The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Here are a few pictures from some things we have done during this holiday season, besides plan our ward Christmas party and talk in church the next day :)

On this day, I took the boys to the Festival of Trees. I love this tradition. The trees are so fun to look at and it is for such a great cause.
They had a Santa there- that was the best part for the boys. Jackson told Santa he wants a dinosaur. We'll see if Santa listened.

This was my favorite part- how cool is this gingerbread house made to look like the house in "Up"?!?

This was Jackson's favorite tree- he thought a BYU Christmas tree was the ultimate. I promise I did not persuade him to say that either.

On this night we took our family to our city interfaith Christmas celebration. They displayed lots of nativity sets, had concerts, and had a live nativity, complete with real animals!

It amazes me how tolerant of the cold the boys become when there is snow outside. They would probably stay out all day if I'd let them! This was them yesterday.

Christmas surprises

For those that haven't heard this story yet, this is a conversation we had with Jackson on Saturday:

Jackson: (yelling from downstairs) Daddy, can you help me get the sleds?
Spencer: (yelling back from upstairs) Where are they?
Jackson: I think they are in the closet. You know, the closet where all my Christmas presents are, like my Lightning McQueen.

I think I need to do a better job of hiding the Christmas presents.

Weekend getaway

Two weekends ago, Brady and I had the chance to go visit my brother and sister-in-law for the weekend in Arizona. My sister-in-law was having her baby shower during that time. We had such a fun time with them. Brady was loved by all, and the baby shower was super fun. There was a luau theme, lots of yummy food and fun games too. My sister-in-law was appreciative of the visit, especially considering I missed a BYU home football game for it (I know, shocking!). Oh, and notice the short sleeve shirts in the pictures- apparently Arizona thinks winter means 75 degrees?
Here is Brady with my beautiful sister-in-law Veronica. She got a ton of great stuff for baby Isabel who will be here in just a few weeks!

Here's my goofy brother (I love you man!) Brady absolutely adored him all weekend.

Here's Brady and me with their two dogs. The dogs were the highlight of the trip for Brady- he thought they were so cool! Disregard the scary picture of me- I had just woken up!

Bentley (the black dog) was eyeing Bunko the bear all weekend long. It was quite the struggle to keep him from chewing the bear to bits.

Past out on the airplane from a weekend of fun.

And what were Spencer and Jackson doing during the weekend? Well, here are some pictures... oh wait, that's right- Spencer didn't take ANY pictures of their bachelor adventures, despite my crystal clear instructions. Apparently asking for my child to be kept alive, the house to not be burned down, AND taking a couple pictures is too much to ask. So you will have to imagine Spencer and Jackson eating out every night (because I was informed leaving meals to be put in the oven was too much work for them), attending the BYU-Air Force game, and Jackson nearly breaking his nose while wrestling with Daddy on the couch, spewing blood everywhere. Fun times...

The perfect day

This morning my kids slept in (instead of the normal 5:00AM wake-up call), allowing Spencer and me to sleep too. We ate a yummy breakfast together, followed by a thorough scrubbing of our whole house. The laundry got done, the car got washed- it was a very productive morning. Everyone was working together and getting along for once. I love having my house clean- it is such a relief. We also finished decorating our house for Christmas- so fun! Then we enjoyed the beautiful day outside by taking our wonderful boys to a park and having a great time with them.

Then there was this:

BYU wins in overtime. I just experienced the perfect day. (I know, it doesn't take much to please me)

Couple pictures

Do you ever feel like every picture on your camera is of your kids? Spencer and I hardly ever take pictures and especially not together. So, in response to the family members that have requested some pictures of just us, here are a couple random ones. Of course they have to do with BYU football, but oh well- you take what you can get.

Book review

So today I picked up the book "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck. Our ward book club is reading it next month, but I thought I would get started early. Well, I finished it already thanks to a good nap day from Jackson and Brady (I love you boys!). I loved the book! I have to admit that I bawled like a baby during it- Spencer kept giving me strange looks and I am still dealing with the crying headache, but oh well. I had a really special experience while reading it which I won't share at this time, but hopefully can another day. But now everyone can totally disregard my previous post- I am ready and set for Christmas! This book seriously got me in the Christmas spirit. I am also now so excited for our ward Christmas party. (On a completely separate note: can I just say that I love my calling on the activities committee because it gets me into the spirit of every holiday)

So, since I'm not with it enough to have a Goodreads account, here are my thoughts on the book- awesome story with a great message. It is deeply personal, but I'm so glad that Glenn Beck shared this experience with the world. Warning: you may cry... a lot. Five stars!

Yet another separate, random thought: Happy Veterans Day to everyone. Thank you Veterans for your amazing service to us all.

Remember Thanksgiving?

So the other day I was in a certain big box store which shall remain nameless and was somewhat dismayed by the blatant Christmas decorations everywhere. The ads were even advertising for Christmas too. Now I love Christmas as much as the next person, but really! It's only the first week of November!

The real reason I was mildly bothered by this is with Christmas everywhere already, I feel Thanksgiving gets left in the dust. And Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. How could you not like Thanksgiving? Here's my ode to Thanksgiving, or at least a few of my reasons for loving it:

- The food. Enough said :) Any holiday that celebrates food is good enough for me. And I do like to cook.
- Family. Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to get together with family. We usually spend the holiday with Spencer's family and I love it.
- Football. Whether it's a family game in the backyard, a ward get together, or an NFL classic, you can't go wrong all day.
- The BYU/Utah game. I know, let the eye rolls begin. This game usually takes place around Thanksgiving weekend and win or lose, it's always fun.
- Emphasis on gratitude. Thanksgiving gives you such a wonderful chance to remember just how much we have been blessed. I think it is especially interesting that we take this time to remember how much we have just before we go on a spending frenzy for Christmas!
- The colors. I love fall colors- they are my favorite.
- The history. Thanksgiving is great for anyone who enjoys learning about the history of our country.
- No gifts. There is no pressure to buy anything for anyone.
- Naps. Is there anything better than the traditional tryptophan-induced Thanksgiving nap?

I'm sure there are more. But I'll just repeat that I really do love Thanksgiving, and I will continue to refuse to get into the Christmas spirit until Black Friday. :)