Christmas lights

I love Christmas lights,  they just look so beautiful against a snowy back ground. This year we decided to take in some of the best that Salt Lake had to offer. We started by braving the bitter cold and headed to downtown Salt Lake.

A nice security man offered to snap this family picture of us!

The kids were happy to see all the candy windows at Macy's, I think the exact words were "wow, cool"

We took a moment to warm up at Deseret Book. They liked the machine that you could launch parachutes in and would have done that for the next few hours, if we had let them.

We did make them brave the cold though, mean parents that we are.

They didn't seem to mind too much though.

The lights really were gorgeous, we loved them.

We were even happy to have Kate and Aaron join us, even if it was too cold. 

 We also hit zoo lights this year something the kids were super excited to see again. 

Though not as cold as our visit to Temple Square it was still plenty cold so we huddled liked penguins to keep warm. 

The kids loved the lights and kept ewing and aweing over everything. It was a ton of fun to see their reactions.

Matty was very happy that he was the first on the rhino statue this time. That meant he got the top.

Then the other kids piled on, I don't think I can ever pass this statue without one of them saying "can we take a picture?"

James decided that it would be more fun to have a snow fight during our visit.

All in all a great time checking out the lights...even if it was a bit cold. 

Christmas is coming

December seems to be flying by and here were are single digits away from Christmas. How did that happen. Most of our Christmas activities are planned for later this week so there will be more pictures then but here is what we have been doing so far....

Hanging out with Poppa and being silly...

Looking the the "forest" of Smith's for the perfect Christmas tree. ..

Went to the ward party where the boys had a good time stick pulling...

And we saw Santa Claus! Matty loved him...

James...did not...

And we also loved the time with cousins at the Bradley Family party! 

And the fun keeps coming!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Week

When I was a little girl I loved Thanksgiving. Not just Thanksgiving but I loved Thanksgiving Eve where we would go over to my Nan's and have a sleep over with games and treats. The next morning we would wake up and watch the parade (much to my brothers' chagrin) and then have a great big breakfast. We would head over to the local school and have a Turkey Bowl with our cousins, and it was a good year when no one was injured or ended up at the ER. Then we would have the meal with the furniture swept out of Nan's living room and replaced with tables and chairs we had picked up from the church. This was the one meal that I got brussel sprouts each year, so it was my favorite.

As the years went on I dropped the Turkey Bowl and stayed to help Nan cook. I learned how to make her Jell-O, a Thanksgiving favorite, and her mother's stuffing. I also developed a dislike for turkey so stopped eating that but I still loaded up on the brussel sprouts. Then Nan decided not to host Thanksgiving anymore so each of my aunts and uncles started to host their own. 

There are several traditions that we still have though and they all start on Thanksgiving Eve. This year we hosted part of the festivities. All the family came over for dinner and a game night while the kids enjoyed a movie and their first ever cousin sleep over. We had 8/9 cousins for the sleep over, the missing one wasn't potty trained and that is the one rule that Aunt Timmy has about sleep overs.  

It was so fun to see them all together again. We were so happy that Boston and Ezzie got to be with us. There wasn't much sleeping, we turned off the movies about midnight, but I'm not sure what time they actually went to sleep.

The next morning we got up and had a huge breakfast and then most hung out in the pajamas for a while. The adults flipped through ads, took naps, and watched the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who all while the kids played dress up and wizard school.

That night we went over to Grammy and Poppa's and had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. Then for the first time ever the four sisters went shopping. Two of us had never been out with the crowds. The kids thought this was great because it meant some of them got an additional sleep over. 

I had fun shopping, more than I thought I would. It was fun finding places to shop at two in the morning and we were all shocked to find that Old Navy had the longest lines. I must admit I was sad when we found out Smiths was closed and our shopping trip had to end.

After about five hours of sleep I got up and we took the kids out shopping. They walked the aisles of Target finding the items they wanted for Christmas. We also looked around for some new ornaments for the Christmas tree. 

Speaking of trees, Matty loved the "forest" at Smiths. 

So happy Holidays from ours. We hope that you had a great Thanksgiving weekend and got a bit more sleep than we did!