December Events Part 2

The weeks leading up to Christmas were jam packed! On December 13 we went to Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo. Me and the kids met Daddy at work and then headed up to the lights. We decided to stop at Wendy's for dinner and as soon as we pulled into the parking lot I heard Makayla gag, then she started throwing up... all over... like one of those pukes that doesn't end... where it seems like they throw up everything they've had to eat in the last week... ya, it was that bad. Poor Tyler had to clean it up while I went inside to get us food (priorities, right?). We need to learn our lesson and realize Makayla gets car sick. Oh the adventures!!

Once we got to Zoo Lights we had so much fun. Kayla kept saying "ohh, lights!" everywhere we would go. Kayla Bugs posed in front of the elephant

 And with Daddy

It wasn't that cold for a December night, which was really nice. 

 Cader-Tot was bundled up pretty tight. Next year he'll have more fun, but this year he had to chill in the stroller. Good thing he is a chill baby!

 Grandpa Craig and Grandma Terry, and the Jones family met us there. Kayla wanted to pose for a picture on the Elephant's trunk.

 All the kids had so much fun at the Zoo. We didn't get to see a lot of animals, but they had a blast together.

Makayla's favorite part was going on the Merry-Go-Round. Every time she would go past us we would wave and she would start laughing so hard. 

Then we had a cousin night when Tracy and Jeremy went on a date. The kids played Wii

 And made a HUGE fort! I forgot to get a picture, but it seriously took up our entire basement and used every single blanket we had in our house! They had so much fun going through it.

Then we settled down to watch a movie.

On December 15, Tyler and I went to his company party. It was at Legends and they got us a hotel room for the night. It was like our mini vacation. We ended up winning a Blue-Ray DVD player at the party!

 Then on December 18th we took the kids to Thanksgiving Point for lights. They had a Santa and we thought we would stop in before the lights to say hi. We waited in line for 45 minutes only to get to the door and realize there was another 30-45 minute wait to see Santa. That was too long of a wait for an impatient toddler and a tired baby, so I became one of those parents I thought I would never become. I told Tyler we were leaving and I gave him "the look". I figured it wasn't worth it because Kayla would probably freak out as soon as we tried to sit her on Santa's lap. Maybe next year. We did think going to see the lights was fun. you drive through in your car. We forgot the camera, so we had to take pictures on Daddy's phone. Not the best quality, but you get the idea.

Kayla and Caden got to help Daddy drive the truck through the lights.

Every light we would see Kayla would yell, Chrimas lights!!

December 21, 2012 was supposed to be the end of the world according to the Myan Calendar. Good news... we're all still alive! :) I guess the Myans weren't that smart after all. It was also our last day of work for the year, so it really wasn't the end of the world.

Since Christmas Eve is so hectic we like to get together with the Evans' before Christmas to have dinner and open gifts. On December 22 we got together. The kids got spoiled with a TON of gifts.

Grandpa Craig and Grandma Terry posed for a picture (It made me laugh because right before I took the picture they both went, "Wait let me take off my glasses")

Thanks to the Jones Family for hosting the party. Doesn't Colton's smile crack you up?

 The kids got little chairs

And toys, and books, and savings bonds... they really are some spoiled little stinks! :)

Grandpa and Caden played under the table. 

How can you not love this little man? He just melts my heart with his cute little smile!

 So do all of these other lurps! We have the best family.

 But by the end of the night Grandpa (and the rest of us) were a little tired. Grandpa Craig could barely keep his eyes open!

All these fun activities and we weren't even to Christmas Eve yet.

12-12-12

I am posting this because today is a significant day. No it's not my birthday, or our 4 year engagement anniversary, or our 5 year "1st date" anniversary, or any of the other normal days of the year that I like to turn into holidays (and yes, I do insist that Tyler and I celebrate these days elaborately despite his annoyance at it). 

Today is special because it is December 12, 2012... 12/12/12. I will never see a day like this again in my lifetime.  I have been thinking of how I could remember this unique day, so I am blogging about it, simply for no other reason than to show that the day was here, I was a part of it, and then it ended.  

What am I doing that is significant today? Well nothing really. I am taking a few minutes out of my work day to update my blog, I'm leaving in a few minutes to pick up the kids and then we're going to the store. We're having family over tonight to play them some songs on the piano. Nothing extravagant. But all these normal things will be done on a very unique day. 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We are only about half way through December and already we have been so busy with fun Christmas activities. 

