The North Pole Express

The Christmas Gift from Grandma and Grandpa Beutler was paying for our choosing of a family event. It was the greatest idea ever! We chose to take the kids on the North Pole Express in Heber (patterned after the famous Christmas Story of "Polar Express).  We had such a magical time. It did not disappoint at all! Jackson and Zoey were giddy with excitement from all the details of the decorated train, their personal tickets, a conductor and engineer, cookies and hot cocoa, a personal visit from Santa, and a token bell from his sleigh! It lived up to all their dreams and expectations and made our hearts swell to see them so excited and happy. It truly was an amazing time. We'd do it again in a heartbeat. 

Christmas Traditions

We have some great Christmas Traditions at our house. About 3 years ago, I started the tradition of writing in a Christmas journal each day to record the things we do throughout the month of December. I don't really have to plan anything extraordinary, but each day little wonderful "Christmas Nugget" happens and I have the joy of recording it so that we can remember these times for many Christmases ahead.

 Here is Eli getting into the Christmas ornaments...the bottom half of the tree is pretty sparse because of the kids...but we still enjoy it!

 Enjoying a hot cup of cocoa! The kids' favorite treat!

 Seeing the lights at temple square! so much fun! We ate at the garden restaurant and the view we had was the best in the house! We could see all the lights below!

 It seems to all pass by so fast, the joys of childhood and the special magic that surrounds this time of year. I wish I could stop it in time, but my little journal is what will help me do that. I was reflecting on the week that just passed and how great it was, and then started thinking about the week ahead and how excited I was for each day (we have something fun going on every night this week)! I just really really enjoy soaking up this fun time of year and the closeness I feel with my family.

"Mater Christmas!"

We went shopping for Christmas trees the other weekend. It seems each lot has a big Christmas Display to lure shoppers in...this one had "Mater" and did the trick for us! It was the coolest thing and Jackson was completely amazed by it! Every detail was covered. Mater is even towing a tiny Christmas Tree in the back....

I do have to say, however, we ended up buying our tree from another lot : ( We like the rustic mountain pine trees and they didn't have a great selection of those, but their other trees looked nice!

I'm so happy that December is finally here! There are so many fun Christmas Traditions I always look forward to doing with the kiddos. We wrote letters to Santa (which the elves delivered). We watched the first presidency devotional, sent out Christmas Cards, and began the yearly tradition of the "Elf on the shelf."

In our home, the Elf watches over the kids to see if they are naughty or nice and then reports each night to Santa while the kids are sleeping. The Elves "appear" in a new spot each morning, and the kids enjoy trying to find their Elf. It's a great thing! 

Jackson has grown so fond of his Elf, that we had to get another Elf for Zoey, so they each have their own Elf. 

Last night, Jackson tried a little experiment... He snuck his Elf into his room, shut his door, and went to sleep with him. I think he wanted to see if his El really did leave each night to report to Santa. This morning, when I woke up, I saw his bedroom light on. So I went in to check on him and he was standing over his bed (which was torn apart, sheets thrown everywhere), with this completely dumbfounded look on his face! "Mom, I went to sleep with my Elf last night, and now he's gone!"

 Hmm.... I told him to go look downstairs, and his face lit up with magic! I love this age!  

Here he is, happy to have found his Elf!

Sweet Zoey, giving her Elf a morning hug! Who could really give these kids a lump of coal? I hope those Elves are giving good reports to Santa!

Wedding Bells

This is a little over due, but better late than never!

My youngest sister, Whitney, got married in November (the popular date of the decade 11-11-11). She was a beautiful bride! They were married in the Salt Lake Temple, and it was so crazy crowded! I couldn't believe how many brides had chosen that day to get married!

All of my siblings are now married (two in the Timpanogos, one in Salt Lake, and one in Logan temples) except my youngest brother who graduates this year and plans to serve a mission soon after! Our family is just moving right along...I give a huge pat on the back to my parents for getting us a great start in life and teaching us well! As a parent, I understand how hard that challenge is. I hope I do a good job in raising my children (and can one day look back and have a chance to feel as proud about my children's choices as my parents feel towards us).  

I forgot my camera, so I had my sis-in-law Taraleigh send me some photos she took (she'd talented in that department too).

Santa's Big Event

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, while most people were black Friday shopping, we took the kids to go see Santa. I am not one who will stand in line at a mall for hours to let my kids cry on Santa's lap...but...I did see an ad in the Utah Valley Magazine announcing KSL 5 flying Santa in to university mall by helicopter! Now THIS was the way to see Santa!

We got there at 9:30 and the helicopter arrived about 10:00-10:15. It was such an exciting event for the kids, I'm so glad we went! 

 

 Can you see all their excitement!! OK, maybe I was more excited for them to see Santa than they were...

  a little cocoa to keep the kids warm....

The copter coming in for a landing....

Getting wind blown by the chopper blades....now the kids are starting to get excited!

Santa, Mrs. Clause and the elves did the rounds around the square and chatted with everybody...the kids couldn't believe it! Jackson got to shake Santa's hand! It was quite unbelievable! We all enjoyed it.

My opinion, the best way to see Santa!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We spent the morning finishing up our pie baking. We had started the night before and didn't get it all done. We made two pumpkin pies, two apple pies, and one pecan pie. They were delicious. Both beautiful to look at and tasty! 

