Christmas Eve

We are back! We had a really fun time in California for Christmas with my family. We drove down Christmas Eve and got there just in time to go to a cousin's house for a party. We had great food and even greater dessert and of course acted out the nativity.

Here are Ella and Kash and their cute cousins:

Ella was Mary and she was so sweet! She seemed to have known how important her part was because she was very serious the whole time.

She loved holding baby Jesus and cradled him and kept giving him kisses.

Kash was Joseph and wanted no part with his towel! As soon as we would put it on him he would throw it right off.

These cousins of ours are used to performing and they sang us some Christmas carols. Lexie, Elle, Mia, and Paris. (Ella was in charge of the bells)

Andrea had some extra help with the piano from Kash.

Here are the girls performing one of their dance numbers, Ella thought she fit right in.

We are short one sister! Mandy's flight was delayed so she didn't get in until later that night. At least she made it home for Christmas.

Here are most of the kids, I didn't get a picture with everyone.

Seeing Santa

The kids have seen Santa twice so far this year. Ella was SO excited to see him. This is the first year that she started to understand what the whole Santa thing is all about. She was literally jumping up and down and dancing in line waiting to see him. I thought once it was time to sit on his lap she might get a little nervous but nope! She ran right up to him and jumped into his lap! Kash on the other hand wasn't too thrilled about it. After about 5 seconds on his lap he started screaming! Maybe next year he will have a bit more fun.

This is at our ward Christmas Party:

This is at the Dickens Festival and it is a picture of a picture so it didn't turn out very well.

When Santa asked Ella what she wanted for Christmas both times she replied, "a new house!" I don't know where she got this from, I had NOTHING to do with it! :) I really didn't tell her to say this, she just must know what is on Mom's Christmas list!

Kash's 1st Haircut

I have been wanting to cut Kash's hair forever, but Matt would NOT let me. He loved his long hair and forbid me to cut it. It was getting to the point where it was in his eyes so I finally convinced him that it was time. I was so surprised how good Kash was! He sat there like a little angel and didn't fuss once! It went so much better than I thought. They gave him a sucker, so I think that helped. He was getting so sticky and all of the hair was sticking to him. It really looked like he had a beard with all of that hair stuck to his face!

Here is the before picture:

During:

And After:I think he looks so grown up and COMPLETELY different. I was so used to his long hair that I think it is going to take a while for me to get used to this. He looks even BIGGER if that is possible.

Snow in St. George!

My kids don't even know what snow is living in St. George! It snowed here all day Monday, but never really stuck to the ground at our house. This first picture is of them watching the snow fall from the window, they were both fascinated!

The next morning we woke up to our version of a winter wonderland. As you can see, its not much.

Ella kept scooping up the snow and saying, "BRRR Mom, BRRR its COLD."

Our Christmas Card

As most of you know, our family pictures have always ended in disaster. To get both babies looking at the camera, smiling at the camera, and at the same time....well so far that hasn't happened for us. In our photo session Kash was not smiling in ONE picture. Not one. And Ella wasn't too happy about getting her picture taken either. So I guess you just have to laugh it off. It will make for good memories down the road right?

Birthdays/Tragedy

I am so sad. I accidentally erased all of the pictures on my camera. I had put everything on the computer except for my birthday pics and Matt's birthday pics. As far as I know there is no way of recovering these. :( If any of you camera pro's know anything, please let me know!

Anyways, my birthday was spent driving from California to St. George. Haha so fun, I know! So we didn't really celebrate it, my birthday present was going on our trip. So the day after we got home Corinne invited us over. She let the kids help her decorate the tree (because we are only having a mini tree this year....Kash would destroy anything else!) So they loved helping her with that. Then we had the cutest cupcakes and I opened my present from her. I wish I had the PICTURE to show you all how cute my gift was. It was the cutest scarf you've ever seen and this gold heart necklace and my favorite popcorn....she is the best! Thanks for making my birthday special, Corinne!