First of all we decorated our house for Christmas. Caden and Kayla posed for pictures by the stuffed Santa. 

Elmo had to join Makayla in the picture.

Makayla was great to help us decorate the tree. She loved putting the ornaments on the tree then taking them off over and over again.

Caden got the honor of helping Daddy put up our headless doll decoration.

Here's our downstairs tree all decorated

And the fireplace...

Here's our upstairs tree in the piano room. I love this tree because you can see it from our front window. 

Daddy has been serenading us with some Christmas tunes. The kids love to play under the piano when he's playing and sometimes they even get to play along with Daddy. 

Last week Tracy and Jeremy invited us to go with them to Discovery Gateway to see a Christmas movie in the IMAX theater. It was Makayla's first time in a movie theater and she loved it! She got to sit on Grandma Terry's lap the whole time. It was Caden's nap time and miraculously he slept through the whole movie and more!

After we walked around to look at all the space stuff. Makayla was amazed at everything.

The kids got to walk on Mars

And Tyler and Terry showed us their moon on the moon.

After that we thought it would be fun to go look at lights on Temple Square. Our original plan was to be there right when it got dark and leave before it got busy. We took too long at dinner and we missed one of the Trax trains, so by the time we got to Temple Square it was so busy and crowded. We still managed to have fun looking at lights.

This little girl is just growing up way too fast! I love my little girl.

Makayla loves hanging out with her cousins!

It was hard to drag Makayla away from the water. She wanted to keep putting her hands in it.

The Jones Family!

And my cute family (Cute Caden slept almost the whole time)

The whole group (minus me, taking the picture)

And us again (minus Terry taking the picture)

Makayla and Daddy. Oh I just love these two.

Yep, this is pretty much like what he looked like the whole night. He was one tired little monkey!

I love going to Temple Square. I think the temple looks so pretty with all the lights at Christmas time.

So I made my family pose for yet another picture in front of the temple. 

Some of the other fun things we have been up to this month include: 

Going to see the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional with one of Tyler's co-workers. It was such a humbling night to hear their talks about the true meaning of Christmas. One of our favorite moments was when the presidency walked into the room and every single person (about 10,000 people) went completely silent and stood up to honor him. It was pretty special to be there in the presence of the president of the church. 

Making a countdown to Christmas chain. We put both kids' hand prints on it then Makayla got to color it. 

Caden played with Makayla's blankies. What Makayla doens't know won't hurt her! :)

We thought it would be fun to do Angel Tree with the kids. We picked out two kids who were the same age as Makayla and Caden. Makayla picked a little girl named Mabel. We got her clothes, a tinkerbell doll that Mabel wanted, and Makayla picked out a baby doll that she wanted! :)

Caden got a little boy named Humberto. He wanted music toys, so we got him a few toys that he would like and some clothes.

The kids are too young to understand the whole idea of helping out others in need, but I hope they can look back on this someday and realize how important we feel it is to help, not just at Christmas time, but all throughout the year. 

One of my favorite traditions now is to have our lasagna/Ginger bread party. We started this when we lived in Richfield 4 years ago. Everyone would come down to Richfield to go to the Light Parade. Since we moved we wanted to continue the tradition. We had so much fun this year. All the families got a gingerbread to decorate. As you can see we were all hard at work.

Our ginger bread house had a few bite marks in it before we could decorate it... it may or may not have been done by this cutie!

 Makayla had so much fun decorating. I think she ate more candy than ended up on the gingerbread house.

 She was so proud of her house. I think our house turned out the cutest!

 Although the award for creativity would have to go to Ryan and Aubree. They made a "crack" house complete with boarded up windows.

Caden turned into Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at some point in the middle of decorating. I think Grandma and Grandpa even let him taste the frosting. 

 Our family is growing pretty big, but I love that we still get together all throughout the year.

I love my little boy!

 And my cute family! I am so blessed to have such a great family!

 All the kids started to watch a movie and somehow Grandpa became the couch to lay on. I think he was in heaven.

Can these cousins get any cuter with their Christmas jammies from Grandma and Grandpa?

 After we were done decorating and cleaning up, a few of the family stayed to play card games. We were laughing so hard until midnight when they decided they were partied out! Seriously one of the funnest nights!

Only 16 days left until Christmas and we have so many more fun things planned! I love this time of the year!!