Christmas Eve

It was such a fun Christmas Eve because we got to pick up Grandma and Papa from the airport that morning! Luke and Claire had been counting down all month, not just to Christmas, but to when Grandma and Papa were coming to our house! Even Lily was going around the house saying, "Papa Papa."

We went straight from the airport to City Creek, to walk around and have lunch. It felt like a very Christmasy thing to do and the kids even got to see Santa one last time. While we were eating lunch in the food court it started snowing outside. Cold and perfect weather for Christmas Eve. Luke and Claire got brand new snow hats from the Gap from Grandma just for the occasion!

We spent the rest of the day at home since it was storming outside. The kids loved having Grandma and Papa there. That evening we had corn chowder and popovers for dinner and cookies for dessert. I made a nativity find and seek game for the kids and we told them the Christmas story.

They begged to open a present so we let them open the one from Aunt Nancy and Uncle Ray. Then they ran around and sang Christmas songs with Grandma. After leaving out carrots for the reindeer and cookies and chocolate milk for Santa, they went straight to bed.

As I said good night and left their room, I heard Claire start to talk to Luke. Then I heard Luke say, "Clarie no talking we have to go to sleep!"

Christmas festivities

 Claire decorated her head with bows to go Christmas shopping, very fancy.

 I was excited that a Trader Joe's opened in Salt Lake. It helped me with my teacher and neighbor gifts!

 One afternoon I made Tiger Bark (Luke's favorite) with Mr Darcy.

 On the Tuesday before Christmas Char and I saw the Nutcracker at the Capitol Theater. It was beautiful and I can't wait to take Luke and Claire one day.

 Luke and Claire tried really hard to be good this month because Santa Claus was watching. They're such good kids that it wasn't too much extra work. Once in a while we find them sleeping in the same bed!

 Kiel was ambitious one day and taught himself how to make his favorite caramel apples dipped in white chocolate and rolled in oreos. They were huge! And delicious. He was very Christmasy this year. He made a wreath out of Christmas tree branches, make these apples, put lights on our house and even decorated our pine tree in the backyard with lights and ornaments.

Mini V Express

One night the week before Christmas, we put the kids to bed like usual. Except we had a surprise for them! About 5 minutes after they were tucked up in bed, we woke them up! Kiel had the van warmed up outside with Lily and I went in the kids' room to tell them. When I walked in their room they pretended they were sleeping, but they jumped right up when I said I had a surprise for them! I gave them each a ticket to the Mini V Express to go look at Christmas lights around town! Also, a cup of hot chocolate, a warm hat and a blanket and they were good to go.

We drove up and down around town looking at Christmas lights and found a really crazy house that we all thought was cool. They drank their hot chocolate and we listened to Christmas music, and it was really fun. Lily just sat in her car seat looking out the window like nothing was out of the ordinary, I guess she's always up for a ride in the car!

Now they can't wait to do it again next year...which we will but it will be a surprise as far as which night!

My Helper

Lily is 19 months such a big helper. Here's a few examples I just had to record.

This morning I was in the kitchen and Lily came in and picked up a kitchen towel and starting carrying it into the living room. Turns out she spilled some milk and was just getting a  towel to wipe it up.

This afternoon Claire spilled her bowl of crackers and Lily bent down and started putting them back in the bowl for her. I've seen her do that that pretty often!

Then even later this afternoon I was putting my boots on to go outside. While I was putting one on, Lily picked up my other boot and put it down next to me, getting it all ready for me. 

Last night I told the kids, meaning Luke and Claire, to brush their teeth. Then I went into the bathroom to get their toothbrushes ready. Lily had beat me to the bathroom and handed me her toothbrush so she could brush her teeth. And I didn't even ask her to!

She's a very special little one and I'm so glad she's mine. Kiel suggested that her cleaning up maybe means she likes order. I think she has a very nurturing personality. She loves taking her baby doll in the car, or to bed with her, or all around the house. She hugs it and wraps it in a blanket and talks to it. I love seeing these wonderful qualities in her and it's so neat to see her personality come out.

Three Christmas Kids

I tried really hard to get a picture of the three of them in their church clothes! They were having fun but not quite cooperating! In the second to last picture, that's Lily bending over laughing. They are so funny, and cute, and sweet, and sometimes wilds, and such a team!

