Christmas Weekend

We started a new tradition this year, we went on a little "trip" to SLC. We stayed at the Raddison. The kids were thrilled to be in a hotel. They went swimming and in the morning we walked around the city creek mall and at breakfast at Kneaders.  Christmas eve and Christmas Day were lovely this year. Kids were so well behaved, good sports about all the crazyness.  After we had partied on Christmas day, we couldn't get anybody to hang out with us, so we went driving down main street looking for something to eat. I was thinking fast food, but the line to McD's was 20 cars long, so we ended up across the street at a Japanese steak house. I was in my sweats eating a steak dinner. The kids haven't stopped talking about the volcano onion, and the fire right on our table. They were so good. I told Josh, everybody around us is probably jealous of our "perfect" children.  We missed Grandma and Grandpa Mendenhall, but we were able to skype with them several times so they could be a part of our day. Josh bought the kids a go cart for their big present and lucky for them, it was snowing all weekend, so they tied the sleds behind and had a hay day. Milo came in and said "this is the best Christmas ever!"

Frosty the Snowman

We didn't have any exciting plans for the evening, and we have spent the weekends in December visiting different Christmas sights around the valley.  There is one thing we haven't done yet...build a snowman. Lucky for us, we were blessed with a huge snowstorm today that provided the kids with hours of fun. After dinner we had some hours to kill so we decided to build our snowman in the dark.  He almost didn't make it, but Mom and Dad heaved that huge snowball over our heads and he was born.  After the snowman was done, we had our first family Snow Ball fight. I usually stay out of these activities, but I was already wet and cold, so I joined in the fun. The kids were so excited, they even made sure to thank me for playing with them before they went to sleep. Nora was hilarious, she would fake scream when we'd throw snow at her.  Makay fell asleep looking out the window to make sure he didn't miss it when the snowman came to life.  It's days like these that make me happy to be a mom. Especially after days like yesterday where I wasn't as excited to be a mom.  (the day when Nora decided to donate a portion of our Christmas budget to the sewer rats that live on the other side of the toilet. I am in denial waiting for it to turn up in the house somewhere) 

Temple Square

We made the trip downtown last Sunday afternoon to enjoy the lights at temple square. Note for the future, Sunday's are good days to go, and the earlier the better. We arrived at 5:00 pm, and were the only car in the parking lot. We brought hot chocolate and cookies, and had a great time. 

Asserting Independance

Kids have all grown a little today.  Milo used a pocket knife to whittle a stick for a bow and arrow.  Makay took his big brother down to the pit to show him where to find the good sticks, and Nora made herself a PB&J.

Keeping Busy...

Funny how I am in the mood to post when it's good weather outside. It's 50 degrees today, I sat in the sun and watched Makay pull Nora around the sled on the grass. I said, "Nora, what do you tell Makay for pulling you around?" her reply, "Atay (her version of Makay) ...Push." She was so sure of herself, I couldn't correct her, I just laughed and let the bossy-ness slide.

We had to get out the crafts to pass the time away last night. It is going to be a long winter cooped up inside our house every night.  She strung beads for almost an hour. I could tell she was done when she started shoving them off the table and shoving handfuls of them in her mouth.

Marcus got his Mission call to the Spain, Malaga mission and we are trying to figure out how to spend the last days with him before he goes. Looks like it might be a St George trip with everybody.

Nora is in her room destroying everything while she is supposed to be sleeping. She hides under the bed when I go to check on her, like I don't know what's going on. I just leave her. It's a nice break even though I have some major cleaning to do after I let her out. Let's just say....it's a waste of time to fold any of her clothes.

 Milo sang a song for us,  it's so cute, totally worth 1 minute of your time. He NEVER does stuff like this, so it's fun to see the softer side of Milo. I think the only reason he did is because we had one of his school friends over and he was so excited to sing it along with the movie. Somehow that made it cool to sing for your parents.

Makay LOVES his friends. He could spend hours in the basement setting up villages of houses for his guys to play in. The latest and greatest is the wood blocks Grandpa Mendenhall made. They set them up like a cage and put the animals in there.  He is also doing great with his reading, he loves to practice his letters. He was making letters for me out of 2x4's when we were out on the driveway today.

Josh is just finishing up teaching his first class at UVU. He liked it, but we couldn't leave anywhere because he couldn't really cancel class for a week.   He's loving working out these days, and he's even loving his job. We feel so lucky, because not a lot of people get to say they love their job. And it's close only 7 minutes away, which makes it really the best job ever. If he could figure out how to work in a mountain adventure during the day somewhere, his life would be complete.

I am doing the same old thing, laundry, picking up random items around the house, trying to get as many groceries for the least amount of money possible. To keep things exciting I made Stollen for the first time this year.  It is so YUMMY! I think it has too much sugar, but I just brush it off before i eat it. then I don't feel as guilty. Next week is the week for Toffee and Christmas cards. It's crazy how the weeks fly by in December as if there were only 1 week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here's to enjoying the most wonderful time of the year which is followed by the most miserable 3 months of the year. Here's to a Merry Christmas and Spring blossoms and tulips.

NORA'S MASTERPIECE

At least I got the wipes, lotion and baby powder put up before she could get to it. I forgot about the Costco pack of diapers sitting in there.  There is so much more, but this is all that would fit in the screen since she is sleeping right by the door, I couldn't get in there.  This seems so malicious to post pictures of her like this on here. She is sweet, beautiful, and fun, but this is definitely a big ugly part of our day around here.