Christmas 2013

We had a really great Christmas this year. All of Brandon's family was in town so we spent a whole lot of time with them and loved it.

 

Mckinley and her cousin Sam from New Mexico had lots of fun playing together.

 

My sister Amy came and saved me one day and babysat my kids while I went Christmas shopping. She made a snowman with McKinley while I was gone which was so awesome because McKinley had been asking me to make one with her forever. She watched Frozen a million times and is obsessed with the movie and was so excited to make her own snowman.

 

Christmas Eve we had dinner at my parents' house like we always do. I don't have any pictures from it. The food was amazing.

 

Mckinley giving Santa a hug when he came to visit at Brandon's parents' house one evening.

 

Mckinley was obsessed with Brandon's mom's village. She played with this for like an hour straight one evening.

 

When Mckinley went to bed on Christmas Eve she was so excited for Santa to come and then when she woke up Christmas morning she completely forgot what day it was. Ha ha ha. This is what the kids woke up to:

 

Opening up her stocking.

 

Mckinley was so cute and polite opening presents and was so good to help Tyler and Kallie open theirs. They actually did pretty well and were interested in opening presents so it was a pretty fun morning.

 

Brandon found a pet care kit for Mckinley but bought it mainly for the doctor stuff it had in it. Well she sure loves the puppy too. And so does Tyler. He is slightly obsessed. I was so happy to find this adorable coat for McKinley at Costco. The one she was wearing when she made the snowman was size 2T. She was in desperate need!

 

Impossible to get a picture of these two standing next to each other. There is no way to get them to hold still. This was the best we got. Man, they are cute!

 

Brandon's dad gave us money for Christmas to help out with our Disneyland vacation in April. He had a suitcase full of $1 bills. Ha ha ha.

 

Mckinley and Annie didn't make it through Monsters University.

 

We spent almost the entire day at Brandon's parents' house and in fact we were there almost every night from when Lincoln got home straight through to New Years. We had such a good time visiting with family from out of town and letting the kids play together. Tyler and Kallie are pretty independent now which makes it a lot easier to go places and they would just sleep together in their pack n play if we stayed over late.

Lincoln's Home!!!

Rewind 2 years ago. Brandon's youngest brother Lincoln left to serve a mission in Chile. He left on Brandon's birthday, January 4th. Brandon was so sad to see him go and knew he would really miss him. Lincoln is Brandon's mini me. They are close.

 

So here we are with him two years ago the day he left.

 

 

Well, yesterday he came home. Everyone was so excited to see him again. Except his mom. Because she thought she wasn't going to see him till January 14th, next month. He decided he wanted to surprise her so we all helped him and kept it a secret and she had no idea and it was the most awesome surprise ever. Two of Brandon's siblings drove into town the day before, and we all went up to Salt Lake. Brandon's dad went to the airport to pick up Lincoln and then brought him to Temple Square to surprise his mom. Here are the pictures and a video.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I can get the before picture that we took, but you can kind of tell from the picture above how much these girls grew while he was gone! I think Mckinley and Haley both grew about a foot. Incredible.

 

Um  yeah, so it was pretty much amazing. So fun to have Lincoln home and so fun to be a part of the surprise. Christmas last year was our best one yet by far and I already know this one is going to top it. I'm so excited!!!

 

Here is our little family.

 

 

The Polar Express

My mom got an appointment for us to go ride the Polar Express train in Lindon. Such a fun thing to do at Christmas!

 

It was freezing and past Tyler and Kallie's bedtime but we still had a lot of fun!

 

I really wanted the kid to be able to sit on Santa's lap this year and this was the perfect excuse. Even tired and cold, they didn't seem to mind.

 

McKinley was so excited to see Santa. When he asked her what she wants for Christmas she just said, "I don't know." Ha ha ha.

 

Right after she sat on his lap she came over to me and said, "this is so exciting!!"

 

Tyler and Kallie watching the train go around in Santa's workshop.

 

Kallie kept pulling her top lip in and just looked so cute!!!

 

Even though we haven't done any Christmas shopping yet, we are really enjoying the Christmas season this year.

Steph's Phone

Realizing I had a lot of pictures on my phone and camera that weren't uploaded to the computer either... Get ready for picture overload.

 

A picnic dinner.

 

Kinley looking so cute with her post braid hair.