Sweet Lily

 Here's Lily in her green Christmas dress, isn't she cute? She's 19th months old now and she's such a character. She's learning more words all the time, loves carrying baby dolls with her wherever she goes, and she loves her brother and sister. She can hold her own and be feisty when she thinks she needs to, but she's also very loving and gives hugs and pats for no reason all the time.

When you get the camera ready to take a picture she holds still and says "Cheese." She knows just what to do!

Just in case you're fooled by her smile, she makes this face once in a while too!!

Christmas Recital

Claire's Christmas ballet recital was so cute. They started out by doing their warmups at the barre and on the floor. Claire did a great job answering Miss Kate's questions, and following directions, and pointing her toes. After their warmups they performed the Christmas dance they learned for all the parents. Claire did a wonderful job doing all the steps and we were so proud of her!

Daddy left work early to be there, and we took Luke out of school so he could go, and Lily wanted to be one of the dancers! Our sweet neighbor Marilyn who lives across the street loves Claire and so we brought her with us to watch too.

Graham Cracker Houses

We love making graham cracker houses at Christmas. Kiel always engineers his to look like an actual house, and Luke and Claire did great decorating their little square houses. Lily had fun just eating all the candy she could persuade us to give her!

Claire's house was looking nice and decorated until we left her unsupervised for a few minutes and she PILED on the candy! Mounds and mound of candy on and around her house. It didn't surprise us in the least!

Thanksgiving

We went down to St George for Thanksgiving this year to spend the holiday with Mom and Dad and Chad and Whitney and Cole. I was happy to go down south to some warmer sunshine! We left on Wednesday afternoon and were able to stop at the red barn in Santaquin to see Holly and Felix and Hendrick. The kids did really well in the car and just watched DVDs and played with their toys. We had to stop 3 times to re-buckle Claire. She kept unbuckling!

We got to St. George just in time for dinner so we met everyone at Costa Vida. The kids were so happy to see Grandma and Papa and to be at the St George house. Luke and Claire slept in the front bedroom and Lily slept with us. They all slept really well at the house, despite being a little too excited to get to sleep some nights and waking up too early some mornings!

The next day was Thanksgiving. Mom and Dad did all the cooking and it was delicious. I made a Candied Coconut Sweet Potato Casserole for the first time and it was soo good. How could it not be with so much butter and sugar and coconut? I'm definitely making that again next year! After eating we played outside and rode bikes and played with the remote control cars. Luke rode his ATV and Claire went for a good bike ride with Chad and Whitney. That night we played cards and decided not to go shopping until the next day.

On Friday, mom and I woke up at 6am and went to Target and Walmart and Old Navy. That worked pretty well - we didn't have to wake up too early, we didn't have any crowds to fight and we mostly got what we were looking for.

Later that morning we drove to the craft fair but on the way there Kiel ran into a curb and we got a flat tire. So he went off to take care of the tire and ended up being gone all day taking care of that, and doing some Christmas shopping. After the craft fair we met up with the Bartletts at Five Guys for lunch. Then we did a little more shopping and Dad and Chad took Luke and Claire down to the river by the house to play. Luke and Claire had so much fun going in the water, throwing rocks in the water, and playing with Chad.

One of the best things about the weekend was being able to spend time with Cole. He's 11 weeks now and he's smiling and cooing and just so cute! Claire felt very important to be able to "babysit" him. She would sit there and talk to him or play his music for him. She took it very seriously and did a great job. Lily was pretty interested in him and would come up to him and pat his head. It will be fun when he's older and can play with them.

On Saturday we ran some errands, walked around Main Street and the Tabernacle. Then we went to Snow Canyon for a picnic, or as we remember Grandma Davenport saying, "a roll and a piece of meat." Luke and Claire had a great time finding "moki marbles." Luke said that once he had enough he would open a store and sell them. He said, "Like one for $10." He's so cute. Claire had fun hiking with Papa and climbing to the top of the rocks she would say, "I can see everything!!"

Later that day we had dinner with Machell and Roger and their kids. After dinner mom and dad babysat for us so we could go see Skyfall, the new James Bond movie. It was fun to go on a date and we had been wanting to see that movie (because I love James Bond).

We left the next day around 1. We gave dad his birthday presents and sang to him. After packing up we had lunch at Icebeg with mom and dad. Lily loved having an ice cream cone there, Grandma Davenport would be proud - and then she wouldn't believe how messy I let her get eating that ice cream cone!

