Oh yeah, it Christmas time...

In the 9 Christmases that Preston and I have been together, there have 2 with just our little family. The first one was when we first moved up here. Thurston was 4 months, Joseph was almost 2 and we knew no one. Needless to say it wasn't our best Christmas. This year, however, was completely different. Every year we load up and head to Salt Lake, but this year we decided to finally have our own Christmas at home. Don't get me wrong, we love and missed our families, but at the same time it was seriously so nice to do our own thing at our own pace for once. We declared it a pajama-fest on Thursday after I got home from kickboxing and stayed in them until...(ok, to be honest it is Monday afternoon and I am still in pj's, but I did change them from time to time...). Preston and I started our Lord of The Rings Marathon on Thursday (we do this every year because we are nerds) and Friday (Christmas Eve) we went to visit with his brother and family out in Middleton and then came home and ate dinner. The boys didn't want jammies, so we got them Transformer snuggies. Seriously, they are so retarded, but functional and funny. They were actually excited about them. Christmas Eve night was rough, teething Aleah and Joseph not falling asleep. They each had their own little tree on their dressers and Santa wanted to leave a danish and hot chocolate under them, but a certain little boy kept trying to "catch Santa" and wouldn't fall asleep! Pres had to set the alarm for 3am to finish up. In the end it all worked out and the kids had so much fun. I seriously love the age that they are at and we had such a fun Christmas. I hope all (who ever reads this thing) did too! Here are some pics of our adventures: Making cookies for Santa, seriously, when did they become the same size? We may have gotten into a flour fight.... Not sure why the lean, but its cute Joseph rearranged the nativity, he had Mary riding in on a camel and put baby Jesus with the angel because he wasn't born yet. ;) Baby girl's first Christmas!! Christmas Eve dinner. This was the best shot I got, the boys kept moving... Aleah's First Present... Haha, Snuggies :) I so love these monkeys! Love the choke hold Joseph has on Thurston. Opening Presents and enjoying the morning Joseph Enjoying the breakfast Santa brought him I need a cleaning Elf ahh, more Bionicles to vacuum up and try to keep Aleah away from... Nana Ronda gave her her bib :) Aleah and her inflatable duck bath. She loves this thing! Thurston and his sweet mix-master set. This bad boy had a turn table and all kinds of gadgets. He can record on his 'i-pod' and take it around with his own head phones. Seriously, this thing is awesome and I kept playing with it. Nana Ronda and Gpa Sonney gave the kiddos professional Chef shirts and hats with baking mix and a spoon. So cute! This is Chef Thurston, I dare you not to laugh at that. On Christmas Eve, I asked the boys what their faces would look like when they saw their presents. They then demonstrated and Joseph struck a pose and said that he would use his whole body and I quote "this is my Butt phrase that I will have" seriously, sooo funny! This was him demonstrating his 'butt phrase'. This is a spawn of Preston and I, so, yeah. Chef Joseph

Nerd Christmas Party and sweets

I have to say that of all the ones we went to/ were in charge of, these ones are always my favorite. Could be that they are always laid back and have good food, but the gifts are always excellent. Here are the prizes: Rich and Angie got a decorate your own flask kit and a TMNT lunch pail Bill and Kim, he got our game survival kit (Starcraft dorks). It included a hydration bladder with MT Dew Live wire, a pack of depends and a snack that is twizler ropes tied together with pretzels tied in along the way for one continuous snack. :) She got a mistletoe hat and a ladies of starwars deck of cards... and I know what you're thinking because we were all surprised to see more than 2 women in starwars :) ChiMing got a partially used canister of KoolAid and a mace kit. Wendy got Bieber. Poor gal. ;) I was soo lucky to get a shake weight, funniest invention ever. Preston got a set of bottle tops that turn your can of soda into a bottle = awesome. As great minds think alike, Jason too got a game kit. Same Mt Dew, only his came with a strategy notebook and a wrist brace. haha. This is Thurston rockin out to Justin Bieber. Here are some things I made. For the Vegas bowl game (UTAH vs BSU), our friends decided to have a cake-off. This was our attack against BSU, we thought it was funny! I didn't make these, but they are from friends and family and this is what pushed me back into Kickboxing. :) Aleah was my taste tester for the mousse I made. She loved it! I made these for a RS party and they were so good, I decided to make them and give them out this year, as well as for the party. I also made a Berry mousse version. I made a devils food cake (from scratch) and topped with Ganache and one I used chocolate mousse and the other berry mousse. Holy heaven they were good!!!

North Pole Express

Ever since I found out they did this last year I have wanted to take the kids! The Thunder Mountain Rail line does the North Pole Express every year. We waited too long to buy the tickets for the day time and ended up going on the night train. The down side is there was no view, but the upside is that Santa rides the train with you at night ( and Mrs Claus). The kids had a blast and Santa went up and down talking to each of the kids. When we arrived at the North Pole the kids got to take pics with the big man in his sleigh and have milk and cookies. Overall it was fun, cold and the kids loved it. If we do it again next year, I will plan on another time when the other carts are not full of adult Christmas parties. It's not the same when you get off the train to see santa and you have a bunch of drunk adults getting off and acting like children. Kinda ruined the mood. But other than that it was fun and the kids were totally convinced. :) Aleah played her part well Thurston telling Santa what he wanted JoJo doing the same Santa had the kids come in the back and told them fun Christmas stories. He was a good Santa, and I was not aware that Santa had a Boston accent. :) In Santas Sleigh. Thurston purposley looks away from the camera when his picture is taken. Cute, but annoying. Family Pic at the North Pole Aleah and her cookie She kept herself entertained with a paintbrush and a foggy window for quite some time. The had a heated open cart that was kinda fun, but still cold!

Fast Forward Thru December

Thanksgiving has come and gone and so has December. We spent Thanksgiving in Salt Lake. It was ok, not terrible but not fantastic. There was a big storm the night before so it took us over 7 hours to get to Prestons parents house (normally 4.5 hours). Not only were we dealing with crappy conditions outside, but inside as well. Thurston decided to catch a case of the squirts and we were stopping every 20 or so miles for him to go to the bathroom. So that was fun. With the snow came excellent sledding conditions, so we headed out with "Grumpa" Ralph. The kids had a blast and I took Aleah down a couple times and she loved it... we think. She kept the same facial expression the whole time. ;) Dinner was good, but came waaay too late. With a mixture of the Turkey not being done and waiting for everyone to get there, we FINALLY ate dinner at 8PM!!! I was a little cranky, esp because I didn't get pie until 9:30pm. We did get to catch up with our friend Graziano, who was in from Italy. He watched the UTAH vs BYU game with us and then he had to go. Sad to only spend a few hours with him, but glad to see him. We were snowed in and left Monday morning. Since then it has been work parties, Ward and RS party(s)... in which one I must mention Preston prepared and cooked the meat and pasta. Kid parties at school, a nasty bout of Mastitis, friend parties and football bowl games. So here we are, December 23rd and nothing on the calendar except Christmas. I am so excited to be in pajamas for the next 3 days and spend time with just our little family. No calls for last minute trips to SLC this year. We are excited to finally get a Christmas with just us. Baby Girl's First Thanksgiving The kids had a blast at their table Sleddding... Preston digging us out Aleah and Grandpa We had our big storm shortly after we returned home. Several inches. The kids had a lot of fun, and I had a ton of fun digging out the driveway. I think Christmas and Thanksgiving switched weather on us!