Christmas dinner

The afternoon wouldn't have been complete without the boys taking their naps.


Since my parents hosted, I volunteered to do a lot of the cooking. I even tried a friend's bacon wrapped turkey recipe and it was so good... thanks for the idea Brigitte!





The kids had a great time during their gift exchange.



Then it was time for the adult gift exchange.




It was a day with amazingly sunny weather, great food, lots of family and altogether perfect.

Christmas morning

All Emma has been talking about is that she wants Santa to bring her a doll house. Well Santa is a smart guy and knew that she already had a doll house but she needed all of the furniture and dolls. Lucky for her that is exactly what he brought her, along with a bag of some other fun toys. This little girl was in heaven and loves her doll house.





After presents at our house we headed over to Papa and Abuelita's house for more presents and breakfast.

Christmas Eve

We started our morning out with a special treat and let Emma open a present early.


Surprise... Emma is going to be a big sister! She is very excited!
We are now 15 weeks and doing great! My belly officially popped out over night during my 14th week and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect gift. I love that I am able to watch this little baby of ours grow and we can't wait to find out if this is a little guy or gal in just a few weeks.








We all headed to church in the evening and then came back to our house for dinner. Uncle Andy joined us and we had a great time.

Emma got all ready in her jammies and gave Lulu a big hug since we won't see her until next year. Then we made sure to leave out cookies and milk for Santa. And then Daddy read 'The Night Before Christmas' and we headed off to sleep.

Tamale Day

Tamale Day is always a favorite family tradition. It brings back so many happy childhood memories of all of us getting together before Christmas with my Grandma B.
I love that we brought this tradition back and I love that we have put our own little spin on it. We started with a little champagne and sparkling cider toast, personalized aprons and lots of laughs. It was a perfect way to spend time with family.

More Christmas lights

Friday evening we bundled up and went for a drive to look at Christmas lights. We made a stop at the house on the corner of Richland and Wasatch. Douggie found it last year and we loved it enough to make a trip back this year.

Emma was lucky enough to see Santa. He even gave her a stuffed mouse, bubbles and a candy cane.

Jacob's 1st grade Christmas program

Friday afternoon we went to see JuJu's 1st grade Christmas program. These kids were pretty darn cute. They told a story and sang lots of songs. Emma loved it and even got up in the aisle to sing and dance along.

Emma's pre-school Christmas Party

Friday morning was Emma's pre-school Christmas party. Emma and I had a fun time and played all morning with her school friends. It was a pajama party so all of the kids came in their cute jammies.

They sang songs, made pizzas, decorated cookies, made gingerbread houses, colored candy cane ornaments and played outside. It was a fun time and I am so lucky I was off of work so that I could go with Emma.









Then it was time to eat their yummy pizzas they made.

Emma's pre-school Christmas Program

This morning we went to Emma's pre-school Christmas Program at church.

The kids were so darn cute all dressed up.

Of course our little Emma was sitting next to Luca (the little guy to the right with the red bow tie).

We think she has a bit of a crush on him because she talks about him all the time.

Our conversation at dinner tonight was a little something like this...

Emma: Luca wear a tuxedo today and we get married.

Mama and Daddy: You got married?

Emma: Yeah!

Emma is on the left in the back with the red hair bow.

It turns out that it was pretty impossible to get a picture during their performance.

There were way too many parents not obeying the "no standing" rule.

We did get some video so we will have to post that soon.

Emma and her other boyfriend Ethan.

This is the boyfriend her parents approve of.

We know him and we know that he comes from a good family.

He was also a gentleman and put his arm around Emma.

Thank you to Abuelita and Papa for coming and watching the performance.

We are proud of our little girl and we look forward to many more school performances in the future.

Our 1st desert trip of the season

We took a little weekend trip to the desert with our fun desert family.

Emma played in the sand the entire weekend.

Our friend Lulu even came along for the trip.

She had to keep an eye on Emma and make sure she was a good girl.

Emma's favorite part of the day was always taking a walk with Wendy and the dogs to go on a rock hunt.

Emma also loved the ride to the Blue Inn to get ice cream.

So helpful cleaning off daddy's dusty nose when he got back from his ride.

She was so tired that she fell asleep before we even got off the dirt and on to the highway.

And she was still so tired that she fell asleep while watching tv last night.

This little girl loves the desert.

We had a great time this weekend.

It was the perfect (late) start to our season.