Happy Holidays!

To kick off the Holidays one night we made some yummy reindeer cookies! The Boys had a ball putting the dough on the cookie sheet and then each ate at least 4-5 cookies before going to bed. A week ago Nate got us a tree permit so we could cut down our own Christmas Tree this year. So we went up the Mountain on a nice blustery day and had some fun in the snow, spending time together as a family and hunting for a good Christmas tree! We found a great one! Here are all my Boys geared up to go hunting for our perfect tree!
We parked on the road right by this tree and we spotted it as a very possible maybe right from the start, but as we always do we had to go check out what else was out there. In the end we went right back to this one and of course it was the "perfect" tree and no others compared. It was fun hiking around the mountain side anyway. Corbin was playing Star Wars with his Dad as they hiked around. Aidan and I were holding on to each others hands for dear life just to keep ourselves from falling and dragging the other one down with us as we hiked. It was a Beautiful day and even though it was so cold and windy the snow made everything so pretty and calm.

Corbin found himself a hill to roll down while Nate was busy cutting down our tree. He was having so much fun running around and throwing snow he didn't care that he was freezing too!

Aidan had lost a glove and boot to the snow and all his efforts to stay upright in the snow so he and I headed back to the Jeep early and got cozy while we waited for Nate and Corbin to join us. He was freezing from the beginning, but was a little trooper and stuck it out for awhile. Aidan was fascinated with the snow and the little fur trees that were just his size. He had to stop and pat all the snow off each one he saw.

Finally we got the Tree on the Jeep. Nate and I both said we were glad we had this car this year and what a difference it made for going to get a tree. It was nice to have it going up into the snowy mountain and to be able to tie the tree to the top instead of tying it to the roof of our little silver bullet and having to hold on to the string to keep the tree from flying off(that was last years adventure).
After we got the tree home and up we realized that we didn't take a measuring tape with us when we went up to cut our tree. Can we say "Huge" tree! Thank goodness we had already decided to put it up on our tallest wall. It turned out to be no big deal and we love our tree!
Later that night we had our Ward Christmas Party. Santa came before the dinner and as you can see my Boys aren't exactly excited to see him. They both decided to play shy when they went to sit on his lap and Aidan outright refused to sit on Santa's lap. So the only way to get him to even get close to Santa was for me to sit with them. Funny thing, Santa's wife is sitting right behind me and they happened to have this( the one I'm sitting in) extra chair right next to Santa just for the Mom's with non-cooperative kids, she directs you to sit in the chair with your child. There must of been a lot of little ones that weren't real interested in actually sitting on Santa's lap for them to have a set-up all ready for the little stinkers!

Last Friday my Boys and I went down to see Family and get a Doctors appointment in. We met all my Family(except Nate who was home working hard, we missed ya!)in Ogden at the Frontrunner. Then we rode it all the way down to SLC to go see the lights at Temple Square. This is all the Cousins except Aidan who is sitting across the aisle with Grandma. All the kids wanted to have a window seat and they all had a blast riding the train and playing with each other.

Here is little Aidy sitting by Grandma and watching out the window! He was a hoot all night! This ended up being a long night for all the kids and surprising most of them stayed awake all the way back to Ogden. I believe it was like 11:30p.m. when we finally got back in our cars to go home. It was a fun night and I'm glad we were able to be with my Family, we had a good time! We should get together more often! The lights at Temple Square were beautiful as usual and it was neat to show Corbin the Manger Scene and talk to him about Christ's birth and explain to him that's what we celebrate Christmas for. Corbin's talk in the Primary Program we had a month or so ago was "Jesus came to Earth to live." and I tried to explain to him that his talk was telling us about Jesus and when he came to Earth for all of us. I think he kind of got some of it. I felt the spirit and Corbin sure had a lot of questions about everything. Later we had a discussion on how when we feel happy for helping others and being good we are also feeling the spirit tell us we are doing good. This seemed to wrap things up a bit for him. Now he just thinks he's feeling the spirit all the time. Hey, it's a start and I'm not bursting his happiness, I'll take all the Happy little Boys I can get if they just stay being Happy all the time. I hope all are enjoying this Christmas Season and feeling the True meaning in some way! I just want to thank all my family members that pushed the stroller, carried the stroller, and helped keep eyes on my Boys for me the whole time we were down in SLC. I really appreciated all the help and consideration that I was without my Spouse. Thanks for taking care of me and my Boys and making sure we had a fun time! I love you all!