Christmas Traditions

We had a very Merry Christmas this year.  I love the time we are able to spend together as a family, there is truly nothing better.

We started our celebrations off on Saturday night with one of my favorite Christmas traditions with my family.  We begin the evening by going to Crown Burger.  This is a favorite of the men in the family.  As you can see Will is pretty happy about it too!

After dinner we head over to Temple Square to see the lights.  It is beautiful to see the whole block lit up.  We also made sure to take Will to see the Christus.  I love this tradition and the reminder it is of the reason for the season.  We are so grateful for the birth of our Savior and all that God has done for us.

On Christmas Eve we spent the day with my family playing in the snow and singing Christmas carols.

Afterwards, we made a Christmas treat, another of my family's traditions.  This year we made Santa Claus sugar cookies and used cotton candy for their beards.  

Christmas morning we had fun opening presents.  This was the first year that Will kind of understood what was going on.  It was so sweet to see his excitement.

Christmas afternoon was spent with Dave's family.  Will had a grand time with his cousins.  He just loves being a part of what they are doing and having other kids to play with.

My nephew got a new Nintendo so of course most of the family had to try it out.

After dinner we opened presents and had our traditional peppermint ice cream dessert.  I just love these special times together with family, that is what it is all about!

Visiting Santa

We had such an enjoyable evening at our church's Christmas party!  We love our ward so much, we are lucky to live near so many amazing people.  It was great to get together with so many of them and celebrate the birth of our Savior.  The evening began with a delicious dinner and lots of good company.  Then members of our congregation acted out the Nativity.  After that Santa came to visit.  This is the first year that we have taken Will to meet Santa.  We were not at all sure what to expect.  Would he cry?  Would he smile?  It turns out he was somewhere in between.  He just sat there looking at us like "Why am I doing this?"  He is such a friendly little guy I wasn't too surprised there were no tears.  We are so blessed to have Will in our family, he just makes the holidays that much better!

Company Christmas Party

We had a fun evening at Dave's company Christmas party.  This year it was held at the Hilton hotel.  They had a casino night where we were able to "gamble" with the company's money for charity.  Neither Dave or I gamble so we were far from stellar but we had a lot of fun any way.  More than anything, it was just nice to be out together and enjoy celebrating the Christmas season with Dave's work friends, and we got a delicious dinner, so win win!

Fun Friends

We love to go and do things with friends from our neighborhood during the week.  This week we went to The Bounce House.  We had never been and it was such a fun spot.  The room filled with balloons was one of Will's favorites.

It was adorable to watch the boys try and pop the cartoons with their feet.  They are just so cute!  I love that in our neighborhood alone, there are nine little boys within 6 months of Will's age.  He has so many great little friends.  Not only that, but their Mom's are amazing and I am so lucky I get to be friends and hang out with them while the little ones play.  We are truly blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people in our neighborhood!

As always, Will showed no fear when it came to going down the big slide.  He did it all by himself.

I'm not going to lie, the foam pit scared me a little bit and I had to keep a close eye on Will because of his adventurous spirit.  He got pretty far out and then could not get back so I had to go help him.  But he loved it.

Who needs quarters for the arcade when you can just pretend to drive?  These two could have spent all day in here.  They are such cute little friends.

Will's 2nd Birthday

Since we had so much fun last year at the aquarium for Will's birthday, we decided to go again this year.  It is funny how a year can make such a big difference.  Last year he was barely walking, this year he ran the whole time we were there.  It was so fun to watch.  His very favorite part was seeing Santa scuba diving with the sharks.  He kept yelling "Santa!" and waving at him and giving him fist bumps through the glass.  It was adorable.

He also enjoyed seeing all of the other animals, especially the ones he could touch!

Will loved the rope bridge.  He went on it three times.  The third time, my Mom took him and he just sat down half way across.  He did not want to get up and let someone else have a turn.  He was having too much fun. 

Both of Will's grandmas were able to be there.  (My Dad was sick, so unfortunately he was not able to make it.)  It was so fun for him to be able to have that special time with his grandmas.  After the aquarium, we headed back to our house for cake and ice cream.  We had a bunch more of our family meet us there to be part of the festivities.

When I was growing up, my Mom always made our birthday cakes.  She was amazing.  She would make anything we wanted and they always turned out so well.  It is a tradition that I loved growing up, and one that I wanted to continue with my kids.  So, a couple months ago I asked Will what he wanted on his cake.  I listed a bunch of things I know he likes, and of those he told me he wanted an owl.  For weeks afterwards, he would randomly look at me and say "owl cake?"  So I knew he was pretty excited about it.  So, I got to work and this was the finished product.  It is not quite as good as the cakes my Mom made, but I hope over the years I will get better at it!

Will was thrilled with his cake, and I was surprised by how well he did at blowing out the candles.  It is so enjoyable to continue these traditions with him.

After cake and ice cream, Will got to open presents.  When I began bringing them over to him, he stood up and yelled "presents!" It made us all laugh.  He tore into them right away, he knew just what to do.  He was very much spoiled by everyone and we had a wonderful time celebrating this little guy who has filled our lives with so much joy!  I am so grateful for Will's birth mother, Brooke, who gave us the blessing of being parents.  I could never celebrate one of Will's birthdays without remembering her and all she has done for us.