Zoo Lights

Tonight we went to zoo lights at Hogle Zoo... 

We hadn't been before and didn't anticipate how crowded it would be. We only saw 2 animals (lions and tiger) but the lights were so pretty 🎄 and we had a great time. 

The best part was seeing Santa.

A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas morning Dad had the flu but we all still had a great time opening presents. Kade got a huge crafting kit and tons of Angry birds and legos. Bailey & Kylie got a Monster High doll & Frozen Barbies. Jaxon got a Mickey Mouse clubhouse and playdough.

Christmas Eve

In the morning we went and saw Santa.

We had an early Christmas Eve dinner. We did an Olive Garden copycat meal. It was fun. That night, Paul's colleagues put together a service opportunity for their families on Christmas Eve. We went to a shelter and gave out presents to children. It was a great opportunity. Afterwards we came home, made cookies and opened our gifts. First they opened their new jammies.

Then their sibling gifts. Bailey and Jaxon exchanged and Kade and Kylie exchanged gifts. 

Then, they put out the milk and cookies for Santa and headed to bed. 

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas Cards

Decorating for Christmas

Every year decorating for christmas is a big deal in our house. The kids ask over and over when we can decorate the trees.  We play Christmas music and they love getting the boxes out and putting up all the fun decorations. This year we went very simple. We hired a company to put up our Christmas lights outside a few weeks ago (its ridiculously dangerous to do them ourselves and completely worth every penny).

We spent Friday morning while Paul went into work putting up the small decorations, then put up/decorated the main tree Saturday night.

Santa arrival to City Creek

Thursdays are busy days for us. The girls have band/orchestra then they plus Kade go to children's choir until 530. While Jaxon and I were waiting, I saw online that Santa was coming early to city creek mall. So when the kids were done, we drive to city creek. We needed up eating at the food court where each kid was able to choose what they wanted to eat (they LOVED this) then we ran over to H&M for some gloves since it was freezing. Paul met us right before it started. There were elves passing out glowsticks and the whole crowd started singing Christmas carols. Then Santa showed up on the roof tops and confetti went out over the crowd. It was such a fun time! 

An early Christmas present

For Christmas, we planned to bring the kids to California to visit Nana and Poppy (Marcia's parents). Once we got here, we gave them some Disney apparel and told them to guess what it was that we were doing.

Afterwards, we went to dinner then headed to Anaheim to the hotel. They were completely surprised. It was the most fun! The girls slept in my parents hotel room, the boys in ours. They had a whole queen bed but still were cuddled up. Both were asleep before we got there. The hotel was just a couple blocks from Disneyland, it was perfect! We woke up early, had breakfast at Dennys then Poppy dropped us off at the tram for a day of Disney.

On the road to Cali

We've been looking forward to a warm Christmas, escaping the snow of Utah for some California sunshine. This is our view on our way out of town...

After paul got off work at 5:30, we drove until Mesquite, NV. After 6 hours in the car, and it's way past all of our bedtimes but these 4 don't seem to realize it. We turned them sideways on a queen bed so they could all fit!

The next morning we finished the last leg to California. We made it around 2 pm. It's supposed to rain most of the time. But Rainbows instead of snow on Christmas... we can live with that! It's going to be a great week!

It's beginning to look like Christmas

This year we decorated for Christmas on Saturday in our jammies listening to Christmas music. There were 6 boxes, two trees and we spent hours putting it all up. But we loved every minute. It's really beginning to look like Christmas around our home!

Merry Christmas from California

This Christmas, we spent in the California sunshine.When we got to California, we went to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Carol and Cousin Jackie on Christmas Eve.

Then came home for a nice dinner with Nana and Poppy, the kids opened their jammies and their presents to each other (our family tradition on Christmas eve). They made cookies for Santa with Nana and fed the reindeer.

Then on Christmas morning, we woke up early and opened presents. Kylie and Bailey have been dying for an American Girl Doll and got exactly what they wanted. Santa brought Kade some transformers and Jaxon got some Cars (the movie) cars.

Then later on, all our extended family came over. The highlight was talking to Amanda and her friend on Skype on the ipad. Notice in the pictures below, she was in our family picture. <3 It was a great Christmas, one to remember! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Durango Express

On Pinterest I saw some fun Christmas ideas and the Polar Express is one of our favorite Christmas movies (the kids watch it year round) so recreating it in our car seemed like a great idea! For family home evening, we went on the "Durango Express". We packed hot chocolate, got in our jammies and each child got a ticket on the Durango  Express. I punched their tickets as we got on in a shape (it was supposed to be a Christmas Tree but it didn't work out so well :) ).

 

We went up to Thanksgiving point and looked at all the lights while drinking our hot chocolate and listening to the Polar Express music. It was a lot of fun, definitely something we'd do again! 

2nd Grade Singing

Kylie and Bailey were chosen by their teachers to go to Zion's bank and sing some songs and decorate their Christmas trees. Zion's donates money to their school and its become a tradition to do. It was a lot of fun to watch and they were so excited.

With their friend Brooklyn...

They did some sign language in their songs.

