Downtown Fun

Earlier this week (before all the snow made us home bound) we ventured downtown to see the decorated Christmas windows at the Grand America Hotel.  Addie was so excited to be able to see her cousins, she keeps asking why she hasn't had school--still trying to comprehend the whole Christmas break thing.  We had fun riding trax, checking out the windows, shopping at the Gateway, and lunch.

Christmas Day

We had a fun Christmas Day together as a family and then we went over to spend the afternoon with Andrew's family.  The girls loved their presents and we loved watching them open all of them.  The favorites would be the Barbie guitar and Princess piano, it has turned into a regular dance party/music fest at our house.  We are so grateful for this wonderful time of year and all of our family and friends, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas as well.

Izze attempting to talk on the phone.

Addie has loved drawing on this chalkboard/white board.  I had no idea the things she has learned to draw, so fun to see all of the various pictures.

This is the infamous pretend elephant, Addie was so excited!

Let the music fest begin...

This is how we found Addie after church, somewhere she ditched her skirt and shoes and felt inclined to jam out before changing the rest of her clothes!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to Chick-a-lay (Addie's pronunciation) for lunch.  The cow was dressed up outside as Santa and Addie wanted to go say hi, so I figured we should take a picture too.

 We spent the day with Andrew's family and then came home to open our family exchange presents and pajamas, then put out cookies and a brewsky for Santa.  

Cabela's Santa

The Saturday before Christmas we met our friends at Cabela's so the girls could visit Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.  We got there early and only had to stand in line for a little bit, such the way to go!  Before Addie sat on Santa's lap I asked her what she was going to ask Santa for, mostly to make sure she understood what was about to happen and to make sure she would say something instead of just sitting there.  I don't remember what she told me, but it doesn't matter because after she spoke with Santa she told me she asked for a "pretend elephant".  I have no idea where this idea came from, but for the next week all she told us and those who asked is that Santa was bringing her a pretend elephant.  In case you are wondering there are not that many pretend elephants hanging around at Christmas time, lots of puppies, monkeys, bears but no elephants.  Luckily Santa was able to pull through with a pretend elephant on Christmas morning, and thank goodness because that is the first thing Addie asked for when she woke up that day.  On a side note, Izze would have nothing to do with Santa, she clung to my jacket and would go no where near him, it was hilarious!

This is one huge camping chair!  The girls thought it was so fun to sit in :)

So Random...

These are some random pictures from the month...

This is Addie's new way to ride in cart!  You can't see but Izze has been introduced to Target popcorn and she loves it!

This is a daily occurrence, Addie and Izze love to fill up their strollers with the food from the pantry and spread it all over the front room.  So fun.

This is our tree, Izze has managed to break a few ornaments and dismantle the bottom half of the tree.  I quit putting it back together weeks ago, hence the pile of ornaments in middle part of the tree.

Hide and Seek, Addie's new favorite game.

Andrew was hiding in the bathroom with the camera and caught Addie by surprise!

Just killin' time before church, so excited to have 9:00 church next year.

Christmas Lights

Last week we went to see the lights at Temple Square, luckily we chose a pretty mild weather night.  We went with our friends and took a quick tour so the husbands and eldest children could rush off to the Jazz game.  Izze had the same expression the entire time and Addie loved seeing all the lights, but was most excited for her churro at the game.

Jazz Man

Last week Andrew was called into his boss' office, not to be fired, but to be offered an all day pass to the ESA to watch the Jazz practice, shoot some hoops, and eat a lot of food!  He was so excited and could hardly wait, I think he was most excited to miss a day of work :)  

Six Years ...

Six years ago while we were freezing our buns off in Logan we invited our friends, the Harr's, over to make gingerbread houses.  Six years later we are still freezing our buns off in Salt Lake and we invited our friends, the Harr's, over to make gingerbread houses.  There are many similarities between the houses of six years  agoand now, which I found amusing... 

Same design with a little scraps of graham crackers on top instead of whole crackers and my wheat chex shingles, of course :)

Jason's are always structurally clean and neat.

Always a silly face, this one actually looks like a house, but still has globs of candy on it.

We didn't get a picture of just Cookie and her house, but you can see it has the same shape!

 With four girls between us we didn't have oodles of time to landscape and decorate, it was pretty much just get it done and hope it stays together!  The fourth house in the back is Addie's, she loved putting all the candy on it and eating the candy too, of course.

Snow Nuts

Sunday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland!  The girls were so excited, Andrew and I not so much.  Addie was so excited to help Andrew shovel, I opted to stay inside with Izze.  Izze had other plans, however, she would stand at the window and point, then walk to the door and try to open it.  I couldn't resist and so dug through the shoe box to find some boots for her (just 2 sizes too big), put on her coat, hat, and we ventured outside.  Izze was so excited and even managed to walk pretty well in the boots, Addie couldn't wait to play with her in the snow.  It was fun to see all the snow, now we wish it was melted and summer again :)

Thunderbirds

Last weekend we went to St. George where we were reminded of the wonderful weather down there!  Our main purpose in going was for the Thunderbird Air Show in Vegas on Saturday.  We had such a fun time and we were glad part of my family was also able to meet us there.  The weather was perfect and on Sunday reality hit when we drove home in snow :(

We were also lucky enough to visit our friends, the Warners, yay!  The girls had so much fun playing together.  And they even treated us to a sno cone in November, yummy! 

Disney on Ice

This year for Addie's birthday present Andrew bought Addie and me tickets to Disney on Ice.  Addie was so excited when she saw the tickets because she thought we were going to Disneyland again, we had a little explaining to do.  We were lucky enough to be on the second row!  A nice lady in front of us gave Addie the 

cool Tinkerbell twirling toy, Addie was so excited when she realized she could keep it!