New Years ~ Goodbye to 2012!

To bring in the new year, we decided to try to redo the things we weren't able to do on my birthday that we had planned! One of those things was to go downtown to The Grand America to see some of the neat Christmas things they had there. I love this hotel, it is gorgeous! The first thing we saw is this giant gingerbread house!

Then we went out to the courtyard - it was FREEZING but worth getting a closer look at the beautiful Christmas trees and the fountain!

They had these really cute windows decorated representing different countries and "Merry Christmas" written in those languages. Here the kids are in front on one representing a place of my heritage, Switzerland!

They had these little passports the kids could get and do a scavenger hunt with. They were to find every window, match up the "Merry Christmas" in the different languages with the country it went with, then they got to have their passport stamped at the toy shop there, and then they got to bring it into the little bakery shop for a giant cookie!

Playing at the fun toy shop!

In front of the bakery with their passports and the yummy cookies they earned! They had so much fun, we'll have to make this a tradition each year!

After that, we headed to the theater for a movie, then went home to wait for midnight to come around so that we could countdown to the new year! The kids were excited to get to stay up this year, but Ashton said he wished he didn't because he was so tired and told me to remind him never to do that again! Ha ha!

I used to get kind of depressed on New Years because I hated saying goodbye to another year, but my attitude toward that has changed. I love the chance that a new year gives for a fresh start. I usually make resolutions, but I'm not going to make specific ones this year. I just want to focus on being happy, positive, being grateful for all I have been given, and bettering myself each day in every aspect of my life.

Last year was an amazing year that treated us well, and I am so excited for an even better one!!!

Happy 2013!!!

ChRiStMaS dAy!!!

Christmas morning we were so impressed, the kids had a slumber party in Brayden's room the night before, and they actually stayed quietly in their rooms until Mike and I came to get them! We were shocked! :) The first thing we always do before opening presents is we see if Santa ate the treats we left him and he always leaves a little note!

Next is the stockings! My kids were so funny and VERY specific as to what they wanted in their stockings! Some of the funniest things to me were Fruit by the Foot fruit snacks (because I always refuse to buy them), and actual fruit, Ashton wanted sour green apples he said!

Gifts to each other...

And the grand finale, the present both kids wanted the most...

FURBIES!

They can be pretty funny, but it gets old, AND, there is no "off" switch! So, the only way they stop talking is if you ignore them, then they go to sleep. Now they end up in the cupboard most of the time to muffle them and get them to go to sleep faster!

After the kids opened all of their presents, Mike and I opened ours. Mike did awesome, he kept with the relaxation theme he did for my birthday and got me a nice super soft blanket, and a gym membership emphasizing the fact that they have a hot tub! This is a pic of everything he gave me including on my birthday - he got me the cute bench for our entryway too!

I also got something from Santa, thanks to this cute letter Ashton wrote to him.....

Santa listened and brought me these.....

I didn't get any pics, but a little later in the morning, my parents, brother Cameron and his wife Aubrey came over for brunch, then later in the afternoon we went to Mike's sister Mindy's house for Christmas dinner! We had an amazing Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve (Oh Yeah, & My Birthday!)

I have to admit, sometimes it can be hard sharing my birthday with Christmas Eve. I think we all deserve to have that one special day that is all ours to feel extra loved and special. Some years are harder than others, and this one was kind of a difficult one for me. My day started with Ashton coming into my room so excited saying "I can't believe what day today is! It's the day before Christmas!!" I asked, "And what else?" He then said, "It's Christmas Eve!" I asked again, "And what else?" He said, "Santa's coming tonight!" I asked again, "And what else?" He said, "He's bringing presents!!" Yeah.....I will let him off the hook since he's only 6, but if he was 16 it'd be a different story! :) Usually we have something planned to do for the day, which helps, but this year things just didn't work out. We had reservations for my birthday lunch at The Garden at the top of The Joseph Smith Memorial Building and we had some other fun things we planned on doing downtown, but as we were starting our drive, snow started falling like crazy, causing horrible roads and accidents were happening in front of us everywhere, so we didn't even make it to the freeway. We decided to be safe and head back home and stopped at Wendy's for lunch. Not quite what I had in mind, but we made the most of it, and because of the combination of being Christmas Eve and it blizzarding outside, we had the whole Wendy's to ourselves! After that, the day was kind of boring and depressing since we were stranded, (I was not very happy with all of those who were wishing for a white Christmas!!) then for dinner we wanted to try to go back out and find a good place to eat, but we had no luck, every place we thought of was closed, so we went home and had chicken salad sandwiches. Luckily my parents, brother and his wife came over soon after that which helped the last hour or so of my birthday to be great! (We celebrate my birthday until after cake, then the night turns into Christmas Eve.) I feel bad I felt so down on my birthday because Mike really did a lot to make it special for me. He always makes my favorite German chocolate cake, and no matter how many times I tell him to make it easy and use a cake mix, he refuses and makes it from scratch! Mike and the kids also got me some really thoughtful gifts, all with a relaxation theme (they know what I need!).

