Progressive Dinner 2012...

We had our progressive dinner with our Visitors!
I knew Lucy would not be happy when she saw these guys come in!
It is always so fun to have them come and to hear each child say what they want and to have santa say things about them. I love it!
The dinner went like this: Appetizer: Ma and Pa. Soup: Aand J's, Main: C and M's

Indoor Trampoline....

We got home and got the kids ready for bed. We set out milk and cookies for Santa. Cole and Dailey were super excited and it took quite awhile to get them to sleep. When we thought they were in bed we proceeded to our Christmas Eve duties. This year I had pretty much everything wrapped and ready.
Kevin had a few things to wrap. Dailey came out once and we quickly put her back to bed.

So we bought a trampoline for Christmas! We have been wanting to get one for awhile. We thought we would put it up outside but it snowed quite the snowstorm.  Kevin had told me about someone at his work who got a tramp and they put it in their garage. Well we didn't want to do that. I didn't want to give it to the kids just in the box. There wasn't even a picture on the box of what it was so we thought we could wait till spring.

I was pretty bummed and so Kevin not liking to see me unhappy, said Ok we can go down and measure and see if it will even fit. It barely would. But we would have to move out our couch, treadmill, healthrider and you know everything to make it work!
So at 11pm we were moving things around and it actually didn't take that long to set up and the whole time I was so giddy and felt just like a kid! We put on the Elf movie to watch and away we went.
Kev rocked it with the springs, seriously he put them on so fast. I didn't even do one of them.
Lucy woke up in the middle of our crazy tramp idea and so we had to rock her and stop for that but we ended up getting to bed at not too bad of an hour for being Christmas eve.

I didn't sleep great. I was too excited and didn't want to miss the kids waking up!

Christmas Eve..

Every year we get together for Christmas Eve and the kids act out the story as we read in the bible. The kids get dressed up. Cole was Joseph and he was not amused. ha. ha. He was super excited that he got to open two gifts that night.
We did our family name drawing gifts. Which is always so fun. Above is a picture of my Dad and Mom giving Liz and Andy their gift. Playing the accordion. Andy always asks my Dad about this so it was a fun little joke. They did get a real gift too.
It was so fun to have snow on Christmas Eve!

Downtown Hotel and Lights...

We decided to surprise the kids the friday before christmas and take them to a hotel downtown and stay and go to the lights at temple square. Note to self: Never tell kids of a fun surprise you have for them before you are ready to tell them. Cole asked all day long what the surprise was going to be. It about drove me crazy. So I will have to remember that in the future!

But we packed up and told them we were headed to the hotel. Cole and Day were so excited! They remember it from last year and were just beside themselves.
I wasn't sure if we would fit it in this year but I am sure glad we did!
It is these memories that I don't want to forget and so hopefully writing it here I can help remember too.

We got to the hotel and unpacked let the kids explore the hotel and than we got bundled up to go outside to see the lights. We were about a block or so from temple square. When walking and carrying kids in  the freezing cold, those downtown blocks can see quite long!
But we made it and only walked around for a few minutes and than made the journey back. Another note to self: invest in some winter clothes.


Kevin stopped in at Olive Garden which was just right outside our hotel and placed an order. We than ate it up in our hotel room. We went swimming and  the kids just loved that of course.
We than had treats and played card games later that night.
It was seriously so fun! We played Old Maid and man playing Old Maid with Cole was the best. He was cracking us up. When he would get old maid his face would get the biggest grin on it. So dang funny. Dailey really liked Go Fish!
Man it was worth the money that is for sure!!
The next day we went swimming again and than we checked out and Kevin dropped me off so I could run into a store at City Creek.

Tayson's Two Month Visit...

The Friday before Christmas I took Tayson in for his two month visit! He is getting so big. Too bad I took photos when he was in pain getting his shots. But he is so dang sweet. I love our new location for our pediatrician in Herriman too. It seems to be closer and not as busy.

He was in the 50% for height and weight.
She said he is doing great all except for his cute little head where he lays only on one side. She thought it would be wise if we took him to a specialist so we will be checking that out soon. Darn it. But better to get it corrected now!

Dailey's First Dance Recital...

We put Dailey in Dance at the same time Cole started Kindergarten. We thought it would be good to have her have something that she is doing. I never thought I would put my daughter in dance. I am really not that kind of girl. Ha. Ha. stereotypes. But I am glad we did! She has loved it. She loves going somewhere that is for her each week. It isn't a big time commitment and she goes with her sweet little cousin.
Dailey had her first recital in December.
It was kind of crazy day. I was asked to make dinner for a family in the ward and not just one meal but a few dinners they could throw in the freezer, So that took most my day and I thought I had us all ready for dance but  than realized. aah. They put makeup on these little girls. So I asked a friend who was picking up my dinners if she had any blush we could borrow. She came and brought it and actually saved the day when she offered to do Dailey's hair. It helped a ton since I am terrible at hair and Tayson needed feeding.
Anyhow.
Kevin walked in the door and we took off to the school.
Dailey's dance was first and it was snowing so it was a slow commute and I was worried we wouldn't make it but we got there just in time to walk her up on the stage and hurry down to our seats.
She LOVED being on stage and came off the stage so dang excited. It really was the cutest thing ever!
I love this little girl.

Christmas Cards...

I have never done Christmas cards before. I guess I felt we didn't really know that many people to send them to. But I realized how much I loved getting them!!

 I really loved this past christmas getting the mail and finding a card amongst the junk mail
 So we took our own photo on a saturday. It was getting close to christmas so don't worry we just took it in front of our good old ikea dresser as to not have to edit out anything else in the house.
 Man just a little photo like this is hard work to get everyone dressed and ready. And keep their hair from not going every which way. Once I got one child ready the other was trying to get out of the clothes I just put them in. So, I didn't get to really do my hair how I wanted since the kids were tired and hungry and if we didn't just snap the dang photo, all heck would break loose.
It turned out pretty darn good for being thrown together.

Sure makes me appreciate all the family photos my own Mom took. Sheesh that's work!
But the christmas card was sent out and I think I just might make it a tradition!