Utah 2013-14 (Part 1)

First official trip to Utah for Christmas - I guess that's why we brought so much?!?

We got to see a favorite cousin the day we arrived! 

 And the next evening, the girls and I went to a performance of the Nutcracker that Annalyn and Erin were in.  More favorite cousins too!

Look at them!It was so much fun to see them on stage, so animated and excited!  They did a wonderful job!

The next day Sandy got dumped on and the kids spent several hours playing in the snow in Grandma T's yard.  Oscar was especially entertaining when he ran around in all the white stuff!  The pink gloves we went hunting for the day before were put to good use!

It was such a snowy day, we were a little worried we wouldn't make it up the canyon that night to go on a sleigh ride at The Homestead with the Johansons.  But, we decided to brave it and it turned out they hadn't gotten enough snow to be able to run the sleighs, so it was a horse-drawn carriage.  Still fun though, especially just because we were together...

And look who we got to see afterward!

We decided to stay at the resort and eat at their restaurant, and boy, were we glad!  Just look at these rolls!  What a super fun night it turned out to be!

Holidays are here!

Apple Turkeys!  Here's Caleb and Jared, his best buddy in his third grade class this year.  I went to help everyone decorate apples to look festive - we had a good time!

Finished!  Gobble, gobble!  My favorite thing was how the cheerio eyes turned out!

Another fun project and this time for Thanksgiving Day.  Who's cuter, kids or pilgrim and indians?

And this project wasn't festive, but it was a good one!  Caleb's first real project for school, showing all the factors of the number 72.  He did an awesome job!

We went to the annual nativity celebration at the stake center - these were favorites...

We took Serena and her mom with us and everyone had fun dressing up - even Caleb!  What a fun tradition!  I've been taking pictures of him dressed up in nativity costumes at this event since he was three!

Presley's new look -

October - our favorite month around here!

October always starts out great with a Sunday at home in pajamas watching General Conference!

 

Then, an outing with Joseph and his mom and little sister - a fall farm with a miniature corn maze and a spooky hayride through a forest full of moving monsters.  We took home pumpkins too.  We had a blast!

October is the month for Northwoods Elementary's Spirit Sprint.  Here are all three of them sprinting!

Pumpkin carving this year was at its finest...

And the costumes were unique and fun!

Here we are on our way to the ward Halloween party -  Yoda, fairy and vampire in tow.

 Avery, the ultimate organizer of everything - even candy!

Six years old!

We started the birthday celebrating the evening before with a bowling party. Bowling with a lot of five and six year olds was great fun and great chaos!  Avery and Presley both invited several friends from their new kindergarten classes.  This is Caroline...

Their good friend Abby came too, and Yunus that lives across the street.  Here they are at the table in the party room after they finished bowling.  We had pizza and cake!

Then they all got to spend time playing arcade games, which was even more crazy!  They love their friends though and had the best time!

The next day was their birthday and we had a nice, relaxing day together as a family.  They tried out a new magic set, worked on making bracelets with their new rainbow loom and had fun on their new scooters.

Presley wanted vanilla and Avery wanted chocolate, but they wanted a stacked cake...so this is what they got!

Happy Birthday Presley!  Happy Birthday Avery!