 

Riding her bike in the basement.

 

Here is me wishing Kallie's hair was long enough to put in a clip.

 

The kids have been loving this little people nativity my mom gave them as an early Christmas present.

 

 

Kallie and Tyler always sit in the toy bins in the toy room.

 

Tyler climbed on the back of this while Kallie was riding it and she was not happy about it.

 

They also love to stand on top of the toy bins so they can reach things higher up in the toy kitchen.

 

Looking cute with straight hair.

 

Ha ha. I love things like this. Kallie was also not happy about Tyler trying to climb up on the stool with her.

 

My sister gave us this little snowman that lights up and Mckinley has it in her window. She goes and plugs it in all the time and then opens the blinds so she can see it. She thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

 

Kallie is a climber! She climbed up on this car at my mom and dad's while Tyler was riding it.

 

Cute sisters playing in a baby bassinet at Kristen's house.

 

These guys always follow each other around and get in fights trying to climb up on the same things.

 

Cute happy kids during lunch today. All I had to do was say cheese and these were the faces I got.

 

Kallie and Tyler were feeding each other crackers at the same time today. I didn't get a good picture of it...

 

Kallie sitting in the Yahtzee box...

 

Sitting in the cupboard.

 

Tyler saw her do it and went and copied her after.

 

Maverik pulled all the towels out of my kitchen drawer and then climbed in. Ha ha ha.

 

Never a dull moment with these kids...

Brandon's Phone

I finally got all the pictures from Brandon's phone uploaded to the computer. We actually don't have that many pictures of the last few weeks because I have been sick with a miserable cold and not in the mood to take pictures much.

 

These pictures are absolute classics. There is one of me in my baby book when I fell asleep right in my mashed potatoes. And then another one of when I woke up and had mashed potatoes on my forehead. I used to get so mad when people would laugh at it. Ha ha. Anyway, here is Mckinley asleep on the counter while eating dinner. She has become a very picky eater when it comes to dinner time. We have to bribe her with every bite and sometimes it takes her hours to eat her dinner.

 

Cooking/baking are close to the bottom on my list of skills. I finally bought yeast for the first time in my life and made real dough from scratch. We made Navajo tacos and pizza with it. I know I shouldn't be proud of this at my age, but I am.

 

Navajo tacos. Mmmmm.

 

Here is a picture of Mckinley when she was dressed like a princess to go out trick or treating on Halloween. She wears this dress quite a few times every week. Has it on right now in fact. My mom found it at DI. :) I absolutely love it.

 

Mckinley thought it was pretty cool when the air from the vent was blowing on her.

 

And then Brandon told her to hold down her skirt. Ha ha. Hello Marilyn Monroe.

 

Brandon and Mckinley went out on a date one night and went miniature golfing and got some food.

 

 

 

She loves her dates with her dad.

 

Kallie is our climber. She loves being up on things like this.

 

Ah, just looking at this picture makes me jealous. Brandon wakes up every morning with our kids and usually Kallie will lay down on his chest for a while. She absolutely does not do this with me. Maybe for half a second if I ask her to but she does it on him all the time. Makes me so jealous!!!

 

Sisters. I hope they grow up to be best friends.

 

Mckinley is super excited about the snowman light hanging in her window.

 

I am really excited for Christmas this year. We haven't done any Christmas shopping yet, but I'm sure that will come eventually, right? I love the ages of our kids right now, I think all three of them will have fun opening presents and seeing Christmas lights and all that. It should be a good year! If we can just somehow manage to not be too sick on Christmas. I swear our kids get sick and pretty much stay sick all winter long every year. At least with runny noses. I know I could be dealing with a lot worse, but I am not very patient with these long lasting colds. :(

 

We have had a couple of challenging months with the twins. And by we, I mean me. And it's actually with all three of the kids. Mckinley has had a phobia lately of doors being closed or of me leaving the room. It has been very frustrating. And Tyler and Kallie are just cranky! A lot of the time. Of course they are fun and cute and learning so much and starting to communicate with us and so it's mostly awesome but boy, do I have my days (and weeks) where I can barely handle taking care of them.

 

Mckinley is starting to draw and write. Like all the time. She just draws whatever she wants and writes random letters and I just love it. She is really good at coloring too. Totally surprises me all the time to see what she can do. We just love her so much! And now to go tend to this crying son of mine....