Later that morning I was fortunate to go for a run (I wasn't feeling sick! Yeah!!), and Brian got to play some Turkey-ball. At noon, we headed over to the Bell's and spent the day with Brian's family. It was mostly a relaxed, casual day spent hanging out with each other and eating lots of good food! It was perfect. That night we all slept really well... it must have been the turkey! 

Christina and I made these place setting for the table. I think they added just the right touch! 

We have so much to be grateful for. It was a great day to be reminded of all our blessings. I love the symbolism of the huge turkey feast, with tons of food (way more than we could possibly all eat in one meal) compared to the abundant blessings in our lives. We have more than we can our cups can hold!

Zoey's Birthday!

We celebrated Zoey's 3rd Birthday! She is such a sweet girl and was super excited about her birthday this year. It was fun for Brian and I to make it a special day for her.  

It snowed overnight, so she was surprised to wake up to a few inches of snow, which got her day off to a special start. The first snowfall of the season! For breakfast, we took her to the local doughnut shop to pick out a "birthday doughnut", which happened to be a vanilla cake doughnut with pink icing and sprinkles. After doughnuts, she and Jackson went to play in the snow (good time to work off that sugar before cake and ice cream!). 

When they had enough of the cold, we let Zoey open up a couple gifts from us. She got a new stroller and a Rapunzel doll with matching dress for Zoey to wear. She was ecstatic about it! She wouldn't take the dress off all day. She loves the movie "Tangled" and thinks she looks just like Rapunzel... and wants to be just like Rapunzel, so this was the perfect gift for her! They were side by side all day. She and her dad enjoyed watching the "Tangled" movie together while I frosted the cake.

After lunch, we invited the grandparents to come over and eat cake with us. Zoey had requested a "My-little-pony-and-Tinkerbell" cake, so I did my best to mix the two themes. It turned out like a float with the pony pulling the cake with fairies on top... Zoey loved it and that's what matters. We had fun decorating it. She loved it so much she didn't want to share her cake! Her grandparent's on the Beutler side got her a Berenstein bear collection of books (I love those!) and her grandparent's on the Gray side got her a puppy in a travel purse (so cute!). The Bells also joined us and got her a huge pencil with a coloring book and stickers (Zoey will enjoy this too!). She was very "showered with love."

She had a fantastic day! And as she would say in true Rapunzel fashion: "THE BEST DAY EVER!"

We are so grateful to have Zoey in our family! She is a very special girl and is quick to show love to her brothers and parents. We appreciate the big girl she has become!

November 9th

We celebrated my birthday yesterday! I made a pumpkin roll for dessert (which Zoey was calling the "birthday taco"), but my neighbor dropped off a chocolate cake and the candles worked better on the cake than the roll, so that's what made the picture (although I did try a little of both, and I must say the pumpkin roll hit the spot!)

 The kids helped blow the candles! It was a great day, thanks to all who made it special for me with kind messages or visits! Brian took me out to eat the night before and we did some Christmas shopping, which I love to do (especially before the holiday crowds- I have no patience for it).

 We didn't actually have to spend much money for my birthday; when Brian and I were married, we had used all our wedding money on investing in a really expensive, but nice set of pots and pans. Unfortunately, six years later, they were in horrible shape! The non-stick coated had all worn off and was flaking into our food. I was sooo disappointed. Brian did some checking and found they had a lifetime guarantee, so we took them back to the store, without a receipt, and got roughly $800 in store credit! So it felt like Christmas coming home with a trunk-load of brand new pots and pans. I am so excited! And, if we ever have a problem, we can always take it back and get a new one! It's a wonderful thing! I think new pots and pans will make cooking exciting again :)

13 days of Halloween!

We like to go nuts over the holidays, let's face it, holidays are SO much fun with kids (and they only get to enjoy childhood once)! So... for the Halloween season, we celebrate 13 spooky days (just because 13 is a spooky number). This is what we've done:
Day 1: place mats from dried leaves the kids picked earlier in the season, we used glitter and laminated them and they turned out really cute. They used them every day!

 day 2: spooky candlelight dinner, with chili served in a pumpkin

Day 3: we made ghosts to hang from the trees in the yard, very fun for the kids!

Day 4: gray Halloween party at the grandparent's. We got to dress up and have another spooky dinner- this is when I made "the announcement"

Day 5: we played a Halloween memory game

Day 6: we played in the leaves- so much fun!

Day 7: pumpkin balloon game, we filled the balloons with prizes and let the kids pop them. don't laugh at the pumpkin shape, they were too anxious to get popping the balloons that they wouldn't let me tamper with it much...

 Day 8: Zoey had a witches tea party, made hats and cookies and got all dressed up like a little witch

Day 8 cont'd:  Ward Halloween festival:

 Day 9: we made ribbon snakes with cousins and friends, very cute!

 Day 10: movie night with friends and popcorn! We watch "How to train your Dragon" and ate popcorn out of Halloween scoops

Day 11: pumpkin carving! the kids were sooooo excited to do this activity! Jackson wanted an angry face and Zoey wanted a smoky face (whatever that means?). We did our best to accommodate:

(I wish i had an SLR, I really would like to get better photos than what the old point and shoot can do)!

Day 12& 13- tonight we are making sugar cookies and Monday we go trick-or-treating! I can't believe it's already over! We had so much fun.