White Christmas

Well, we can pretty much guarantee that we're going to have a white Christmas this year in Minnesota. With temperatures hovering around -5 in the mornings, the snow isn't going anywhere and there is more predicted for almost every day this week! Despite some minor sicknesses, Rachel LOVES the snow and can only be persuaded to come inside with the promise of hot chocolate or apple cider. Other than that Justin is in the midst of finals and we're gearing up for a fun Christmas with our little family at home.

Anytime a kid is this dressed-up for the cold it just looks like Christmas Story, "Mom, I can't put my arms down!" But, as usual, Ian was a good sport for the whole ordeal.

Here's her first time in the snow this year. Even though the sun had gone down (she took a long nap and Bridget couldn't convince her to wait until the next day), she loved it!

One of the first things that she did when she got outside was make a snow angel. We'd been talking about it for a while because we'd read about it in one of her books, so she was so excited to try it.
After we finally got inside after this first snow outing, here was our front yard with just Rachel's footprints. And, now that we've been out since our backyard looks pretty similar. What a busy girl!

This week we also tried gingerbread houses again. We don't have a picture of the finished product because the icing didn't stick things together as well as last year, but it was certainly fun (as you can tell by Justin's enthusiastic expression). The highlight was Rachel's marshmallow snowman and Justin's marshmallow dog.
Bridget is playing her cello with the Minnesota Mormon Chorale for their Christmas concert, so Ian got a bottle during the rehearsal. He was fussy while Justin was getting it for him, so Rachel asked Justin to get Ian quiet so she could watch her show. This was their solution.

Our boy is officially sitting! He is still pretty top-heavy, but can sit up for a while now. We also have a major mover on our hands with his worm-like crawling. Check out what motivates our baby to crawl around our home. Ian has a special something for you at the end of the show!