Family from Out of Town

We were so happy we were able to finish up our holidays with a visit from Dave's sister and her husband.  They live in Illinois where they are both finishing up their residencies, Christie as an OBGYN and Jake as an ER doc.  We are so excited for them and really looking forward to the day they move back to Utah.  Even more exciting is that they are expecting a baby in June!  Another cousin for Will is on the way and we could not be more thrilled for them!  We are so blessed to have such amazing family.  Will had so much fun with them, we love you Aunt Christie and Uncle Jake!

New Years Eve Tradition

I have to say, of all of our family traditions, our New Years Eve tradition is one of my favorites.  Every year we invite friends or family to go with us to Magleby's for dinner.  They always have an amazing buffet of crab, shrimp, prime rib, and many many more delicious things for New Years Eve.  This year since it fell on a Sunday they ended up having their buffet the Friday before and we invited my parents to come with us.  It was such an enjoyable evening and Will loved spending time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Dave loaded up on crab and I enjoyed my chocolate cake and raspberries.  Will was being his adorable self, everyone would stop by and say hi to him as they passed our table.  So happy he gets to be included in all of our holiday traditions.  They are so much better with him.

Zoo Lights

My brother called and invited us to go see the zoo lights with his family, and I am so glad he did!  It was absolutely freezing (I thought I was going to loose a toe) but it was also very enjoyable.  Will does not mind the cold at all and he was just running non stop checking out all of the lights and trying to climb rocks and play in the snow.  He keeps us on our toes!

He had so much fun being with Aria.  He just adores her.  Whenever she was out of sight he would start looking around and asking for her.  It is so sweet.  I'm so happy he has cousins as friends. 

We also took him on the carousel for the first time.  He was smiling so big I could see his dimples!  It totally made the cold 100% worth it!

Cousin Time at the Curiosity Museum

We decided to keep the fun going during our Christmas break so we met Dave's twin brother Mike and his family along with Dave's Mom at the Curiosity Museum.  I'm glad we were able to spend some quality time together and let the cousins play.

They both really loved the water table.  There is nothing little ones like better than splashing in water!

It was adorable to watch them dance together.  They were having a blast.  I wish I would have taken a picture of Dave and Mike, then you would see where they kids got their dance moves from ;)

Will has not quite figured out magnifying glasses yet, but I had fun laughing at the faces he was making.

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!