New Years Eve

Tonight was pretty uneventful but fun.  I was in bed all day yesterday with the flu and Brandon and I fly out in the morning to Panama.  I was able to get myself packed today and get a few groceries but by tonight I was tired.  My Mom drove up to be here with the girls tomorrow until Diana and Emily fly in.  Diana will stay the week with the girls.  We played several Wii games and then toasted the new years with martinelli's and poppers.  The girls were in bed a little after 9.

Lego Sunday

Brandon loves to get the girls legos and help them put them together.  They got two sets for Christmas and they have had fun putting them together.  One of them, dolphin cruiser, took several sittings to put together.

New Car

We said goodbye to our Subaru today and hello to a new Nissan Pathfinder.  The Subaru had 243,000 miles and needed several thousand dollars worth of work so we decided it was time.  We were hoping that it would last a bit longer but I wasn't complaining.  We were at the dealer nearly 4 hours, Tabitha watched 2 movies in the kids room, she would not have lasted without the movies.  The girls are excited about the space and the extra row.  We are having a DVD player installed in a few weeks.  We went to dinner afterwards at the spaghetti factory where the girls ordered a cotton candy lemonade, Tabitha had ordered this drink in Seattle and loved it!  It was a nice comfortable drive home.

Christmas Snow

After opening our presents and eating a yummy breakfast we bundled up and headed outside to play in the snow.  The girls had so much fun, it was the perfect day to just keep snowing, we are sure grateful for a white Christmas.  Brandon cleared the sidewalks and driveway.  Winston joined us for a bit but he does not like the snow or being that cold.

Christmas morning

The girls were so excited they could hardly sleep last night and woke up several times in the night and then super early this mroning.  We made them wait until 7:30 to come out.  We were so excited to wake up to snow!  We have not had any big storms yet so this one was planned just perfectly.  Tabitha wanted a American girl doll camper and a wind up chick from Santa, among other things but this is what he brought.  Gabrielle wanted a gymnastics mat.  They were both so excited and were taken care of with so many other gifts from family.

Christmas Eve

  We love the matching jammies that Diana got for the girls and Winston

 Tabitha's note that she left for Santa and Peppermint our elf

 Gabrielle's notes left for Santa and our elf

We had a fun Christmas Eve ronight.  My Mom flew back from St. George this afternoon and drove up to stay the night with us.  Brandon worked for a few hours in the morning.  We drove down to Orem and ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then came home and read the Christmas story from the scriptures.  We opened our Christmas jammies and a new book and put cookies and carrots out for Santa and the reindeer.  The girls sleep on our floor on Christmas Eve.  They were so excited they went to bed really good.  

Christmas Sunday

One more Sunday of 1:00 pm church!

Breakfast with Santa

We love coming to Kristen's work party and having breakfast with Santa.  We love staying the night at the Radisson and just walking down to breakfast in the morning.  Kristen, Kathryn, Layni and Emily joined us in the morning.  We are all hoping that Kristen can continue to work part time so we don't have to break this tradition after her baby comes!

Temple Square

 

 

 

 New Zealand nativity, Gabrielle knew right away because of the Kiwi

I love our family tradition of visiting downtown Salt Lake and walking around Temple Square and seeing the Christmas lights.  We missed my Mom this year who was in St. George.  We met for dinner at Hire's big H and then checked into our hotel room at the Radisson.  The weather was quite warm compared to other years and we had fun walking around enjoying the lights.  We lasted a lot longer since it was warm and it seemed we saw a lot more than we normally miss because we are to cold and head back to our hotel.   

Sunday Christmas party

We got together tonight for our family Christmas party.  My Mom is flying to St. George this week for my cousin's wedding and will stay down there with her sister and family until Christmas Eve.  She had some bells that we did a musical number which was fun.  Gabrielle played Silent Night on the piano and Tabitha sang 'I want a hippopotamus for Christmas".  It was a fun night.   The girls stayed the night in Salt Lake last night with my Mom and they went to the Music and the Spoken Word this morning, it was the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert this weekend so after the broadcast they finished the program with the Sesame Street Muppet's.

Grand America

 

We met up with my Cousin Melissa and her kids tonight for dinner.  We then rode Trax to the Grand America hotel and had fun looking at all their fun windows.  They each had letters on them for the kids to look and find the whole alphabet.  They came up from Las Vegas to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert that they went to last night, I am sad that I am not going this year.  My Mom, Gabrielle and Tabitha stayed the night at the Radisson and then I headed to work.