Christmas Week

 Growing up my mom always made lots of different Christmas cookies and sometime in high school it became my job to make the sugar cookies.  Then as everyone got older I kept with the tradition and made them every year.  The last 2 years I slacked off and didn't make them when we came home from Washington to visit, SO needless to say I had several people request the cookies this year.  I only made a double batch, but that still turns out to be more than enough cookies.  I let Isaac help me roll and cut them out.  He loved it - hard for me to watch how slow he was, but it was fun having a new helper this year.  Of course he was able to 'sample' the broken ones.

 The next day I decorated all of them.  Sarah and Isaac are enjoying a cookie in the background.  They turned out delicious as usual and surprisingly lasted to Christmas.

 On Christmas Eve, my family always got dressed up and went to church, came home to dinner and opened a present before going to bed.  Since Gary and I got married we have combined some traditions and spend Christmas Eve at his parents with all his family.  I made sure to get Sarah all dressed up though.  I tried a fun new hairstyle on her and glad I took pictures of her BEFORE the end of the night.  Isaac was at Uncle Steve and Aunt Annie's house playing with all his cousins so that is why I don't have any pics of him.

 They always dress the kids up and read the Birth of Christ.  I think some of the older kids are learning how to enjoy getting dressed up in the costumes.  Sarah absolutely refused to put on an angel costume but Isaac didn't mind being a shepherd.  He doesn't have a cane because it was being turned into a weapon!

 Here is a picture back at my parents house AFTER Santa had come.

The next morning we get all dressed up in our Christmas clothes and head down to see if Santa had arrived.  The youngest gets to go first.

Running to see what is under the tree.

 Isaac left Santa some cookies and he is reading Santa's thank you note to him.  He was so EXCITED.

 My cute kids in front of the tree.                                                    Choosing their first present to open.

 Isaac discovered that Santa had brought new stockings and filled them full.

 Here is Isaac's big present from Santa -a Mega T-Rex.



     Here is Sarah's big present - a Rapunzel doll and dress up.

They both enjoyed opening presents and had a really hard time when it was someone else's turn to open a gift.  I love seeing how excited kids get at Christmastime.

 Sarah in her new dress with her doll that she had to carry everywhere Christmas day. And of course she had to wear the crown since she is daddy's princess!

That evening my family all got together at my parents to have Christmas dinner and open even more presents.  Here is a picture of all the grandkids (for now)!

Here is Uncle Ryan with Sarah and of course Kingston. 

Cabin Fun

 On Saturday evening we decided to meet Gary's brother and his family up at the cabin to hang out.  Usually in the winter time you have to have snowmobiles to get to the top but since we haven't had much snow at all we were able to drive all the way up. I have to say it was kind of nice to be able to drive all the way up.  Isaac had so much fun playing with his cousins and he was super excited to sleep in the bunk bed with the other kids.  On Sunday morning the kids were itching to go sleding on the trace amount of snow that there was.  So we bundled everyone up and let them have some fun.

 Sarah LOVED the snow.  She kept playing in it and of course trying to eat it.  She even laid down to make a snow angel - not sure where she learned that from, but it was cute nonetheless.

 On the side of the cabin is a small hill and it was perfect for Isaac.  I absolutely love his expression!  This hill was great entertaining for at least an hour.

Sarah and cousin, Skyler, had some fun too!  Thanks Skyler for helping me out.

 Once the big kids got tired of the little hill, Uncle Mike decided to get the 4-wheelers out and let the kids hold on to a rope behind it.  (Totally not safe at all - but so much fun!)  So Isaac was a little scared to go on the sled (at first) so he sat with dad.  He wanted to drive it all by himself.

 Miss Sarah had her turn too!  She wasn't so sure about the 4-wheeler either.

 But she loved riding with mommy!

 So the kids had fun on the sleds but kept falling off so Gary decided to hook the sleds to the rope and tie the sleds together so the kids only had to hold on to their sleds.  Wow that worked so well and they had a blast.  Isaac had so much fun once he decided to try it out.  I think Gary and Mike towed those kids around for 3 hours. 

