Salt Lake City Weekend Trip

Dave's sibling and parents planned another trip up to good ol' Salt Lake City. It was our Christmas gift to each other. We all went up a few years back and decided to do an encore trip.

We stayed again at the Inn on the Hill; an old mansion remodeled into a Bed & Breakfast. It's seriously straight out of the game of clue with a billiards room, a library, a kitchen, etc. We all wanted to show up in our Clue garb, but thought that might be overdoing it. And it's pretty much haunted. I was joking with the lady at the front desk and actually got it out of her that their ghost's name is "Little Sarah." Eeeeek. And lucky for the rest of us, it was only Steve and Becky staying in the haunted room that had had sightings/occurances. On a side note, not all rooms at that place are created equal if you know what I mean. Dave and I lucked out when we drew the best room which was quite large and had a private balcony; others of his siblings were less lucky, but we all enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

We had a great little weekend though. Jake and Sierra (aka Bernie and Mary Poppins) watched our kidlings back at home (and the kids had nothing short of an amazing time as well).

We got to:
-Do a ton of sealings at the Salt Lake temple
-Eat at Gourmandise, Benihana, Settebello, the Roof, and of course, the delicious breakfasts there at the Inn
-Play Quarters, and I even won a round!
-See the play, "The Pirate Queen" at Hale Center Theater, which Steve and Rob did not give their stamp of approval on!
-Go to a Jazz Game
-Shop at City Creek
-Go for a morning jog around the capitol building and Memory Grove with Dave (one of my favorite parts)
-Go to Music & the Spoken Word
-See the Kimball family cemetery, which was right below our Inn.

It was some much needed time away from parenting, and some much needed time with my sweetie! How lucky we are to have such great family that we can plan fun weekends like this with!

Daddy and Me Days

Both Cole and Kate got to have their dad join them for an activity in the same month!

Cole and the dad got to play games, sing songs, and make crafts at Cole's Darling Daddy Valentine Preschool Party. 

And then Kate and the dad got to make pizzas and have dinner together at a Daddy Daughter Activity Days Party.

Provo City Center Temple Open House

No better excuse for skipping school than to visit a new temple! Amazingly gorgeous! We had a great time with Grandma Sandra and Grandpa Reese, even if it was windy and chilly!

Ice Castles

We visited the Ice Castles for the first time. We didn't tell the kids where we were going, but as we pulled up Kate was just ecstatic. Who wouldn't be thrilled to explore a real-life ice castle?!! 

It was plenty cold outside, but it was stunning! The whole Frozen cast was there to meet and greet, we got to slide down the slide, sip some hot cocoa and munch on a pink sugar cookie...all while discovering the icy world around us! We got there at the perfect time too; got to see it partly in daylight, and also in the dark. Glad we went on opening night because it wasn't as crowded as the rest of the season.

 Dinner at the Dairy Keen afterward made our evening all-around magical!

Baby Max Turns 1!

You've heard every other mom say it, but how crazy that our baby is already 1! It's so strange that he's been here one whole year already!

We wanted to theme Max's birthday around what he loves most, and ultimately decided upon the theme of "Mom." Mom was his first word, and continues to be his favorite to say, repeated all day long. He needs his momma to feed him every bottle, and gives her the best loves. Dave often says that Max only "tolerates" him.

Our one and only child that actually ate his smash cake!

At one year: 

Crawling and standing, says every member of our family's name; sleeps 12-13 hours stretches at night; is obsessed with women and grandmas; is scared to death of men; has several teeth; loves to eat big people food of every kind and hates baby food; smiles and laughs like nobody's business; runs the show and bosses older brother and sissy around; loves technology (remotes, phones, tv's, etc) and doesn't especially love baby toys; swims regularly in the toilet if someone neglects to shut the bathroom door; is not a homebody and needs to get out at least once a day; gets regular comments on his kissy lips and the way he puckers them and says "ooo"; has a great set of eye brows that he can pull a great stink eye with, and finally...is the best little caboose to our family that we could have asked for. He has always been an easy-going, loving little boy that rounds out our family perfectly. 

Famous

I've had fun dabbling in the Etsy business. I'm hardly a successful seller, but it's a fun challenge for me while I'm at home with the kids to think up and create items to sell. 

A most exciting and unexpected event happened from early November through mid-January. My Shave and Play Barbie white elephant gift was spotlighted on a website called, "Thisiswhyimbroke.com." It increased traffic to my shop like crazy and I made substantially more sells than my norm. 

Every day over the holidays I was in a rush, and up to my arms in Barbie hair, making these stupid dolls! Even Dave had to be hired as my mail manager. I wanted to call it quits and just relax, but Dave kept encouraging me. We kept on keeping on and it was even KIND OF fun (in retrospect). The sales have since died, but it was a fun little memory in 2015 for us!

Kate's Christmas Performances

Kate joined Alpine Community Theater for kids. She's had a fun year singing and performing on stage. And we've loved watching her do what she does best.

She performed at both the Dickens Festival and the Festival of Trees over the holidays. It was a busy few weeks of practices and performances, but it all paid off. Both sets of Grandparents were able to come watch Miss Kate as she glowed on the stage! We're so proud of our little star!

(one the gingerbread displays at the Festival of Trees)