December 2012, Part 1

 

Above: Yum! These snowman cupcakes that Nammy made look soooo good. I am being very patient. Can I have one? Please?

 

Above: This is what you get when you have little boys. A sword through your Christmas tree ornament. If they have issues with my decorating, they should take it up directly with me instead of taking it out on the tree!

 

Above: My tough guy showing off his "tattoo."

 

Above: My other tough guy giving me a tough smile and showing off his tattoo.

 

Above: Enjoying some snuggle time with Daddy.

 

Above: There is nothing better than snuggling Daddy, eating Christmas goodies, and watching a Christmas movie!

 

Above: For one of our Family Home Evening's, we decorated this gingerbread house together (it was a cute little store-bought kit).

 

Above: Don't forget the back!

 

Above: Mom, I know this house has only been up for less than a day, but can we eat it?

 

Above: Here is Peter pretending to eat one of the cardboard pieces before I caved in and let them eat some of the gingerbread house. I knew I would get no peace for the rest of the month as long as that gingerbread house was in sight. So, we dismantled it. The boys gorged themselves on gingerbread house. I have to admit, it was pretty tasty. Sadly, while I was cleaning up the kitchen table, Jonathan made another sneaky visit to the gingerbread house. As he was trying to grab the counter for support, he grabbed the gingerbread house instead and sent the whole thing all over the floor. You didn't have a long life, but while you lived, we loved you, little gingerbread house!

 

Above: Even if you don't pay to have these things bounce, they are still fun to get in.

 

Above: We made a trip to Temple Square on Thursday, December 13th. I will have to plan better next year. My only concern was that it was warm enough for our guys. The problem was that it was the same night as the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert. D'oh! So, downtown was packed and there was nowhere to park. We drove down a ways and parked at a Trax parking and took Trax back up to Temple Square. Next time, I will plan our dinner plans better too. We got take-out from Crown Burger--which was PACKED because of the concert. It took forever and we had hungry, cranky boys on our hands. Besides that, the dinner and travel time seriously cut into our time to see the lights. However, we still got some good time in and had a chance to look at it and enjoy it all.

 

Above: Wow. This is so cool.

 

Above: Inspecting the lights on the bushes by the Assembly Hall. Yup. Everything appears to be in order.

 

Above: We only got this one picture by this awesome tree because this other family was parked there taking pictures for seriously like ten minutes! So, the one snap I got, Peter wasn't looking, but Daddy and Jonathan look happy and it still turned out to be a pretty good picture.

 

Above: I love to see the temple!

 

Above: Capturing the capturing of a moment.

 

Above: Best buds walking hand in hand.

 

Above: The nativity on the reflecting pond.

 

Above: Checking out some of the fountains.

 

Above: Peter wasn't in the mood to pose for pictures (is he ever), but I got a couple of him anyway.

 

Above: Gotcha!

 

Above: Checking out the international nativities. Peter thought these were really cool and it gave us a good chance to run and chase (since these areas weren't nearly as crowded by the Church Office Building).

 

Above: Yup. We've hit our limit. Time to go home (and cry and cry the whole way!). As I said, we had a good time, but we will have to plan better next time so that things go more smoothly!

 

Above: Again, the boys decided to help me decorate the Christmas tree their way.

 

Above: What? I just thought I would play a little guitar, with Daddy's guitar, in the bathroom, on the counter. Is there anything wrong with that?

 

Above: Nope! There is nothing wrong with that and Jonathan and Daddy enjoyed Peter's little concert.

 

Above: Taking some time out for a little guitar lesson.

 

Above: The snowstorms started picking up and the snow started piling on!

 

Above: Jeremiah loves the snow...isn't that a wild coat?

 

Above: I'm not kidding, he really loves snowblowing. We will have to see if he still feels that way 5 or 10 years from now.

 

Above: Once we got more snow in the backyard, it dawned on me that we could create our own sled run. Jeremiah did an awesome job of packing the snow and Peter enjoyed the run many times!

 

Above: Getting ready for another go!

 

Above: Dad was sick on the second Sunday of December, so we had everyone up to our house for dinner. After dinner, we had a Nintendo 64 Mariokart tournament.

 

Above: Little baby Grant sure looked sweet in his overalls.

 

Above: Having good times with the Mackay family!

 

Above: Another day, another opportunity to enjoy the sled run!

 

Above: Whee!

 

Above: Whoohoo!

 

Above: Now, how do I get out of the trampoline pit?

 

Above: Back inside to get warm, snuggle in our sleeping bags, and enjoy our "tent," made by Mom.

 

Above: Surprise!

 

Above: These boys had such a great time climbing in and out of this tent.

 

Above: Hey! What's going on in there?

 

Above: Stealing a picture with my sweet Jonathan.

 

Above: Then, of course, you follow things up with a good game of tag.

 

Above: We started potty training Peter in earnest in December. He did a good job and he picked things up pretty quickly. He's almost there (we just need to cut out the pull-ups during the night and he is good to go!).

 

Above: Just grabbing a snack. Anytime I open the fridge or cupboard, it is like a gold rush. These boys rush at it and stake their claim.

 

Above: We got to go on a fun trip to the dinosaur museum down at Thanksgiving Point with our cousins Maddie, Kinlie, and Katelynn. What a blast!

 

Above: Look at all this cool stuff!

 

Above: Wow!

 

Above: This cave sure is a lot of fun to play in and pose by!

 

Above: Sweet little posers.

 

Above: This magnetic wall is new. It was a lot of fun to play with! Those magnets were heavy though!

 

Above: Here is little Jonathan during one of the few moments that he allowed me to set him down. I decided not to bring in his stroller since he used it as a crutch last time and wouldn't leave it. However, I didn't think about the fact that he would use me as a crutch or security blanket. I ended up carrying him almost the whole time. He weighs about 27 or 28 pounds. I will tell you, that is not easy to carry for an hour and a half! I went home with a sore left arm and back!

 

Above: Having fun at the erosion table.

 

Above: Pretty Maddie.

 

Above: Maddie and Pete going for a ride on the baby protoceratops.

 

Above: Whoa. That shark is BIG!

 

Above: Have you ever seen cuter hand touching the hands on exhibit?

 

Above: Sweet cousins having a great time! Besides Jonathan not wanting to be set down because he was feeling shy, this trip went off without a hitch...until we left the museum and all of the kids had meltdowns at the gift shop because they wanted to buy some toys. Is Christmas here yet? The toys can't come soon enough!

Christmas will be here soon...only about a week to go!