Ice Skating

January 11th we took the kids ice skating out at Ruby's Inn by Bryce Canyon National Park.  If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it.  For $3 per adult and $2 per kid, you can't go wrong.

 I started taking photos after Ava went back in to warm up.  They have those bars Ian is holding on to, to help kids stay balanced.

 Grandpa helped push Ian around on the ice.

 Look at that stud!

 Ian finally gave up and decided to crawl across the ice.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning was a blast, I love watching kids open presents and seeing the excitement on the faces.

 This was something Ian wrote on his Christmas list.  Glasses with a nose and mustache, luckily Santa knows to look at the dollar store.

At this point my camera battery died.  Thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts for us and our kids.  We love you all!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we had a white elephant gift exchange for the kids and for the adults.  If you are wondering what Dustin is doing, I'll just say Tiffany had the pregnancy toots.

 My dad got the infamous Cheese Head for his white elephant gift...

 Cari brought her Nativity costumes, and we had a Nativity play...

 Dustin and Eden were shepherds, Ava and Paul were wise men, Ian was Joseph, Grandpa was a donkey, Jade was Mary, Quinn was a lamb, Jaren a camel, Isabelle an angel, and Brisa was the baby Jesus.

 They all opened their Christmas P.J.'s

 All the kids wanted to say the nighttime prayer (except Ava) so Grandpa did innie minnie miney mo to see which order they would say the prayers.  Before bed we sat through 5 kid prayers.

Brisa's first smile

December 19th I finally got a picture of Brisa's first smile.  I love when babies start reacting to you, and start to show personality.

 I had to include this photo.  I guess she didn't want to be with Ian...

Sledding at Paul's

Paul and Cari have a hill in their back yard that is perfect for sledding.  While we were up there for my birthday, it snowed like crazy and the kids went outside to enjoy the snow.

 Eden, Ava, Ian, Isabelle

 What happened to Ian???

 Dustin made sure to build the blockade at the bottoms so they wouldn't sled into the road.

Thanks Paul and Cari for sharing your home with us.

My 29th Birthday

This year for my birthday I drove up to Salt Lake to see Dustin.  I wanted to go to Temple Square to see the lights.  I haven't been there since I was a kid.  They have totally redone the downtown mall, now call City Creek.  It is amazing!

 You'll notice in these photos I had to use a slow shutter speed to capture the lights without having the flash one.  So I needed everyone to hold really still.  As you can see Ava had a really hard time holding still.  She is fuzzy in most pictures. 
Ian insisted on pushing Brisa everywhere in the stroller.  We had a great time!

 The whole time were walking around it was lightly raining, it was super cold, we were glad we were all bundled up.

 Paul, Cari, and the girls met up with us for dinner, then we went to the visitor's center.  The kids loved the huge statue of Christ.

Getting ready for Christmas.

November 27th we started putting up the Christmas decorations.  Ian and Ava were so excited.  Next year when we decorate at our house they are going to be so disappointed.  We don't have many decorations.  My parents pulled out everything.  It took nearly a week to get the house decorated.

 Can you see the kids??

 

 December 1st we went up near Mammoth Creek to cut down Christmas Trees.  We let Ian and Ava get one for their room.  Ava insisted on wearing this dress to go get trees. Nothing like a pink dress with snow boots.

 Jaxson and Ian...

 Ian and Ava with their tree...

 We even got Brisa out of the truck for a few minutes.

 My mom, Samantha, and Tate...

 Later that night we decorated my parent's Christmas tree.

 My dad always has to put on his icicles one strand at a time.

Santa Claus came to the Welcome Market on December 3rd.  Ava ran right up to him...

 Ian was a little more skeptical, it took some convincing before he would sit on Santa's lap.

 Santa also came to the Social Hall on December 8th, this time he brought Mrs. Claus.  We went up with Mindy, Jacob, Sarah, Emily, Ava, and Zachary.  Logan was too cool to go and so Ian stayed home with him.