Christmas Fun

We had a great Christmas at home this year. Here's the pics:



Santa must have been on a Wii fix this year because along with everyone else, we also got a Wii. Here's the boys playing it. I also got a Wii Fit from Santa- he's one nice jolly man!

Carly in her new clothes with her doll on her back and her bracelets and hair stuff... fun Christmas girl stuff.

The kids mid-action opening some gifts.

Another action shot :)

Christmas Eve in their Christmas Eve pj's

Christmas morning we woke up to check out the stash that Santa left and we found that Santa had left his footprints. The kids were SO excited about it!


Anyway, it was a good Christmas here. Hope everyone else had a great one!

Durango... you mean "BURR" ango.

We went on a quick excursion to Durango, Colorado to catch the Polar Express. It was really fun and really cold! One more reason we like it here - it is mild, mild. Love it!
Anyway, we drove up to Durango, checked into our hotel (they gave us warm chocolate chip cookies at check in- seriously why don't other hotels catch on?) and then we went and caught the train. It was so magical. That's the only way to describe it. The kids loved it and were SO excited! So, here are the pics:




Kyle and Carly sitting on the train as it was heading to the North Pole.

On our way back to Durango, Santa Claus came on the train and gave us all bells. The kids loved it and the first thing Spencer did was listen to see if he could hear his bell. He could and he looked at me and said, "I believe!" So funny, but I tried to contain myself because he was pretty serious.

Us on the way to the North Pole

Waiting for the Polar Express to come so we could board. It was so fun! They had chefs that sang and danced, they read us the story the Polar Express, we had hot chocolate and cookies, and then we got to the North Pole and Santa was there with his elves waiting for us! On our way back, the whole train sang Christmas carols.

Thursday it rained pretty good here and the kids wanted to play out in it, so they did. They paused for a second so I could take this cute pic. (The green on Spencer's head is from a chalk painting he did and he leaned it up against his head afterwards...)

Our ward Christmas party was last week. The primary did a program and then Santa came. Carly wasn't sure about him and so Santa came down to her- so we snapped this cute pic.

Comparison of days

Yesterday: Parker woke up at 4:30 am and decided he was up for the day (he had woken up 3 times during the night too)

Today: Parker woke up his average 3 times, but at 5:30 went back to sleep and slept until 9. (Gasp!)

Yesterday: Helped out at Spencer's school for art and poetry night, took the other kids and so I didn't help at all... I held crying Parker the entire time while the other parents did all the work. Lame!

Today: Snow 3 inches on the ground- School is cancelled! I don't have to try and help today at all! YAY!!!

Yesterday: Our heater mysteriously stopped working (on the coldest day/night of the year with snow coming down. The coils were frozen and after multiple attempts at trying to fix it and 4 hours later, still not working.

Today: After multiple prayers offered and doing all that we could do (okay, all that Kyle could do) we have a warm house and the heater is working... no more ice. Weird, but we don't question miracles around here.


So, it's only 10 am and it's already looking like a much better day!! The kids are outside playing in the snow and Kyle should be home earlier than usual because some people canceled their surgeries due to the snow.

I love snow today!

Hope your day is as good as ours is looking!

Food, Fun, Family, and Fans

Parker had his first taste of "food" (if rice cereal counts as food-Yuck) and he didn't like it.

We had Kyle's parents down for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun with them.

We had a little party for the big Utah-BYU game and the kids all played while the parents were watching the game.

Except for Parker who fell asleep... I guess it wasn't THAT exciting of a game since we WERE ahead by so much. Go Utes!

The male fans (the girls must have been hiding in the kitchen). Brian you are a brave man for showing up in your BYU shirt... HA!

Thanksgiving again.... the kids LOVED seeing their grandparents!

On Saturday we decorated our house for Christmas.

This was a visitor we had in our backyard for Thanksgiving. He enjoyed his bird and we enjoyed ours... I think ours was WAY better! Yum!

The crew right after we ate the goods. (Everyone even enjoyed the sweet potato casserole that didn't taste like Grandma's closet! HA!)

Putting the star on our new fake tree... we finally decided to buy an artificial tree this year. It WAS nice not to have to string lights on it!

Carly loved decorating the tree.

And this poor kid.... Carly and Spencer decided he'd make a cute present. I agree!