Happy New Year!

We headed over to Erin's house for an adult party and since I couldn't get a babysitter the kids were put to bed upstairs. After an hour of Steve laying down with them they both FINIALLY fell asleep and Steve could join the party. We played Apples to Apples and ate yummy food and counted down to midnight.

Just before midnight
Jason and Faun (Erin's sister)
Joe and Erin
Hannah (Erin's oldest daughter and Maggie her youngest)

And this is a picture of what the kids were doing at Midnight! Thankfully asleep.


Hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Salt Lake City

Now that the holidays are over, the travel begins.
Eli watching a movie on dad's iPod. Are kids these days spoiled or what? Hey...whatever can keep them quite right???
The kids just about finished with the car ride but hanging in there!

We headed to Salt Lake City last Thursday but decided to beak the trip into 2 days and stayed in Beaver. I am a wimp and hate road trips so we did a WHOLE 3 hours to Beaver and the remaining 3 hours to SLC on Friday. We stayed with friends who we met at Ricks college (aka: BYU Idaho). I unfortunately didn't get a picture of them and their kids. They have a 9 year old girl and a almost 2 year old boy so it is perfect for our kids to hang out together.

On Friday night we met up with Steve's brother and wife, their 2 kids and also Steve's parents to go to Temple Square. It has been years since I have been and wanted to show the kids the lights. Oh how I would love to say what a great time we had. I really would but Eli just didn't want to co-operate. He didn't want to put on the gloves so when he touched the snow and his hands got really cold, he got really mad. But enough about that. I enjoyed taking pictures of the buildings and lights. Here are a few.
We started in the Joseph Smith Building and it was beautiful. I am sure this is so not appropriate for Eli to be climbing on this statue but it was cute the way he was looking up at him.
The lobbyThe Salt Lake City temple
I actually have no idea what this building is but it is in temple Square and I love the red trees all around it.
We were all DONE at this point. This was after I had to chase Eli up the (closed, roped off) ramp leading up to the Christus. Then as Alexis tried to help me get him, he started screaming and the acoustics in that area are very defined so it basically reverberated throughout the entire building.

One of the main reason's for the trip to Salt Lake was to attend the wedding of Steve's cousin. After a day of relaxation and shopping at Tai Pan and Rod Works we headed to the reception. For those who know Amy, her parents are good friends with the parents of the bride (Steve's cousin) and were at the reception as well. They had Kenzie with them so she and Eli were thrilled and enjoyed running through the halls.

Notice them holding hands...okay so we did that!Kenzie is looking very coy and cute here!

The second reason for our trip was to celebrate Steve's grandfather's 100 birthday. On Sunday we headed over to his aunts house and had lunch and sang to him.
The entire family was there so just Steve's dad's branch of the family consists of 29 people. Alexis and Lili. They are 5 years apart to the day. She is such a cutie.

After the birthday we stopped by Amy's parents house to say hi and good-bye one last time and then headed home to Vegas. The weather that day was really snowy and freezing but luckily it cleared after Nephi and it took only 5 1/2 hours to get home (after a stop in St. George to clean out Wal-Mart's caffeine free Dr. Pepper supply-really, 16 cases). Yes we did the whole drive in one day! I think I am getting better-it actually is dependent on the kids.

We are heading to Arizona on Friday for Steve's oldest nephew, Tyler's wedding on Saturday! Lots of traveling!

Christmas Wrap Up

Looks like Santa came!!!
I love this picture of the kids and their expressions as they came out and saw what Santa brought.
This is what Santa brought Eli and why he was smiling so much in the previous picture.
Alexis's gift from Santa. A much needed jacket.Eli also got some die-cast (hopefully they don't contain lead paint!) 'Cars' from Santa. This was all he played with for the rest of the day.I just love this picture of him and his cars. He lined them all up and then laid there just like this looking over them. So cute!
In previous posts I have expressed my dislike of characters on my kids clothes. BUT...I like Hannah Montana and it is more of the cute-sie ones that I am against. She also got PJ's with Hannah Montana. I was a bit stressed because right before Christmas she told me she doesn't like her anymore! I think she has changed her mind now.Alexis got Eli this book that has magnetic 'Cars' that you can pop out and use throughout the book. He loves it too. He is so boy with the car thing.

