the year that was

2013 has come and gone and these are the memories that just missed out on some of our other blogs. there's a lot of them, so hope you've got some extra time on your hands. i do wish the videos on blogger were better quality. enjoy them anyways. we sure did. :)

it's hard not to laugh a little at such a cute little cry.

this is a video claire took of herself with the ipod while she was in her room. it took us a bit to realize she happened to be on the potty when taking this video. :)

everett having fun in the kids' new playhouse we made for them.

this is from way back at the beginning of the year when everett was just learning to crawl. claire wasn't the most helpful sometimes. :)

our tired little eater

everett obviously thought the movie was pretty funny.

every once in a while, claire and everett play together so beautifully. we love how everett is handing claire the blocks to help her build her awesome tower.

 everett really loves splash pads!

the kids playing in our fun chair.

claire and everett had a fantastic new years eve!

and the best of the rest...

Temple Square Lights

Being cold is not my favorite thing and I usually tend to stay away from activities that involve being outside in the winter. This year my sisters and I decided to get together with our families and go see the lights at Temple Square. So we bundled all up for the second time that week to join them. :) We rode the frontrunner train up to SLC which I think was the kids favorite part. They loved being able to look out the windows and sit next to their cousins and aunts.

When we got there we went inside the visitors center to warm up before we met up with the rest of the family. Everett may have thrown a tantrum or two and when he does he likes to throw himself on the ground. I don't think he was able to get back up on his own after falling down in all his layers. :)

As soon as the rest of the group got there we headed outside to see the lights and first thing that happened was we lost the group. :) So we looked around for a little while by ourselves.



We eventually found the rest of our group and walked around for just a little while longer.

And then we headed back home on the train.


It was a fun little trip, even though we didn't have much time with the rest of our family, I did enjoy the small time we did have together looking at Christmas lights. :)

it's Christmas time!

we sure do love this time of year. there is so much to like: family time, pretty lights, good music, giving presents to each other, yummy food, and just the spirit of Christ is so abundant everywhere you go. we started Christmas off this year with a visit down to spanish fork to hang out with my brother's family on Christmas eve. it was extra special this year because amber's sister heidi joined us for the fun and my brother dan has moved up here from texas, so we were blessed with even more family this year. our nieces and nephews put on a whole program for us with music, games, and scriptures. claire had a blast running around doing a scavenger hunt with the rest of the kids.

after the fun with family, we headed home to open our one Christmas eve present. the kids got pajamas and amber and i got some snow boots. the kiddos look so cute in their pjs. it was then off to bed because saint nicholas soon would be here. ;)

the next morning, after we all woke up, we started our Christmas day festivities by opening our stockings. in our stockings we always put some candy, one small present from santa, and our Christmas breakfast. while we ate breakfast, we watched the animated nativity story.

we then began the fun of opening presents. first we gave the kids small presents from us. claire got a board game and everett got a buzz action figure. then we had the kids give their gifts for each other. claire gave everett a little toy bus and everett got claire beauty & the beast little people. then we gave the kids their big gifts. claire got some squigz (these little suction construction toys that we think are pretty cool) and everett got a little toy train set. amber got a couple lens attachments, a flash, and a battery grip, and i got an ipad mini and a bunch of accessories. i then slyly hid one more small present under the tree. it was a key that opened the filing cabinet, where amber found her last present: her new canon 70d camera! we then spent some time playing with our new toys before heading back to spanish fork for some more fun.

ken and sherry wanted to take their family sledding this year, so we thought we'd join them. we bundled ourselves up pretty well (because we really don't like the cold) and then hit the slopes. it was fun (even in spite of our little crash), but we were done pretty quickly. :)

we headed home for nap time, then had a nice dinner with amber's siblings upstairs. it was a wonderful holiday and we've had a blast spending time with family and playing with our new toys. merry Christmas to one and all!

yuletide greetings!

memory made

amber and i felt brave the other day so we thought we'd do something we've never done before - we took claire to her first movie. :) one of our new favorite songs around here is 'let it go' from the new disney princess movie 'frozen'. we've been hearing that song a lot lately, so much that even claire has it stuck in her head and is singing it quite loudly to herself during her quiet time. over and over again. :) so we decided that this would be the perfect movie to take claire to. we got heidi to babysit everett so that amber and i could take claire for a little date. we got her a soda and some nacho chips and she was set. she was pretty excited the whole time, and was just wonderful throughout the movie. she'd make these little comments for the whole theater to hear like "that's her sister", "that camel is sad", and (our favorite) "she needs to find her boy". it made us laugh pretty good. we'll have to take her to more movies. :)

thanksgiving and things...

i've always been really opposed to doing anything Christmasy before thanksgiving has come and gone. thanksgiving is a pretty darn good holiday that deserves some respect. it's almost the perfect holiday because it features a trifecta of joy: family, food, and of course, football. but this year thanksgiving came so late in the month, and we had a cute little girl who was so excited to put up a Christmas tree, so we broke down and put up our tree for family home evening just before thanksgiving.

thanksgiving was a little rough for our family this year. i had to work the night before and the night of the holiday, so i was pretty tired and out of it for most of the day. after i got off work, i headed home to pick up amber and the kids, and then we headed down to spanish fork to spend most of the day with my brother's family. from there, me and my brothers ken and dan headed over to the fields to play some football with some of my friends. after a few hours of painfully being reminded how old i am, we headed back to the house to clean up before i tried to lay down for a nap. amber meanwhile was putting up with a cranky little boy who needed a nap but has never been able to nap anywhere other than his crib and the car. we ate a fabulous dinner, but then had to head home before dessert because everett and his daddy both needed naps.

in spite of the crankiness of daddy and son brought on by sleep deprivation, we did have a lot of fun. we definitely do love our family, eating good food, and i do love my football. we made sure to go buy an apple pie the next day so we could move on to the next holiday because i'm pretty sure it's written in the constitution somewhere that thanksgiving is not officially over until pie has been partaken of. article thirty-one or something. :) well unfortunately, the thanksgiving holiday must have taken it's toll on poor little claire because she spent the next week so sick. it really broke our hearts having to hold her hair back as she threw up every day for a week. it was the worse sickness she's ever had. and it just seemed to go on forever. luckily she is her happy little self again and hopefully we're done with the sick bugs around here for a long time. now we can just enjoy Christmas. :)