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend. I'm so thankful for all my blessings. I have it so good. Kiel is so supportive and sweet and great with the kids. Luke and Claire and Lily are the best kids I could ask for. And I'm thankful for the relationship we have with my parents and the rest of our family. So many things to be thankful for!

1st Grader

Today was Luke's parent teacher conference with Mrs. Corbridge. I love these chances to sit down with his teacher and talk about how he's doing. She said that he's a great student who works hard and is so smart and catches on so quickly to everything. His face lit up as she was talking about him. She said that everyone wants to sit by him and be his friend because he's so nice to everyone. Then he showed me the journal he has been writing in and a math page that he got 100% on. She showed us his report card and he had all 3s (the highest mark, but a system I'm still not used to). We're so proud of him!

On the way home from the conference I told Luke that he could choose to go out for any treat he wanted and that we could go as a family, or he could choose to just go with either me or Daddy. He immediately said, "Treat with Daddy!" Now I admit, I kinda wish he "chose" me, but I love seeing Luke and Kiel being good buddies so I thought that was cute. They're going to go out for ice cream or something this week. 

I'm so happy that Luke is doing well and liking school. I'm so proud of him for being the good boy that he is. Everyday I feel so lucky to have him in our family. He's so kind and loving and and tender hearted and obedient and as you know, I love him so so so much.

Our Weekend in California

We had such a great weekend in California last week, and I was so happy we could go out for Cole's baby blessing. With it being close to the upcoming holidays, we wouldn't normally be visiting at the beginning of November, so that made it feel extra special. And Kiel flew down with us so that made the kids so excited.

Mom and Dad picked us up from the airport in Long Beach and it was such a beautiful warm day! We drove straight to Seal Beach and let the kids play on the little playground on the sand there. Then we walked to the end of the pier to eat lunch at Ruby's. Isn't that a perfect California way to start the weekend?

Saturday we went down to Hermosa with mom and dad and Chad and Whitney and Cole to enjoy the beach and let the kids dig in the sand. It was another beautiful day, of course. The whole weekend felt like it could have been the middle of the summer. So nice. That evening we all went to the Picture People to get a family picture taken. I thought it was a good idea since we were all together, and mom had a great coupon from Groupon. All the kids, even Cole, did great for the picture.

Then Sunday was the baby blessing. Cole looked so cute - he's such a cute little baby, he has big eyes that really focus really well on you, and he seems happy and content most of the time. He did so great during the blessing and afterwards. Luke and Claire were so excited to meet him for the first time. And Lily is just obsessed with babies in general, she always says, "Baby!!" when she sees one. It was so nice to be at the blessing because that's the kind of thing I would really miss by living here in Utah.

After the blessing, mom and dad hosted a lunch at their house with the famous party burrito from Acapulco - see, another great thing Kiel got to experience in Torrance. :) The Martins came so I was able to catch up with them. Luke and Claire had fun playing with Landon and all the other kids that were there.

Monday was our big Disneyland day. We went out when the park opened at 10am, then Mom and Dad met us around 2pm. We did a lot, but the time went by so fast! It was a different trip for the kids because we went back and forth between CA Adventure and Disneyland a couple times, and we didn't really spend any time in Fantasyland. But we did things in CA Adventure and in Tomorrowland that we don't usually do. I took Claire and Lily to see Tinkerbelle, which we hadn't done before. And we all did the Finding Nemo subs for the first time. Luke had such a great time going on Buzz with Kiel twice, and Autopia. Kiel said that going with Luke on Autopia was his favorite part of the day because Luke was so happy and excited.

Mom and Dad joined us in the afternoon which was really nice and fun. Chad and Whitney met us at the Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney for dinner. I'm glad they did so we could see them and Cole one more time. Plus, the Earl was delicious! Then Mom and Dad took the kids home and then Kiel and I had a few hours to finish up and do some rides at Disneyland and CA Adventure. It was a fun little date night!

On Tuesday Kiel and I took the kids down to the Manhattan pier hoping the little aquarium would be open. It was closed but the kids wanted to go down on the sand anyways. We didn't have beach clothes or toys because we were planning on the aquarium but before we knew it the kids were in the water getting soaked! They had such a blast and it was actually fun to see because sometimes they can be wary of the water. And I want them to love the ocean and love playing in the waves as much as I did when I was a kid, so I was happy to see they weren't afraid. They kept putting their hands in the sand and waiting to see if the waves would reach them. I think they could have done that all day! But we had to drag them away so we could get ready to catch our flight. Poor Papa's car - I hope he's been able to get all the sand out!

