The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!!

Here are some of the wonderful Holiday experiences our family has been enjoying. The season is going so fast, and there is so much to do.

December 10, 2009

Well we finally got our Christmas tree. We have had our fake one up since Thanksgiving, but things have been crazy so we did not get the real one till December 10. We had a good time, but lets just say it was a bit cold. It was 9 degrees while we were out, so we choose very quickly.

The kids were sitting in the car waiting for Dave to get the tree tied down.
Daxton now strikes a pose in all our pictures!

We got our beautiful tree home and realized the trunk was curved at the bottom.
I guess the cold made us a bit hasty, so we had to put a couple of Thomas the Train
tracks under a couple of the legs of the tree stand. It worked great!
The tree looks like it stands straight now :)

December 12, 2009

We have been getting dumped on with snow. We have done much shoveling, which I really enjoy doing.

Well Dave and I have done a good job keeping our driveway clear this year, but I can not say that our city has done as good a job. They pretty much only plow the main roads, so our street never gets done. It gets really bad :( They finally came and plowed when we could barely make it up our street. So frustrating! Hey I can not complain, at least we will have a white Christmas!

December 13, 2009

We finally got around to decorating our tree. This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. (Well that is after I get the darn lights put on.) I love watching the kids decorate. I was so sad, Daxton did not want to help decorate. I guess he is just to old for this part of Christmas :(. What was even worse is since Dax didn't help, Brayden decided he was to old also :( :(. So just Jada and Dawson decorated this year. They did a great job!!

Dawson could not wait to put up these little red ornaments.
He would not let anyone help with these. He would not let them out of his sight!

Dawson hard at work

Jada deep in thought!

My two dedicated helpers!

I think the days of getting a cute, nice picture of my kids is coming to end :(
They all are so put out to get a picture taken, well except Jada and Dawson.

The finished product!
I so love at night when the lights are out and the tree is lite up :)

December 16, 2009

We had a full night last night. We started at 4 p.m., and didn't get home till just after 11 p.m. Only to get to wake up bright and early to be at yet another dental appt. at 8 a.m. Crazy times :/

We started off the night going to the mall to see Santa. We only had to wait in line for a little over an hour :(. Most of that time was waiting for Santa to just show up. Once he got there the line went pretty fast.

Our cute kids!
Some not as thrilled as others to see Santa.

They have a whole area that kids can play with while in line to see Santa.

Maybe I am a bit bah humbug, but I was not that thrilled with this Santa this year :(
He wasn't very friendly, not to mention their pictures suck,
and they cost $5 more than last year :(

At least Santa paid some attention to the one that mattered the most... Dawson.
All Dawson has been asking for is a motorcycle, but when it came to telling Santa his hopes
for Christmas morning, he blurted out a toy gun.
Great, I was really hoping Santa would come through with the motorcycle. Now I am going to
be responsible for that, and Santa is going to get off easy with a toy gun :/

Next we picked Dave up at work and went to ride Trax up to Temple Square. We have a tradition to ride Trax, eat dinner, and go see the lights.

On the platform waiting for Trax.
Thank goodness the weather has warmed up. It was the perfect night.
The temperature was 40 degrees :)

Dave & Jada

Dax, sporting his new picture face!

Dawson, Me and Brayden
Dax & Dave did not want to ride Trax this year, but Dawson was so excited. Plus, it is
tradition :) Sorry Dax

Next we went to the Gateway to have dinner. The Gateway was so fun, and decorated so beautifully.

You can not tell from this picture but they had the water dancing to Christmas music.

They had big fire pits to get warm by!
I love my fire pit, but wow I would love one of these huge built in fire pit in my backyard!
Dear Santa: This is what I want for Christmas :)

Our old tradition was dinner at Crossroads Mall, then we would go to the candy store (also
in Crossroads). The kids would get to pick out a pocket full of candy to eat
while we looked at the lights.
So here is a picture of our new candy stop before the viewing of the lights!!

Finally we were on our way to Temple Square. Like I said before, it was the perfect evening to go. Even after so many years of viewing the lights, I am still in awe. It is incredible what they do to Temple Square.

I love my cute family!

You can barely see it, but the old Tabernacle is behind Jada.

I sure do love this guy!

I love this picture of this simple manger scene, with the temple behind it!

Finally, it was the Trax ride home. Wow, it sure was a long night. Hey at least Jada was still smiling :)

No wonder Dawson was falling asleep... He had just thrown one of his major fits. He really freaked out, and everyone at Temple Square was starring. I've finally learned not to let it embarrase me. Hey, but look how darn cute he is when he is sleeping. There is nothing quite like a sleeping baby!!

I love this tradition we have. What a great way to spend some of the Christmas season. I am so grateful for such a great family, even if our kids fought for the better part of the evening. I want them to know that even though I get stressed out with all their fighting, I still love them with all my heart. Hopefully one day they will out grow the fighting phase :/.