Here Ashton is sucking up to me because of forgetting it was my birthday! ;)

Thanks to my new teapot and my own mugs, I have since become addicted to herbal tea! I can't sleep anymore without unwinding with chamomile tea before bed! I love it!!

And, with my new massage neck wrap! Honestly I think Mike was wanting me to have all the help I can get to go to sleep faster at night instead of talking his ears off when I can't wind down! Ha ha!

Yes, I turned 8 years old! :)

 So, after cake, it was no longer my birthday, it was now Christmas Eve! One good thing about my birthday is my kids think it is sooo cool that they get to open some presents on my birthday too! Our tradition is to read the story of Jesus' birth in the bible while having the kids act it out with the nativity my parents bring over that I grew up with. After that, we give my parents their gift, and the kids open their gift from them, then they get to open their traditional new pajamas from Mom and Dad.

Ashton learned to wrap presents at school, so he was excited to make some homemade gifts for Grandma and Grandpa so he could wrap them himself!

Our gift to my parents.....

I made these birthday charts for my parents and Mike's parents to help keep track of everyone in the family's birthdays.....

The kids got a foosball table from Grandma and Grandpa! They were so excited, if you can't tell by Ashton's face!!

I thought it was so funny how excited the kids were to get new pajamas! They both got new robes too! Brayden's not wearing her robe - it's zebra print of course, which would be a little too much for the eyes to handle with her leopard print pajamas!!

Mike was so sweet and got me new pajamas too!!

Luckily Brayden and Ashton were really excited to go to bed early that night, so Santa got to come a lot earlier than usual this year! So early that I was able to sneak out and take a picture of what our house looked like after he came that night!

Next.....Christmas morning!!!

Christmas Traditions & Other December Fun!

The day after Thanksgiving is when we decorate for Christmas! I love how excited the kids get when we pull out all of the decorations and play Christmas music all day while we decorate! The tree is of course what they get the most excited about!

That same weekend we went over to my parents' house to help decorate their tree and decorate a gingerbread house with them! They still use all of the same ornaments we had growing up, I love it!

On December 1st or scout elf, Sammy, came back to stay with us for awhile! He showed up with a fun breakfast, new Christmas plates, and candy canes scattered everywhere!

Unlike other family's elves I've heard of, Sammy isn't much of a troublemaker. Thank goodness because I don't need more messes to clean up! He would leave our kids notes and reminders of things they need to do to stay on Santa's nice list, and he left them fun surprises every once in awhile, and would sometimes be found in funny situations. This was the kids' favorite.....

He seemed to have a thing for one of Brayden's Monster high Dolls, who happened to be Cupid's daughter!

One morning Sammy left the kids some donuts and other things to make the donuts into snowmen and reindeer! The kids loved it! (Their parents had some fun with it too!) Mike's is the one on the top left.....we were in the middle of catching up on all of the seasons of The Walking Dead, so zombies were on his mind if you can't tell!!

Every year Brayden's dance class does a mini performance for Christmas in their studio. Here she is with her class after the dance!

We fit in a Jazz game with some of Mike's family! So fun!

Something we had avoided doing the past few years was going to see the elves at Gardner Village because of the cold! Well, the kids talked us into it this year, but we did a sped up version, because it was freezing!!!

Ashton had to check to make sure his name wasn't on the naughty list! Lucky for him, it wasn't, but it wasn't on the nice list either.....maybe Santa was still deciding?

Our December was packed full and so much fun! Some fun things I didn't get pictures of were The Festival of Trees, a Christmas show at the Off Broadway Theater with some friends, Mike's company Christmas party downtown, our ward Christmas party where the kids got to sing in the program and my brother showed up surprising the kids & told us that him & his wife are MOVING BACK HERE - we are SO excited, and the kids' school Christmas Sing-Around where their principal was named the principal of the year for the district - so awesome! I love December, it is so crazy busy every year, but even if it stresses me out a little, I look back and have great memories that we made during such a magical month!