Christmas FFD's

December was a busy month for all of us. Daddy spent two weeks out of town, so we had to fit all of our fun activities during the weekends. 

To start off, we had the kids pick out Angel Trees again. Caden picked a 2 year old boy named Alfredo and Makayla picked a 3 year old girl named Isabella. We had a lot of fun shopping for them. 

 For the little girl we got her some clothes, a coat, shoes, a Cabbage Patch doll and a game.

 We got the little boy some clothes, shoes, a coat and a v-tech toy.

Even though our kids don't quite get the concept yet, I love this tradition of helping others. 

We had one of our many snow storms this month and since Daddy was out of town, I had to shovel the driveway. The kids wanted to go out with me, but they only lasted about 10  minutes before they wanted to go back in the warm house. Caden wouldn't even leave the garage. 

 But this little girl had fun making her foot prints in the snow.

We took some Christmas card pictures. I actually got both kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time. 

When Daddy was home, we went to see Santa Claus at the mall. It worked out perfectly because we got there just as he was coming back from a little break and we didn't have to wait in line. 

Makayla was a little nervous to meet him, but we prepped her before hand. When she sat on his lap she told him that she wanted a "bai-bee" (Barbie) for Christmas. Caden just cried the whole time. He didn't know what to think. As sad as this picture is, it just makes me laugh every time I see it. 

This must have been a very significant event for Makayla because she talked about seeing Santa all month! She couldn't wait for Santa to visit her house and bring her presents. 

After seeing Santa, we went on the Carousel in the mall then went to Dino town to play. 

Makayla and Daddy played out in the snow and made snow angels.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights. The kids were kind of a pill that night and all they wanted to do was eat Teddy Grahams. We did manage to get a few cute pictures when they weren't eating. I love going to Temple Square so that we can take some time to remember the true meaning of Christmas. We have been talking to Makayla about Jesus and we were telling her that the reason we get presents on Christmas is to celebrate Jesus' birth. So Makayla kept saying to us, "It's Cheese-its birthday?" Hilarious!

Another night we went driving around town to see Christmas lights on houses. Then we went to Gardner Village to see the lights there. Makayla was so cute because she would see the lights and say, "Look, more Christmas lights!"

We had so much fun with all our fun activities this month. I love that Makayla and Caden are starting to understand the whole Christmas concept.

Fun with Kitty the Elf

The kids had so much fun with Kitty the Elf throughout the month. Every morning they would wake up and run to the kitchen/living room to see where he was hiding. We found him in some interesting places: 

He snuck into the pantry and ate some of the kids' fruit snacks! Luckily he was nice and shared with them. 

He had a party with the princesses

All they flying back and forth from the North Pole wore Kitty right out and he took a nice long nap in the baby crib. 

 Here's some other fun places we found him:

 On December 23rd, Kitty left a note and some treats for the kids since it would be his last night with us.

We will miss Kitty the Elf. Mommy will miss the fact that the kids were so nice to each other because they knew Kitty was watching them and would go back to Santa to report. We can't wait until next year when he will visit us again!

Our New Cousin Camden

So I'm only about a month late, but I wanted to blog about our new nephew!
Camden Jeremy Jones was born on November 5th. He is stinkin adorable and has tons of black hair. Aren't these three boys just too cute! Carson and Colton love their new little brother. 

I could hold a new baby for hours if I could. Maybe I should just get me another one of my own?

Gingies

Our gingerbread house tradition started 5 years ago when we lived in Richfield. We had Tyler's family down to stay with us, go to the light parade, and make ginger bread houses. When we moved back to South Jordan, we wanted to continue the tradition (minus the family sleeping over) :)

I made my traditional lasagna dinner, then the kids got to open their Christmas jammies. Here's all five grandkids!

Then we started our houses. 

 Daddy helped Caden make his gingie house.  Caden may have made more messes than he actually helped.

 But how can you resist those two cute faces?

And he may or may not have eaten more candy and frosting than ended up on the house. 

 I helped Makayla make her house. She lost interest in the first part where I tried to put the house together multiple times. Seriously, I had to rebuild it at least three times because it kept breaking on me.

 Once we were ready to put the candy on the house, Makayla got right back in the action.

 And just like Caden, Makayla may have eaten more candy and frosting than ended up on the house.

Here's the kids' final houses. Caden's is on the left and Makayla's is on the right. I love that both of their houses only have half of the snowman in the front. It was asking a lot of the kids to not eat it.

 My favorite house was Tammy, Bruce, Karly and Rico's house. It was inspired by the recent Typhoon in the Philippines.

Here's all the houses... Grandpa Collard and Gayle's house didn't quite make it (on the far left)

 To end the night, Grandma got to read the kids books and get them snuggled in bed.

One of our traditions down, and many more to go! I love this time of year.