Christmas is upon us!!! Or rather, Christmas kind of exploded at our house. In a good, messy, fun way. And the entire month of December was pretty much a big fuzzy blur of holiday goodness.
After taking a year off of Santa pics (2014 Santa was a little traumatic for Hailey) we headed back to see the big man himself. Somehow we managed to nail it this time...
Givens Fam & Santa 2016
Happy Girls! Stoic Santa.
We even survived the tree lot!
Posing with a tree WAY bigger than our house could fit
And this year, Hailey got to put the star up (Daddy makes her 35lbs of toddler cuteness look easy to lift)
All Smiles
The girls loved the lights...
Oh riiiiight, we should remove any and all ornaments from the bottom 24" of tree to Harper-proof them.
And this year I finaly caved and ordered us all matching stockings. Here's the thing about ordering stockings online... You should probably measure in real life, how long they're going to be or you're going to end up with this...
Pretty sure we could fit each child into their own stocking
We also got to do a fun Gingerbread-making activity at the mall this year with the added bonus of Grandma & Grandpa Givens joining us!
One VERY happy granddaughter
And what's a Christmas without our annual trip to see the Eucalyptus lights?
Daddy spent a fun night with Hailey (shopping for your truly) which meant Harper, Mommy and Grandma got a fun dinner out on the town!
Meanwhile, back at home on the weekends, we were up to our usual shenanigans...
Helping Daddy fill up her tires with air
Future biker chick
Givens Girl Biker Gang
Goofing off with presents under the tree
Present theif
Christmas Eve we headed to Uncle Jeff & Aunt Naz's house for our annual dinner & white elephant night.
Too many presents for foot traffic
Her beauty is starting to concern me...
And just before present opening, the kids all got into their Christmas Jammies, which cousin Jackson just happened to have the same exact pair! It was disturbingly adorable
The youngest Givens Cousins
Jackson
Harper
Hailey
All 4 Givens Cousins
Next year, we'll have to look for a size 18T Jammie outfit so Yosef can be included...
Hot Chocolate Bar - Basically EVERYONE needs one of these in their lives.
Gift Opening Madness
Christmas morning both girls were up by 7 and we promptly started digging into the piles of presents under the tree. Well, mostly me and Joe, but Hailey quickly caught on.
Her much anticipated Microphone from Santa
Our little singing superstar
I now give you, the Givens Rockband...
I needed more Cowbell, Joe.
Waldo & mint coins. Happy Hailey
Opening her first mint coin from Grandpa!
Later on Christmas day, we headed to Grandma Betsy's house for more family and presents opening. The girls played with cousins Felix & Josie who were visiting from Oregon. I can already tell this picture is going to be hilarious to watch evolve over the years.
Felix, Hailey, Harper & Josie
What a crazy wonderful holiday! Now if someone could please come to my house to organize all of the old and new toys we're swimming in... that would be swell.
What has the Givens Gaggle been up to this past Fall you ask? Well let's do a not-so-brief overview...
The weather in California is pretty awesome, so we spent a day on the coast at the Beach!
Hailey's pretty much non-stop talking these days. Here's her ABC song... we've got a little work to do on the ending ;-)
If she fits, she sits.
First Bath Together!
Big Girl Bath
Speaking of firsts...
Harper's First BACON!
But don't let her cuteness fool you...
Trouble with a capital T...
Visiting with Grandpa
Party. Animal.
It's too bad Harper doesn't like Hailey very much...
We also did our annual pumpkin patch trip, this time down at Spina Farms... In amazing California October weather...
And found some time to catch up and hang with Cousin Trent. I need to get more pictures of these kids together because I have a feeling they're going to grow up real soon...
Candid Monthly photo shoot... 9 Months Old here
And Halloween. This year Harper and I went as Hillary Clinton and Secret Service. We were a hit.
Daddy & Hailey went as Little Red Riding Hood and Big Bad
We even caught up with the Rohbach kiddos, Jack (Charlie) and Sally (Kendall)
Although Halloween costumes aside, I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing the girls in matching outfits...
OR adorable cuddle sessions with Daddy
And of course, Underwear Astronaut Hailey. Dream Big Kiddo.
Here's Harper discovering the phone's selfie-mode
And some random Dinner conversations...
Hailey singing...
And car giggles... this never gets old...
We needed a little cheering up after the election results this year, so we headed to Chuckie Cheese for a night. Hard not to smile at that place!
And believe it or not, Mama got a MUCH needed weekend getaway trip with the girls for Sarah's Bachelorette in Scottsdale. This was my first ever time away from either kiddo for more than a couple days - three nights away! We had a BLAST celebrating the bride-to-be
STUNNING!
As you can tell, it was awful. hehe..
Coming home was, however pretty great too.
Fort Building
Impressed
Teach 'em young!
This year we hosted Thanksgiving for the first time. We did kind of cheat, by ordering the main food ahead of time, but hey, it's a start!
Harper & Jackson
Getting our Grub on!
The boys Carving the Turkey (Jeff for real, Joey for show)
Also, Grandpa Brian had a BIG retirement party that the girls got to attend. Hard to believe he's really retiring, but we are SO SO proud of his accomplishments and beyond excited that he finally gets to relax and enjoy a much deserved retirement.
