iFly Utah

For Christmas, I gave my brother a "flight session" at iFly Utah. So, we all loaded up in the cars and drove the awful roads to Ogden the day after Christmas. After we got through the drive, it was AWESOME!!. We all just watched as James flew (but even watching was pretty cool.)

Austin absolutely loves his Uncle James (aka Jambo). I have had to change the picture on the desktop of the computer to one of Jambo with him. He loves to watch these videos, and says over and over, "Jambo, Fly!!"

Christmas

We had an amazing Christmas this year! I love Christmas, and I especially love that I get to experience the excitement of the holiday in Austin now! We were so blessed to have my Mom, step-dad, and siblings all here with us for Christmas this year.


We started out our celebrations with Justin's mom, sister, and niece. They stopped by on Christmas Eve and joined us for some hot cider while we read the Christmas story from the scriptures and then watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. It was a wonderful way to set the right mood for Christmas Day.


Christmas morning we woke up to almost 2 feet of snow, and no power. Luckily our fire place worked, so we were able to have some heat in the house. I sure was a white, memorable Christmas morning my family! Every year, all the kids get a picture together on the stairs before opening any presents. Here is the latest:



We opened presents for the next long while, then finally got to cook breakfast when the power came back on at about 10:30. It was so fun to watch Austin be so excited about all the presents this year. He, of course, still doesn't really understand it all, but he sure did enjoy being a "helper" and helping everyone open all their presents. He LOVED everything, and would sit and say "Wow!" for each thing he opened!

Santa brought him a Cozy Coupe (or according to Austin, a "chugga"). It was definitely a hit. He was heartbroken we he didn't get to sleep in it that night.


That afternoon, we spent a long time shoveling snow. Then, we spent the rest of the day just hanging out around the house, enjoying a wonderful Christmas dinner, and spending lots of quality time together!

The Preparation

We spent a good chunk of the middle of December preparing the house for our visitors from Texas, and trying to get shopping finished up! If you know me well, you know that I would be absolutely mortified if anyone saw my house a mess...so you can only imagine how serious a task it was to get my house ready for my family to come stay with me for 12 days! But, it somehow all got done, and everything turned out wonderfully! Here are a few pictures of some of our Christmas decorations!

I decided to make homemade cinnamon rolls to take to the ladies I visit teach. This was how Austin helped out. The picture doesn't quite do this justice. He was covered in flour, but still happy as could be! (This was before I cleaned the kitchen!)

Of course, it couldn't all be work. We took a lot of "play" breaks. Justin showed Austin how the couch cushions could turn into a fort. Austin was a little scared of it at first, so I got to climb inside to show that it wasn't scary.

I have no idea what is on his face in this picture, but it must have been good!

Austin just figured out that he can crawl under his crib!

A little bit of this, and a lot of that!

The first half of our December was a lot like this...

A little bit of hiding under the Christmas tree...

A lot of reading...

A little bit of saying "cheese" (and working on how to not look so mad when we say it)...

A lot of snuggle time!

A little bit of learning how to dance...

And a lot of just having fun!

A Little Teaser

Just a little teaser...to get you hungry for more! I am getting ready to send out Christmas cards, so if you would like one, please leave a comment with your address. (I will preview the comments before they are posted...so your address will not be visible to others!)