We had lunch with Mom at the Habit, yum, and then we drove to the airport. The kids were good on the flight, they are really good fliers. Lily was tired and a little restless and fussy so it was nice to have Kiel there so we could pass her back and forth. Angie picked us up from the airport and was kind to drive us straight to the voting polls - a half hour before they closed. Kiel wanted to make sure he put his vote in for Mitt Romney, and I'm glad I could vote too.

It was such a great weekend! The weather was beautiful, we got to spend time with Mom and Dad and Chad and Whitney and Cole, got to enjoy the beach and Disneyland, and it was so nice to be there for the blessing too. I wish we could have weekends like this every month!

Three Seasons

This week was very unusual! We started out at the beach on Tuesday, raked leaves on Wednesday and Thursday, and then played in the snow on Friday and Saturday. We experienced 3 seasons in one week! Fun!

Snow!!

We got hit by a huge snow storm this weekend! It's been snowing off and on since Friday. Now it's Sunday morning and we have more snow than usual and it's still going! I feel like I should be getting out our Christmas decorations, but its only November 11!  (Although I did listen to Christmas music all day yesterday)

The kids have been having a blast. They've gone in the backyard to sled first thing every morning for the last three days. It's so funny to hear Luke get out of bed (about 7:30am) and come tell me, "I'm  going out sledding Mom." Claire goes with him and they have so much fun. It's been such a joy to look out the window (I admit to staying inside where it's warm!) and seeing them laughing and having such a good time together. I hope that continues the rest of their lives.

California Days

The last day of our trip we took the kids down to the Manhattan pier. It was such a beautiful sunny day. We were hoping the little aquarium at the end of the pier would be open, but unfortunately it was closed. Luke and Claire wanted to go down to the sand, and before we knew it, a wave came up and got them and they spent the rest of the time digging in the sand and splashing in the water. They were having so much fun they didn't want to leave. We didn't have much time though because we planned on going to lunch with mom at the Habit and then we had to catch our airplane.

Disneyland with Daddy!

Finally Daddy got to come to Disneyland with us! After all these years and trips to Disneyland, Kiel hadn't yet been with the kids. Whenever he comes to CA with us, it's summer or Christmas when our passes are blocked out. But for this visit, our passes were good so we just got Kiel a day ticket.

Claire figured out that she liked riding on Daddy's shoulders more than riding in the stroller

One of the highlights of their day was going on the new Luigi's tires ride with Daddy. They had about a half hour wait but they really liked the ride.

Luke couldn't wait to go on Soaring Over California with Daddy. He wanted to sit in between me and Kiel, and Claire wanted to sit between me and Mom. Although right when the ride started Claire said, "I don't want to go on this!" But it was too late and she had to be brave. She closed her eyes in some parts but she did fine.

The caterpillar ride in Bug's Land is always a must because Luke and Claire think it's Hi-larious! So they were excited to show it to Daddy. Miss you already! 

Checking out the new Cars Land was a fun thing for Luke and Kiel to do together.

Luke got into the spirit with this funny hat - we didn't even make him try it on for the picture, he was doing that himself!

Mom and Dad met us in the afternoon at Disneyland, and then we met Chad and Whitney at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney for dinner. That was fun because we've heard of Earl of Sandwich before from them but had never been there. It lived up to the hype!

Then Mom and Dad were awesome and took the kids home with them so Kiel and I could have a little more time to do some of the bigger rides. It was so cool to have a little date night at Disneyland! We went on Star Tours and the Matterhorn, then ran over to California Adventure and did the new Cars Racers ride. That was a really fun ride and our fast passes worked out great.  Mostly it was just fun to be together. After the park closed we had beneighs in Downtown Disney. Definitely a great date night!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun halloween! The kids dressed up and we went trick or treating all over the neighborhood with a few of our other neighbor friends. Luke wanted to be a race car driver again this year. But he says next year he's going to be something different. Claire wanted to be a kitty cat like Lily, especially so she could have whiskers painted on her face! Lily became obsessed with Dum Dums and ate as many as she could get away with! Can you tell in that last picture that they've had a LOT of sugar?? They were so excited and had tons of fun.