Merry Christmas!

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year! I love spending time with my family, I love all the music, sights and smells of Christmas. I also love reflecting back over the past year and recognizing all my blessings and all I have to be thankful for! But besides all that Christmas time is so much fun with little kids. Now that Issak is getting older the magic of Christmas is so real to him and I absolutely love it! But I also love the chance of getting to teach him the real meaning of Christmas and the reason we celebrate it.

We started out the morning by having to wake the kids up at 7:30. We were to excited to wait any longer for them to wake up. Issaks face was price less! He had the biggest smile on his face as he walked out to the front room to see what Santa had brought. He was also so excited to see that Santa had eaten the cookies he had made for him. This was the first year that he has done that and it was so cute to see how excited he was. They opened all their gifts from Santa first then the gifts from us next. We then got ready and headed out in the storm to my parents house. We always spend Christmas morning with my family opening more presents and eating the best food! And in the afternoon we head out to visit Anthonys family. All in all this Christmas was so great and I loved every minute! We got so many great gifts and had a blast spending the day together!

The presents Santa left for the boys

Opening Presents form Grandma and Grandpa

My parents got a Wii for Christmas and we all had so much fun playing bowling, baseball and tennis

Christmas Eve

This year we had such a great Christmas! I mean we do every year, but this year was just so fun! Anthonys mom gave Issak a gingerbread train kit for Christmas so we put that together during the day. Anthony unfortunately had to work Christmas Eve day so it was fun to let Issak do that while Anthony was gone. Later that day my family met at our house to have dinner before going to see the lights at Temple Square. We started this tradition last year and so far love it! Last year it was a complete blizzard when we left and this year it was perfect. It was way cold, but no snow and no wind made for a perfect night. We always ride trax down town for the kids which they love. It of course was Skylers first time on the train and to see the lights. He was such a good boy! I was worried about it being to cold for him but he absolutely loved looking at all the lights and couldn't have been a better boy! This also was the first Christmas Eve in a long time that we got to actually spend the evening with Anthony. Since he works in the retail business he is usually always working that night. Luckily this year we got to spend it together as a family and I loved it!

Making his gingerbread train

Finished product... Not bad huh?

Little Skyler all bundled up

First time on the train

Making snow angels in front of the temple

After going to see the lights we went back to our house. My parents have a tradition of giving all the kids, grand kids that is, pajamas and a book on Christmas eve. They loved getting to open a gift a little early. After that we made some cookies for Santa and then headed off to bed. It was such a fun night for us and the kids.



all the kids in their jammies

Randomness...

These are just a few random pictures from the last few weeks that I found that I love so I thought Id share them.

Skyler helping Daddy reorganize the storage closet.

Issak has this dump truck that we were playing with one day and Skyler kept trying really hard to climb in. Finally he got in (with a little bit of my help) and thought it was the coolest thing.....Of course Issak couldn't be left out. I think Skyler fits a little better.

A couple weeks ago we were watching our friends kids and their cute little boy who is almost 2 months younger than Skyler was sitting in the excersaucer and Skyler was trying SO hard to stand up to play with him. It was the cutest thing! Carter kept looking at him like he was crazy, but Skyler just kept trying until he fell and bonked his little nose... then that was the end of that.

Decorating The Tree/Playing In The Snow

The day before Thanksgiving we decided to put our tree up. It was a little earlier than we normally do, but since Anthony works so much, especially around the holidays, we had to do it when he was home. Issak loves to put all the Christmas decorations up and to decorate the tree. This year he pretty much put all the ornaments up himself. We don't have to many so it was an easy job for him. The only thing I had to do was make sure there wasn't 3 ornaments on the same branch. He did a great job though and it was alot of fun!

A few weeks ago when we got the first real snow storm I decided to take Issak out to play. It was still freezing but there wasn't to much snow that actually stuck. Just enough for him to play in. He loves to play in the snow and especially to throw snowballs. He had a ton of fun sliding down the frozen slides and literally flying off them. It was so funny! I couldn't stop laughing. Good thing he was laughing too!