Slinky Dog from Toy Story. In the above picture of the kids reactions to the presents...this is why Alexis had a HUGE smile on her face...Webkinz. This was top priority of what Alexis wanted. She got two...this penguin that she named Pebbles (fans of 'Happy Feet' would get that) and a bunny named Sherbet.

Eli going through his stocking. We really can't get a decent picture of this kid. He sees the camera and if we can even get him to look at us, he does the big grin and says 'CHEESE.'

Christmas this year was quiet and relaxing and WONDERFUL! As I mentioned in a previous post my mom came last week and then Steve's parents came on their way to Salt Lake so for Christmas Eve and Christmas it was just the 4 of us. Christmas morning we like to be mean and everyone showers and we eat breakfast before opening anything. Eli started to understand the concept of opening gifts towards the end. In the beginning he was content to just play with one gift. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and doing nothing. Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Weekend Update...

We had friends and family this week so I haven't posted anything lately. But I do have pictures!

Amy came to town to visit! It has been 7 months since they moved to Indiana and boy have I missed her! Eli and Kenzie missed each other too and after some time to warm up it was like they had never been apart! They are so cute together. This is them on Friday night...
And here they are last February...

I had some friends come over on Friday night so Amy could see everyone all at once instead of having to visit a bunch of people.
Sarah (and baby), Rachael, Jossie, Amy and Mekel
The three of us use to get together once a week and have lunch. Ahhhh...the good times! Maybe in 2 years they will move back here and we can all hang out again!!!

My mom came to visit and boy was Alexis in HEAVEN! Of course she spoiled Alexis, but Alexis wasn't complaining one bit. Another plus was that we had a pre-Christmas on Saturday night.
We went to Strasberg Children and my bought her a dress and they also have doll dresses. So we surprised her by getting her a matching dress for her doll. Could it get any cuter than matching dresses!!! I will have to get a picture of that!
Just us opening gifts.
Chachi, Papa and Alexis

This morning for church I curled Alexis's hair. I didn't think it would take since the girl has THE thickest hair. I had to take a picture of it because it is so perfect looking that it looks like doll hair...
She was a bit worried that it was a bit too much (as was I) but by the time we left for church it had fallen and looked really pretty!
It is rare that we have someone around to take a family snapshot of us so here we are, ready for church!

My parents left today and took Tawny for two weeks. Since we will be going to SLC next weekend for a wedding and then Arizona the following weekend for another wedding they figured they would take her and we will pick her up on the way home.
Now Steve's parents are here so we will have more pictures in the next day of them.

A few things...

Just to catch up on a few things...
Thursday night we made our first batch of Italian cookies. For some reason I always dread making them, though I don't know why. They are pretty easy and sooooo tasty! The kids like to help during the pounding part and you can never start them too early to learn this family tradition.
On Friday, Alexis had a friend over and they did a fashion show for me. They did each others make up and put together some outfits. It was complete with some Hannah Montana music as they strutted down the hall and posed for a picture. Eli joined them for the finale.
Alexis, Eli and Whitney

Tonight we had our ward Christmas party. We were told to dress in Biblical clothing. Eli had this head piece on for about 1 minute and then wanted it off.
You can't tell but Steve has a sheet on as well.
We dresses up Alexis's baby as well.
The gym was set up like a market with all the different booths. In order to enter we were all 'taxed' and had to bring a canned food item. The kids were given coins to shop for things at all the different markets.
They had the different booths such as: the bakery, pita shop, fruits, games, winery, etc. The pictures really don't do it justice!
You could purchase gold (rocks sprayed with gold paint...clever), frankincense and myrrh.
We then had a program.
Mary, Joseph and Jesus
The Kings presenting their gifts to Jesus.

It was amazing and so much work was put into the evening. Having been on the activities committee for many Christmas programs I really appreciated all their work and it was so nice to sit back and not HAVE to do anything!