Merry Christmas

 Same as last year, it's "what should have gone out."

One day I'll actually get a Christmas card in the mail, I promise. Until then, I've settled on taking a Christmas photo right before I'm ready to take the tree down.

We had a busier than planned holiday season (but that happens to everyone, right?), and enjoyed everything - especially teaching Guy about the true meaning of Christmas and why we really celebrate it.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and are already enjoying the new year.

Happy New Year!

Until yesterday about 4 pm, all my talk of wanting to start establishing some family traditions for our little family had been just that - talk. Around 4 pm I went to the store with barely a game plan, but I came out a winner. Walking around, I decided that we needed to have a lot of our favorite things for a dinner party. Simple was the only option since it was the last hour. I bought strawberries and watermelon (great out of season treats) to start the ball rolling.

Knowing what we had at home and what could easily be supplemented, things just went from there. Our "menu" was summer sausage, cheese slices, Ritz, watermelon, bananas, strawberries, and apples with a caramel dipping sauce, cool ranch Doritos, whole pickles, sliced crusty baguette bread that I topped with diced tomatoes, a little garlic, and Balsamic vinegar. Donuts and Grasshopper cookies for dessert.

Cooper went to bed after dinner, and I got a new 28 piece puzzle for the rest of us to do together (as Guy gets older the difficulty will increase) as the after-dinner activity.

Then we got Guy ready for bed and I set the timer for a New Year's countdown. Guy's new year was at about 7:45.

First he was afraid.

 

Then he warmed up.

And then we played a little

 Party essentials: silly hats, confetti poppers, and horn blowers.

 

And a little bubbly juice to finish things off.

It was a fun night and I'm glad I did it. I'm also glad I didn't a) go overboard b)stress at all. I even bought Chex to make Muddy Buddies, but it didn't happen. Maybe we'll do those for FHE soon, now.

Rob and I are pretty good at looking ahead, but I feel like we need to be better about living today. It was a great way to bring in the new year, especially since I've been trying to be more of a fun mom.

Easter

Sunday, Rob spoke in sacrament meeting (doing a great job), then after church we went to my parents' home for a family dinner. This year, even some out-of-towners were there. These past couple of weeks Guy's loved playing with his Oklahoma cousins, and Graydon was in for the weekend, too.

Happy Fourth!

I love this holiday and what it stands for. I'm grateful for this country, it's founders, and the liberties we have. The fireworks, firecrackers, and sparklers are an added bonus that I love, too.

Hope you had a great weekend!

More Halloween

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Park City. I love people watching (and the streets were FULL of dressed up people and dogs), and even enjoyed a little window shopping.

When we got there we met my folks at Nathan Sawaya's lego sculpture exhibit at the Kimball Art Center. His site has better photos of his work, but this gives you a bit of an idea of what we saw. I really enjoyed it. It's a bit of a small exhibit, but still enjoyable. I like seeing it, but am glad we planned to do some other things while we were in Park City.

My friend Maddie loaned me an adorable lion costume for Guy to wear - I thought about making one, but after reading the sewing directions decided not to spend 10 hours gluing ribbon onto a headpiece for a mane that I was sure Guy would quickly destroy while wearing. Thanks Maddie!