SNOW!!!

We got our first good snow at the beginning of December.  I love the first snow day!  The kids are super excited and we get to go sledding right in our backyard.  It's perfect!  I was able to put MJ down for her nap and take Taryn and Corbin out.  They loved it!  I think we stayed outside for almost 2 hours.  After hot chocolate and lunch, Reed came home from school and we went did it all over again. :)

Visiting Santa's Reindeer

ELF sleepover

We started this tradition last year and I think it's a keeper.  We watch the movie "Elf", eat a bunch of treats, and then we all sleep in the living room together.  I kinda love it.  Movies, in general, are pretty special around here so it was a really fun time.  Taryn is a bit of a diva when it comes to sleeping, so she and I shared the blow up mattress until she couldn't take it anymore and had to go to her room around 5am.  

Festival of Trees

It has been tradition to take our family to Festival of Trees every year.  They don't love it.  But I do.  It just puts me in the Christmas mood.  Even if the kids look back 20 years from now and they laugh because they remembered going to the Festival of Trees every year, at least we've created a memory. :)  Weirdly enough, a few days prior, they all said they were excited to go.  Maybe because I told them we were going regardless and that I really love it??  We finally got smart and Kevin got off work early and we went in the late afternoon before the crowds came.  It was ten times better than years past.  There were still way too many trees to ever get through and they definitely started complaining half way through (Reed), but we did it and it was an okay experience this time around.  As per tradition, the kids picked a few favorite trees to get their picture taken by.

USA

Frozen

Pink!

In-n-Out

Bears

More bears

More Pink!  

Travel

Made entirely out of candy

"UP" meets Star Wars

Harry Potter

Putting up Christmas

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast

Taryn had a fun Thanksgiving feast at her preschool.  She had been talking about it for weeks.  They had a special program and sang songs to the parents who came.  Mostly, they ate.  That is Taryn's kind of party. :)

Namesakes

Back in August, Kevin blessed baby MJ.  Afterwards, friends and family gathered at our house for brunch and socializing.

Somehow, we had all our kids' namesakes at our house at the same time!  It was impressive considering Jocelyn lives in Tennessee, Lesley lives in Texas, and Mike lives in Ogden.

Taryn and Lesley

MJ and Jocelyn

Corbin and Mike (Michael)...Corbin is super shy around people he doesn't know well.  I actually love this picture because of Corbin's reaction to Mike and the fact that Corbin is eating a donut (Mike always brings donuts when he comes over).

Old college roommates

BYU 4th ward reunited!

My really good friend, Jayna, was also in town from Pennsylvania and was able to come to MJ's baby bessing as well!  It was a friend dream come true!