Lights, lights, lights....

This Christmas season has already been tons of fun.  Mostly because Joe hasn't really cared about getting presents this year, but would rather do fun Christmassy things.  On the top of his list - lights!  

Our first stop is always the street off of Cherry street.  You know, the cul-de-sac where every house is decorated.  We went with the Trezise and Gonzales families.  Hot Chocolate is a MUST!

Dallin and Joe went around 3 times.  The last time, at a run.  

Max wanted his picture in front of the house where Santa was at the Beach.

I turned the flash off so the lights would look better, but it just made Josh blurry.  Josh cracks me up how excited he is.  When I was putting the lights up at my mom's house, he was my little helper.  He was super excited.  He kept asking: "Are you making Christmas for ME Kimmy?  For me?."  

Next stop - Temple lights, also a must this time of year.  We brought Alex and Michael with us.


Lastly, Brian and I saw this one on the news and it turns out it is literally around the corner from us, so we had to stop by.  This lady has an entire Christmas village in her garage.  This picture didn't do it justice.
With the flash turned off it sparkles a little more:
In the middle she has a little island.  It has water and a pirate ship and everything.

The train coming through the tunnel.  Yeah, it has a working train.
I took a picture of the carousel for my mom.  She likes carousels.
We stood there for at least 15 minutes trying to see everything.  We will definitely visit this one again.  If anyone wants to tag along, let us know.

She only has it on display on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, and she is collecting canned food.  Again, it was worth the visit.

Happy Christmas!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to go to the cabin.  Joe was soooo excited, counting down the days.  Then he found out that Stacy and Paul's family and Tricia and the kids wouldn't be there (as originally planned).  What?? No cousins to play with?  Oh well, we still made the trek up to the cabin to spend Thanksgiving with my mom, dad and Jared.

The great thing about Joe, is that with his very active imagination, he always finds a way to keep entertained.  This is what he was doing in the back seat on the drive up:

We arrived, we cooked, we ate:
That's a lot of food for only 6 people.  Ah leftovers.  We had different versions of Thanksgiving dinner for 3 days.  Joe called dibs on the drumstick:
Shortly after dinner my dad and Jared were leaving to go hunting.  Which meant that they would be taking the ranger with them.  First no cousins, and now no ranger.  What????  We had to fit in a few rides before they left.
Saturday it snowed.  Woo hoo!  It melted as soon as it hit the ground, but it didn't stop Brian and Joe from enjoying it while it came down.
That night we decided to take a drive up the forest road to look for wildlife.  We didn't find any, but we did find some snow that did stick.  Joe had to get out and touch it.
We rode the whole way back with the windows down.  Freezing!  When we got back to the cabin, Brian and I sat by the fire while Joe made us hot chocolate.  Yes, we have trained him well.
Later, Joe and I decorated the tree.

We woke up to snow the next morning.  Not much, but it sure was pretty.
Even though Joe didn't have any cousins to play with, he kept himself busy:
We also watched movies, played board games and rock band, and just had a very relaxing, enjoyable Thanksgiving.  We can't wait to go back for my birthday.

More November happenings

My mom, Sheri and I decided to beat the rush and take the kids to see Santa BEFORE Thanksgiving.  We took Addy, Rowan, Evan and Joshua.  Only Josh and Ro actually made it onto Santa's lap.  Addy took one look at him and thought "no way".  Evan wasn't having any of it either.  I can't really blame them.  We teach our kids about stranger danger and then bring them to sit on an old man's lap.  

Josh was not scared one bit.  He hopped right up and started talking Santa's ear off.  Rowan was a little more reluctant, but once he saw Josh he decided he'd try it too.

Even though I didn't get a picture of her with Santa, I had to take her picture.  She looked adorable that day.  I think this is possibly my favorite Addy outfit ever.  I can't believe I didn't get even one picture of Evan hiding from Santa.  

Of course I have to add this picture.  How cute is she?
Also this month, Joe decided he needed more minutes for his go phone, but I was not about to just give him the $20.00 he needed.  I told him that he had to earn the money himself.  He decided to bake and sell cookies.  So, one Saturday, we baked and frosted 4 dozen peppermint sugar cookies.  Thanks to all of you who agreed to buy from him.  You really made his day, and he earned enough to get his minutes!

Since we knew we would be out of town for Thanksgiving, the Sunday before, we visited Brian's parents and his sister's family.  Joe and "D" love to get together.  Even though they only see each other every few months, they are great friends.  They made s'mores out on the patio after dinner. 

And, finally:
2 down, 1 to go.  The first one is my tree, the second I did at the cabin when we were there for Thanksgiving.  I also got the lights up on my mom's house.  All that's left is her tree.   Tomorrow I will post the obligatory Thanksgiving photos.