Christmas and New Years Eve 2016

We had so much fun having Christmas with Paul's sister and her family this year. My kids couldn't wait for the cousins to arrive. Anticipation was high until they finally saw the van pulling into our drive. Hurray! 

 

We braved temple square and I'd like to say it was great, but it was actually way too crowded and freezing! We didn't last too long, but hey, we tried? Braden and Clark did look pretty adorable all bundled up though. 

My kids loved hanging out with their cousins all week. We have a lot of artistic talent in this family, so coloring was a frequent activity (until after Christmas, then it was all video games!). They all slept together which make for long-- I mean fun-- nights! Paul and Dustin and Grandpa took all the kids a cool train museum in Ogden. 

On Christmas Eve we had our devotional. Everyone shared a story or scripture or song. Dustin played a beautiful rendition of Away in a Manger. Susie memorized a scripture about Mary and baby Jesus. The best part of the devotional was having the kids act out the nativity while Grandpa read us the Christmas story. Turns out my boys make pretty cute sheep. 

After the devotional we unwrapped new jammies and then heard a knock at the door! It was Santa! Susie couldn't be fooled, she knew it was Grandpa right away but the little boys ate it up. Santa didn't stay for long, he said he had a busy night ahead of him. 

It was one of the best Christmas' I can remember. We had so much fun! I'm so grateful they were able to travel all the way from Texas to spend Christmas with us. It was a blast! 

A few days after Christmas I had a reunion with my college roommates. It was so fun to see them and catch up. I owe those girls a lot. I've learned so much from each of them and they continue to be great examples to me. For New Years Eve we took the kids sledding. We laughed at the "no sledding" sign... we're such rebels. We decorated the New Years tree and we hung out with some friends later that night eating snacks and playing games. We counted down at their house around 8pm and rang in the new year early! 

Loving the Season of Christmas

Here is some holiday fun we've been having:

Susie and I went on a big girls date with Chante to see the Forgotten Carols. I loved it. Yes, it gets a little sappy at the end but I don't mind a little sappy sometimes. Susie got a little bored but we had a fun night out. The songs in this play are my favorite! We got backpretty late and she was out before we even got home! 

I got to have a fun date with my sister too! She was coming up here to pick up a Christmas present she ordered for Ty and Paul had the day off. So we went shopping and got lunch at the Blue Lemon and it was so much fun! She's pretty fun to hang out with. I'm lucky to have two best friends for sisters. This is Tiffany telling me not to take her picture :) 

Daddy bought us an early Christmas present (because he found a code for half off) to the new SeaQuest aquarium in Layton. We went and checked it out. We thought it was pretty fun! Susie was even brave enough to touch a snake! 

My favorite holiday festivity so far was our date to temple square. I wanted to go on a romantic Christmas date. I made Paul dress up and we went to the Gardens for dinner, on the top of the Jospeh Smith Memorial building. The view was breathtaking, very romantic. Then we went to a little Christmas concert in the Assembly Hall. The singers were amazing! They even sang, "Still, Still, Still" which is my favorite Christmas song and you don't hear it much. We walked around temple Square and City Creek, bought a book at Dessert Book and some hot chocolate at Godiva. It was a magical night. Sam babysat for us and it was the best Christmas gift ever! 

I was in charge of our wards Christmas party. I decided to go with the theme, "Nephite Christmas Story." My mom used to read about this story when we were kids and we often did a little play on Christmas Eve around this story too. So I just kind of replicated it, on a larger scale! We used black butcher paper with taped white lights on the black to create a Zarahelma village silhouette and it turned out really pretty. We had a kids corner of activities children could do during the party. I  narrated the little program we did, too. 

We had some friends in our neighborhood come over for holiday fun. We colored wooden ornaments and frosted cookies. We are so grateful to have good friends in our ward and neighborhood. They are a great blessing to us. 

 We built a little fort today because it's too cold to do anything else! We've been making treats all month. It's really fun to do things with my kids that I got to do growing up. Now school is out for Christmas break and we are so excited! We have family coming to town to spend Christmas with us and it is going to be so fun! 

 

Thanksgiving and on to Christmas

We had a fun Thanksgiving week. Paul had the whole week off! It is so nice to have him home. We pretty much relaxed all week. AHhhhhh. We were planning on spending the week in Cedar City with my mom, but she is in the middle of moving, so that didn't work out. For Thanksgiving we went to Rebecca's house. It was delicious. Why didn't I take more pictures? Who knows. Paul's parents came and then spent the next day and night with us. We went out for lunch, to the airplane museum, set up our tree, and ended the day with a personal favorite of Lani and myself-- tillamook ice-cream. It was a rejuvenating week! 

Here's a few more pictures of late. Susie has been invited to several birthday parties recently. She thinks it's pretty awesome. This one was Star Wars themed. So fun! 

We replaced all the carpet in our house. Man oh man was it a lot of work! We were exhausted by the end of the weekend but it was so worth it. Our house feels like a new home. We love it. I didn't take many after pics.. but trust me, it's gorgeous. 

We had dinner with Mackenzie and Leah last week. After dinner we took a walk up to the capitol and it was so pretty! The kids had a blast. They are in Europe right now having a great time. 

We had our first big snow storm. The kids have been out playing in it everyday since. It takes a significant amount of time to get them bundled up. But they love it. We built a snowman, too. Fun stuff. 

And here are some random pictures. Summary: Life is good!