A Utah Christmas

Well our first Christmas at home was a success! I can't say it didn't involve a little bit of home sick feelings, especially when we FaceTimed with our families and watched all of the Christmas festivities going on without us in Washington and California. However, all in all, our day was pretty Merry!

We were lucky to be invited down to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Springville for a Christmas Eve party. It was so much fun and made us feel loved :) We ate delicious food, visited with family, played spoons, decorated gingerbread men and Christmas trees, and played some really fun Christmas games!

Koby loved playing with Uncle Terry

Aunt LaNiece played Christmas Bingo with the kids :)

Jas and Laura's cookie eating game was hilarious. You had to place a cookie on your forehead and get it into your mouth without using your hands...

We got home around 10:00 pm and put the kids straight to bed. Then James and I began the wrapping process. The boys got a train table this year. I tell ya, it would sure be nice if Santa could just put that thing together with a wave of his magic mitten! Here we are at 2:30 am, still finishing the dang thing...

We woke up bright and early the next morning, getting about 4 hours sleep, but the look on Linc's face when he saw the train table was worth every minute of sleep lost.

Following tradition of course, we took our annual Christmas picture on the stairs. Linc obviously didn't know it was Christmas yet.

Lincoln stayed by the train table most of the morning, while Koby opened all of the presents. He sure was good at unwrapping this year! Koby got the exact things he asked for this year, "guys and games". James is pretty excited about the G.I. Joes too, maybe I'll understand one day if we have a little girl opening up some Barbies :) 

Linc did humor us long enough to open a present or two...

We spent the rest of the day in our PJ's, playing and relaxing. It was a good day. 

Christmas time for James and me means Anniversary time. December 27th to be exact. This year we celebrated six big ones! We are not mushy people so all I can say is, its been good, good, good! 

We are hoping on Anniversary #10 we can go somewhere hot and sandy. But for now, we have been making the most of the never ending snow we have here in Utah. 

It has been snowing off and on (mainly on) for about a week and a half now. Saturday we ventured out with the Craig's for our first sledding experience of the year. We had so much fun. I wish we were neighbors. These kids are the best of friends...

Luke, Koby, and Anna

Dehn pulling the boys up the hill over and over again :)

We packed a lot in on Saturday. The Craig's also came with us to the Lehi Rec Center for some indoor swimming. It was freezing, however it did not phase these kids at all.

Towards the end of our swim, a lady came up to us..."Are these both of your boys? I have never seen kids so comfortable in the water! What do you do?!" We are happy, both Koby and Linc are little fish when it comes to the water. It makes swimming with them so much fun.

I should have just told her we take a lot of baths in our house...

Today we went out sledding again, this time with Em and Shane. Yet again it was a great day. However this time we were reminded just how dangerous sledding can be. Emily and Koby got rammed into (head on) by some teenage girls at the bottom of the hill. Poor Em sprained her ankle really bad and is now on crutches and sporting an ankle brace! 

I did not realize my flash was off on my phone...These pictures are pretty blurry. Sad! 

We have had lots of fun with friends and family this holiday! The week before Christmas we got together with the Finch's, Bennion's, and Mitchell's and made some gingerbread houses-A tradition I can't live without.

  A couple weeks ago Emily and I had the opportunity of celebrating my Grandma's 75th birthday with her! We had some delicious dinner together and some rather exciting girl talk. It was a fun night and I am glad we got to share some birthday love with her.

This blog is never ending I know, but I just have to post some pictures of my little guys as of late. They have been playing together a lot more this week and today I even found Koby reading to Linc. Of course I ruined the moment by trying to take a picture.

In the dryer, of course.

And that's a wrap. Goodbye 2012!