The end of the year

I'm finally finishing December!  After Christmas we spent time playing in the snow, playing in Midway, riding bikes, playing with cousins, watching movies and hanging out with friends!
 

Leila loved playing in the snow, and always wanted to help shovel the driveway. Santa brought Leila's bike with no training wheels, Paul was convinced that she could learn to ride it with no training wheels, after several tries we finally gave in and put them on and Leila has been so much happier with her bike. Greydon got really sick with the the stomach flu right after Christmas he couldn't keep anything down and was just miserable. After about 4 days of this we took him to the ER and got some medication. He quickly recovered and was back to new in no time, I'm just sick of ending up in the ER everytime we go to Utah. We went to Midway and invited Paul's brother and his family, his mom and his sister up there too.  We went sledding, played in the snow, went snow shoeing, watched movies and put a puzzle together.  We spent NewYear's eve with our good friends the Peterson's, Brown's, Sloan's and Phillip's.  We went to Bonsai for dinner and then back to my parents house to play games, eat snacks and ring in the new year!  We had a ton of fun with our friends and I think my favorite moments were watching Kara eat meat for the first time in like 20 years, the arm wrestling contest and getting nailed in the face with a piece of shrimp.  We were so busy having fun that I didn't take a single picture.  That finally finishes December and 2010! Now on to the New Year!

Discovery Museum again!!!

Every trip to Utah has to include a visit to the Children's Discovery Museum. Leila loves it there and Greydon is old of enough now to enjoy it too. Leila's favorite things to do are play in the grocery store, deliver mail and play in the water. Greydon loved playing in any of the cars.

Christmas (finally!)

Christmas Eve

We always spend Christmas eve with Paul's extended family (it's when they have their family Christmas Party).  This year it was at Shannon's house and it was just perfect.  They have a great toy room for the kids to play in and tons of room for the rest of the family.  The food was absolutely delicious and the white elephant gift exchange was fun.  Leila had a blast playing with her cousins, I barely saw her most of the night because she was having so much fun with so many cousins.  The kids got their new pajamas from their grandma and we got our box of chocolates.  Usually Connie gets pajamas for the kids but this year I wanted us all to match so I asked if I could make them.  With a lot of help from my mom I made pajama pants for Grey and Leila.  I was a little worried because Leila is really into nightgowns right now so I wasn't sure how she would feel about pajama pants but luckily she loved them.  We got home so late that both kids fell asleep on the drive home and went staright to bed.  Paul and I stayed up with my family watching a movie and then went to bed around 1 am. 

Christmas Morning

I was pretty excited for Christmas morning and woke up several times throughout the night and was having a hard time waiting for the kids to wake up.  Grey woke up betweena little before 8 so I decided to then wake Leila up. 

Grey checking out the presents before Leila had got up.  He wasn't quite sure what was going on. 

Coming down the hall with the kids, Leila was still pretty sleepy and kind of out of it. 

Our family in our Utah Utes pajamas.  I had come up with the idea to do this last year so I was pretty excited about it.  My parents had the same idea, I think our family, my parents and brother were all in red, black and white pajamas. 

Greydon quickly caught on to opening presents, but he was more interested in tearing things apart then what was in the package. 

Leila was mostly into the opening presents process, she kept asking "whats next, is there another present for me".  She was thrilled when she got her Hannah Montana movie, cash register, and blocks just like she had asked for.  She was super surprised when she got a bike too!

Greydon got some Legos, bath toys, movies and a whole bunch of clothes

Greydon found some chocolate in her stocking and went to town eating as much as she could.

Leslie and Jason joined us Christmas morning too.  Somehow they missed the memo on the Utah pajamas, but thats ok we still love you anyways. 

After we opened presents from Santa we went upstairs and had breakfast, watched some episodes of Community and waited for Erin and Chad to come over.

When Erin and Chad got there we opened presents from my parents and from all the siblings. 

Greydon was pretty excited about his dump truck from his Nana and Pop especially since he could ride on it.

