December in Review and the New Year

December is always so much fun.  More time to spend together with Dad and gingerbread houses, Christmas lights, pretty dresses, new clothes, new toys, and at the end of this post... poppers for new years eve.  We had our own little party much earlier than midnight and enjoyed poppers and sprite.  Here is to an amazing new year with a family of 4!

2012 highlights were Kayson passed is PE exams and became a Professional engineer and our sweet Kate was born.  We took vacations to Utah, San Francisco, and Newport, and Kylie is now 2.  We love our house and our neighborhood and our jobs and could not be happier.

Sister Sister

There is nothing I love more than seeing my girls together and interacting with each other.  I love having two kids and can't wait til they can play together

December Kate

Christmas Day

This year we had our first Christmas by ourselves, just our little family of 4 and it did not disappoint.  Kate and Kylie got a kitchen set from Santa and a portable dvd player, Kylie got a ball (which is all she would say when you mentioned santa so good thing he brought one), some princesses to add to the castle, animals to add to the zoo, some books, movies, clothes, a princess watch, a couple games including a curious george memory game, and a few other things.  Kate got some books and small toys and clothes too.  We spent the morning playing with new toys.  We had a delicious turkey dinner, skyped with both sides of the family, and hung out some more. It does not get more relaxing than this

Kayson got me a digital picture frame,  a pair of toms, and a laminator.  I was not as good at gift giving as he was this year.  He got scout pants and socks, a camping pad, a blog book from 2008-2010 and a calendar for this year.  I love having my two girls and it was the best Christmas ever to have them both here and to see Kylie get excited about new things.  She lost interest in the opening of presents after about two but loved what was in them.  So happy to have a family of 4!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was all we hoped it would be.  Emily came for a last minute visit and we took her to the airport to go back to Utah in the morning.  Kayson got to take the day off since he worked over the weekend on a storm, and the Stephen's had us over for dinner at night.  I cannot even begin to say how thankful I am to them that they had us over with their parents and let us intrude on their holiday evening but it was so fun.  We did fondue for dinner, read the Christmas story, watched a short lds movie on Christmas and watched their kids open presents from their grandparents, who also got us presents.  Seriously... so nice!  It definitely made being away from our family much easier.  Then we came home, had the kids open their jammies, left cookies for Santa and went to bed.

Christmas Sunday

Kayson unexpectedly had to work on Christmas Sunday (if that's even a title).  But, that's a big day for me because another excuse to dress the kids up in matching outfits.  Emily was nice enough to come and help me and I loved getting to spend time with her.

Shurtz Visit

We had so much fun when Grandpa, Grandma, Kyle, and Hayli came to visit.  We played with the kids, we went bowling, went to zoo lights, opened Christmas presents including the princess castle and golf clubs and toys and cute clothes, played on the air mattress, and all took turns holding Kate to keep her happy.  Thanks heavens for visitors and for family to take breaks in our normal lives.