Christmas Time

We had another great Christmas this year. We spent the entire week with my family and despite the sickness that hit a lot of us, we had a great time!!
Granny Jo Crocker whipping up a delicious Christmas Eve dinner.
Christmas Eve dinner.
All set to see what Santa brought!
Hayden's reaction to all her gifts looks just like this. She shows ZERO excitement, but I think she was happy with everything. She got a Scooter "with no training wheels" (what she asked for), a sleeping bag, Littlest Pet Shop set, books, a piggy bank, Barbie sing-along DVD and band-aids.

Somehow I didn't get a picture of Carson opening presents. Sad!!! He got a train set and just wanted to play with it. We had to force him to open his other presents. Besides the train set he got a Mickey Mouse guitar, a Toy Story suitcase, a piggy bank, books and they both got an Art Easel.

I got Colin Season Tickets to Desert Star and work Clothes.

I definitely got spoiled. Colin surprised me by giving me a trip to Washington D.C.!!! We are leaving tomorrow and I will be flying home Sunday. Colin has to go to Virginia for work next week, so he thought this would be the perfect opportunity to include me in his traveling. I am really excited. I love traveling and it will be such a nice break from life!!!
Almost has exciting as the trip are the Wireless headphones Colin got me so I can walk on the treadmill and watch TV without turning it up super loud. I just tried them out and they work perfectly!!!
Colin also got an Xbox with Kinect last week. It is pretty darn fun!!

The rest of the week was spent:
*playing Xbox
*racing hotwheels
*playing at the park
*playing Clue, Dicecapades, Rook, and other awesome games
*Celebrating Ava's birthday
*Rollerskating at Classic Skating
*Some of us enjoyed dinner at Cheesecake Factory and a play at Desert Star
*Celebrating Carson's Birthday
*Bean Museum
*Lunch at the Mall
*Moving Denim and Sandi from Cedar City to St. George
*Showing off Ugly Sweaters
*bringing in the New Year

25 Questions: Holiday Style

I saw this on a friends blog and had to do it!!
1. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate? I have never tried eggnog, it smells and sounds like it would not taste very good. Hot chocolate it is!!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps most, leaves the big ones unwrapped.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White on the tree and none on the house. Our house is too steep to put up lights (at least that is Colin's excuse).
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope
5. When do you start decorating? I tried to wait until after Thanksgiving, but we were pretty bored the Saturday before so we broke down and decorated early.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Ham and Funeral potatoes.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Christmas eve with just my family. I loved it!!!
8. What is on your Christmas wish list? I just want to be surprised.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? The kids open pj's and an ornament.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Blue and silver ornament w/white lights. Plus the personal ornaments they get each Christmas Eve.

11. Snow, love it or dread it? I like it if I can just be at home safely with my family.

12. Real tree or fake tree? Fake

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Colin got me a pair of XXL pajama pants from Alco one of our first Christmases. Isn't he thoughtful??

14. What's the most important thing about Christmas for you? Spending time with family and making the holiday fun for my kids and really trying to teach them the true meaning of Christmas AND to teach them to think of others during this time of year (its not easy)

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? hmmm.....I dont have one favorite.

16. What is your favorite tradition? Still Christmas Eve. This year I am going to have the kids sleep in our room...I think they will love it!!

17. What tops your tree? A star

18. Do you prefer giving or receiving? Definitely giving, I love buying people gifts. And of course I also really like to receive gifts!!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? The First Noel and Carson singing Glory to God.

20. Candy canes, yuck or yum? The non-peppermint ones are ok

21. Favorite Christmas movie? Elf and I love watching all the cheesy Christmas movies on Hallmark and ABC Family

22. What do you leave for Santa? Cookies

23. Do you have a Christmas morning tradition? Get up early open presents and head over to Grandparents for breakfast.

24. Do you prefer to shop online or at the mall? Both, I think Colin and I have spent the last three Saturdays at the mall.

25. Christmas letter or Christmas card? Both, I love to hear and see what people have been up to over the past year.

Random Christmas Pics

Beautiful little Angel at the Lyman Family Christmas Party.
And the handsome Wiseman
Another Santa visit. They have seen Santa four times already. Carson just walks up to him, turns around and waits for Santa to pick him up.

During quiet time she was trying to be sneaky and watch tv from the stairs.

Family Pics

We did family pictures with Colin's family a couple of weeks and got a few taken of just us. I tried to upload them all, but wasn't having much luck, so this is all you get.

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a really great Thanksgiving weekend this year. We ate Thanksgiving Dinner with Colin's family and of the course all the food was delicious. I made yams, fruit salad and a couple of pies. All of my food turned out to be pretty tasty, so that made me happy. We mostly just spent that day eating and sitting around...just the way it should be.

Friday we got up early and went shopping for a few hours and then splurged and went to Olive Garden for lunch. :) I love their soup, salad and breadsticks. hmmmmm!!!! Later on in the day we took the kids to the mall to see Santa. Hayden was really excited and ran right up and sat on his lap. I thought Carson would be scared of him, but he wasn'tt scared at all. He was thrilled to sit on his lap and even talked to him a little. I was very proud of both of them.

On Saturday Lee and Leah offered to watch the kids so Colin and I could go to a movie. We went and saw Tower Heist, which actually was a pretty good movie but had a little too much inappropriate humor...why do they do that????? After the movie and naps we headed up to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. We rode Trax up from Sandy and went out to eat at a really good restaurant. I cant remember the name, but it was a southwestern grill at Gateway.

The Nerd in Action

Halloween Week

Our Halloween started off last Saturday with a Murder Mystery Party that we hosted. It was set in the 50's so we got to dress up in poodle skirts and leather jackets. We had a ton of fun, but sadly I have no pictures to prove the fun we had. I took pics on my phone and long story short they got deleted!! I am so sad, but life must go on!!

I had to dress my kids up about six times this past week. Preschool Halloween Party, Up With Kids party, BYU carnival, My parents took the kids to their ward party, our ward Trunk or Treat, and of course Halloween day.

Colin missed all the fun because he was in PARIS!!! Lucky boy! He got back Sunday so he was able to take the kids trick or treating on Monday.

The best part of Halloween was the weather. It was the first time in years that it was freezing cold or pouring rain.
Trick or Treating with cousins Drew and Jozy
Little 50's Waitress.
Does it get much cuter than this...he got A LOT of comments/laughter about his costume.
Enjoying some pizza at BYU.
Emma and Hayden eating some dinner at the BYU carnival.
Love him!!!
Cute kids. It was a lot of to dress them up this year, but after doing it so many times I am happy to retire their costumes.