Here is our December in reverse. Millie received a little note and treat at the door. She will be participating in Activity Days starting in January.
We spent some time downtown the last Friday of the month. We were at City Creek, The Grand America and Temple Square. We ended the night at the food court for dinner. Our kids LOVE McDonald's...really they love McDonald's toys.
It was fun to show the kids RICHARDS street.
Our attempt at a family selfie. The displays at Temple Square were much smaller than in the past due to all of the construction.
The kids each found their favorite color in lights. Green for Silas...
Pink for Millie...
and Red for Phin. It was raining when we visited and it reflection of the lights on the wet sidewalk was so pretty. We went around to see all of the nativity scenes and each pointed out our favorite part of each scene.
We were hoping to see the giant Gingerbread house at the Grand America...but they had taken it down because it had started to melt. We were able to visit all the windows representing Holiday celebrations around the world. We searched for a little character named Pip at each display.
We rode TRAX when we were downtown, which the kids always seem to love.
We also stopped to see the candy windows at Macy's.
I peeked in Phin's room one afternoon when he was supposed to be reading and found him reading his scriptures...it made my Mom heart so happy.
Seth worked with each kid to build a train around their personal interests. Silas had a Spiderman train.
Millie had an aquarium train with a mermaid and dolphins.
Seth's family did a little "Parade of Trees" on their group chat. We were a little late to the game but here was our tree this year. We opted for a little 3 foot tree that we could put up on our end table.
We spent some time up in Cache Valley. Jamie and Jotham hosted a soup lunch and a shotgun shoot.
We gave Reed and Jacque a BB gun so the younger kids could participate in shotgun shooting. It was fun to see these three generations all lined up.
Lou was not a huge fan of the sound of the shotguns...but Phin was willing to help her out.
Lou loved visiting Jotham's horses.
Phin got some rockets for Christmas and it was fun to send them up with a cousin audience.
The kids had the best time playing with their cousins.
The kids put on a talent show one night. We have some very talented nieces and nephews.
Millie and Emmaline performed a dance that they had choreographed.
On the way up we stopped at Gossner's for some ice cream. It was really a reward for Silas. We took Jamie and Jotham's family to the Flow Rider in Ogden for their family Christmas gift. Silas wasn't so sure he wanted to participate...so we bribed him.
Our instructor was so good with Millie and Silas. Millie had been wanting to do the Flow Rider since Phin's birthday.
Silas rode with the instructor. He was very nervous to start but warmed up well.
We spent our Christmas down at the cabin in Escalante. We had to leave the day after Christmas to get home for our other activities. We were pleasantly surprised when Jeff and Kim drove to the cabin on Christmas day. We spent the morning of the 26th hanging out with cousins.
We got a BB gun for Christmas too and the kids loved showing Carver how it worked.
Conrad is always so interested in Lou. It is fun to see him hanging around her and wanting to play.
I did a puzzle over this break...this picture is how I felt about it. It took two days. It was a Aztec Calendar and was quite tricky.
We shot rockets off down at the cabin too. We went over to the fairgrounds and had plenty of room to set them off. I was surprised just how high up they went.
We also cooked some homemade pizza on Christmas day. Nona manned the Pizza oven. I mixed up the dough and put all the pizzas together. They turned out so good.
The kids had the best time time playing with their toys and eating their stocking snacks.
Christmas morning with their stockings.
I tried to get a good picture on Christmas Eve...we weren't very successful. We did have a yummy steak dinner.
Lou kept us all pretty busy at the cabin. She was working hard on getting her top two teeth.
She was so funny and kept holding on to Nona's cane.
She was pretty boogie in the mornings...
We spent some time outside too. The weather was actually pretty mild for the winter. Seth and the kids hid a geocaching box on the property with treats for their cousins to find.
We gave them a BB gun before Christmas so they could test it out.
We also opened several board games early. The kids loved the Marvel versions of Eye Found It and Guess in 10.
Millie and I completed a felt tress craft kit and then decorated the cabin with our trees.
The kids also worked on making a map with clues to their geocache.
Our neighbors always gift us a giant coloring poster at Christmas. We took it to the cabin and had the best time coloring. It had little scenes from Christmas movies.
The sunrises down at the cabin were glorious.
This is one of my favorite photos from the trip...mostly because I have a similar picture from our trip last year. Lou has grown so much in a year.
Lou loved this rocking chair and thought it was made just for her.
We spent our first night at the cabin watching Millie's 1st grade Christmas program. She sang along to every song.
I was able to volunteer at Millie's class Gingerbread party a couple of days before Winter Break started. It is always so fun to see Millie in her classroom.
A huge shout out to our Idaho cousins that spotted Millie's class gingerbread man and wrote a card for her class. She was thrilled a letter came just for her.
We also got together for dinner one Sunday in December. Nona and Papa continued the tradition of matching Christmas PJ's for the grandchildren.
Our ward had a Christmas breakfast. The kids helped decorate and were so proud of their work.
We bought some sugar cookies and frosting one Saturday. The kids loved decorating their little trees.
Seth and I received tickets to the Tabernacle Choir performance . My favorite part was when they had everyone turn on the flashlights on their phones.
Reed and Jacque had tickets for the same night. We were able to take them out for dinner at the Little America before the concert.
We met Amy, Zoey, Connor and Grace at Farmington Station for the Snowman Scavenger hunt. Millie and Phin thought this snow pile in the parking lot was the best.
We were able to do the bumper ice cars too.
Phin had a piano recital in December. He played Joy to the World. He had the piece memorized and did such a beautiful job. He also played Jingle Bells as a duet.
Phin and Millie found this snow pile at the school and insisted on climbing it one morning.
Phin came home with a decorated sugar cookie from Activity Days.
Millie's wanted to make some gingerbread cookies. I couldn't find my gingerbread man cookie cutter but we did find a bear cookie cutter.
We went Ice Skating at the local Ice Ribbon. Phin and Millie are really starting to figure out this whole ice skating thing.
Santa even made an appearance at the rink and handed out Hershey kisses.
Silas loved being pushed around behind the walker.
We ran the Jingle Bell 1K again this year.
Lou had so many pretty Christmas dresses this year that it was hard to decide what dress to put her in each week.
The kids loved doing Christmas themed Paint by Sticker pages.
We visited our favorite local light display.
The kids convinced me to take them sledding after school one afternoon. I loved watching them slide down together.
We had to institute a new snow rule this year...you can only eat snow on the first day that it falls. Here Phin is digging right into the fresh snow. We also had 3 late starts at school due to the snow. I actually really enjoyed the slow paced mornings.
I had Phin and Millie submit a cover for the Yearbook cover contest. They sat down one afternoon and spent quite a bit of time on their artwork.
Millie of course drew a rainbow.
