Merry Christmas!

WARNING LONG POST!!

I cant believe it is all over! All the preparing, wrapping, decorating, cooking, and ect. I love Christmas I hate the clean up!

We had a great Christmas we were very busy the whole month and did lots of exciting and fun things! Our Christmas started on Sat. we had a Christmas party at my dads with my sister Amy and her family and my dad and step mom Stella. It was fun to hang out and eat good food we also exchanged gifts with them Skyler got Hulk hands to beat his sister with and a big dump truck. Abbie got a princess dress and bathtub paints. I love being around family it is always so much fun!

Me and my sweet Dad

My dad and Stella

Christmas morning was awesome we woke up at 6:00 am because I am a freak and cant sleep on Christmas eve! I get to excited I know what you are thinking I am 25 and act like I am 5! Santa left a bunch of fun gifts for us and we loved opening them the kids were very into it this year and got excited about every present even the clothes and such. Abbie got a Kitchen set that Nate built, and a princess tent. Sky got a baseball hit away toy and a toy computer that he had been asking for about 4 months! Nate got a snow blower, a drill, circular saw, and guitar hero, I got a CTR ring, a new camera, new house phones and Rachael Ray knifes to go with my pans form last year! Nathan drew me some pics of my kids and built beautiful frames for them he also got a embroidery that I had made about 3 years ago and made a frame for it I will have to take a pic of them all they are amazing! We all got a bunch of other stuff but these where the favorites!

Our big family present was a trip to Disney land! We are going in March with my sister Amy's family it will be so fun!

Openeing the Disney present!
Yeah we are going to go see Mickey!

Later that day we went to our families houses and visited. At Nate's parents house it is like a whole other Christmas our kids and us for that matter get very spoiled from all of them! We had a fabulous Christmas and hope all of you did too. Merry Christmas!!

Frosty the Snowman!

We got snow today! Surprise Surprise!! Every year Nate and Sky make a snowman and this year was so fun! Skyler was very excited and Abbie got to help this year! We have a cute snowman kit that my friend Rachel made for me about 5 years ago and we love it! It has coal eyes, buttons, a carrot nose, and mitten hands then you use the bucket for his hat! It is so dang cute and we are so happy we have it! I never thought I would enjoy playing in the snow again, but it is fun when you have kids that love it!

Christmas Family Pictures

Here are just a few of our pictures I cant get my favorite to down load, but you get the idea!

I really wanted our dog Hank in the pictures, he is not very photogenic though.LOL

Abbie has this Cheesy grin in every picture I love it!

More Christmas fun!

This week we went to the Christmas Village in Ogden, It is a really cute display of little Chirstmas houses that different company's decorate. There is also a larger one that is Santa's house and the kids can go in and see Santa. We all had our favorites, Although they were all darling and fun to look at! It was very cold that night and we forgot our hot chocolate so we didn't stay to long just long enough to at least glance at all of them. Here are some pics so you can get a better idea of what I am talking about!

Abbie wasn't to sure what to think.

This was one of Nate's favorites it was a snow boarder!

This was a fun one it was a eye spy one it had a list of thing you could find in side.

Way Cute!

ZOO LIGHTS

We had never been to the Zoo lights but since we had the pass to get a discount this year we decided go!! So after dinner last night we went up to the Zoo. I have to say I was very very impressed! I think they did an awesome job! There were so many cute festive lights of animals and they gave away free cookies which was a great little treat for the kids! The kids LOVED this they thought it was better than the Zoo it self. They also had 3d glasses you could buy that where way cool they made all the light look like little snowman. I highly recommend the Zoo lights for all ages, but do dress warm it was freezing cold.

Temple Square

It should be every ones tradition to go to Temple Square every year to see the lights! We never miss it! I do have to say I wish we went on the week end because there was NO ONE there! I like it when they have caroling and other music going on. I also feel like there wasn't as many lights this year?!?! It doesn't matter though because it is still beautiful!!!!

