Even though I can't stand the mess, I've been letting Simon feed himself more and more.
Simon loves books.
Instead of gingerbread houses we decorated ice cream cones to be Christmas trees.
The zoo lights. I'm glad we were able to go on a warm night.
Abe with Santa! We waited in line forever to see Santa at our ward Christmas party. Eli bailed at the last second. I am amazed the boys wanted to see Santa this year. I don't think Eli has ever sat on Santa's lap, and Abe only did when he was a baby. Any other time he has refused to go anywhere near him.
Attempt at a family shot.
The first time it snowed this winter Abe begged me to make snow angels. The problem was, it had barely flurried, so there was no accumulation. The next day or so we got a few inches of snow, and Abe got his wish.
Bundled up for some fun in the snow.
Eli's favorite thing to do when playing in the snow. (Eating the snow.)
Sleeping by the Christmas tree. (They actually weren't able to fall asleep, so we had to put them in bed, but at least we tried.)
We had such a fun time in California! The weather was beautiful! We went to the park several times:
Simon had so much fun playing at the park. I usually pin him in the stroller and he sits with me, but Andy took him on all the fun things.
Grandpa set up the garage to be a fun and safe place for the kids to be. Our boys loved spending time with their cousins!
Christmas Eve Nativity Play (Craig put together costumes and Andy narrated from the scriptures):
JT the Donkey, Emma as Mary, and Gavin as Joseph.
Sharlene and Daniel the Shepherds.
Kaylin the angel (Sharlene made the wings out of paper plates! So creative!).
Eli, Abe and Craig, the Wise Men.
Christmas Eve pjs:
Christmas morning came too early for Andy. (It was around 6 am, so not too bad, really.)
Keeping the kids back until everyone was awake and ready.
We always have to get a Christmas morning picture on the stairs before we are allowed to go downstairs. I love this tradition!
As always, Santa brings socks and underpants:
I made these scarves for Abe and Eli. The look on Eli's face cracks me up!
After opening the scarves Eli said something along the lines of "Where's something that I want for Christmas?" Then the boys opened their Rescue Bots and they both said, "It's just what I wanted!!"
Simon:
I told Andy not to get me anything, because he already got me a smartphone for Christmas, but he just couldn't help himself. Thanks Andy!
One of my favorite Christmas tradtions from growing up: caramel pecan rolls for Christmas breakfast. Yum!
Stuart told us about this great hike. I'm so glad we went. Here's our little group (Andy stayed home with Simon and worked and poor Matthew was under the weather almost the whole vacation.):
It was a fairly easy hike/walk just over 1 mile to this place:
It was impressive to watch JT climb up first. There are hooks screwed into the mountain, so he'd free climb up for a few feet, loop his rope through and keep going up. When he got to the top he put the rope through the top two clips, and on his way down he unclipped the rope from all the other clips.
I made it about 1/3 of the way to the top. I'm amazed I made it that far. The rock was freezing cold, and I just couldn't get a good hand hold anywhere. I do much better with indoor climbing walls with huge plastic holds to grip.
I'm glad I had the chance to try. Sharlene, Craig and Daniel all made it to the top and did some more climbs after we left with the kids.
Grandpa with Lexi and Simon. (She is about 2 1/2 months older than Simon.)
On the way home from CA we were stuck in the SLC airport a few extra hours. The boys were troopers through it all.
I was so grateful how much Simon slept on our trip home. We lost his pacifier somewhere in the Sacramento airport, so I was especially nervous that he would be loud and fussy the whole time. We even bought a $20 pacifier at a store in the SLC airport (it was the only pacifier in the whole airport). Simon refused to use it. We were blessed that he was able to sleep without it.
When we got home from CA we found out that Santa had stopped at our house! Even though we were exhausted from traveling we opened up presents before going to bed.
Abe and Eli's new Batcave.
More action figures to use with the Batcave. They were so excited!
It's not like Simon needs any help making noise, but we got him a drum because we knew he'd love it.
Andy's growing movie collection.
Swim gear for me!
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