Christmas Card

Christmas

We had a crazy four days at home which for me included the last bit of  Christmas shopping, lots of laundry, food poisoning, and a tooth implant, then we were off to Price on Saturday morning.

We had a great Christmas and were very well taken care of. I didn't feel like I took very many pictures but I guess I did because I'm about to share way too many.

Here we are in our Sunday best. 

After a month and a half of taking no more than four steps Elizabeth finally decided to progress.

Christmas Morning

 Matching monkey pajamas, courtesy of Robin. I only took a picture of our little family but Robin, Dixon, and Jonathan as well as all the siblings and their families who weren't with us Christmas morning had these pajamas as well.

Playing with Elizabeth's Santa gift

Elizabeth needed a snack to make it through presents

John really got into the presents for the first time, not sure which I prefer.

Elizabeth loves throwing things out of boxes and baskets. Her specialty is folded laundry so I filled a box with clothes so she could go to town.

Notice the blurry shoe

John got two sleds so we braved the cold to take John on his first sledding trip.

Kevin, Dixon, John

I even got in on the action

John is a huge fan of sledding. I took a ton of pictures and he is smiling in every one which if you know John says a lot.

While we were gone Elizabeth helped herself into Dixon's Christmas present.

We got to talk to Jordan for a bit and then we headed to Kaysville for dinner with the Vernons.

Skyping with Jordan

Cait flew in on Christmas Eve. She was definitely a highlight of my Christmas. 

I waited way too long to get a picture of these two in their Christmas outfits so this was the best I could get.

And with that we went back to our house to rest up for another fun filled week. We've packed the week after Christmas full of celebrations. I pray nothing else gets added in the years to come.



 

The Rest of the Trip

We spent the other two days in LA and Newport Beach. I had never been to either so I was quite excited.

Griffith Observatory, very cool

While we were driving around looking for a place to eat and at houses in Beverly Hills I handed John his coloring book and crayons. A little while later I looked back and he had created a masterpiece on the side of the car, which had a whooping total of 9 miles on it when we pulled away from the airport. John has only drawn on things in our house twice and both instances have been very minor. We were able to get most of it off but you could definitely still see it, oh John.

After our visit to Newport Beach I am convinced I was supposed to have been born there. Since there was clearly some mistake I guess I am going to have to figure out how to makes millions on my own so I can move there. 

DOLPHINS
there were actually three but I could only get one at a time

My future, you are welcome to visit

Disney

We spent December 12 -17 in California. We'd been talking about going for awhile but only really decided to do it about three weeks before we left.

First Flight

Both kids did great on the flight. As we took off John said, "Ho, ho, ho Merry Christmas." There may have been some confusion about whether we were flying to the North Pole or California. We got in late and had a bit of a rough night with a 5 am wake up which led to Elizabeth falling asleep on the walk to California Adventure.

John was so excited to see the characters but he got so shy, quiet, and stiff as soon as he got close to them.

John stopped and stared at so many characters and statues he was mesmerized.

Ready for her second nap by lunch

 

 John's favorite ride was the Toy Story ride at California Adventure. It was the only ride he requested to go on again.

Waiting for the Toy Story ride

John loved his ears, he would not take them off

Can you see the pain in John's face

John was obsessed with the map

Leaving Disney for the last time

We had a great three days at Disneyland and California Adventure. We definitely learned we are not Saturday at Disney people. Luckily, Thursday and Friday were great with very minimal waits.

Christmas Happenings

Visiting Santa at Tri City Nursery. John was convinced we were at the North Pole. Elizabeth was tired, she started crying the second I walked away. John walked right up and sat on Santa's lap but then got shy and talked really quietly. Now if I could just recreate that for church.

Tri City had reindeer, a camel and a bunch of other farm animals. We also got to go on a hay ride and got cookies and hot chocolate.

This camel was enormous. I swear it was twice the size of the camels at Hogle Zoo but maybe we were just closer.

We bought this gingerbread house on Tuesday but didn't have time to decorate it until Saturday. John almost died. He kept asking if it was time to do the "injure-bread" house. John was the creative on this one. He decided were everything went. I was in charge of the glue/icing.

And with the arrival of this beautiful stocking I feel like Elizabeth is official.

John slipped on the ice yesterday and yelled, "Stop falling me, the ice." If you can believe it the ice didn't even apologize.