My First Time Repelling!

Yes I live in St. George where there is a ton of opportunity to repel, but I have never been. It might be because I have a slight fear of heights OR that I have 3 small children at home and would much rather my husband get to go. I'm sure its the second. But after Christmas my mom insisted on watching the kids, even though I begged to stay and help her. Matt had to pretty much throw me in the car! The real reason we were going was because Karlee and Jaren were in town and they had been wanting to go. They are the adventurous ones! Nikki also went who is now an expert because Matt had taken her for the first time a couple months ago when she was here. At the last minute we also took Kash, and I am so glad that we did. Being the middle child sometimes he needs that extra attention (he has two very demanding sisters!) and he loved it. So Cody came over with the gear and we were off!

I'm not going to lie, I was scared. I might have peed my pants a little.

This is my attempt at a "happy" face.

I'm supposed to be going down at the same time as Matt...Yep that's me still at the top.

I did it! I'm really quite proud of myself.

So happy to be alive and able to hug my hubby!

Nikki and Karlee going together.

Of course the newlyweds took a moment for a kiss!

Jaren and Karlee

The boys kept coaxing us to "jump". Nikki was pretty good at it!

After some encouraging Karlee got the hang of it.

I think my big toe might have left the rock.

Kash had so much fun climbing all over the place.

It is so pretty and it was such a PERFECT day.

Nikki took Kash on a little hike.

He found a rock to climb through.

If someone wasn't actually holding Kash's hand we had him clipped in so we knew he wasn't going anywhere!

He had no fear up on that mountain!

I'm so happy we took this sweet boy with us.

Sisters. I think we grew closer after this terrifying experience:)

Nikki found this whole in the rock and thought it was the perfect hiding place to scare Matt as he walked by. Wait for it....Wait for it....

And there you go.

I think I might actually do this again. Maybe.

Christmas Day

Christmas fell on a Sunday this year so when the kids woke up (at about 9 o'clock...my kids are not early risers), we opened stockings and then went to church! It was fun being able to go to sacrament meeting with the whole family, and then we got to come home to open presents!

Here are Ella and Kash about to open their stockings from Santa.

Evie enjoying her Christmas breakfast of my Mom's traditional Breakfast Casserole.

Everyone all dressed up.
Nana and Papa with the grand kids.

Kash with his new dart gun.

Nikki and Mandy

Ella Grace

Kar excited about her new shirt!

But I think Kash is a little bit more excited about his gift! The one thing he asked for was a remote control car, and that's what Santa brought him!

Mom and I in our matching Uggs.

My 5 year old asked for clothes for Christmas! Is that normal? She also asked for a REAL puppy, hence the clothes.

Kash's gift to Matt and I that he made at preschool was his hand print with the cutest poem on the back. It made me cry!

Matt finally got his blu-ray! Before this we were manually spinning our Dvd's to get them started.

Evie was napping while we opened presents so when she woke up she opened hers by herself. We didn't think that she would care about it but she was totally into it. She wanted to take the paper off herself and then open the box right away!

She kept standing up on it and doing a dance.

So excited about her giraffe from Nana, she kept biting it!

As soon as she got the paper off she took it to Karlee to open it up! She already knows how this works!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was dinner at our house with our traditional handmade Mexican tamales, chili, and clam chowder. We ate, had a program, and opened a few gifts. It was a lot of fun and the kids were SO excited for Santa to come!

Papa, Liddy, Nana, Ella, Karlee, Nikki

Liddy and Evie trying to touch the ceiling.

Jaren and Ella relaxing together.

Liddy playing with her grandpa and great grandpa.

Mandy arrived just in time for the program. She had been working all day at Nordstrom and drove straight to St. George from Provo. Everyone attacked her when she walked in the door, including Kash.

Papa can't get enough of his babies!

And I can't get enough of this sweet chubby face!

We were so lucky to have the great grandparents there celebrating with us.

Liddy and Whit

My dad conducted the program and my mom read part of a talk from Elder Holland.

The men sang "Silent Night" accompanied by Jaren on the guitar.

Ella and Kash sang and acted out "Once there was a Snowman"

Ella performed "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."

I love these two!

Evie entertained herself with Papa's glasses, her shopping cart, and Ryan's toothbrush!

And then Matt read from Luke and we acted out the nativity.

Ella and Kash opened their presents from Nana and Papa-matching Mario pajamas! They were ecstatic.

My most favorite girls ever.