Christmas Day

I think I get just as excited about Christmas as the kids do!  I love it!!  I love shopping and wrapping presents and I especially love the anticipation of seeing the kids reactions on Christmas morning!  What a wonderful day!!

           Our Christmas tree exploding with presents under (and around) it

                                      Amanda's loot

                                                Josh's loot

                                                Alex's loot

         Amanda always insists we get a pic of all 3 kids in front of the tree.

                              Unwrapping the gifts



                         WE LOVE OUR CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!!! 

Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my family.  First we all went ice skating at the Cottonwood Heights Rec. Center and had so much fun!  Our kids had never been ice skating before and it had been years since Brian and I had been.  The kids had a great time and I loved helping them skate around the ice and pick them up after they fell down.  

Manda posing for a cute picture.  She is my little picture princess.

Alex looks pretty miserable, but he just needed to get a little more comfortable and then he had some fun slippin' and slidin' around.

            Our cute little family all out on the ice.

After skating, we went over to Grammy and Poppa's and the kids got to open all their presents from them.  We had tons of yummy food and had a great time visiting while the kids played.

Manda got her first American Girl Doll.  That is all she could talk about this Christmas!  Santa actually didn't get much help from her about what to bring since she had already asked Grammy for Molly - the American Girl.  And she finally got the long awaited present!  YAY!!  She loves her so much!  Thanks, Grammy and Poppa!
 

                                    Alex opening his presents.

           Josh getting a little help opening his gifts.

Alex just hanging out with his best bud cousin, Nate, who he adores and completely looks up to.  I hope Alex will turn out to be as sweet a teenager and Nate is!

Lots of fun Christmas Eve memories this year.  Great times!!

Gingerbread house kit

We had so much fun making our Halloween gingerbread house that we decided we FOR SURE had to do a gingerbread house kit for Christmas.  The kids loved loading on as much frosting and candy as they could possibly make stay on the house.  This will have to become part of our yearly holiday traditions.  We all LOVE IT!!

 

                                                front view

                                                back view

And a big hug from "Uncle Scott" after it was all done!

My little gymnast

I am so far behind on blogging it is not even funny.  I will just post a few entries when I can to try to catch up.  

Amanda had a gymnastic/tumbling performance back in December.  She is doing so well and really loves tumbling.  She is extremely flexible and it really seems to come naturally for her.  She practices almost every day and is very determined to learn the next new trick.  She amazes me at how quickly she has picked up on this and what a great little gymnast she is turning out to be.  

                                                        OUCH!!  splits!

                                                     back walk over

                                                         arch up

                                                  arch up and kick over

                                                    her first medal

                                            Amanda and her teacher, Rachael

Crazy kids

I am the first to admit that my children are out of control!  Especially Josh, but I really think it is because he is only 1 and is trying to keep up with his maniac 4-and-5-year-old siblings!  He is really just gross and disgusting though.  Here is Josh enjoying his drink from Mimzy's water bowl.  He used to eat her food, but now he just plays with her food and drinks from the water bowl.   I honestly don't know why he thinks he is a dog and not human, but I am hoping that one day he will make the distinction and start acting more like a person than a dog.  

                                    Super happy with himself
                 

                       Licking his lips after a very refreshing drink...........YUCK!!!!

I was taking some clean laundry upstairs and came back down to start the next load and this is what I found in my dryer.  I seriously don't know if I will be able to live through this child!  

Amanda and Alex thought it was pretty funny to have opposite day with their jammies.  Mismatched tops and bottoms with bottoms on their heads and tops on their legs.  Really......how do they come up with these ideas?

It sure is a good thing that they are all so darn cute, huh???

in-N-out

The lines at the new In-N-Out Burger have been so INSANE ever since they opened.  We waited until the lines died down (somewhat) and decided to give it a try to see what all the fuss and hype has been about.  It was a pretty decent burger, as far as fast food goes......but there was nothing there that is worth waiting in a 2 hour line for!!!  That is just plain crazy if you ask me!  

Honestly, I can't think of any food that is worth that kind of wait, much less a fast food hamburger.  I liked it alright, but Brian just wasn't too impressed.  I think that when something gets built up so much that your expectations get too high and then you are just left disappointed.  Here are a few pictures we took to remember the experience.  

Brian gave it the official "thumbs down" - even Josh is trying to give it a mini-thumbs down in the bottom picture.  Too cute!!

"Tis the season.........to be making cookies!!

Making pumpkin cookies at my mom's house.  Oh, they are so yummy!!!  One of my most favorite treats in existence!  

  

The kids LOVE to help.  It looks like Alex isn't too happy about who's turn it is right now.  

We made roll-out sugar cookies one day to take to Grandparents.  It made more of a mess than it did cookies, but it was still fun!

Josh was so good just sitting in his high chair.  He wasn't allowed to help decorate, but he was a pretty good taste-tester.  

I love how kids put 10 times more frosting and sprinkles than there is cookie!  YUM!!!

And this is how my kitchen looked after we were finished........it was totally worth it though! The kids had so much fun!!

                                    AWESOME!!