Always & Forever: December 2013

Dec 31, 2013

First time trying pop rocks

Grand America and Hot Chocolate

My mom and I took the kids to the Grand America to see their HUGE Gingerbread house and holiday windows. We ended the fun outing with the BEST hot chocolate (I had the BEST mocha) at Hatch Family Chocolates (if you haven't been there you NEED to go...last time we had the most wonderful ice cream sandwich).

Zoo Lights 2013

Bodie got a zoo pass from my parents for Christmas so we went to the Zoo lights on Sunday night with the Helbling ladies. It was SO cold, but it was SO much fun to spend time as a family and with our friends. Most of the animals were asleep, but we did get to see the reptiles, sea otters, eagles, small cats and the tiger (like last year the tiger was very active and roaring which made for an extra fun experience).

Looking for the sea otters

Finding places to hide

The fun light/tunnel/bridge

Krissy workin' the tunnel :-)

Todd and the kids face to face with the tiger

Todd and Bodie LOVED the tiger

This is what Todd and I would look like with 4....hehehhe

Dec 29, 2013

Christmas 2013

Christmas Day started with Bodie in our bed at 5am. Then came McKayla at 6am. 4 people in a queen size bed (can't wait for the day we get a bigger house so we can get a bigger bed) is interesting, but they did let us "sleep in" until about 7:15 (BTW- later found out McKayla went to "look" at the gifts before coming into bed with us). We came out into the family room and it took the kids about 1.5 seconds to start in on their stockings. After that, we waited for my parents & Non and Nick to come over before we did brunch and gifts (the kids were actually awesome about waiting and just played with their new toys from the night before). The rest of the morning was filled with Christmas music, a warm fire, opening fun gifts and our traditional family brunch. The best part was that Todd got to spend all of the time with us before going to work. The interesting part was that the kids got pretty much every available loud toy possible (nap time was quite the joke with Woody/Jessie/Buzz/Minnie/the english-spanish airport and Bell the kitty...I have since found each of their off buttons and used them frequently).
That night, the kids and I went to my parents house for our traditional ham Christmas Day dinner. They insisted bringing ALL of their new toys, but I dwindled that downt o 3 each (insert me trying to carry in my salad, a fake "real" cat, hungry hippo, legos, pretend makeup and a vanity table...in heels). We enjoyed the evening with family and went to bed very tired, but happy that night.

She found the thank you letter from Santa

Time for Sadie's stocking

And Beamer's stocking

Making the traditional egg dish for brunch

Happy about a new ski coat

Someone loves her new vanity

Finally got the Woody doll to go with his Buzz

GiGi knows how to get things open ;-)

Playing Hungry Hippo

My parent's pretty Christmas Dinner table setting

Bodie said "I'm a cowboy" and then rode on Papu's back

Dec 27, 2013

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve is always full of traditions for us. Church, dinner at Sylvia & Scott's, x-mas pjs and setting out the plate for Santa/reindeer/santa mouse are what we do. Unfortunately, Todd is always working Christmas Eve, but we got to see him in the morning and he helped the kids get the plate all ready to set out that night. We enjoyed the time with family and the kids were SO excited for all the festivities (and even with all that energy they were still SO good for me at church). They felt very proud at church this year b/c they went up by themselves for all the kid portions (book reading, can food donation, blessing). One other tradition is for Todd and I to set out all the gifts and even though he worked late, I didn't want to do it without him...so, he woke me up when he got home and we did together....like we always do and always will do. We might not have been able to do the holidays the "normal" way this year, but we did everything we could together and made sure we had our important family time.