All the twinkling lights

I got the opportunity to stretch my photo-taking wings this week when we took a trip to the Mesa Temple lights with my sis and her hubby.

Now, one of the reasons I was so excited for this camera was for the awesome pictures that it takes in situations such as this.  But, you must know what you're doing, apparently, or your pictures will end up looking like this:

I had a lot that looked like this.

But, every so often one turned out that made me smile.

*as a warning: I did not edit these photos at all.  I'm trying to just get pics of this busy time of the year up here before they become old and forgotten, and I just don't have the time for editing*

The lights were so amazingly beautiful.  How many hours of preparation go into this?  Seriously, I was awed by the sight.

Also, these kiddos enjoying the twinkling made me love it even more.

Whit & Chris's usual self portrait :)

The kiddos loved looking at the Nativities from around the world.

And I liked the infant Christ artwork.

Jeruseluem.

I made everyone sit through the Christus presentation.

They so loved and appreciated me for that.

We even almost got a really good family pic.

*When I saw this pic, I had to smack Orrin.  Seriously?  Four children and you are the one not looking at the camera?!*

We tried.

The Choosing of the Ornaments

Can you guess where we went this year to choose our annual ornaments?

TARGET!!

Where else would a faithful red lover go?

Have I told you what Orrin did?  I took OP and Wy-Fi with me to Target one day  to get a few things.  Orrin, wanting to be a "cool dad" put Wyatt in the back of the cart, instead of buckled nicely where he belongs.  So now, every single time I try to buckle him in the front, I get this reaction:

Here's Orrin explaining why he must be buckled (in his oh-so-terrifyingly-quiet voice).

 It worked.  Wyatt saw this tennis ball ornament and fell in love.  I kept waiting for him to throw it.

 Adi was the easiest child this year.

After one whole minute of browsing, 

she found the one.

  

I found the most obnoxiously large one I could,

 

 And OP found the ugliest one.

Wyatt kept switching which ornament he liked the best,

 before he settled on the giant candy cane.

Which he thought was edible.  It was not.  But that didn't stop him from occasionally sampling it- just to be sure that it hadn't magically morphed into a real live candy cane.

Now, before we went it in, we told the kids that there was a $5 limit on their ornament ($5 times 6 people, sheesh that's a lot of moola on ornaments!).

Piper kept falling in love with the $8 and $9 ornaments.  When we reminded her that they were above her limit, she sadly walked around the ornament square, acting as though she would never, ever be able to fall in love with another ornament.

Porter decided on this one right away.

No, wait, this one!

(That's a mini tree topper, dude)

Then this one!

Wait! 

The bell!  He needs the bell!

No... he, in fact, liked absolutely none of them.  Everything was too glittery, or too foxy, or too bear-ry, or too car-ry, or too penguiney.

Seriously?

Between him and Pipes my patience was wearing a little thin.  So I began a 10 second countdown.  When I reached zero, either you have your ornament in your hand or leave without one.

Miraculously, they both were able to find an ornament that suited them just fine. 

Off we go!

To Chik-Fil-A for dinner!

Thanks to everyone who gave us a gift card... it took all four of 'em to feed us!