Making snow angels and Mini Snowmen.

There wasn't enough snow to make a big snowman, so we made a mini one with woodchips for arms, eyes and a mouth. Issak loved it!

Total Slacker

I have been such a slacker lately with the blog. I can't believe its been a whole month since the last time I wrote anything... Sorry to those who may check regularly. But now I have a whole lot to catch up on so get ready. Keep in mind I am way behind so im going back a few weeks.

Twilight

So here I am finding my self obsessed with twilight. I went to the midnight showing with some of my friends and I don't know how they felt but I loved it. And now only 4 days later I am going to the movie again. Anthony and I are going to go see it tonight. I am so excited... Its ridiculous how much I love the books and now the movie. I know there are people out there who hate it and think its so dumb (I think secretly they love it but don't want to be... well like me!) and they don't see what the big deal is, but come on how can you not love it... Edward is...well he's a sexy vampire. What more do you want? I was a bit worried about who they had cast as Edward because in the book he is made out to be this absolutely gorgeous man and sorry to the actor, but he wasn't all they had made him out to be in the book... Well at least until you see the movie. I was so pleasantly surprised... He is a great Edward! Anyway, just thought Id share my new obsession......and if you haven't seen the movie just go see it, but Id suggest reading the books first so you get whats going on, but if your not a big reader just see it, you'll catch on. You'll LOVE it, I know it!!!

Sad Blog.....

I was blog surfing one day, or blog stocking as some of you like to say, and I came upon this blog. Its the saddest blog I have ever seen. Check it out if you want, I added the link for it. But be warned that its very hard to watch without crying and so hard to watch when you have kids.... at least it was for me. Its a blog made in memory of a little baby boy who was still born. I don't know these people, but I wish I did they seem like amazing people and to have had to suffer so horribly just breaks my heart. I know a few people who have had to go through this, but I guess the depth that this blog goes into it just really hits me. It happens way more than I even knew. So many people have to suffer through losing there child before they can even meet them. Things like this make me so grateful for my kids and for being one of the "lucky" ones to have my kids as a part of my physical life. It truly is such a miracle when a baby is born healthy or even born alive for that matter. I need to remember how blessed I am to have my children, they are the two best things that have ever happened in my life. I take for granted way to often just how lucky and blessed I am to have them. The miracle of life truly is not something we should take for granted. I know that I need to try harder to be a better mom to my kids and when those inevitable hard days come I need to remember that the Lord blessed me with these 2 beautiful children and it is my responsibility to take care of them and to love them a million percent unconditionally! I don't even know if I'm making any sense, but I just had to share this. My heart goes out to anyone who has ever had to suffer through something like this, I could not even imagine the heartache!!
I must be feeling somewhat inadequate as a mom right now, but when you see something like this its so hard not to feel that you take life for granted everyday....
Here is the link to the blog... remember to have a tissue or 2 or 3 handy if you take a look!
http://www.babymckallister.blogspot.com/

Holiday Tag... Thanks Jana

Top 3 Vacations
1. Las Vegas
2. California to visit my brother
3. New York... like Palmyra and surrounding areas where all the church history is, its amazing there!

Top 3 favorite flowers
1. Roses...they are so beautiful and smell so good!
2. Lily's
3. Birds of Paradise, they are such pretty exotic flowers

Top 3 favorite comfort foods
1. Ice cream... Preferably from Letherbys
2. Pretty much anything sweet
3. Goulosh... Weird I know but I LOVE it!!!

Top 3 Places to Shop
1. Target
2. Carters
3. Park City Outlets

Top 3 Opinions About Halloween
1. Its such a fun day especially when you have kids to share it with
2. I love to decorate my house for Halloween
3. Whats better about Halloween then getting all that candy?

