Zoo Day

We hit up the $2 wild Wednesdays at the zoo thanks to Megan. I was so worried about going because it was freezing outside but it ended up being an amazing zoo trip!

There was a new baby monkey that we didn't even know about and it was so fun watching the big monkeys jump around carrying it and passing it back and forth.

We saw the most elephant action we have ever seen. This elephant poked it's head through the wires and was breaking branches off a tree and eating them. It was so cool to watch.

And then there was a huge seal swimming back and forth a million times and the kids had so much fun watching it through the glass.

 

Christmas 2021

On December 23rd Brandon went up to the Jazz game so we went and saw my parents and went around looking at Christmas lights.

We found a bunch of cool houses in between searching for the ones listed in Orem's tour of lights. The tour of lights houses (with the exception of my neighbor's house) were a complete joke. It was comical how bad they were.

Christmas Eve we stayed home and made sugar cookies and other yummy food and watched Christmas movies and just hung out at home. The rest of my family got together but we didn't go. It wasn't as fun as it was the year before, but still nice to not be stuck out late into the evening.

Christmas felt weird this year. I think partly because Tyler and Kallie had to be told the truth about Santa (Kallie was starting to ruin it for a cousin) and so the only real believer we had was Ava. Jackson is too little.

And I don't know, I guess I did a bad job of Christmas shopping this year. Kallie in particular felt like her Christmas kind of sucked. It was weird with grumpiness while opening presents.

We invited Ross and Karen over for our traditional breakfast. We made coconut syrup which was absolutely incredible.

So Tyler got a jacket that didn't fit him and when I went to go in to return it, I noticed a shirt from the same order that I bought for Kallie but I never remembered wrapping it. So I was searching for it everywhere and in the weirdest way, discovered that there are these dumb super deep holes in our closet and I figured her shirt fell down there.

I was right. Her shirt had fallen down here (we had boxes up on the top of these shelves for each kid and I had thrown her shirt up to her box since I don't even come close to reaching and I guess it fell down the hole). But how lame that they left these holes when they built our closet.

Anyway, such a long story but this is the contraption we made to get her shirt out and it worked! There was also a pair of socks down one of the holes and I now have a clogged central vac hose that I'm hoping I can somehow unclog on my own one day so I don't have to pay a bunch of money to get it fixed.

We went over to Brandon's parents house on Sunday, the day after Christmas. And look how cute Jackson is snuggling with Mckinley.

Boxing day was pushed till Monday with Christmas being on a Saturday this year. The kids had a great time as always.

 

Christmas Prep

It's always so fun getting ready for Christmas. We hit up Riverwoods at the end of November when there was no line for Santa. We have it down to an art now and it's our favorite thing to do. The Santas there are so good!

The lights are just gorgeous too.

After Riverwoods we went to watch Lincoln play an indoor soccer game and I just had to document this because Lincoln ended up kicking the ball and it hit Kallie in the head and knocked her to the ground. It was crazy! She didn't even cry. I know she was super embarrassed but I'm just so glad she wasn't injured seriously. She could have easily gotten a concussion from that.

Mckinley rocking it again (thanks to Jenna George always for letting us borrow her costumes!) at school. The 6th graders do an ancient civilations report and she was on Egypt. She had a great group and did a great job.

Lindon Park had a huge lit up tree this year. We went and hit up the house by the PG seminary as well which is always spectacular.

The kids got some good snow days in. I love watching them play out on the golf course. Jackson did not love it which is fine with me because I'm happy to stay inside.

Ross and Karen invited us to their ward Christmas party which was absolutely incredible. They had the most amazing decorations and such a cute program too. We loved it! Oh and the food was amazing. Of course. Thanks to Howie Nelson.

The kids had their Christmas sing at school and it was soooo fun to watch. Tyler and Kallie had the cutest song ever!

My dad let us borrow this really fun wooden puzzle. 

I had a great time going to Tyler and Kallie's class party.

Jackson always sits and draws on this white board. He is so adorable. And most definitely left handed.

Jackson is in the phase of not wanting to take naps at naptime and always crashing somewhere late in the afternoon. 

Ross and Karen split up Bingo this year into kids, teens, and adults. The kids had such a great time! One of our very favorite traditions.

Again with the gorgeous sunsets! Pictures never do them justice.