Goodbye 2013

Happy Holidays and goodbye 2013.  Here is a look at the Christmas card I designed this year.  I took an annual report/info-graphic approach and listed out our family stats.  It's fun to see our year this way. I noticed I fell behind on blog posting this year.  Not really sure why... maybe it was all of those baseball games? In 2013 I posted just over 100 times and in 2012 I had an all-time high record of 287. In 2011 I posted 238 times. Whoa. That's a lot of posting - thanks for sticking with me over the years.  I am happy to have this online journal and it'll be nice for the kids to go through one day.

So on this last day of of 2013 (my last post for 2013) I wish you all a Happy New year and lots of love,  happiness, luck and health for 2014. 

Archer

Finally took Ben to an archery range (twice). Poor kid normally only gets to shoot his bow when Grandpa can supervise. We found a range in SL and it's pretty reasonable, 6$ for unlimited shooting. Ben recieved some class sessions as a Christmas gift. He's a natural. He'd be a pro if he'd wear his glasses or contacts. Silly boy!

North Pole express

On Friday we took a train ride on the North Pole Express. We met a few nice elves, Mrs. Claus and even had a visit from Santa.

While heading to the North Pole we enjoyed Hot cocoa ("hot coke" as Nic calls it), famous chocolate chip cookies and caroling. Santa faces us all bells. It was a festive, memorable and fun night.

Gingerbread men

Having some fun last week building gingerbread houses. Surprisingly easy this year, nothing fell apart. Nic has been begging for weeks to put one together. He was thrilled!

Hohoholiday party

We had an immediate family Chrismas party last night at Geoff and Ky's house. We missed celebrating with Beau, Nichole & kids and Shawn, Lisa and kids. The timing just didn't work out this year for everyone to be together.  We made due and the kids had a blast all the same. It was a nice surprise to see Aunt Julie, Uncle Mike & Karen and Ky's parents Pam and Doug. We sure had fun.

Like a dummy I didn't get a big group picture. Ug, I wish I had.

There was excellent food & desserts, fun games, white elephant, and a visit from Santa. 

Nicholas was so thrilled to see Santa. His eyes lit up the second he saw him and he proceeded to tell Santa all about his elf. Santa remembered sending an elf to Nicholas and the dialogue they had about "elfie" was super cute. Nicholas asked for a flashlight friend, and surprise, he magically recieved one. A Christmas miracle! The older boys were happy to see Santa too. They both enjoyed sitting on his lap and listing their Christmas wishes. Look how big Andrew is?! Right now he is almost 5'8" (he has grown 3 inches in the last year). The bigs boys recieved Legos and were happy. Ben spent the rest of his evening putting his set together.

Geoff & Ky... Thanks for hosting such a fun party!

Packaging

Some gift packaging for card club and family...

Father son ski day

Chris and Andrew had a nice day skiing, just the two of them. Chris skied like a 14 year old and can barely move. Worth it.

Nic skis!

Chris took all the boys up skiing this past weekend. Nicholas did well and enjoyed the two runs he got in before the big wipeout. Hot cocoa at the lodge calmed him down and I think he is ready for his next trip. We might need to get him lessons since Chris can't bend over that well anymore. Dang hip!

Zoo and city lights with Mallett clan

We enjoyed a wonderful day at the Zoo (thank you Nina) and wandering around temple square with Chris' family.

The zoo in winter is great as most of the animals are out and very active. Also, it is not as crowded. The kids had a wonderful time running around and visiting the animals.

Temple square was beautiful, as usual. We went the night it "opened" and boy was it crowded. We stopped by to see the Macy candy windows and caught a few displays inside City Creek.

It's wonderful to share these traditions.

Thanksgiving round up

We had an excellent Thanksgiving holiday. We were blessed to have Chris' mom, sister and kids (Nina & Billy Jack) share this day with us. They are out west on a 10 day vacation and are visiting most of the national parks in southern Utah.

This is the first Thanksgiving I have exclusively cooked, from the appetizers, to turkey and sides, to pies. The consumers approved and said I did a great job.

I brined the turkey and used this amazing recipe. It worked great, really easy to do. 

I made most if the sides the day before and got them all ready to cook.  You may recall the sweet potato recipe (here) from a few years ago. I also made quick dinner rolls. So easy. While we did have a few vegetables, I made a "salad", more like a pretzel dessert. But the recipe called it a salad, we are going with it.

We ate, relaxed and enjoyed our great company. We are very grateful for family. 

Happy belated Thanksgiving.

Deck the halls

We did a little decorating (and dejunking at the same time) this week. We got our tree trimmed, stocked hung and house decked out!

I tried to put out all the decorations this year and got rid of anything that we didn't use. It seemed to work and the house feels less cluttered.

I'm taking an online class (12 artsy ornaments) and have made this cool star for our mantel. Nicholas helped and he made this smaller version.  

Christmas card blitz!

Nic and I got together with Grandma this morning to make her Christmas cards. I prepped the supplies a bit this weekend and that helped us make almost 80 cards in under 2 hours.  It was a nice morning chatting, crafting and basically hanging out. She should be ready! And it's nice to use up some of my massive amounts of craft supply. 

Nic is so cute. He gave Grandma hugs, multiple kisses and was very polite. Sometimes he can turn that charm on. I really should try to document and live in the moment of his sweet comments more often.

A few Nic gems from today:

"I am three and last year I was two. Next year I am six!"

"I already kissed you... check!"

"Goodnight, goodnight, where are you?" He said this in reference to Grandma's horse named "Midnight".

"Grandma, you stole that candy from our house". Referring to the candy corn we gave her at Halloween.

"This ski boot is tight. My sock says get me out of here". Trying on his new ski boots.

Love this boy!