Christmas Time is Here Again

Christmas time is here again, and we are so ready to start our family traditions. I have to document this picture because our kids are so good at decorating the tree all by themselves.

And we also have to document that it was Makayla's turn to put the star on the Christmas tree this year because they argue who's turn it is every year. 

When our house is decorated that means its time for Kitty the Elf to start staying at our house. The kids made Kitty his own house with a bed, food, and books to read. We are so happy Kitty is back with us this month!

Kitty brought the kids books that they can fill in out all about Christmas. 

A few days later Kitty brought the kids mugs with their names on them. They will be perfect for our hot chocolate nights. 

A little bit of bad news this month. I was taking Brynnli home from dance. The light turned yellow, then red and I had to stop faster than I was expecting, but I stopped in time. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the car behind me and I just knew she wasn't stopping. I braced myself for her to hit me. Getting rear ended is such a pain. Luckily the girl who rear ended me had insurance, the damage wasn't too bad,  and despite having to drive a rental for the next month, things are ok. We are just glad nobody was hurt, although me and Brynni are super paranoid now about getting in an accident. 

Looks like Kitty found our favorite ornament... our headless doll. 

We had family over to watch the Utes play in the Pac 12 championship. It was such a fun night and the Utes won, which means they are going to play in the Rose Bowl on New Years day! How bout them UTES!!!

P.S. if you're wondering why there is blue tape and partially painted walls its because we are getting ready to paint our house and get new carpet. We have been doing projects for months and I think we are almost ready for the next stage. Hopefully we will start the New Year with new paint and carpet!

Even Kitty loves popcorn and movie nights. His favorite movie is Elf. That's fitting. 

We went to one of the women's basketball games. Its so nice that we can be back watching games in person because all of the games last year couldn't have spectators. 

Is it really a Utes event if we don't get face paint or balloon animals? 

Brynnli wanted to meet all of the players and get their autograph. She went around to all of the players by herself. 

The kids wrote letters to Santa and Kitty brought letters back. 

New Christmas Nails. Love. 

Cader man had to get his braces tightened and new Christmas colors. We went to lunch at Woody's Drive-In. I love my lunch date. 

I can't believe it is December and we have a rose blossoming on our tree. This is not normal. It makes me nervous because we are in a drought and we need lots of snow. 

Good news is that we did finally get a good snow storm. Bella didn't know what to think of the snow. She kept trying to chase the snowflakes. She didn't like being so cold and she didn't like stepping on the snow. 

Brynnli was so excited to play in the snow. She got all bundled up in her snow clothes and looked like a pink puff ball. 

Our kids were so excited to go sledding. There wasn't much snow, but the kids had fun going up and down the hill. And a plus for us is that they were tired from sledding and went to bed early!

Grandpa Craig scored us tickets to the Men's basketball game. Our neighbor Branden Carlson plays for the Utes and Caden loves cheering them on. 

After the game Tyler and I got to go on our favorite Christmas date: Kurt Bestor. It was so good to be back because last year the concert was cancelled in person and we had to watch it at home. I think I loved this concert more than others and I love my handsome date!

Kitty made some eggs for breakfast. Too bad he didn't make us any. 

Look at that snowman our kids made. It is taller than Brynnli!

I love watching these two. They made up a dance and worked for hours on it. 

How cute is Bella in her new sweatshirt? Bella is always shaking because she is so cold, so we got her clothes to help keep her warm. Yes, I really am on of those dog people who dresses up their pet. 

Another one of our favorite traditions is our ginger bread houses. The kids are so good at making their own. I long for the days when they needed our help. 

We are dong so many projects around our house and Kitty is taking advantage of all of the new hiding spots. 

We have such a spoiled dog. She loves to fall asleep next to the fireplace. If we would let her she would spend her whole day here. 

On Wednesday, December 12, we woke up to so much snow! So much that school was cancelled! The snow was so tall that Bella couldn't even go out in it because the snow pack was taller than she was. 

We took advantage of the snow day to go sledding. We had so much fun and spent hours going up and down the hill. Makayla got to use her snowboard that she got last year on her birthday. 

Poor Brynnli went down the hill and hit a bump and went flying face first into the snow. 

Caden wanted to try out Makayla's snowboard and Makayla was so nice to help him down the hill. That's just one of the reason's why Makayla is such a great big sister. 

Caden is playing Jr. Jazz and one of the perks is that he gets to go to a Jazz game with Daddy. 

Me and the girls went to the Red Rocks Preview. They got shirts, face paint, and balloon animals. 

Since we are remodeling and out house is a mess, I didn't decorate our tree in the piano room. Good thing we have this cute dog to  make our tree look better. 

We had our annual Evans Christmas party. We had the party at Tracy and Jeremy's. Makayla got a hold of our phone and took one of my favorite pictures ever:

We had dinner and opened presents. Grandma Terry and Grandpa Craig got all of the kids (and the big kids) season tickets to Lagoon. We are going to have so much fun this summer!

Caden's favorite part of the party was clearly the dessert. 

We sat around talking and we all started laughing at our seating arrangement. Why is Tyler sitting in the middle of his parents? 

Makayla's activity day leaders got her a waffle maker, so she made mini waffles for everyone in the family. We love that Makayla likes to cook because she makes the yummiest things. 

As per tradition, we went looking at Christmas lights. Tyler found a website that had some of the top houses in the valley all mapped out in order. One of our favorites was this Grinch house. 

Kitty really likes the headless doll... although I'm not quite sure how the headless doll played the game?

We are so proud of Caden. He has been in speech for a few years and his speech teacher told us at the last meeting that Caden is doing so well and no longer needs services, so he was able to graduate from speech! Caden had to work so hard to overcome his stutter, so we wanted to celebrate all of his hard work. We let him choose a graduation party and he wanted his cousins and sisters to come with him to Classic Skating. 

The kids played for hours, then we ate pizza, and they were gone again. 

The kids spent all of their tokens and more on this game. Makayla hit the 400 ticket twice and Carson ended up hitting the big one and won 1,200 tickets. 

This is Makayla's stuffed animal that she got for all of her tickets. 

They all had so much fun. Congratulations Caden on graduating from speech. 

The kids set up all of their stuffed animals on our bed. I think this proved my theory that the kids have way too many stuffed animals and we need to get rid of some. 

We went with Grandma and Grandpa and the Joneses to The Desert Star Playhouse for the play "The Greatest Showman". The show was cute and we loved the day out. 

This diva always cracks us up. She came to us in this get up and said, "Hey baby, take me out to dinner. Wanna go?"

We love this time of year, spending time together, and our traditions. This year made us extra grateful to be together because we had to spend last year apart. We are so excited for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!