Utah fun

We spent the last week playing and enjoying our time in Utah.

Cole and I made a gingerbread train...and Ellie ate it :)

Cole and Daddy made a wooden tractor that Grandpa Coombs gave Cole

Kamryn and Kenzie threw us a tea party

The kids drew me some awesome pictures

Cole and Grandma Coombs played with his new Geotrax sets

GG made us Green Eggs and Ham

Cole went to Kangaroo Zoo with Kam, Kenz, and Em

We also watched a ton of movies, saw friends, Ben went skiing, and Cole and I went to "Tangled". Thanks everyone for showing us a good time!

Christmas

We started out Christmas Eve with the Coombs family. We had a yummy dinner, a talent show, cousin gifts and opened our gifts from Grandma and Grandpa before we had to leave.

Cole and Gracie all ready to watch the talents

Katie, Ethan, and Gracie played the piano

Abbie and Ky sang some songs

Elise danced :)

Ben and the kids tried to play the piano

Coombs cousin gifts

El got lots of babies

Cole got lots of Geotrax

Christmas Eve jammies for my 3 kids!

We left the Coombs party a little early and caught the end of the Green family party. We made it just in time for Ellie to be baby jesus in the nativity, for Cole to play the tape game, the chocolate fountain, and cousin gifts.

Christmas morning we woke up to overflowing stockings and a pile of presents! Cole was pretty excited about it all. Ellie didn't really know what was going on but she loved that everywhere she turned there was something to play with.

We spent the rest of the day playing with family. We headed back up to the Coombs for the afternoon to play games and with our new toys. We spent the evening back down at the Greens playing games. We did a lot of back and forth, but it was fun to spend time with family, and it didn't seem overwhelming this year. It has been an exciting Christmas!

Temple Square

We came to Utah for Christmas break. We got here Saturday night, spent Sunday with Ben's family, Monday night my parents took us to a Pickleville Christmas play in Logan, and tonight we went with my family to Temple Square.

We met GG & Grandpa, Tyson, Maryn & Kreg & Kam & Kenz & Emersyn, Casey & Lindsey & Carly at the frontrunner station in Layton. Cole was so excited to ride the "train"! All bundled up, we got aboard the "train" (The Frontrunner) that took us downtown. We got to ride another "train" (Trax) to Temple Square. It was a fun ride!

Mindy & Landon & Brittyn & Easton & Bronson met us at Temple Square. We saw all of the lights and walked through the visitors centers. Cole and Elise loved being with their cousins. It was so much fun to go as a big family.

The lights at Temple Square is one of my favorite things about Christmas. It's so fun to walk around and enjoy all the beautiful lights as a family. I hope it can always be a family tradition that we enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

And so it begins...

We had our first snow day today.

Last night we drove through the first blizzard of the season to get to our branch Christmas party. It was scary, but worth it. This morning we woke up to a two foot snow drift in front of our door and ice covering the roads and sidewalks. Church was cancelled "due to declining weather as well as poor road conditions" so we had our first snow day of the season.

Ben braved the freezing temperature and wind gusts to shovel us out while the kids watched out the window the best they could, wishing they were out there too.

Later in the day we got all bundled up to brave the cold and deliver our neighbor gifts. The kids were so excited to be going outside! Ben and I had a good laugh over our pink marshmallow puff in her snowsuit :)

Welcome Winter, but please don't stay too long!!

Christmas Train

Christmas has officially come when Valley West Mall gets out their Christmas train...at least for Cole anyway. He loves the lights, the trees, Santa and his reindeer, and everything Christmas, but the train is definitely the highlight of the season. Cole has been looking forward to this all year.

His first time around Cole got to sit in the engine car and ring the bell!

The next time Elise and Mommy got to go too.

After our train adventure we headed to Santas Village and saw Santa. Neither of the kids were too sure about this Santa, and they did not want to pose for pictures.

It was a fun day, even though it doesn't really look like it from Cole and El's faces. Most of our pictures look like we are having a miserable time because as soon as the camera comes out the kids stop smiling and look away or give me forced smiles. Oh well. I had to document this momentous occasion anyway!