Christmas!

Getting ready to come down the stairs to see what Santa brought.

Savannah loved her Mickey ride along!

Brett and Em sitting a moment after taking in all the fun!That afternoon we went to my parents. My mom made Savannah a Raggedy Ann doll. She always makes one on each grandchilds first Christmas. Savannah loved her new baby!

That evening we went to Mike's parents house. We were so grateful that Mike's Aunt Annie could make it out to be with us. We love being with our families on Christmas day and are so grateful that we have them.
We had such a great Christmas. The only bad part was that Savannah woke up feeling under the weather. We hoped it was just a fluke thing, but she ended up having the stomach flu. The next day Emily and I got it. Not fun! But, we still did have fun enjoying Christmas and being able to spend time together.

Christmas Eve

It was so much fun to have everyone in my family together for Christmas Eve. Even Mandi, Dusty and Zoey were there, all the way from Kansas! Brett and Em were so hyper all day! They couldn't believe Santa was going to finally be at our house that night! They loved their new "jammies"

The "nativity". Something we have done since I was little. This year the grand kids participated. It is hard to tell in this picture but this nativity has been through a lot! The camel Aaron is holding is barely staying put together! My mom made this nativity when we were young. Last year we all made one to have for our own families.

Savannah cuddling with Grandma in her new pajamas ~ too cute!

New pajamas for everyone!

Haylie and Em doing their favorite thing.............posing for the camera!

Temple Square

Saturday we went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was freezing, but the kids were bundled up in a million layers and had a lot of fun. Savannah had a blast, she kept saying, "Ohhh", smiling and kicking her feet up and down the whole time. I love looking at the lights, they are so gorgeous! Afterward we did what any normal Utahn would do after being outside in the freezing cold.......we went to ice cream! Mike surprised us all by taking us to Leatherby's. The kids dove right in, it was gone is seconds! I guess I should have agreed to getting a bigger sundae!

Bundled up kids!

Messy baby!
After the Ice cream was gone, Brett started downing the fry sauce! EWWWWW!!!

Gingerbread Houses

Mike and Brett's houseEmily and my house

We had so much fun decorating Gingerbread houses last week. I am just late posting the pictures! Which one is better? Emily and my house right? You can tell that a kid did the designing on ours. Brett helped on his house, with Mike pointing out exactly where to place each candy. We had a lot of fun! This is the first time we have done it as a family. Next time we just need more candy than what comes in the kit. Neco's make the best roof shingles!

Merry Christmas!

This is the one picture out of about 100 that worked to use as our Christmas card. As many of you know, it is nearly impossible to get a good family picture when there are children involved!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

We have a problem at our house. Brett thinks he is Superman, or Spiderman or whatever super hero mood he is in for the day. He jumps off couches, trying to fly. Try's to run and jump, over objects, or people. Problem is, he is just a little boy and a very accident prone one at that. Saturday night at our ward party he and some friends were racing up and down the church hall. He fell and split his head open. We had to go to the ER and Brett got 4 stitches. I asked him how it happened. He said, "Mom, we were being Superman and running really fast and I bumped into the wall." Bump is right, he has a huge goose egg! Yesterday, as I was getting ready for work, Emily and Brett were playing "Spiderman". Em pulled him off the couch (she was the bad guy) he hit his face. Now he has a huge swollen lip and a I am pretty certain, a broken nose. Lovely!!! If anyone sees my child I am sure they will think he is abused. Brett is three years old. He has had stitches 3 times! Boys can be so crazy!!! Anyone else have similar stories with their crazy boys?

Utes!

This is a late post, but I wanted to put some of these pictures up. Thanks Nancy for taking them! We went to the Utah/BYU game and had a blast. The Utes won ( of course) and we had such a good time cheering them on to a 12-0 victory for the season!!! After the game we went on the field and Mike was excited to have his jersy signed by #11, Paul Kruger. Of course, we couldn't pass up the chance to have a picture with the guy dressed up as Jesus. Good luck to the Utes in the Sugar Bowl against Alabama! GO UTES!

