Zoo Day

We have really missed our zoo pass so when I found out that it was free zoo day I knew that I wanted to take the girls and lucky for us Nic and the kids came with us too. It was colder than we expected but we came prepared with out warm clothes. When we got there the parking lot was only half full. We love when the zoo isn't super busy so we can let the kids roam and run. Em was really excited to see some of the animals and unsure about others. The animals were pretty active so that was fun to see them more interactive.

Then we even got photobombed by the tiger. He paced back and forth for a long time Nic was sure he was thinking about making us his next meal

Then of coarse we needed to ride the carousel.

It wasn't Em's favorite I ended up holding her the last half of the ride

Then all the kids were given a token to vote for their favorite animal

As the sun was settling they turned on all the Christmas lights. It was fun to see them on our way out because with the sun also went the little warmth there was and it quickly got cold.

We were barely out of the parking lot when Em fell asleep and slept most of the way home.

We ate snacks and watched a movie on the way home. We dropped Nic and the kids off before heading home for the night. We had a great time and it was just the perfect time to get out, get some fresh air, and visit. Im so grateful Nic lives so close and is willing to spend time with us

Thanksgiving Weekend

I had been looking forward to Thanksgiving but not fr what most people would think. I was so excited to have Matt home and spend some time as a family. We were super excited when my mom and dad decided to pack up and head our way to spend the holiday weekend with us. Thanksgiving weekend brought the first snow of the season among other things. Because of the snow my parents stayed in St. George Wed night and drove the rest of the way on Thursday morning.

 Since it was technically our year to spend with the Brower's my parents headed to Tremonton to have Thanksgiving with my grandma while we headed to Brit's. We spent the morning getting a salad and dessert ready and then made a few stops on our way. We bought a double basketball game to have in our game room in the basement and looking for a newspaper so we could look thru the ads. We had a hard time finding one but luckily on our way home we spotted a little gas station with one left. After dinner I started to not feel well and after trying to get some fresh air and still not feeling well we left for home...but not before we grabbed a quick pic of everyone

Once we got home I spent the rest of the day on the couch with a fever and just feeling yucky. We looked thru the ads and bought a few things online but there wasn't anything we felt like was worth getting out of our house for. My parents got back about 7 and we just hung out and got settled in. I went to bed early and Matt luckily handled everything else. Friday morning the boys all went to breakfast and went shooting. 

 Us girls spent our day at home setting up the tree and the Christmas decor. I still didn't feel great so Nic came and we had lunch and more hanging out. After the boys were done shooting they came back home. Really we were lazy most of the day and just hung out, visited, and ate. I was so glad Matt finally got a couple days to just relax and do something he enjoys. It seems like all of his spare time lately has been spent at his parents house helping them get it framed so it was nice to have him home with us. Saturday my mom, the girls, and I got all ready and headed to run some errands before going to the Nutcracker at the Browning Center at Weber State. We stopped at Bath & Body(one of the girls favorite stores)

 Then we headed to Weber for the ballet. I had bought 20 tickets so we waited for everyone to get there. We decided to take the grandma's with us for their Christmas gifts. The girls were so excited to see Kinley...she was such a ham for pictures. The weather was perfect to get some pictures.

 We were excited to have Grandma Joy with us...this is totally her scene.

 It didn't take long once we got in to realize it was about 80 degrees in the theater and so hot! They slightly cooled it off but it was definitely hotter than we would have liked. Because of how all the seats lined up Hallie sat back a row with Nic and some of our other friends. Gracie was so excited and cute during the show. She recognized most of the songs from Little Einsteins and when she would her face would light up and she was so excited to tell me about it. She was a bit disappointed that the sugar plum fairy had no wings!

 I think Gracie would have been happy for it to end at intermission but we survived. I was a little disappointed in the lack of story line I felt like in other nutcrackers I had seen that there was more story line or maybe it was just the dancers. 

 After we headed for the parking lot the girls found the leaves and play, laughed, giggled! I love watching these littles together.

 Then we had to run so we could make the electric parade. Matt, Nate, and Em had gone to save us a spot. While my dad and Maddi stayed home since they had yucky colds and didn't want to be out in the cold. They caught the last part of the Santa run while we grabbed dinner and met them there.

 We bundled everyone up not knowing what the weather would be like....and everyone stayed warm!

 The girls loved the horses and they even stopped to let us pet them

 Em loved dancing to all the music being played

 The girls were super excited to see her dance studio in the parade...maybe one day we will take the plunge and let the girls do competition stuff

 They were so excited when they saw Santa and Mrs. Claus coming to light up the village

 After the village was lit up they set off fireworks...it was all really cool

 When we got back to the car we took all the kids snow clothes off and found that Em was soaked...like totally. And then upon further investigation Matt realized he had gotten her dressed but forgotten to put a diaper on her! He felt terrible and I couldn't help but laugh. Luckily I had extra clothes in the diaper bag and she was ready to roll again. It was pretty hilarious and not something I'm going to let him live down anytime soon

We were so happy to have my family with us for Thanksgiving this year. I;'m grateful for the time we spent together and memories made. We had a great time with them just hanging out, going to the Nutcracker, and the electric parade. On Sunday morning when they headed home there were lots of tears shed. I'm getting really excited for the cabin trip and the memories that will be made there as well. 

Getting Ready for Christmas

Although getting ready for Christmas is a lot of work it also is so fun to see the kids get so excited. This will be our first real Christmas season in the house. Last year moving in just a couple days before Christmas was insane and only slightly chaotic. Looking forward to enjoying the whole holiday season in our home this year. The girls each picked out lights for their own trees we are going to start a tradition that they get an ornament each year and they will use them to decorate their tree.

 Gracie chose pink and Hallie multi-colored

 This is the tree in the basement family room it fits perfect in the corner. Over Thanksgiving we also bought Matt a new tv so we moved the one from upstairs to the basement so now we have a completed family room.

 These girls sure love each other and I sure love having all of them home together

 This year we bought a new 12 ft tree...its huge! Way bigger than Matt or I thought it would be. I found it on the classifieds for $100 we had to buy it a new stand and lights but it was still way cheaper than a new tree...who knew Christmas trees were so freaking expensive. The first time I tried to put it up with the stand that came with it I got 2 sections up and it fell over on me! So we had to wait a few days for the new stand to come before we could actually put it up.

 The girls were probably most excited that we had to use the ladder to put it all together. They all had their fair share of time on the ladder.

 Once we got it all fluffed...we started with the lights

 Em is my shadow right now. She wants to be wherever I am and doing whatever I am. Although this can be hard I also know it wont last long so Im enjoying it the best I can. Look at her cute face...I couldn't ask for a cuter shadow

 I started with 600 lights and only made it up the tree this far! Later in the day the girls and I made a trip to Ogden to get more lights in a crazy snow storm and only ended up finding 2 boxes(about 1/3 of what we needed) and that was only after going to 2 different Walmart stores.

Luckily on our way to Thanksgiving we were able to find more and finish the tree on Friday. Now I need to take a picture of the finished tree. My mom was so great and basically did my whole tree since I was feeling great. She did a great job and I'm grateful for her sharing her talents with my family