Christmas is fast approaching!

December has flown by! I can't believe in 6 days I will be 22. I feel so young and old at the same time. I have done so much in my 22 years but I still have so many things I want to do! Its crazy how fast life goes by especially when you are busy juggling everything. We have been so busy getting ready for Christmas I haven't even had a moment to blog. This is our first year staying home for Christmas and not traveling at all. It's bittersweet to me. Half of me is happy to stay home with my beautiful family and start our own traditions. The other half misses my family and their traditions too. Paul and I are trying to make this Christmas really special for the girls since its just us four. I was reading about different Christmas traditions and one really caught my eye. It's already been dubbed the Christmas bunny in our house, courtesy of Audrey's fabulous imagination. Every night starting 12 days before Christmas santa's "helper" leaves a present at the door. I loved the idea of having a new book everynight to read together before Christmas. So after dinner when the doorbell rings Audrey starts screaming and jumping up and down saying the Christmas Bunny is here! I know its a silly thing but books are so important in our house and the look on her face is priceless.

Now on to our Christmas picture drama...ugh! I was a good girl and bought all our Christmas cards early this year. I hand filled them out and addressed them and everything. Then, I realized we didn't have a picture to put in it yet. So now comes me nagging Paul, who really doesn't enjoy picture time, to take a family photo yesterday evening. An HOUR and 75 photos later we still don't have an acceptable one. You would think with only a family of four we could manage to use the self timer and get one decent one. Nope, wrong. I ended up calling my life saver friend Rachel who came right over and proceeded to take about 30 more pictures. Needless to say, next year Paul and I agreed that we will hire a photographer in November and get family photos. We did manage to get 2 decent photos in the end so just know when you open our Christmas card and see the picture it was number 102. A couple of examples:

Audrey loves seeing the presents under the tree already. My mom sent our package out early so our tree looks just right. I'm actually pretty proud of my tree this year compared to last year's. I let Audrey and Peyton play with the ornaments and put them on then after they went to bed I went out and did the whole tree.

Paul's kitchen project is looking amazing! Unfortunately, he did the paint and we agreed the colors didn't look that great so he has to redo them this weekend. But after that it should be finished! I'm so proud of him. Now that this project is almost finished he is already thinking of the outside playset he wants to build for them for next summer. We should just own a home depot at this point. This is without the faucet, the oven door, the knobs for the stove and the stove burners. This is the primer before he painted it.

Both the girls are doing great. Peyton is using her sign language and words like crazy right now. Its amazing how much the baby sign language opens up the lines of communication and helps us avoid temper tantrums. Audrey is having so much fun at school making all kinds of Christmas stuff. They learn and talk about the advent wreath everyday. She comes home talking a million miles per minute about the different candles and what they represent.
I am thoroughly enjoying my little Christmas vacation from school. I can't believe how much lighter my everyday load is without it. I am so close though to being able to transfer that I have to push forward and not get sidetracked. Taking three classes next semester is going to be brutal and I will just have to deal!