New Year, New adventures

January is cold and the Fullers needed a bit of warmer weather so we headed to Las Vegas for a quick getaway. We stayed at our favorite hotel- The Trump Tower where we enjoy a 2 bathroom, living room, full kitchen and king bed relaxing trip. Even Dakota loved the bed- perfect for jumping. While in Vegas we visited some of our good friends from Charleston-the Wards who now live in Vegas. We saw the sites- M&M factory, Hershey's Factory, many decorative hotels and casinos, the water fountains at the Bellagio, etc. It was such a fun break for us. My favorite part was the Coke Factory where we got to try different flavors of soda from all over the world- some were straight up nasty! We also visited the ice castles this month. Its an amazing site and the kids loved sliding down the ice slides. I am taking every opportunity I can to enjoy some quality time with Austin before he starts school every day next year, one of my favorite things to do with him is play games and his current favorite is Candy Land. One of Dakota's favorite things is cookie butter and as always even when you tell her no, she finds a way to get whatever she wants for herself. She asked for cookie butter and I said no, so of course I walk into the living room to find her enjoying herself. Dakota loves to paint her nails and will often find whatever she can to "pretend to paint". Austin is getting even better at writing his name and got to bring snacks again this month to preschool-- it was bugs so we made lady bug pretzels and lady bug cheese. We also got to see Brynlee on her birthday so we made her a colorful giant cupcake covered in sprinkles! The month ended with crazy hair day at school for Wyatt so of course Austin joined in too!

Snow is in the air...

December is finally here and in Utah that means a lot of snow. While the boys love playing outside, I have gotten used to getting geared up and playing with them. Dakota hates it, and now at our new home in Salem we get A TON of snow. I swear we are plowing every day and multiple times a day. The best part of the snow is making hot chocolate- the boys love coming inside to some of my gourmet cocoa. December is also a fun time at school for the boys. Austin got a super fun stuffed reindeer from Mrs. Leslie that he loves to sleep with each night and has carried around all month. They boys have each had a fun Christmas performance at school, and of course we got to have our multiple encounters with Santa. Dakota of course screams when she sees Santa. Wyatt got a write a fun Christmas list at school and a letter to Santa with the help of his 5th grade buddy. My favorite was a sweet note that his 5th grade buddy wrote to him. Some fun things about Dakota this month are how she loves to play tug of war with Tyke and chase him all over the house, she can't say Wyatt so she calls him y yay, she loves bath time and will go get her shoes when she is asked to. She also got a new princess dress and SCREAMS when she has to put it on. We had such an amazing Christmas season full of our usual traditions of decorating the house and the tree, having story times with Santa, making gingerbread houses (of course my kids do more eating than decorating), watching some spiritual Christmas movies and devotionals as a family, visiting the charity- festival of trees and getting our pictures taken with Santa. The kids also had a great Christmas and are starting to understand why we really celebrate the season, which I am so grateful for. This is one of my favorite most magical times of the year, especially when we can enjoy celebrating it with our small children.