Em's Dance performance

We went to the Festival of Trees last Friday for Emily's dance performance. She sang "Let it Snow" and "That night in the stable". She had a solo part. We practiced the solo over and over again. She was excited to perform! The song started with another little girl singing, Em watched her and when it was her turn she missed her part! She just sat there, when she realized she had missed her part she got nervous. Luckily her teacher stepped on stage, had them rewind the tape, start all over and help her get started on her part. I was so nervous for her! But, she didn't seem flustered at all and sang her part perfectly! Mom was 10 times more nervous than she was! Crazy how you can get so worried for your kids! I didn't care what anyone else thought, I just wanted her to be happy with how it went. And she was, she had a lot of fun!

They had a ton of gingerbread houses displayed, I really liked this one.

This one was huge, it even had lighted windows! When I make my gingerbread house every year it probably takes two hours to do. Imagine who much time this took!

Em singing "Let it Snow!" She is so tall compared to the other girls in her class!

Her teacher helping her to get started on her solo.

That night "Granny", (Mike's mom) had the yearly Grandkid Christmas party. Emily looks forward to it all year. She loves making crafts, drinking the hot chocolate, watching movies and especially having fun with her favorite cousin Ashley. Thanks Kay, for doing this every year. Brett can't wait until next year when mom and dad will let him sleep over!

Christmas Trees

This year we got TWO Christmas trees! When Mike and I got married I insisted we did the multicolored blinking lights on the tree. That was how it always was for me growing up. Mike really wanted all red lights, like his parents had. He let me have it my way, and that is how the tree has looked every year. This year we got a small tree for the basement. Mike had a lot of fun making it a red tree. I don't know if it is more for his families tradition or that it is a UTE tree. It smells so good! The second you come downstairs you can smell it. We had so much fun picking out our trees in the warm weather on Saturday. I put on the lights and then the kids had a blast decorating it. Savannah just kept looking at it and saying, "ree" for pretty. I am looking forward to evenings sitting next to the tree and enjoying some Christmas music, something both Mike and I grew up doing. Enjoy the Christmas songs, they are some of our favorites!

I am thankful for.......

I am thankful for so many things, too many things to list in fact. But, I do want to say I am thankful for the everyday moments. Being a mom can sometimes be crazy, but it is filled with small little moments that make everyday wonderful. I am so thankful to be a mother. I love being Emily, Brett and Savannah's mom. Here is one of those moments. I was making roll dough for scones and ran downstairs to get more flour when I came up and saw this. Brett sharing dough with Savannah. Aren't they sweet? I am so blessed!

Birthday Surprise!

Grand America! View from our balcony of the courtyard!

My roses and presents. Mike gave me some much needed new scrubs, Harry Potter books on CD, and a red bronze frog named "Romeo". I was especially excited about the last gift because it is something that Mike and I have loved looking at when in Vegas. It was from an art gallery called "Galleria Di Sorrento" sent from Caesar's Palace! He remembered how much I loved them, and I loved how thoughtful he was.
My Birthday cake ~ it was soooooo delicious!Chocolate covered strawberries!!! I thought is was so cute how they looked like they had little tuxedos on! You can see the frog he gave me in the upper left hand corner.

Our breakfast! French toast with caramel sauce and a breakfast croissant. It was so fun to have room service!

Mike surprised me for my 30th Birthday, and surprise he did! I had no idea what he had up his sleeve, just that my mom was watching the kids last Friday night until Saturday afternoon (thanks mom!). When we drove up to the Grand America I was shocked! It was so beautiful and elegant! The valet parked our car and then we went up to our room on the 22nd floor. It was the executive king suite and it was gorgeous! When I walked in the first thing I saw was a beautiful bouquet of roses, just past the roses was the yummy chocolate cake! Yes, I told Mike I would go off my chocolate fast just for this weekend. Then, on the bed were rose petals in a heart shape. I was so taken away and completely surprised. That night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and had room service bring breakfast up in the morning! Then we headed down to the spa for one more surprise, a massage! It was so wonderful and just what I needed. I turn 30 on the 30th of this month and I loved having an early surprise! He definitely did such a spectacular job spoiling me, I love him so much and am so grateful for such a wonderful weekend! Thank you Mike, you really did put a lot of planning and thought into this, and the best part of the weekend was being able to spend time with you. Love you!