Christmas 2012

Other Christmas adventures this year took us to our awesome zoo to see the lights and the new elephant habitat and newly arrived rhinoceros.  The place stunk so bad, but was very impressive to see.  

A bit frigid, but a wonderful night.  There's our beautiful city in the background.

With this only being the second year that we've had Christmas at our house, we're still trying to figure out our own traditions.  The kids acted out the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.  The costumes they put together were great!  Here's the angel visiting the shepherds.

 (Again with the sideways pictures, I still can't figure out how to flip them.)

Make that two angels :)  

 Mary so fair

Donkey

 Joseph

I love how serious Colton is in this picture

We all received new jammies on Christmas Eve.  It's one of the first actual pair of pajamas I've gotten in my adult life, usually it's just sweatpants and a t-shirt for me.

The norm

 The Cinderella outfit was a huge hit with this little princess, Grandma

The loot!!

Everyone got robes too.  I think this might have been Colton's favorite gift of Christmas, go figure!

LEGOS!!!

Crystal growing set.  This girl likes her some sparkly rocks :)

TinkerBell

After our present-opening marathon at home....the kids weren't done.  Early the next day we drove to Arizona to spend time with my side of the family.  

Here the kids are about to enjoy Christmas morning Take 2 with Gramma and Grandad

We all had such a wonderful time in AZ with family.  The warmer weather was great.  We enjoyed a few bike rides.  Other highlights were an evening at the dinner theater, riding on motorized animals around the mall, food, golf, Lexi getting her ears pierced, visiting with friends and family we haven't seen for a long time, tamales, temple lights, games, spike the dinosaur, and did I mention food?

Mesa Temple lights

I think some of the most memorable moments overall  were things like this...

 Cuddle time with Gramma and Grandad :)

Another exciting thing that happened there was Nathan and I celebrated our 13th anniversary.  I have to just brag about my amazing man.  He sent me on this "scavenger hunt" with only a big envelope and a map.  I went to the first location (which happened to be a nail salon) and handed the receptionist the envelope.  The employees said you must be Alyssa and gave me a big ol' grin.  The manager said your husband took care of everything, just relax!  So I ended up having a manicure and a pedicure, but after each step there was another envelope with hints/ directions on what to do next.  After the pedicure there was another map that took me to a place where I got a massage, again the employees expecting me and giving me the royal treatment.  After that... a facial.  Boy there was a lot of preparation and moving parts Nate had to figure out.  It was so fun and I felt so loved and special.  

 I then came back to meet him and we went to dinner and to see the movie we were anxiously waiting to see -

 Les Miserables.  It was the perfect day and I feel so blessed to have this remarkable man as my best friend and eternal companion.  Love you honey!

December performances

As always, December was packed full of activities.  Some of the highlights included Lexi's dance recital and choir concert.  She really seems to love to perform (I don't know where she gets that) and it's great to watch her.

 

This is Lexi backstage with her friend Sierra that she's grown up with.

 

 

With her sissy :)

 

She's grown up so much, but she's not too big to get everyone playing backstage.

 

Here's all of the classes in Lexi's dance studio at curtain call.  Her teacher does such a great job putting on this huge production twice a year.

Princess McKinley

 

 

 

Another exciting event in December was that after two and a half years, Lexi got her braces off (atleast the first round is done).  She looks like such a lady!  What a pretty smile :)

 

 

 

A few days later, Lexi's school choir put on a Christmas musical called "Broadway Santa".  Lexi started the show as the snow globe and proceeded to make laps around the audience at full speed.  Quite entertaining. 

 

Then she became the prettiest reindeer I've ever seen ;)



November 2012

November brought more adventures...

Here's Lexi with all the other fourth graders putting on a muscial about Lewis and Clark.  Lexi's the Sacajawea character  in the back with the glowing racoon eyes.

(Again, sorry for the sideways photos)

A staple of childhood

For Thanksgiving we went to Utah.  Our family there took us to a new awesome park with all the coolest state of the art equipment.  Here's Tyler at the top of this impressive pyramid.  Well I guess it looks like the side here and the world has flipped.

Cousins!

Cousins sleep over - so fun!

Feisty pioneer lady

We later were able to go see the lights at Temple Square.  It was gorgeous and cold and VERY crowded, but it was so cool to experience.

Grandpa and Tyler admiring the impressive window display at Deseret Book

Back at home now putting up our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.  This tree has been with us since we've been married and sadly (not really) it made it's last appearance this Christmas.  It kinda bit the biscuit  just as we bought a new one :)

I kept finding these two trying to waltz together complete with poinsettia boutineers during the holidays.  It was so sweet.

October 2012

I realize this blog is almost entirely just for us as a way of family journaling, but maybe someone else out there might be interested.  I'm having issues with my pictures flipping and I can't get them to rotate back so you will all need to lay horizontally to read this :)

Another little known dream of Nathan's was to get a really nice Wyatt Earp type outfit for Halloween because he has an affinity for the Tombstone era.  He's been looking for a few years and this year he made it happen.  Here he is playing dress up.  I knew I kept that random handle-bar mustache for a reason. 

The kids school has their field day in October and this year Lexi has a teacher that really gets into it.  In fact he's a really amazing teacher and Lexi's grown a lot since being in his class.

Tyler the warrior

Here's a tiny example of some of our harvest from the green house.  Our tomatoes and carrots went nuts this year, finally!

The kids' school also put on a fall carnival this year and it was a huge success and really cold!

Ha!

McKinley and Colton went to a little Halloween party at a friend's house and paraded their costumes.

Check out the Cruella DeVille costume below.  So stinkin' cute!

I had to find a costume that went with Nate's cool Wyatt Earp outfit.  It was a challenge, but I got it done.  Not too shabby of a couple if I do say so myself.

Some of my best girl friends

Hermoine Granger

Happy Halloween (are you still lying horizontal??)

I love that they like each other!