And Leila loved her new scooter and helmet

Grey however did not enjoy sharing his new dump truck with Leila

Greydon and Leila were spoiled with a bunch more toys from my parents and Paul and I were spoiled with a bunch of things we needed too.  We got new sheets, emergency prepardness stuff, silverware, gift cards, clothing and a Blue Ray player.  It was a great Christmas!

We then headed over to Paul's moms house to open presents there.  The week before Christmas Leila started asking for a computer, we kept telling her that sometimes Santa can't bring everything you ask for.  Well Connie saved the day and had a computer for Leila, she was super excited.  Greydon and Leila also got a wagon from Connie.  I'm so excited to get it to Nevada and start using it (we got so much we couldn't fit everything in the car, so my mom's bringing the rest of our stuff down next week).  Paul got and OMM table, which is more of a present for me because now he can give me treatment whenever I want it.  And I got canning stuff, which I'm super excited to start using!

I hardly took any pictures at Connies house, it got a little hectic and I was trying to keep track of what my kids were opening and what was theirs and what was their cousins.

Christmas Night

Later that night we went to Paul's dad's house in Layton for Christmas dinner and open more presents.  The food is always delicious (Will is a great cook) I always look foward to the macaroni and cheese, pie and cookies.  I was a little disappointed because he usually makes tons and tons of cookies of all varieties.  This year he had been out of the country and only made it back in town right before Christmas, so we still got chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin  but I was definitely missing the snickerdoodles and thumb print cookies.   The kids loved their presents and for not seeing his grandkids very often he was right on with their gifts and clothing size. 

We had a great but busy Christmas day.  We enjoyed getting to see all of our family and feel really blessed with all that was done for us.  We are so very lucky to have such great families!

Fellas

We got together with our friends (technically they are Paul's friends from high school but they have become my good friends too) for our annual Christmas party. Shandra and Jackson hosted it this year, we had yummy soup and rolls and dessert. The kids mostly played in the play room while the adults watched the Utah bowl game and the Jazz game. We then had our white elephant gift exchange. Shandra had called all the wives before the party and asked us to bring something we have always wanted our husbands to get rid of but they won't instead of a white elephant and then not let our husbands know. Well the first gift opened was from the Johnson's and it was Jeff's temple jumpsuit, it took him a minute to realize what his wife was giving away, he was not happy and Alissa was laughing so hard she couldn't breath. It took a couple more gifts to be opened before the guys caught on to what the wives had done. We all were laughing pretty hard and in the end all the guys got to keep their stuff. We had lots of fun with our friends but missed all the ones who couldn't make it.

Cookies

We made sugar cookies and frosted them with Connie, Ariane, Heather, Sean, Tamari and Mylee. Leila loved it of course and was totally in to it, she probably spent at least an hour frosting cookies. Greydon just enjoyed making a mess!

Lights

One night we went to see the Christmas lights at Thanksgiving Point. The line to get in was super long so we let the kids out of their car seats while we were waiting in line and then for the slow drive through the park. Greydon was ooohing and aawwing through out the entire drive plus he loved being able to lean on the dash board.

Sunday Best!

The Sunday before Christmas I took some pictures of the kids in their cute Sunday Christmas outfits.  I somehow got lucky and got a picture of the two both looking at the camera and smiling. 

Midway Party

The week before Christmas we had our annual Christensen Family Christmas breakfast, but I didn't take a single picture.  We did have a yummy breakfast and the kids enjoyed frosting cookies and making Christmas cards.  Later that afternoon my parents, us and my siblings all headed up to Midway.  We went sledding, ice skating and then made sugar cookies. 

 Greydon was too little so he watched from the stroller.

 We had trouble getting the ice skates on Leila, they were so stiff that we couldn't even get her foot in so we had to get her a much bigger size.

 I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a career in ice skating, she could barely stand up unless we were holding her.  But she loved having us pull her around the rink.

 Leslie and Jason

 Nana, Leila and Pop

 Paul, Marcus, Erin, Mom and Dad

I was a little disappointed because it was freeaing so after about 45 minutes I headed home with Leila and Greydon and ended up missing out on the giant game of tag.

 Leila loves making cookies and could spend hours frosting and decorating them!

It was a fun night and can't wait to be up in Midway again!