All Matt wanted to do for his birthday was play Ultimate Frisbee. Really? I know I know. But hey, its his birthday, he can do what he wants! So after frisbee he invited some friends over for cake and icecream. I got the CUTEST picture of Matt, Ella, and Kash blowing out the candles....sniff sniff....but obviously you aren't going to be able to see it. Ever. I better go get a tissue now.......
But happy birthday to my cute hubby! (you will just have to imagine his cuteness)

Thanksgiving Activities

Once the turkey was in the oven on Thanksgiving morning, my dad decided that we should all go to the driving range and hit some balls. We had so much fun, and by the end (with the sweet coaching abilities of my dad) we were all smacking that ball! I think we might have to make this a tradition.

All the girls about to leave.

We put Ella in this huge container of balls, she ended up picking out all of the yellow ones, and didn't want to get out.

Kash was in heaven being able to throw golf balls all day!

Ella teeing up....

She was so excited when she hit it, she just kept jumping up and down.

I love this picture of Mandy after she made her putt!

Papa and Kash.

I love these girls!

Vacation Part 2

After Tahoe we drove straight to San Francisco. We stayed in this historical hotel downtown that was right next to everything. That night we just walked the streets, there was awesome shopping there. HUGE department stores with a million different floors....I wish we would have had more time to shop. For dinner we ate at the Cheesecake Factory that was on the very top floor of Macy's. We ate outside overlooking Union Square:

This picture is taken from our table. This is the ice skating rink in the middle of the square.

Trying to get a good picture of all of the lights and buildings that surrounded us...didn't really work out.

The next day we went on a helicopter ride! It was a 6 passenger helicopter and it was so dang fun! The pilot took us all over San Francisco so we got to see everything there is to see.

Getting ready for take off.

The view.

Overlooking the city.

This is a picture of the BOTTOM of the Golden Gate Bridge! Our pilot asked if we wanted to do an "Under Over" and not knowing what that meant we all said, YES! Suddenly we dipped down and went under the bridge. I kept wondering if it was legal to do this.......?

Going over the bridge.

Alcatraz! Next time I would really like to take a tour of this place.

I thought it was pretty expensive to do this, but it was worth it. When will I ever be able to ride in a helicopter again?

Vacation Part 1

Matt and I went on a little trip while the kids were at my parent's house. We started out in Vegas, where we shopped at the Fashion Show Mall and Town Square. Then we went to the Stratosphere and rode two of the rides that are at the top. First we went on Big Shot that shoots you straight up and then lets you fall. It was seriously so scary, you feel like you are going to shoot right off the top! Then Matt forced me to go on one more ride called X Scream. This is the one that teeter totters off of the top, so you feel like you are going to slide right off the building. We were on the very front row and right when they gave the "thumbs up" to start the ride my safety harness unlocked! I was screaming because it went all the way up to my head and I couldn't pull it down. I really thought I was going to die. Luckily they did NOT start the ride and secured me back in. I don't think I will be doing this again...:)

This is the Big Shot.

From Vegas we drove to Lake Tahoe. It is such a beautiful place. We couldn't do a lot of the things we had planned because it was the "in between" season. They were supposed to have everything up and running but they were still waiting for the first big snow fall. So we stayed on the south shore and went ice skating and hot tubbing and even saw Twilight. Yes, thats right, my husband took me to Twilight, major points for him:)

This was the cutest ice skating rink with all of the fun lights. It was our first time for both of us and luckily we didn't have any major injuries! By the end Matt was showing off with his 360s!

The next day we drove around the lake to the North Shore where Matt was able to meet up with a client of his. It was a beautiful drive and we got out and walked on the beach. It was really nice weather...I didn't mind one bit that they didn't have snow!

Overlooking Emerald Cove.

The North Shore.

We walked out on this pier that went over the lake.

From there we drove to San Francisco.......I will post those pictures soon.

Well we are finally back in town from our week long vacation and I have so many pictures to post! We had Thanksgiving at my parent's house in California and these pics our of us getting prepared for the big day. The night before we made the rolls and the pies so here are the girls hard at work:

Whitney with the cute head chef, my mom.

Making the apple pie.

Karlee giving a demonstration on how to roll out the dough.

She was loving this.

Ella fell asleep right on Whitney...all of that baking is hard work.