Salt Lake City Temple Lights December 2013

Don't mind our crazy eyes and crazy clothes. It was super cold! We had fun visiting temple square with our friend's the Bell's. This is one tradition I'm really going to miss when we leave Salt Lake City. We have loved living so close to this big and beautiful temple! We are excited to get to know the San Antonio Temple better over the next 4 years though!

Kael's Kindergarten Christmas Program

Kael is in the front middle wearing the blue shirt with a tie.

Front and center so all can see him.......

Grab his crotch...

Several times...

We are working on what to do with our hands. I believe he even once picked his nose during the program. However, he did an AMAZING job! He learned the songs pretty well! It was so fun to see him and he was so excited. I am so happy we were able to have him attend kindergarten at Indian Hills. This has been such a great experience for our family and starting out his education right has been so important to me and I'm just so proud of this kid!!!

 Cookies and hot cocoa after the concert.

And, his JuleBukk on the wall with the other kids holiday heritage dolls.

McDonald's Trip with friends

We went on a tour of a chocolate factory with some friends and then stopped at McDonald's for lunch after. The kids sure had a blast and we all got loaded up on chocolate. It was a great way to spend some time with friends.

2013 Ward Christmas Party

Our ward has a fabulous tradition the last 2 years for our Christmas party of having the children act out the nativity. This has been so fun for the kids and they get to participate in the party. This year Kael got to be Joseph and Eden got to be a cow. She loves being a cow. She was the "brown" cow this year. They set up a craft section for the kids and we had cafe rio catered. We really have loved being in our ward the last 3 1/2 years and are really going to miss it when we move on to a "real" ward. Being in a young married family student ward has really been a great experience for our family. Our Bishop has been with us for almost 3 years now and his time is almost up. So, our ward got creative and came up with a Christmas gift of cereal for him. He always likes planning our break the fast with something simple like cereal, so we kept to tradition. Each family got a box of cereal and put a picture and/or letter with it for him. Time sure has flown and we are still enjoying our time here in Salt Lake City.

Dentist

I wish I could have gotten a picture of Eden too, but this will have to do. My kids love the dentist and do a great job there. Kael didn't have any cavities and did great! Eden, had one small cavity, but it didn't need to be fixed... The poor girl is sooooo tough! Let's just say Eden has a super strong gag reflex. It was so hard for her to let them in her mouth, but she willingly opened wide when asked and gagged and coughed a lot, then opened it up again. It was going great until the fluoride treatment... You can see the size of the teeth thing on Kael. They didn't have any small enough for Eden, so in it went into her tiny mouth until she gagged so hard she threw up. Not just a little either. She was so tough! If I asked her to put that thing back in her mouth she would have. We gave her a break though and they both earned their prize. We got some good practice techniques for brushing and they have both been super excited to brush their teeth every night since. I think that reason alone is worth the 6 month check ups for the kids. Proud of my healthy mouth little kids!

Santa Clause Came for a visit

This was the winning picture... Eden's look of something AMAZING is happening over there, but I'm suppose to stand here and smile with this fake Santa... Then, there is Elara's glare... "Why am I on this guys knee?!" And Kael's grin thinking "Mom, this guy keeps pulling his beard off, I KNOW this isn't Santa, but I'll smile somewhat anyway".

Traditions, Traditions

Spending time with our children is so important to Derek and I. One of the fun things to do with them is to do yearly traditions. It makes sure that at least that one thing gets to happen with them every year. We MAKE time for the silly little things. I like that about traditions. Not all traditions are great, but I do believe in making them for your own family. One of our yearly traditions has been decorating gingerbread houses. I love seeing how different they are each year and what we all can come up with, with the different things we pick out each year. We also started a new tradition this year. We went to the store with several pinterest ideas. We wanted to incorporate Christ into our Christmas. We had a thankful tree for Thanksgiving and decided we could do a Christmas tree and decorate it with bulbs of gifts for our Savior. I LOVE this new tradition! It was a fun family activity and it brought the real reason of Christmas up in our home and gave us goals to work on over the Christmas season. This is a "NEW" tradition we will keep for many years! I'm so excited to see what gifts we can come up with each year and see the different trees we make.