December 2013

We put up our Christmas Tree Thanksgiving weekend like we do every year.  The kids love to decorate it.  Especially when they get to stand on the step stool.

 

 

We had a couple of pretty good snow storms.  The kids took advantage of playing in the snow.  Below Callie is jumping on the snow covered tramp.

 

Jace loves to sled down the small hill behind our house.

 

It was my turn to teach Jace's pre-school class so we did a fun Christmas party.

 

And the kids all made Christmas ornaments and then wrapped them up as gifts for their parents.

I decided to go simple with our neighbor/friend's gifts this year.  Love the poem that goes with it.

 

For Kindergarten Callie was in a Christmas program where they all dressed in their pajamas and sang winter/holiday songs.  It was so cute!

 

We did our annual Christmas Pajama Party/Gift Exchange with the kid's friends.  I love that we have so many children in our neighborhood.

 

We decided to not buy a pre-made kit this year and make our own gingerbread houses.  The kids had fun and made a terrible mess doing it.  (LtoR: Jace's, Callie's, Nate's, Char's)

 

On Christmas eve we have a tradition where the kids spread oats across the lawn for Santa's reindeer.  Callie and Jace love doing it and then checking the next morning to see if the reindeer ate any.

 

Here they are in their Christmas pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Harris.

 

We made cinnamon rolls on Christmas eve to have for our Christmas day breakfast (so healthy)

 

Callie left Santa treat, chocolate milk and a note.

 

After Santa came.

 

Christmas morning.  Daren and Heather came and joined us on Christmas eve and slept over for morning festivities on Christmas day.  Later on Christmas day we went down to my parents house to celebrate with my family.  I never seem to get pictures from that portion of our day.

Our last activity for December was of course, New Years Eve Party.  We always have WAY too much food.

 



 

After the children were in bed, the adults played Texas Hold 'Em.  The game lasted until just before midnight.

 

Cindy was about to win.  I can't remember if she actually really did or not.

 

My mom and dad - First picture of the New Year.

 

Mine and Nate's first picture of the New Year.  I think we only made Cindy take about 30 of them before we for one where we looked decent.  We are so not photogenic.

November 2013 - Mexico

In November we visited Rocky Point, Mexico with Nate's entire family.  Nate's uncle Neal was nice enough to let us use his beach house for the week.  We flew into Phoenix and then drove the rest of the way, not arriving until after the sun had went down.

 

The very next morning the kids were up early and in the ocean by 7:00am.  They were so excited to be there and loved every minute of it.

 

While we were there we enjoyed spending time with family.  Callie and Jace are playing Slap Jack with their Grandpa Harris.

The kids loved being around their cousins.  And this kayak is even fun when it is not in the water.

 



 

There was also hours spent with the kayaks in the water.  The kids loved it.

 

All of the Harris boys on the one day we got DeWin to hang out on the beach.

 

This was a little inflatable jet ski.  Callie and Jace loved being pushed around on it.

 

Beautiful sunset one evening while out to dinner with the family.

 

We took advantage of the opportunity to lay out and get some sun.

 

We also attempted to take family photos while we were there.  Always an adventure with such a large group and little children.  I think we had some turn out alright though.

 

Jace loved it when we went deep sea fishing.  Callie stayed back at the beach house and played with her grandma and cousins.

 

The whole crew that went deep sea fishing.

 

There was also some family time spent swimming in the pools.

 

And hanging out in the hot tub.

 

We had a great week.  We even celebrated an early Christmas while we were all together.  It was fun seeing everyone and catching up.

Halloween Activities

Halloween was a busy time for us.  The kids had so many activites.  Since they were getting to wear costumes so many times I let them switch and wear any of their dress-ups that they wanted to wear, but only bought them one costume this year.

 

The week before Halloween was Jace's pre-school Halloween party.  He went as a superhero.

Ready for Pre-school party.

The following day (Friday) the kids were able to visit Nate at work and Trick-or Treat around his office.  Callie was Belle and Jace wore his super hero costume again.

That night was our wards Chili Cook Off and Trunk-or-Treat.  Halloween 2007, when I was barely pregnant with Callie and working at Omniture, all of the Executive team and their Assistants were supposed to dress up at Disney character.  I was Belle so I had this costume for years.  Callie was really excited when she got her Belle costume and told me that I should wear mine so we could be twins.  So that is what we went as.

 



 

We were also part of the entertainment that night.  I had the hardest time doing this dance in heals, a puffy dress and a wig.  I did the same routine the previous year for our Halloween party and it was much easier without all the excess.  I mostly did it this year because Callie wanted to participate and wanted me to dance with her (the things we will do for our kids)

 

 

The Annual Marx Halloween party is always the Sunday before Halloween.  It is fun to get together with everyone since we all normally are doing our own things on Halloween.  Below is the picture of everyone who wore costumes.

 

Callie was a snow princess.  This is a dress that her Grandma Harris gave to her when we was 18 months old and she was finally able to wear it this year!

 

Jace with his cousin Kade, wearing their monster teeth.

 



 

Carving pumpkins.  Callie is mad because Jace is sticking his hand in her pumpkin.

 

Nate helped Jace carve his and I help Callie carve hers.

 

We made pumpkin shaped rice krispie treats and let the kids decorate them.  Jace made a pirate pumpkin.

 

Callie made a pumpkin saying "boo"

 

This is how Callie's pumpkin turned out.

 

Here is Jace's pumpkin

 

Callie with her monster teeth.

 

Callie was a cowgirl for her Halloween party with her friends.

 

Here is Jace at his Halloween party with is friends sprting his cowboy costume.

 

 

 

I love going all out on Halloween so on top of the candy we hand out, I also make treats and give out hot chocolate and hot apple cider.  Below are some of the treats I made this year (I also made broom sticks that are not pictures)

 

I made these pumpkin rice krispie treats (the stem is a stick pretzel)

 

Witch hat cookies.

 

Ghost sugar cookies

 

Here are most of the treats.

Callie was a cowgirl for her school Halloween parade and Class Party.

 



 

On Halloween Night Callie was Winter Belle and Jace was a cowboy.

 

Here is the set-up in our garage.  For years I would leave home on Halloween just because I didn't want to pass out candy.  I thought it was annoying having to get up and answer the door all the time.  Now I love it because I just set-up in the garage, listen to Halloween music and visit with neighbors as they stop by.  I also love hearing the kids say things like "this is the coolest house ever!"  I had neighbor kids asking about it months prior making sure we were going to do it again.  We had a great Halloween.