It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...Really, it truly is here. It's been rainy, foggy and wintry outside for three days strait now. The weather is helping us all get in the Christmas spirit. This past weekend, we put up our tree (the first year we've ever done artificial, definitely has it's pros and cons) and Grace has so enjoyed helping decorate. She's very inquisitive about all the ornaments and the stories behind each one. I bought Grace and Ben each a stocking this year and we hung all 4 up on the mantle. The other day, I took the kids' stockings to a lady I work with to have their names embroidered on them and when Grace walked in the door from school, the first thing she noticed was the 2 missing stockings. Before the meltdown became too dramatic, I quickly reassured her that the stockings were going to be returned in just a few days. They are back now and look quite lovely above the fireplace and all is well!

On Sunday we made our traditional sugar cookies for her to take to her class on Monday for their small celebration and she thoroughly enjoyed helping put the sprinkles on and sneaking bites of the dough when I wasn't looking. When I picked her up, her teacher told me she was excited to help hand the cookies out and told everyone that she made them and then abruptly added "now you need to tell me 'THANK YOU'" to all of her classmates! I guess we've been driving that one home hard lately. :)

Enjoy the pictures, Ben is getting so big and oh so happy! He's beginning to coo as well and we are trying to soak up every minute of this stage, it goes so quickly.