Top 3 Opinions About Thanksgiving
1. Its a great day to remember all that you are thankful for
2. I love getting to spend the day eating pumpkin pie
3. Getting to see all our family and spend quality time together is so fun!

Top 3 Opinions About Christmas
1. Its by far my favorite time of year!
2. I love the feel of the Holiday spirit in the air everywhere you go
3. Giving gifts to others is almost better then getting gifts myself.

Top 3 thing I look forward to during the week
1. Tuesday
2. Wednesday
3. Friday.... Those are the nights Anthony's off from Jcpenney and we can all be together.

Top 3 Events Happening This Week
1. Playing with my adorable boys...Its an everyday thing, but I wouldn't rather be doing anything else!
2. Hopefully getting to hang with friends
3. Getting my hair done... one thing I absolutely love to do!!

Now I am going to tag......Sarah Howarth and Bonnie Allen

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was such a fun day! With Issak getting bigger and realizing more and more what Halloween is all about just makes the day so much fun! Issak, as you can see, was a fireman and Skyler was a cute little pumpkin. Starting last year we let Issak pick what he wanted to be for Halloween. Last year he wanted and was a doctor and this year he wanted to be a fireman. It took a while to find the right costume for him. But the one we got looked awesome on him. Thanks to my mom for finding it and buying it for us! The day started with Issak going to pre-school, he got to wear his costume and thought that was so cool. Then when Anthony got home from work we got the kids ready and headed out the door. First we went to Pops house (Anthonys dad) Issak got to see his cousins Zenaida, Cali and J.J. who he loves to play with so that was fun and then we wen to my parents house to go trick or treating. All the cousins came and went together so that was way fun for Issak. One thing Issak loves about Halloween is handing out the candy to all the trick or treaters. When the doorbell rings he is the first one to the door handing out the candy, its so cute! He got tons of candy which I'll probably eat most of unfortunately..... But needless to say it was a way fun day, we love Halloween and will be looking forward to next year!

Issak and Emily

From left: Kitty Katie, Tinkerbell Amber, Candy Corn Parker, Fireman Issak, Pumpkin Skyler and Princess Emily

Me and my baby pumpkin

We have a good friend, Moronae who is a police officer for Salt Lake City and Issak has been asking us to see his police car. So Moronae called us up last night and said that we should bring Issak to their house to get some candy and see his police car. So from my parents house we went to their house and when we pulled up he had the lights on his car on and Issak was so excited once he saw them. It was funny because everyone walking or driving by for sure thought there was something going on and would stop and stare to watch. It was way funny! So these are just a few pictures with Issak and the police car!

Watch out world here comes fireman/policeman Issak

Issak and Lelani, our friends daughter.

Pumpkin Carving

Issak begged us for days to carve pumpkins once we got the ones from the pumpkin patch. So finally we had a night that we could... Issak wasn't to fond of all the gooey insides he like stabbing them with the little poker the most. It was fun though... Im not so sure Anthony would agree cause he had to carve 2 of them. But they turned out great and it was fun spending some quality time together. Oh and sorry about the underwear shots, Issak had to be in his undies to carve pumpkins... He'd walk around in his undies all the time if I'd let him.

Wheeler Farm

After the pumpkin patch we were all starving for lunch so we went to my bros house (where we were staying to watch their kids) and ate a yummy lunch. We then packed into the cars to go to Wheeler Farm. Issak had never been there so I was really excited to take him. All the kids LOVED it and they were all so good! I got a few pictures before my memory card got full. All the other pictures are on my parents camera so I'll have to borrow that soon to get the rest. They loved feeding the cows, hearing the roosters crow, going on a hayride, seeing the oh so smelly pigs!!, we even got to see 12 day old piglets they were the cutest things!! And then Issak and Amber got to milk a cow! Issak thought it was so cool....Amber was a little scared but grandpa helped her and she did a great job. There was even a HUGE tree that all the kids played in and thought it was so cool! It was a busy day but so fun! I'll add more pics later.....