Christmas in Idaho Falls

 The day after Christmas we drove up to Idaho Falls to be with my side for a few days. 

Our visits are always a good time: yummy food thanks to my parents, game playing, shopping, playing with uncles (Logan's favorite), and being spoiled by more gifts!

After dinner the first night we opened "crackers" and had fun wearing crowns and telling jokes.

My brother Sam and cute Marlee.

Love this photo of my kids looking out the window. 

I've always loved my back yard in the winter.

We went to the Museum of Idaho and saw the holiday displays: 

Santas,

gingerbread houses,

 and hundreds of nativities.

We also got to see lots of cool Idaho history. 

During our stay, these two cousins were constantly playing together (or at least playing by one another). Norah is 4 months older, yet Marlee has her beat when it comes to standing and walking. 

This elephant toy was the favorite.

We enjoyed going to my parent's ward and finally getting a Christmas photo altogether.

How blessed we are with good family around us. It was a wonderful holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day

 Santa found our house this year and left us with oodles of goodies.

Logan got this awesome Tonka truck. You can see its about as big as he is!

Norah was interested in everything. She loved to open her presents and was thrilled with it all. 

We made our way to Benj's sister's house for breakfast and the opening of more presents. 

We stayed til the afternoon and headed over to Benj's grandparent's house for a Christmas feast. I failed to take a single picture while there. Probably because I was busy feeding my face with some of the best food ever. Grandma Mel always goes out of her way to serve a beautiful meal. She is amazing. 

The kids both fell asleep in the car after dinner and went to bed an hour early. Must've been a pretty good Christmas. 

Next up: Christmas in Idaho Falls!

Christmas Eve

  Christmas Eve is always special for us. We are invited to sister-in-law's in-laws house. Catch that? Its so thoughtful of them to invite us to their family gathering.

Before going there, we stopped by for a visit with Great-Grandpa Bradshaw. He had fallen ill a couple weeks before Christmas and is still recuperating. Doing a lot better and was in good spirits for our little visit. Logan really liked his wheelchair.

 After a delicious meal and talking about some of our Christmas traditions, we began the ever-popular candy bar game.

Rules were changed a little this year and instead of just candy, there were toys, gadgets, and gift cards galore. It made for an intense game.  I ended up with a Cheesecake Factory gift card through trading and Logan came home with a whole bag of Legos, candy, and bubbles. Benj got headphones and a gift card to Burger King.

 Norah dined while we played. She was content to eat strawberries the whole time.

 After the game we shared some of our talents, thoughts, testimonies, and of course, the Christmas Story. It was a wonderful time for all.

Pre-Christmas

 The weekend before Christmas consisted of:

our ward breakfast

 including a visit from Santa! Here's Norah and Daddy waiting in line.

Logan was very excited about Santa this year. This was his first year not being afraid of him. That fear has now been passed down to Norah, who will not have anything to do with him or even Mrs. Claus. When asked what he wanted for Christmas, Logan told him a puzzle. 

My boys looking dashing after church on Sunday.

Love when he holds still long enough for a photo. 

And the girls. I was able to participate in the choir this year. Something I've always loved doing but haven't done since having children. Benj handled both kids with ease (I had no doubt).

That evening we did a candlelight dinner. This is a tradition my side of the family has done for years. I decided that the Sunday before Christmas is a great time for this, since we usually do something else for Christmas Eve.

The theme was a red and green dinner. I pulled out our wedding china (something I only do a couple times a year). The menu was:

Mixed greens salad with strawberries

Spaghetti and meatballs

Parmesan broccoli

Garlic bread

Marbled red velvet cheesecake

It was rather laughable this year since Logan refused to eat hardly anything and Norah was beyond tired because she missed her afternoon nap. When all was said and done, Benj and I were the only ones to enjoy dessert. 

Hopefully in a few year this kiddos will learn to appreciate this types of things. :)

Preschool Program

 Logan had his preschool Christmas program this week. It was fun to watch this group of boys sing, and in Logan's case, dance. Here he is entertaining the crowd between songs.

 Singing "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer".

Checking out his gift from his teacher.  Miss Patti is the best!

And eating his Christmas cookie.

I can't seem to load my videos on the computer, so when I figure that out, I'll post some.

 

Logan loves preschool is having such a fun time learning and making friends. He's grown a lot in these few short months. 

Christmas Advent

 For the past few years I have tried to do an activity calendar for the month of December. Although some days we had to improvise (where is all the snow???), we have had fun bringing the spirit of Christmas into our home. Logan is at an especially fun age this year. 

 I documented our annual gingerbread house making. Dad is the designated icing applier. And a good one too! Logan was great at sticking the candy on. By the way, you know how the gingerbread kits always smell so good? They definately smell better than they taste. I'm kinda thinking homemade next year.

 Baby girl clapped and begged for sweets throughout the activity.

Kiddos with a tired-looking mommy and our lovely gingerbread house and bush, er, I mean tree.

And with Daddy.

 The finished project!

Norah's 1 Year Photos

 Taking photos of a one-year-old is hard, and our photographer did a great job with Norah. She didn't want anything to do with picture-taking at first. She clung to me for dear life. Once she warmed up, she started smiling for the camera . . . and crawling everywhere . . . and pulling her headband off . . . 

I think we ended up with some good ones. She is the cutest baby in the world after all.

You can find our photographer, Monkeyface Photography, right HERE.