries. By the time we got done with that it was time for me to cook dinner, and then we'd planned to drive to Larkspur (about 10 minutes south of Castle Rock) to see the Drive-Thru Christmas Lights at Jellystone. Phew! It was a long day!

They have several miles worth of lights-- and different themes like Candy Land, Colorado, and the Nativity, and some of the lights are synchronized to a radio station playing holiday music they connect you to at the entrance.

Here's our car selfie! We sure had fun oohing and ahhing at all the pretty lights!

The pies de resistance was this light tunnel you drove through that "danced" along to the music. Pretty cool way to get in the Christmas spirit! 

Wednesday I went slightly cookie crazy and decided to bake 3 different kinds of very involved Christmas cookies (complete with frostings and decorations), all while watching 5 children (we had Isaac and Sophie over all morning), and then subbing another Body Pump class that evening at the gym. Jon was working until 6 p.m. so he luckily he missed my meltdown right around 4 p.m., ha, ha. My feet hurt!

The kids were definitely awesome helpers and helped me decorate every last one of those gingerbread men, and even helped me clean up! I don't know what I'd do without my Lucy in times like these.

We made Swig sugar cookies, gingerbread men, and peanut butter cups to take as cookie plates to our neighbors and people in our ward. I think they all turned out delish! And despite it being another jam-packed day, this pregnant lady stayed up until midnight wrapping Santa presents and getting ready for Christmas Eve the next day!