the big 3-0

Steve turned 30 last week.

He started the day with breakfast in bed

And finished the day with homemade strawberry shortcake

Who could ask for anything more?

We love you Steve and we're so thankful for all you do for us!

Here's one of the babe... just for fun.

Snow Day

We've had a really mild snow season. It's been nice to ease us into the cold weather here. I know I've probably just jinxed myself, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have snow into June to make up for it.

With that said, we got a pretty decent snowstorm a few weeks ago. Steve was in Utah for his Grandmother's funeral, so it was just me and the kids. It was so cold, that we didn't venture out too much, but when we did, we had a great time.

We can't wait for more snow to play in.

Merry Christmas!!

Jack definitely got the whole Christmas celebrations a lot more this year.

He loved learning more about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and all that is made possible through him. We are grateful for this time of the year when we are able to celebrate his glorious birth.

He was also into Santa. He would always point him out anytime we saw him in the store or on someone's lawn while driving down the road. He loved reading Christmas books and stories. His favorite was The Polar Express. We had to read it every night, and even when putting him to bed, he would ask us to tell him the story again. It was usually the abbreviated version because we couldn't remember the whole thing, but I think we might have it pretty much down by now.

Jack was so excited to wake up to his Stocking full of goodies from Santa.

Loving her new jumper from santa and hat from grandma nan and papa frank

Jack was sure not to let any of Santa's leftover cookies go to waste. Cookies for breakfast, doesn't get better than that!

My mom made my siblings and I stockings when we were little and we've used them ever since. My sisters and sister-in-laws have all made stocking for their kids so I decided I would do the same. I started Jack's right after he was born hoping to have it finished before his first Christmas. But no such luck. I got most of it done, but not all of it. I started Steve's soon after that but still didn't have it finished. So 2 Christmas's came and went, and neither of their stockings were finished. When I found out that I was pregnant with Sydney, I was DETERMINED to not only finish Jack's and Steve's, but also one for her. It took me a little while, but i finally finished all of them on Christmas eve!!! And it feels SO good to be caught up.

Here's the lineup:

This year was very different, but we had a great Christmas and feel very blessed to be healthy and happy.

We were glad to be able to spend some of the day with Steve's sister Becky and her family, but we sure did miss being with our other family and participating in the fun traditions we've grown up with.

We are so grateful for all of our family and friends and hope y'all had a great Christmas as well.

our christmas littles

Ready to go to our friend's house for soup and fun for Christmas Eve

In their Christmas jammies ready for Santa to come

our little wiseman

Oh Christmas Tree...

ohhhhhh, Christmas tree!

At the beginning of the month, we were invited by some friends in our ward to go cut down our tree. This was our first experience with this and we were really excited! We knew it would be a lot with a toddler and an infant in tow but we were still looking forward to it. We knew we were going up to a designated area in the mountains, but we thought it would be a huge Christmas tree farm with a large variety of shapes and sizes that would be easy to find. Come to find out, things were a little different than what we pictured in our minds.

After a drive up the mountain, with 5 cars in a line, we arrived at "the spot". We all piled out of our cars, bundled Jack up, I strapped Sydney to my chest, and we started our journey to find the "perfect" tree. We knew it was going to be a challenge when Jack, our very active and very independent 2 year old (who also looked like the little kid from the Christmas Story that couldn't put his arms down), wanted nothing to do with holding our hands. Sure enough, within the first 5 minutes he tripped on a root and face-planted into a huge log. Lucky for us, from that point on, he wanted to be held.

Although I lugged my camera up and down the mountain, I didn't have an extra hand to pull it out and take pictures.

Here he is later that night after we had cleaned up his nose a little bit. It looks much better than it did earlier that day, and now he has a nice scar to show for it.

Let's just say, the "perfect" tree was harder to find than we hoped. And we quickly realized that we were going to have to turn our focus from the "perfect" tree, to any tree that would hold lights and ornaments. After searching high and low, literally, we found one that would work and that we liked so we cut it down. Then we had to cut it in half in order to get it into our house. Needless to say, it was really tall. Oh yeah, and sparse.

Here's it is in all it's Charlie Brown glory...

The adventures of the day wore little Sydney out.

While it may not have been an ideal situation at the time, we really did have a great time and we just might try it again next year, but maybe at a place with more options.