Christmas

We had a great Christmas again this year.  

Chris's company Christmas dinner.  It was such a nice night. 

the boys gingerbread houses.  I gave up o the idea of doing homemade ones and I don't regret it. 

 our attempt at cute Christmas pictures.  Not one turned out "perfect"

Christmas Eve with Scott and Ellen and their girls.  It was so nice to see them all 

 Callie LOVES opening things and unwrapping gifts.  She could hardly stand the gifts under the tree.  I couldn't put any under before Christmas Eve because she would have opened them all.

Stockings and gifts from Santa,  Cody sent Santa a picture of the exact shoes he wanted. 

waiting to come down the stairs

The boys got new bikes for Christmas this year.  We decided to invest a little money and get something more than the cheap Walmart bikes.  They love them.  

Cody bought Cade a Denver Broncos mini football (one of his favorite gifts) and he got new Messi soccer cleats. 

Playing Head Bandz with our Henneman cousins. 

We went to the Dinosaur museum with Steve and Lori while they were here. 

And then there were a couple of Buddy's adventures this year.

This one was pretty funny.  

Temple Square Christmas Lights

One of my favorite things every year is seeing the Temple Square Lights with our family.  We made it a little more of an adventure this year and rode the Trax to downtown.  We went on a day that I thought would be nice but it turned out to be super cold and windy.  It made it more of an adventure. 

We even ran into Santa on his way home from the night 

and Aunt Lissa came with us so it was way more fun. 

Ward Christmas Party

 Chris and I were asked to spear-head our Ward Christmas Party this year.  Last year we were on the committee to help with the party but this year it was just us and a few helpers.  It was also a lot more low key this year.  It was just breakfast with Santa.   We had BYU Catering do most of the cooking for us but Chris made some cheese blintzes and I made the eggs.  We had French Toast, bacon, sausage, cheese blintzes, scrambled eggs, oranges, bananas, orange juice and milk.  It was a blast.

and my Santa was AMAZING!  He took time to talk to each of the kids and knew about all the toys.  He was a little skinny but he was so nice!

Days 9 and 10 Thanksgiving Trip 11-29/30

The last day at the coast was so sad.  We had to pack up and hit the road but we met my Aunt Rachelle just outside Portland for lunch so we didn't have to say our official goodbyes until after lunch.  

 We found a really cute Santa at a shopping center near where we ate lunch and decided to see if Callie would handle him different this year.  Fortunately, she wasn't terrified of him.

We went back to our hotel and got checked in and then walked down the road to watch a movie.  We watched The Good Dinosaur.  It was cute but sad.  Cade cried at the end.  He tried to deny it though.   We went back and let the kids swim again before bed time and then ordered room service because we didn't feel like loading the kids up and going anywhere that late.

Poor Callie had a bit of a rough night that night.  She had a cough and couldn't quite catch her breath.  Chris had to go to Walgreen's forever away in the middle of the night.  We were able to get her calmed down and she finished the night okay.  We left the hotel room looking like a crime scene though because she didn't want to take the cough medicine and spit it out all over the white sheets on the first attempt.

Monday morning we had breakfast down at the hotel again and then went to the other donut shop in Portland that I was told to try.  These weren't nearly as fun but they tasted SO good!

Our flight didn't leave until like 7pm so we played at an arcade just outside of Portland and walked around the Lloyd Center for a bit.  The kids wanted to go ice skating SO BAD but it was like $20 per person.

Callie finally fell asleep just as we were pulling up to the airport.  She just closed her eyes and then didn't open them again.  We all thought it was pretty funny.

She slept the entire flight.  

After we landed and got our bags and got to the car, the boys wouldn't stop complaining about being hungry again so we stopped to gram them something to eat.  Cade got about 3 bites in and fell asleep.  Cody thought it was hilarious but then I turned around a couple minutes later and Cody was sacked out with his burrito still in his hands.

It was an amazing trip but we were all ready to be home and in our own beds by this point.  We can't wait for the next time.