Its Beginning to Look alot like Christmas

Again I know its been awhile...I really don't know where the time goes. We are all alive and doing great. As of today Chris finished his last final- so no more grad school for 4 weeks!!! YAY!!!! Bailey is growing like CRAZY. Seriously she's huge! And Tanner is as happy as ever. He's really becoming a great big brother. Christmas is in full swing around the Herb household. The first day of December we went and got our tree. I made Bailey's stocking and had it embroidered. I've finished my Christmas baking and delivered all 10 plates of cookies. (Don't get me started on what a disaster baking was this year- it was a 3 day event and my poor kids watched so much tv for those 3 days...) My Christmas shopping is mostly done, thanks to amazon prime! And we've really been enjoying the holiday season so far. We even had our first snowfall of the season. Granted- it was only about 1 inch, but it totally counts. We were "elfed" with some cookies at our front door. On Dec. 2nd we went to the annual Christmas parade. It wasn't real cold but it sprinkled for about 3 minutes so we were bundled up. The kiddos all bundled. I love their smiles Here are the kiddos and I. Tanner was way to distracted by the flying candy and wouldn't smile for a picture. Sweet Kitty Bailey Such a good dad. He ended holding her for almost the entire parade. When we got home we decorated our tree and watched the Christmas classics with the kids. Tanner and Bailey love snuggling on the couch. Our tree Uncle Joseph came over and helped me put up our Christmas lights. We had an unusually warm day- it was almost 60 degrees outside, So Bailey got to help. On December 5th we headed over to ASU for the "Jingle on the Green". It was indoors this year (thank goodness because we nearly froze last year) and the kids got to sit on Santa's lap. Bailey was completely indifferent and Tanner loved his beard. He kept caressing it like a creeper the entire time he was on Santa's lap. Here is a pic of Tanner on Santa's lap. (Don't ask me what his arms are doing...) Then here is a picture of both kids. Like I said- Bailey couldn't care less... On December 10th we went to our Ward's Christmas party and Bailey sat on Santa's lap again. Tanner did too, but he was not a fan this time around... Growing up we'd go to my Aunt Ginny's house every year on Christmas Eve. We'd all visit and play and then before everyone left, all the grandkids would pile into her kitchen and we'd all smash this amazing gingerbread house that my Aunt Ginny made from scratch every year. Don't get me wrong- she made it just for us to smash and we looked forward to it sooo much. Well last night my little family made our first annual gingerbread house. Tanner really liked helping me put the frosting on. Then he discovered all the candy and it was over. I lost him after that. But we finally got it finished. We are going to start the tradition with my parent's grandkids. This year on Christmas eve, Tanner and Clark will smash our gingerbread house together and get to eat whatever they want of it. I'm so excited. I know it sounds like a weird tradition but we loved it growing up. So I'm hoping the boys will enjoy it this year and maybe next year Bailey will join in. As you can see, Tanner was super excited about making this gingerbread house Here is Tanner with our oh so amazing Gingerbread house. He's pretty proud of it. Anyways, thats what we've been up to. My sister Laura flies in on Saturday and we are all going to get her from the airport and then we are going to silver dollar city to see the lights. So I will have more pictures soon. Then Sarah and Johnny fly in on Wednesday and its going to be non-stop partying with my little sisters. Merry Christmas to all!