Day Trip to Flagstaff

We decided about a week or so into January to take a day trip up to Flagstaff to play in the snow. Now, considering what happened last year, we almost didn't even take this trip. Last year Matthew and Kate were SO excited during the drive but absolutely hated the snow once they got out of the car and cried the entire time. Yeah, not ideal. Matthew and Kate were insistent about trying again, so this time I planned very carefully where we'd go, (somewhere heavily populated so there would be ZERO deep snow for them to have to trudge through) and me and Michael set our expectations extremely low. Ha! I made sure to pack all the warm clothes we owned and then we were off!

We finally found a good spot about 15 minutes north of Flagstaff called Crowley Park. I bundled up the kids and they were off! I was nervous but they did SO much better this time. It was Joshua's first time playing in the snow (he wasn't even a year old last year so he just stayed on my lap) and he was fascinated! Matthew and Kate loved it too and were anxious to start sledding.

All the kids went down the sledding hill a bunch of times with me or Michael and they all loved it - especially Matthew! Once he was comfortable he went down by himself a few times form lower on the hill.

We also built a mini snowman! Josh was SO excited about his snowman - look at that cute excited face!

I was so impressed with how well the kids did! Totally exceeded my expectations.... by a lot! Haha!

After a couple hours Kate and Josh were done. Especially Josh, who was getting pretty cold.

Matthew was SO bummed to leave. He would've been happy to stay another few hours! Me and Michael decided that now that we knew they could have more fun in the snow, we'd definitely try to make an overnight trip the next year. I felt pretty bad for Matthew who wanted more time. But I'm so glad that he and the other kids did so well and had so much fun. A great day for sure!

Christmas

We were lucky enough to have my mom and dad come stay with us for Christmas this year! We were all so excited!

I LOVE Christmas Eve almost as much as Christmas morning! The excitement and anticipation is the best! My mom brought Christmas Bingo, which was one of my very favorite Christmas traditions growing up. It was fun to see my kids love it as much as I did.

They also brought this cute puzzle of the Abominable Snow Monster. It was actually a really hard puzzle. Way harder than it looks! Ha! Then I made a joke about how I'd kill the kids if they messed it up and literally about a minute later I myself messed it up. Yep. I'm smart like that.

Cute slippers my mom brought for Joshua from my Grandma Winder-

Kate gets her flexibility from her grandma-

The boys went to see Star Wars! Michael accidentally bought tickets in 3D. Ha!

That night we went to the Loop of Lights (awesome neighborhood nearby that does seriously amazing Christmas tree lights - and almost every house participates!) and made sure to wear out the kids. This pic was taken there, even though you can't see much.

And then we came home home, left cookies out for Santa, and put the kids to bed!

That night we watched It's A Wonderful Life and were happy that Santa's job was pretty low stress and quick. :-) The next morning the kids were bouncing and so excited!! I had to get the picture of them at the top of the stairs of course-

And then the fun began! Matthew got a ninja turtle bike and ninja turtle toys, Josh got a train, and Kate got a princess house and roller skates. And of course the stocking! They also got some fun presents to unwrap, including Pop the Pig game, (SUCH a hit) books, stickers, and other random toys. Michael got a machete (sword? giant knife?) from my parents and was SO excited about it. It was hilarious to watch his face light up when he opened it. :-) I got some gift cards, make up, and clothes. We all had so much fun, and LOVED having Grandma and Papa there to share in all the fun! 

Christmas fell on a Sunday and we had church at 10 so after the presents we ate a quick breakfast and then got in our church clothes. I kind of liked going to church on Christmas. Such a great way to remember the real reason for the season.

For New Years we pretty much just stayed home. It's hard to do too much when you have a house full of little kids that are gonna wake up at 6 a.m. no matter what time you or they go to bed. Ha! It's all good though - me and Michael don't mind. We kinda like taking it easy at home and watching the ball drop and then going to bed, barely having made it till midnight. Oh the joys of getting older and also being young parents. ;-) Josh woke up cranky around 11 and wouldn't go back to sleep so he got to party with us at midnight. :-) Luckily he finally conked out again around 12:30.

Hooray for an awesome 2016!

December Activities

I went all out with as many Christmas activities as I could this year! I say I do it for the kids, but really I love it too. :-) The whole season is just so magical and I LOVE reliving all the kid magic through my own kids. They make everything so much more fun.

We always go see the Mesa Temple lights. I always try to do this early in the season because I think being at the temple and enjoying one of our oldest family Christmas traditions is such a good way to really get into the Christmas spirit.

Making a gingerbread house! Yes, I buy the pre made one. Best things ever. Seriously. Josh helped a little with the decorating but was pretty much just interested in eating the candy and frosting. I caught him a couple times trying to sneak up the piano to steal candies.

Cute Christmas outfits/accessories! Yes yes yes!

Christmas cookies! SO much dough gets eaten but I guess that's half (or more than half) the fun. ;-)

We went to a Christmas party of someone we barely knew (ha! but I assure you we did actually get invited!) and they had the BEST SANTA EVER! He was SO nice and the kids were on Cloud 9 after meeting him.

My amazing friend McKenzie hosted a Christmas party for some of our good couple friends and it was so beautiful. She always throws the best parties! This is her version of a "small, just-whatever, casual thing" by the way.  ;-)

Love these ladies so much! (Lauren, Kelcie, Emily, me, McKenzie, and Lacey) They are some of the best friends I've made in Gilbert.

Kate had her Christmas dance recital!!! She'd practiced a ton so that even her brothers knew a lot of the dance. Haha! Anyway, she did so awesome and was so so cute to watch. She was so excited the second her dance ended that she just started jumping around with the biggest smile on her face. :-) She danced to "Mistletoe and Holly." And she LOVED that Michael gave her flowers at the end.

Putting on the final touches before her performance-

Oh, and we had a lot of fun with Hermey this month. (Our Elf on the Shelf.) The kids had SUCH a blast finding him every morning.... and our elf wasn't even that creative. All the did was hide. (There are lots of elves that will hide elaborately or bring gifts.)

We sure love Christmas stuff!