Christmas and Beyond

Now for the standard Christmas catch-up (accompanied by an also standard paltry amount of pictures, because that's our style)...

We made our Christmas sugar cookies like we do. This boy managed to get himself completely covered in flour and cookie dough:
We got to spend an afternoon with Jessica, one of my best-est friends, and her husband Sean and cute baby Sienna:
The big day came. We celebrated Christmas Eve with a nice dinner and some wassail. We let the kids open their new pajamas, then read the Christmas story, watched the Joy to the World movie I love, sang carols together and got them to bed. Joe and I worked hard at putting a big surprise together. We may or may not have gotten quite angry at each other in the process but hey--it was Christmas and all was forgiven quickly.

The morning came and kids checked out their surprises:

We gave the kids a clue to their surprise. Here's the video:



It was quite cold that morning and the kids thought it was great that there was frost.

I finally got to put Nate in his suit. I figured Christmas day was a good occasion. I got this adorable 3-piece suit as a hand-me-down from a friend in Sacramento and have been wanting to dress him in it. But, I needed a tie that would match (at least kind of) and some shoelaces for one of the shoes that match the suit (we got them at DI or someplace and one was missing). I never managed to find shoelaces but luckily the shoe stayed on alright through Sacrament meeting. I searched high and low for little boy ties on Dec. 23rd, even venturing to the mall with 3 kids, and finally found something. That is how bad I wanted him to wear this suit.

When Sunday morning came he refused to wear the vest but still managed to look so cute:

I'm mad I didn't get any pictures after his shoes were on and his hair was combed.

He was so happy to match Daddy:

After church, we hurried to get ready to head to my parents' for a delicious prime rib Christmas dinner. We stayed (half) the night there and then set off bright and early to head for Utah.

We had another fun, whirlwind trip first to Logan (with a day in the Salt Lake area) and then to Twin Falls, ID, and then home. We were sad we didn't get to see everyone we'd hoped to see but I guess we never do. I was still wonderful spending time with family--Joe's family and also my brother and his family.

The few pictures I got were of Nate and his cousin Jace. They were so funny together. We tried to get them to hug but they just scooted closer together.

Jace kind of leaned, like so:

The only other time the camera appeared was in the middle of Nevada on the way home when we took a break from the car:

Joe and the girls loved exploring. Nate was happy just throwing dirt and rocks.
We made it home in one piece and have been attempting to get back into the routine of life, including some new goals we've set.

The kids have loved the trampoline. I got these pictures one afternoon:

This one is funny with the girls fighting over jumping time and Nate in the foreground worriedly sucking his thumb:

They still love each other:

We own a net but haven't been able to find a time in daylight hours to put it up yet. It will happen soon. Nate has already fallen off!

Happy 2012!