We went with my cute niece Sarah and her fiance Adam they are so fun to be around she is pregnant and they are getting married before the baby is born and going back to church they have a goal to go to through Temple later. I am so happy for them.

So of coarse my kids loved the lights Skyler kept acting like he was in some sort of space land and Abbie just points and giggles at everything. We make hot chocolate and bring it in our thermos every year it is a nice little treat to have when you are freezing cold. I am sure we will go to the lights every year for years to come and I feel so blessed to be this close to the Temple so we can enjoy it when ever we want!

This is the most wonderful time of the year!

I thought I would post pics of some of our Christmas decorations! Nate insisted on putting our tree up the first week of November. He LOVES Christmas time don't get me wrong so do I, but if it where up to me we would have waited until after Thanksgiving to put it up!

Top ten things I love about Christmas!

1. Being with family

2. Celebrating the birth of Christ!

3. Going to the lights on Temple square

4.Putting up decorations

5. Shopping for gifts!

6. Watching Christmas movies

7. Making Christmas treats

8.Singing Christmas songs

9. Going to all the fun lights ( thanksgiving point, Christmas St. etc.)

10.Christmas Morning!

Congratulations Dad

I truly never thought I would write about this!!! I love my Dad so much and I am so happy for him and the happiness he has found! I found out yesterday that my dad and his girlfriend Stella were married on Nov. 4th. I am having a very hard time with this since we had not been informed until after it had happened, but I have to happy for him because for the first time in almost 10 years I see my dad happy! For those of you who now my dad you know what an amazing person he is! I think I would have to say he is totally different person since he left my mom. I do not feel very close to him I am hoping that having a wife will show him how important family is! I feel that when leaving my mom in a sense he left us kids too. I miss my dad very much and I pray that we can spend more time together and regain our relationship. I love you very much!

Happy Birthday Nate and Primary program!

We had a very busy week end! WE started the weekend off by celebrating Nate's 27th Birthday on Friday! We started the day off by going on a nature walk up in the mountains in the snow the kids loved it! It was a great little walk! We then went to see the movie Madagascar 2. It was Abbie first movie and I was a little nervous, but she did very well! We had lots a snacks to keep her busy when she would get restless! The movie was very cute I would recommend it to any family! We ended the night by taking the kids to Nate's parents and went to dinner just the two of us! Wow that never happens it was so nice to be with Nate and just talk to him and not worry about trying to keep the kids happy in a restaurant!
Happy Birthday Nate I hope you had fun! I love you and I hope you know how grateful I am to have such an amazing husband and father to out children. I am also so blessed to have such a hard working husband so I can be home with the kids! I love you happy birthday!

We also went to my niece Alighs birthday this weekend she had a princess party and Sky was the only boy, but heck he didn't care he had tons of fun! He dressed up as buzz light year and all the girls wore there princess dress ups. My sister is so cute she had bought boy stuff just for Sky and all the girls got princess stuff! Thanks Tracy for including him!

Sunday was our primary program It was Skyler's first sacrament program and needless to say he was the one little boy who everyone watches and laughs because he is out of control, yelling, picking his nose, dancing around, ect. ect. I had to go up and take him off the pulpit at one time! He was bugging his teacher and the other kids in his class. Does anyone else have this problem with their four year old? I cant seem to control him. He has more energy than I can handle it is a constant struggle to get him to listen and behave. I love him dearly, but I he really knows how to push my buttons and does not caring about the consequences!! The rest of the program was very cute I just had to watch all the other children and not my own ( am I a horrible mom for saying that) Maybe next year will be better!

My little Artist!

The last week or so I have had a big problem with Skyler drawing on thing that he shouldn't. Last week end he found a magic marker and decided to draw on my walls with it what the.... was my reaction! Well today I got out the washable markers for him to color a paper for school, I was right nest to him watching him then I went up stair to get Abbie up from her nap and when I came back down this is what I found!!

