Christmas time @ The Grand America Hotel

This is our 3rd year in a row we have enjoyed the Christmas festivities at the Grand America in downtown Salt Lake. It is such a beautiful hotel and it is even more beautiful during the holiday season. They decorate windows throughout the main floor of the hotel, each window this year, was a part of a story. So, we went through the hotel reading the story, finding clues in each window also~ to fill out for the game card~ that we redeemed in the hotel's bake shop for treat. There was also a life size gingerbread house on display~ pretty amazing! We took my parents, Laura and Cait and Jared with us this year~ loved it!!

sleeping angels

the kids love to fall asleep together; they have the sweetest bond~

fUn FaMiLy NiGhT

We had a fun Family night last Monday night...in the bitter cold, at a Christmas Celebration in Bountiful. "The Square" @ 2600 South put on a fabulous family event, which included horse-drawn carriage rides, pictures w/ Santa that they printed on the spot and gave to us, fire-pits to keep us warm, hot chocolate, cookies, popcorn, frozen yogurt, music, and a visit w/ Mrs. Claus too. (oh, and it was all FREE!) It was a great night...we will be back next year for sure!

Santa!

Every year, the kids get to go see Santa at Daddy's work~ what a treat! ...thes best part is, they have had the same Santa for years. Surprisingly, Wyatt did not want to sit in his lap,...but he was willing to share his cheetos with him :)

Tracy Aviary

We visited the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake last week, with some friends. What a fun day! We saw some really neat birds, and it was a beautiful sunny day :)

missing avery

Wyatt and I are sad every morning when Avery has to go to school, we miss her! Wyatt loves to see her off...he waves good-bye, then walks around aimlessly...

Happy Halloween!

This was our first year in Farmington for Halloween ( the past 2, we have been in Newport Beach) So, I must say I was a little sad that we weren't partying it up in So.Cal.~ cause it's a blast there...but our neighborhood was awesome! A family down the street from us has an annual "Halloweenie" roast...hot dogs for all! Then all the kiddos trick-or-treated for hours~ ya, we are STOCKED UP on Reese's peanut butter cups :) I handed out candy for while too~ I love to see all the little kiddos in their cute costumes. I loved that our streets were just lined with families~ so fun to see. When my kids were just about done, we headed over to the "famous" Farmington house that home-makes donuts every Halloween~ YUM! It was a great night!

p.s.~ Wyatt absolutely refused to put a costume on~ yep, that's my boy, MIND OF HIS OWN!! ( however, he did split his head open that morning, so he had a bit of a "frankenstein" look going on with the bandage on his forehead...

PuMpKiN wAlK

Once again, I must say, I love small town livin'...we went to a "pumpkin walk" --where anyone in town could drop off a carved pumpkin and at the "walk" that night, the town youth council put candles in all of them for display. It was too cute~ we carved a Scooby Doo face in our pumpkin~ one of Ave's faves :) The kiddos also played at the park and we had hot cider and donuts~ such a fun night, a few nights before Halloween.

Avery's annual Halloween party

I think this is the 4th year I've let Avery have a Halloween party, it's kind of become a tradition. We decorate sugar cookies, play Halloween games, read Halloween books and whatever other fun thing we come up with! This year we got to have it outside~ we haven't been able to do that since we lived in California, we got lucky with the weather this year! I love Avery and her cute little friends :)

Wyatt's morning routine

Wyatt's morning's are: milk and Mickey Mouse, on our bed :) so stinkin' cute...

Raspberries!

My kids LOVE raspberries! Great-Grandpa has a beautiful patch of them in his yard and has been bringing down TONS of berries for the past 1-2 months. I made a bunch of raspberry jam, but let the kiddos eat lots too :)

Newport Beach

For our annual fall trip to So.Cal./Disney we always stay in Newport Beach @ Marriott's Newport Coast Villas. It is so gorgeous...kind of our home away from home. We played at the beach, roasted marshmallows, lounged at the pool, played tennis...ya, tennis didn't turn out to be the best idea...My very competitive Dad and equally competitive brother were playing when my brother hit a ball that my Dad went way back for, he hit the fence really hard, fell, split his head open, passed out...ya, we were all there, minus my Mom, who was in the room reading, but the 5 grandkids watched it all in terror...my brother is yelling to my Dad to try and get him to wake up, we are all yelling "call 911"...meanwhile the kids are all hysterically crying, thinking Grandpa was a goner...oh, it was bad...paramedics came, took him ( he was awake and responding at this point ), 6 hours later we found he had broken his arm and had to get his head stitched up...quite the day...oh, it's been 3 1/2 weeks and he is still hurting, and will hopefully regain full use of his arm. The best part is, he walked onto the tennis court just 10 minutes before and said, "I use to play tennis in high school"...ya, he's not 15 anymore! ...I think the kids are scarred for life and will always hate tennis, seriously. Other than that, and luckily it was the day before we left, we had a fabulous time!

annual fall trek to disneyland :)

We took our annual trip to Disneyland/Newport Beach with the fam, the 2nd week of October. It was actually so warm this year~ 103 at Disneyland one day! (I'd much rather sun than cold though) We had a blast, both my kids LOVE to see characters, so we did lots of that. Wyatt is so funny, as soon as he sees a character, he "backs" into them and gets ready for a picture! I love that we are able to go to one of our favorite places atleast once a year! Johnny didn't make this trip~ that's what happens when you have too many vacations planned in one year~ next year for sure :)