Day to Day in December

December was another great month for our family.

The day after returning from our Thanksgiving adventures we began the fun process of putting up the Christmas tree.  Daxton was at such a fun age and wanted to help with every little thing.  The best part is he would spend about five minutes on each ornament, choosing the best spot for it and making sure it was hanging just right.  Needless to say, he was pretty funny to watch!

So much concentration!

I love, love, love the Christmas holidays and all the little details we've accumulated over the years of being married.  Some of my favorites are the big red and gold glittered butterflies and the children's nativity set.  Daxton got pretty good with naming all the different pieces.

Some other fun activities from December included:

Christmas shopping with daddy and watching baby Claire

A fun playdate at his buddies house where they turned a mattress into a slide.  All you could hear were giggles coming from the room.

We also went to the Fort Lauderdale holiday boat parade with our Aunt, Uncle, and cousins.  It was our first time attending and we LOVED it!  Each of the boats/yachts were decked out in Christmas lights and most were playing music as they passed by.  Some even had fireworks!  We loved watching the guys wearing hydropacks as well.

It was seriously so much fun to be there with family as all these beautiful ships went passed.

It was pretty cute to watch Daxton wave at each of the boats and then snuggle up to daddy.  The last boat had Santa with reindeers and pineapples leading the way.

After the cold front (in the 50s and 60s) from Thanksgiving and early December passed it was back to park dates wearing shorts and t-shirts.

This is the beginning of the love affair with little Ayla.  From this playdate on, Ayla is all Daxton can talk about!

Some other fun highlights...

Christmas shopping at Costco with this cheesy boy

Saturday morning snuggles with daddy...

That soon turned into Saturday morning wrestling matches with daddy...

We also had some good friends come over for a Christmas Sunday dinner.  After dinner we broke out the frosting and sprinkles for the kids to decorate their own Christmas cookies.  It was quite the mess, but the kids had a blast!

At one point I looked over and Daxton was pouring a bunch of sprinkles into the frosting bowl and then eating straight frosting spoonfuls.  I guess it's better than licking it just off the cookie?

I was super excited that my friend Alex could come to dinner as well.  Alex is from my hometown and recently accepted a job in the Fort Lauderdale area.  It had been years since we'd seen each other and it was so good to catch up and hear all about her adventures.

We also went to the Miami bowl game where BYU was playing.  I have to admit I was more distracted by these two cuties than the football game in front of us.  Since there were no crowds, Ayla and Daxton literally had any seat they wanted and would sit in one for about a minute and then move to the next.  They were quite busy the whole game and had a blast climbing on the stairs and swinging on the railings.

I love this shot from behind and their cute feet barely reaching off their chairs.

Giving some football hugs

Along with sitting next to the Khofield family, we also got to sit next to the Steele family.  Daxton and Ayla loved playing with Hayden who quickly joined in the fun of swinging on the railings.

These three were so cute together!

Our little BYU group on the side

It was Daxton's first football game, made perfect by playing with friends, no crowds, and yummy treats.  Not to mention he got to meet Cosmo.

Another fun adventure we had in December was with Daxton's buddy Jack.  He and Jack are seriously little kindred spirits.  They both have the same sensitive, sweet, and silly personalities.  Sadly, we don't get to see them much since Jack is in a different ward and in preschool during the week.  April and I wanted to make sure we planned a fun outing for them during Jack's Christmas break, so we chose to do the Miami zoo.  I love this zoo, but because it's so massive, it's much more enjoyable when you rent a bike.  The boys had a blast riding in the front looking at all the animals.

It was so cute to watch them snuggle and talk to each other in the front.  It was a great time for us moms to catch up as well!

We especially had a lot of fun feeding the giraffe.  Daxton talked about it's long tongue for days after.

As a reward for being so stinking cute they got matching blue slurpies; Daxton's first experience with a slurpee.  It's clear to see that it was a hit!

There are a couple different splash pads at the Miami zoo, but I actually like the smaller less crowded one near the Amazon entrance.  It was the perfect spot for us to eat our lunch and then let the boys run around like crazy kids.  I had totally forgotten to bring an extra change of clothes for him.  So after all the water festivities, he became the pantless wonder; exploring the rest of the zoo in his diaper and t-shirt.

Playing in the fountains 

They also loved playing in the shower and thought it was so funny when the water would fall in their eyes.  We had a great rest of the day, seeing all sorts of different animals and spending time with each other.  My favorite was watching them walk hand in hand out to our cars.   I sure do love these sweet boys!

Just a few more highlights from December...

introducing potty training (still not trained), playing catch with a coconut in only his diaper, learning to ride a bike with Hayden, reading with daddy, and asking to be a rhino for the day (clearly he needed a haircut!)

It was a pretty great month for sure!