 Sarah was just playing outside while I was talking and after asking several times to go inside she got tired of waiting and just laid down in the snow.  It was so cute - she makes me laugh!  Thanks for a great outing Mike and Tara.

Isaac's first gingerbread house

 So this cute boy has been begging me all season to make a gingerbread house.  Luckily Grandma L had one she wasn't going to use so Isaac and I put it together.  He was so excited to decorate it.  He helped me by holding the walls and when I told him we had to wait an hour to decorate it, you would have thought I told him he would never get to decorate it.  He asked every couple of minutes if it was ready.

He is so proud of his house.  I let him put all of the candy on and I only helped with the icing.  He even told me exactly what shapes he wanted for the doors and windows.  So cute!

Red Butte Again

 Since we bought a season pass to Red Butte Gardens you will probably see lots of pictures of us enjoying it.  The kids love to just run and play with all the fun toys they have.  We haven't had much snow this year so we have been able to enjoy the outside all through the month of December.

 We took a new path this time and let the kids explore a little area by themselves.  They made it most of the way back when Gary saw some animal jump out of the brush.  He quickly ran to them and they thought it was so fun to see an animal.

My 2 cute kids! 

Please note that Isaac now has a Utah hat from Grandma L. since Grandma O. bought him a BYU one!

Christmas Lights

So last night we decided to bundle up and head downtown to see the lights. This is one of our family's traditions that we usually do closer to Christmas, but I wanted to go before it snowed and was too cold to really enjoy it.  We had a very nice night and it wasn't too crowded so the kids could run around a bit.  The colors were so pretty and one day I will have a nicer camera to really capture the colors.

 This is one of my favorites of the kids together!  I am so glad they get along together.

 Our new family tradition - Gary decided to take a thermos of hot chocolate with us.  What a great idea!  We stopped halfway through under the lights and had yummy hot chocolate.  The kids got a kick out of it too.

This was my favorite tree.  It was decorated in mostly orange and a little bit of yellow lights.  It just stood out so well amoung all the red trees.  We even were able to go inside and enjoy 2 of the movies and of course we ended the evening watching Mr. Kruegar's Christmas.  They turned off the lights and Sarah turned to me and asked for popcorn! 

Thanksgiving Weekend

So the weather was surprisingly warm even though it was overcast skies.  In the morning we decided to take the kids to a playground to get some energy out before the big feast!  We had a nice Thanksgiving lunch at Gary's grandparents house with lots of family. The kids had even more fun playing with Grandpa Naylor's trains!  After that we headed back to my parents to put Sarah down and just relax.  We didn't do a Thanksgiving dinner with my family this year but it was a really nice day to just relax as a family. 

That night I did the midnight shopping at Target!  I know I am crazy but it was my first time and it actually wasn't half bad.  They had it very organized and at times felt like I was in line at Disneyland.  It took almost 30 min. to get into the store and about an hour and a half to check out.  We went through every food aisle and wove back and forth through most of the rest of the store.  I was able to get some things for Isaac and unfortunately the one toy I wanted for Sarah was gone before I even got in the store.  Good thing Target's sale was 2-days and available online so I finally was able to get in online on Saturday.  We also headed to Old Navy at 2 am but after looking at their line we said No way!  Thanks Kelly I had fun and might do it again next year!

 On Saturday, still nice weather, we decided to go up and relax at Red Butte Gardens.  The kids had so much fun running up and then rolling down the hill.  There was barely anyone there so we had most of the areas to ourselves - so nice!!!

 My cute kids in their opposing team hats.  So Grandma O. bought Isaac a Y hat at one of the football games, so of course Grandma L had to go and buy a U hat.  The funniest thing was when he brought the red hat home he said, "Look mom, grandma bought me a BYU hat"  It is so funny because they don't even get the rivalry.

 Okay ignore this terrible picture of me.  So while trying to get the kids to come and sit down Sarah ran over towards the cactii  plants.  Gary jumped over one of the plants to grab Sarah so she didn't touch it.  Unfortunately his foot got pricked by the grizzly cactus plant.  When we got home I had to pull the pricker out of his foot.  It had hooked into his skin so well it took me two tries to pull hard enough.  Things parents do for their kids!