Joy

What a wonderful holiday we had! So much fun and family--and 5 is such a fun age for it all. First here are the pics that were on the lost SD card (found by my honey, thanks Lowell!)
Davis with Santa at preschool
Carter sat with the big man as well

Claire was super enthused about the whole thing (but cute anyway)

Carter loved the present

Us decorating the tree:

BYU won their bowl game, hooray!

We went to Classic skating and had the best time! Hillary was kind enough to join us and doesn't like this picture, but she is such a cute aunt anyway. The Classic in Sandy has so much to do and with coupon, we only spent $10 to get in plus $5 more in tokens--which the boys left with 4 toys and a little pile of candy each from that, plus they love playing arcade games.

Skating was not easy but they sure worked hard at it.

Air hockey jr sized

Shooting the target

Hill and Claire hanging out while the boys jumped (and jumped and jumped)

Carter in the "jungle"--massive playground

And out--they were both red faced and sweaty--too much fun!

On to Christmas Eve--we finished up the neighbor treats we'd been working on for a few days (Oreo truffles, molded chocolate, gingerbread people, and caramel ginger posies)--here's the boys decorating cookies:

Then we made our annual trip to see the lights at Temple Square. It was fun as always though my camera was having issues. I'll post the group photo later, thanks to Rob's girlfriend Michelle.

There is a Claire in there somewhere . . .

Then we had dinner at Mike and Sina's with Lowell's family and I made myself sick but couldn't stop eating. The pies especially were above the top delicious.

Love this face!

Then we set cookies out for Santa and went to bed (it was late!)

Christmas morning was fun--the boys crept up the stairs and were so excited to see that Santa had come. This pic is out of order but they did get an Easy Bake oven they have been having fun with.

And Paper Jamz (actually really cool to me as well--I ended up getting Lowell his own later)

Claire Bear

They had so much to open but just wanted to stop and open the packages up so they could really play--but there was much more family time to come.

Brunch with cousin J at my family's house

Cute little table my mom got for the occasion

We had a nice time opening gifts there and everyone was happy with what they got. It was a good year.

Next we were off to open gifts with Lowell's family which went nicely as well. It was especially nice to have Lowell's sister in town from Arizona-wish they could all be here longer.

My sweetness in her cutie dress

I am biased, but those are some good looking kids!

After that my family headed off to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader which I enjoyed quite a lot. It veered from the book but was still quite entertaining. It was my first full movie in 3D as well and that was interesting and cool. I am reading the book again now and my, I love CS Lewis.

Home again they finally got to play with their toys:

Kung Zhus

And Nerf guns--until I had to leave for work (I was on call for a few hours)

Claire and her baby (care of BJ and Angela) came along. We named the baby Kate and she loves it. Little girl through and through.

Love her eyes!

Sunday we had yet another Christmas dinner, this time at my house. Mmmm, can't get enough ham. It was nice to have everyone over.

Hit the after Christmas sales the next day (lots of candy scored) and made some treats to continue our 12 Christmas cookies:

We went to see MegaMind that week with Hillary and enjoyed that. Also enjoyed having Daddy home more than usual. Had a good storm come through and used that as an excuse to just stay home and play with the new toys. Also got to play at a neighbor's house one day. I got the joy of spinning on ice driving home from work in the new snow. Scary, but I got home safely and am grateful for once that I drive home so early in the am (before 5 am). At least you can slide and there is no one there to run into.

New Year's was upon us so quickly and we had Lowell's fam up for junk food and visiting. I was on call and had to drive back and forth 5 times! Kind of annoying but that's how it is working in a hospital. We celebrated New Year's a few minutes before 10--planning to cheer on New York's New Year but then I got called in so we hurried and cheered, pulled poppers, set off a few fireworks and took some pics:

Swaddled and up from sleeping, stinker--can't blame her, there was a lot going on.

Love this shot!

New Year's Day we did our traditional sledding--but I will post about that when I upload those pics. This is long enough already!

It just seems like Christmas came and went so quickly this year. Maybe it was because of maternity leave, but I felt like I was constantly trying to catch up and then it was just over. We didn't do near enough spiritual things in regards to the holiday. We had daily Lego and chocolate advent calendars, but didn't read the scripture ones for each day. The nativities didn't even make it out of storage. I guess we'll just try to do better next year. We did have a lot of wonderful family time, both our little family and extended--I feel like I have seen so many aunts/uncles/cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. And it was all wonderful with very little drama. I am thankful for that opportunity and for God's gift of his son as this time of the year. Blessings to you all!