Now I thought I was way past this stage with him! He is four and hasn't done anything like this for years. So I ask you what do I do? I punished him, then I felt bad. Do I just laugh it off or do I make a big deal out of it? Please let me know what you think!

update!

I have been meaning to post this for a while! I just keep forgetting. I recently made it to my 15lb. marker FINALLY!! It seems like it is taking me so long to loose this weight, but it is so fun to have finally lost 15lbs. I have also lost 4 in. in my bust , 11 in my waist, 3 in my hips, and 9 in my thighs.It makes all the working out work it. It is so hard for me to get on that treadmill everyday, sometimes I am just to lazy then I regret not doing it. I love the way I feel when I start my day off with a good workout. I don't think my weight loss is noticeable yet but I cant wait until it is! I also cant wait to go shopping!! Thank you for all the support and encouragement it means alot.

Trick or Treat

I cant believe Halloween is over. We had a great Halloween we started the day of by going down town to my sisters work they usually have a little trick or treating there well this year was huge they went all out and decorated the office and had sooooooooooo sooooooooooooooo much candy that they were passing out there where like 5 floors you could trick or treat on we only did 3 and our kids bags were FULL. Not to mention it was all good candy none of those smarties or tootsie rolls it was candy bars, starbursts, all sorts of good stuff. After that we went to see all the grandparents and then we decided to go to Fashion place mall to see what kind of things they had going on. We usually go to Layton Hills mall by our house but since we were already in S.L.C we went there. It was pretty lame, the kids got bored really fast. When we got home there were a bunch of trick or treater's at our house and Sky wanted to go trick or treating in our neighborhood. Because Nate did make that fabulous car we decided it couldn't go to waste so he took the kids out in there car! I stayed home and passed out candy. After a long day of trick or treating we were happy to be home, as we were putting their candy in a bowl it didn't take us long to figure out they had way to much candy to fit in any of my bowls. Seriously I have NEVER seen so much candy in my life I used to go trick or treating for hours and I never came home with this much! One thing is for sure my kids teeth are going to be rotten!!!

Carving Pumpkins

On Tuesday we decided to carve our pumpkin's. Now those of you who know Nate knows that this isn't your normal pumpkin carving!!! He makes stencils for all of us and then spends 2 days yes people I said 2 days on his own pumpkin!!!! This year I decided to do the mummy and Sky picked Thomas the Train. He needed help of course, but he did all the gutting on it. So Nate wouldn't tell us what he was doing and when he revealed his pumpkin and couldn't help but laugh!! Nathan did Barack Obama and it really looks very good. It is always fun to carve pumpkins although it does make a big mess and my hand has a cramp after, but when you light them up and the kids get so excited it is well worth all of that.

PARTY TIME!

We had Abbie's birthday party this week end. Since it is so close to Halloween we decided to have a little Halloween party for her. All the kids dressed up in their costumes and came over, we had a few games and a pinata. The kids were all so cute in their little costumes and it was hilarious to watch the little ones hit the pinata. Abbie had so much fun and I think she thinks every time we put her in her costume that it is a celebration for her birthday. That night we had our trunk er treat and she kept saying "birfday birfday" We just let her think that the whole neighborhood was there for her. So after a long weekend of 3 Halloween parties my kids are high on all the sugar and I am ready to pull my hair out and Halloween hasn't even came and gone yet!

FRIGHT MARES!!!!!!

We took the opportunity to use our Lagoon season passes one more time this year and we went to fright mares. We really thought it was fun, there are haunted houses for kids and adults, and the whole park it decorated for Halloween! Since we had our kids this time we steered clear of the adult one because they had scary guys walking around out side by them and Sky was terrified. The one that they have for kids is more of a trick or treating house you walk around and trick or treat at all the different stations the kids of coarse LOVED this! We did do a few rides too, but it was really cold so we didn't do to many. We have loved having our season passes this year and think it was very much worth the money, we hope we can do it again next year!