Off to Salt Lake City!

Off to Salt Lake, with dinosaur hats and all. We left at 10:00am and Jackson wore his until about 2:00 that afternoon. He didn't take it off one time. Garrett on the other hand had his off before got out of town! He figured out that he wouldn't be able to drink his drink or have his wuh (aka.. binky) if his hat was on. When we got to Salt Lake it was cram time. Shawn decided to stop at Great Harvest Bread....mmmmmm! We havn't had it for years. Then Shawn dropped me off at the hospital for my doctor appt. and took Penny our dog to her appt. with the boys. Apparently that was a little interesting. After Shawn picked me back up we went to his Dad's and met his whole family there. We exchanged gifts with the grandkids. It was really fun! Lots of new toys! The funniest was Garrett got a mop and broom cleaning set from Auntie Amy. He was sooo excited! Incase you don't know Garrett is infactuated with brooms, and vacuums. He held his broom up and did his little dance several times. I am bummed that I didn't take any pictures. Thanks Auntie Amy and Uncle Alex, Garrett asked for his broom the whole way home the next day. Unfortunately it was barried in the back with all the other great gifts that we got from everybody. Then we all packed up and went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. I have not been there for years either. We had so much fun! Everybody was laughing and enjoying eachothers company. It was really nice to have Shawn's Mom and Dad with all of us. We were missing one brother though. Colton was out of town. We missed him. After dinner we all headed to Temple Square to see the lights. It was so cold, but always worth it. Below are a few pictures. They weren't really turning out. I hope we can do it again next year!

Joseph and Mary with baby Jesus in the manger on the mirror pond

This is on South Temple, you can see Brigham Young to the left

Jackson wishes all a Merry Christmas!

http://www.dancingsantacard.com/?santa=190264

The day after Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving we headed down into town for the annual Hollydays Festival. There was all kinds of fun activities for the kids to participate in. Then we headed home and built a ginger bread house, had dinner, and went back to see Santa. While waiting for Santa we roasted marshmello's and listened to kareoke Christmas songs in Cobble Rock Park. It is obvious that Jackson has seen Santa before. Garrett on the other had wasn't very happy until Mrs. Claus gave him a candy cane. After Santa the boys went on a few rides, and then we waited in line for an hour for a balloon! I will never do that again! Both Jackson and Garrett were asleep in the car before I was even one block away from where we had parked. We had lots of fun. Next year it will be with three kids. That should be interesting.

Jackson and Garrett riding the choo choo train

Jackson and Garrett sitting on the fire truck

Jackson chipping away at an ice sculpture

Thanksgiving, and an early start on Christmas!

Well our tree was up before Thanksgiving this year, all because I was hosting Bunco at my house. So a week before Thanksgiving we went up onto the mountain to cut a tree down. We got it home and Shawn put it up for me, and we quickly decided that it was the ugliest tree ever!! But what do ya do! So I put all the lights on and all of our ornaments, and it actually looked ok. It started to grow on us a little. Well one day later I was putting the boys to bed and all of a sudden I heard a crash downstairs, with the sound of breaking glass. I ran down and there was the tree laying on the table in the living room. Glass everywhere! Garrett was very upset. He said a monker (monster) got the tree. I went to go wake Shawn up and he came down and helped me clean up. The tree would no longer stand, because the trunk was so damaged. I just cried. Shawn leaned the tree up against the wall and went back to bed while I stayed up another hour and completely stripped the tree down. Everything was on my kitchen table. I didn't think to take any pictures because I was to upset. But it was quite a site. The next morning my cute husband came home and he and Jackson set out to go and cut me down a new tree. They were gone for three hours! When they finally got back Jackson ran in the house and said, "Mom, Mom we got you the prettiest bestest tree in the whole wide world! They did! Shawn cut down the nicest tree we have ever had. I had everything back on the tree in five hours! Boy I was sore the next day!
Thanksgiving, we ended up having to stay home this year. But we had a good dinner as a family. Shawn cooked almost everything, due to the fact that I fell down the stairs the day before. He did a good job on the turkey, and the mashed potatoes. Everything else was good too. So thank you schoooo for the best Christmas tree, and a yummy turkey on Thanksgiving!

First snow of the year!

Just a skiff in the back yard, but you would have thought there was a foot. They were so excited to put there boots on and get there snow shovels out and play in the snow. Garrett was a little concerned about the crunch under his feet at first, but as soon as Jackson started shoveling, Garrett followed. They were brooming as Garrett calls it!

Halloween Night

We were in Salt Lake for Halloween, so we went trick or treating in Auntie Amy and Uncle Alex's neighborhood. The weather was great until it started to rain. But that didn't stop us! Shawn wasn't able to come, that is why he is missing in this family picture. That is me, Garrett our dog, Jackson Buzz Lightyear, and of course Penny our little hot dog. Penny stole the show. People were coming up to us, walking across the street, and even coming out of their homes just to see her. She was very good and didn't bark, and she let everyone that wanted to pet her. We taught Garrett how to say trick or treat but he wouldn't say it when he was supposed to so he left that to big brother. It was funny because Garrett would look at the person that answered the door being that they were dressed up, then look at the bucket, take a piece of candy and turn around and say BYE! Jackson was once again left to saying all the thank you's. We got back to the house and the boys no sooner had candy in there mouths! Then Amy made spaghetti with black noodles and her homemade sauce, and parmesan chicken. It was really good! We ended our night with excitement! The lifeflight helicopter landed on the golf course (which is Alex and Amy's backyard) and an ambulance came and put someone in the helicopter and then we watched it take off. The boys loved that! We were so glad that Nani could come and spend it with us too! Thanks Alex and Amy for a fun Halloween night!

Halloween fun at Lagoon!

We decided to take the boys to Frightmares at Lagoon. We had lots of fun, avoided the monsters, and rode the rides. Above is Gabriel (cousin), Jackson, Uncle Alex, and Uncle Nicholas. Below is Unlce Alex with Gabriel, Jackson and Auntie Amy. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of Nani (Shawn's mom) or Uncle Colton, my camera ran out of batteries. Jackson was not very excited about the monsters that were walking around the park. He would hide behind the Garrett in the stroller. That was until he got his pumpkin flash light. Then when ever he saw a monster coming towards us he would turn his light on and point it at them. It worked! It also took a lot of convincing to get Jackson on some of the rides, but leave it to Uncle Nicholas! He talked Jackson onto almost all the rides he was tall enough to ride! So thanks everybody we had lots of fun spending time with the family!