Temple Square

Temple Square has the best lights at Christmas time. This year we were able to go to it with Kent and Stacy (and their fam) and Kim and Aaron (and their fam).

We took trax to avoid parking (but really just for the kiddos)... these cousins get along so well. Addy spent the night at our place afterwards.

It was beautiful and so much fun!

❤ ❤ So glad we have so much family that lives nearby ❤ ❤

Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas!

 Everyone got just what they wanted! I think the pictures tell it all :) Love all these guys!

 The only smile Kade gives when all he wants to do is open more presents and not take any pictures...

 Kylie really wanted a pillow pet. Her brother and sister already had one... She was so excited!

 Showing off her fun presents from Chey (her babysitter since she was 18 months)

 Jaxon finally got the hang of presents and loved it...

 until he got a drum. After that he was done and only wanted to play with the drum. Next year we open clothes first then toys!

 We had a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 On Christmas Eve, we love our traditions. We always open new pajamas.  The kids exchange their gifts they chose for each other.

 

Then we feed the reindeer food (Kade got from preschool) and put out our cookies (Nana helps the kids make them earlier in the day) and milk for Santa. 

(Jaxon fell asleep right after we put jammies on, hence why he isn't in the later pics)

O' Christmas Tree

We decorated the Christmas Tree for Family Home Evening. The kids loved it but didn't want to take pictures. This is how I "convinced" them...

This is how we take pictures around here... 

First the mad faces...

Then the funny ones...

and finally the sweet one...

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Point Lights

Christmas lights are awesome, especially to 4 little kids who were going a bit stir crazy. We took them to see the lights at Thanksgiving point. Kade fell asleep on the way there and had a hard time waking up but once he did, he was in heaven. The whole thing was cute, cheap and we got to stay in the warm car, so definitely a success.

 Afterward, we got to see a couple real reindeer. Only two more weeks til Santa Comes!

 Sorry, these pictures aren't the best. I forgot my camera and only had my cell phone.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 November and December were a busier months than usual. Paul and I have been doing a vinyl business (we sell vinyl lettering for the home) and it has been insane. Our sales tripled in November and more than doubled in December.  It was good for us but made it so we had no time to do anything but the stickers! Since I use my blog as sort of a journal and I haven't updated since October, this is going to be a long one. Sorry!

In the end of October, Jaxon and I flew to California unexpectedly for a funeral. Most people that know me, know that one of my best friends in the world, Allison, and I have been friends since we were three. Her father passed away and I had to go, he was like a second father to me. It was nice to see old friends, though I wish it was under better circumstances.  Since I was gone the last week of October, my kids missed out on carving pumpkins. They had to settle for vinyl on pumpkins in November. They turned out pretty good and I think we may do it again next year. Kade's is a traditional pumpkin, Bailey's is a baby, and Kylie's is a dog. The whole thing only took us about 20 minutes and no mess!

I just got a new camera and couldn't figure it out, hence the blurriness.

Jaxon this month has become mobile! He scoots all over the place very quickly! He also has started pulling himself up onto everything. We used the Christmas tree box to block him in the front room. This was supposed to keep him from attacking the Christmas Tree. He would use it to stand up and kept falling in it. It was hilarious. He never cried once just grinned and thought he was so funny.

 These pics were going to be on my Christmas Card that I never had time to make.  I love them and still wanted to share so Merry Christmas! From the Chalmers

School Christmas programs are so much fun. This year Kade had one too! They were all on Friday so it made for a busy but fun day. I took the day off and in between the programs did my Christmas shopping! It was great!

Kade did a great job! You could tell when he got bored but it was adorable to watch.

The girls sang with their choir and did great too!!

My mom, dad, sister, aunt Carol and cousin Jackie all came down for Christmas and we had lots of fun!

We visited Santa and told him just what we wanted. My sister, Amanda, takes the best pictures! She took these of the kids visiting Santa.

It snowed and snowed so Aunt Amanda took the kids outside to build a snowman and this is what they got (obviously it didn't snow a ton (: )

Jaxon is such a cutie! This being his first Christmas, we took lots of pictures! Here are a few in a Santa Hat.

On Christmas Eve, Paul's sister and her family (the Myers) came over and we had an awesome time eating and playing. We even sang Christmas Carols thanks to Jason's guitar playing! After everyone left, we did our own traditions: the kids opened 2 gifts, one from their sibling (we picked names this year) and their new jammies.  Then they put their reindeer food on the lawn (so the reindeer will see our house), set out cookies they make with Nana and some milk for Santa and read our stories. We had a great Christmas Eve!

Christmas morning was even better. The kids slept until 8! We opened gifts and all the normal Christmas stuff. It was a great day!

My fantastic sister informed us all while we were bowling on the Wii that she had never been bowling before in all her 24 years. She'd been to bowling alleys but never threw the ball. Can you believe that?? I sure couldn't. So of course the day after Christmas while everyone in the world was shopping, we went bowling and it was a blast. We took a family pic to record this momentous day for her but unfortunatley its super blurry. Oh well, I'm posting it anyways!

And some random pictures...

And this ends this super long post and the end of 2009.  

Happy New Year!