Christmas Pics

     Probably my favorite holiday picture of the year....Brecken and Avery giving me their "sweet faces."  Like they weren't just planning to eat the gingerbread house in front of them.  They're sporting their new pj's from Great Grandma and Grandpa Gough. 

 Our Christmas Eve Nativity

Christmas Morning Faces...Christmas is magical with kids

Adam, Hayley and Wyatt (Adam got that sweatshirt from my parents and his wife....funny)

     We had Christmas breakfast at my Mom and Dads, our traditional Swedish pancakes and breakfast casserole...yum.  Then we were spoiled by my parents.  I snapped a picture of Adams' family and then didn't take another picture the rest of the day, too busy having fun I guess.  

     Mid-day we went to church and enjoyed a beautiful choir program.  At first I thought it'd be a bit crazy having Christmas on a Sunday, but it was so nice to be there and feel such a strong Christmas spirit.  I loved being able to wish all my friends in my ward a Merry Christmas too.  

    After church we went to Corey's parents for dinner where we were spoiled again and enjoyed being together.   Hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours. 

I hate to admit it....

     I know what you're thinking...why is she posting a Halloween picture in January.  Please note the winter sweater beneath the vampires cloak...I took this picture in December. As you can see Tate was not too happy about it, but I couldn't resist.  I'm one of those parents who occasionally put the (not so pressing) needs of my children on hold for my own enjoyment and I couldn't resist this one. 
     Tate was playing dress ups, a very common occurrence at our house.  He was jumping around and got a little over exuberant and bit his lip and started to bleed.  He came up to me crying and I said "Tate! this is awesome! You've got REAL blood coming out of the side of your mouth and your dressed up like a vampire!  You look great, lets get a picture!" 
     As you can tell by the picture Tate wasn't nearly as amused as I was.

Why I LOVE Christmas Cards...

     Aren't Christmas Cards great??  I love them.  I love getting "fun" mail almost every day in December.  I love seeing pictures of friends and their families and how they've grown.  I've actually gotten a Christmas card with a pregnancy announcement...very cool.  We got a card from our Bishopbric, our insurance agent and our dentist.  My Mom always sends a beautiful card from an art gallery my parents love.  There are simple, traditional and very artistic and contmporary cards.  One amazing friend of mine sends a CD of cool Christmas music with their card. 
     Mostly I love getting cards from people who I haven't spoken with for years.  There's something about a Christmas card that gives you a free pass when it comes to that awkward.."I haven't done a good job keeping in touch with you moment."  When I send Christmas cards I send them to our close family members and old friends.  I love sending a card to someone that we loved once in our lives to say just that "we loved you once and we remember that at Christmas."  So thank you for all the Christmas cards!  Our door is full to the brim and I'll keep them up as long as I can get away with it! 

Draper Lights

  

    I love where I live. There is a huge sense of community here that I've never felt anywhere else. Last year they started putting Christmas lights on the trees at Draper Park.  This year they started it all off with a lighting ceremony.  It's so nice to live within walking distance of this awesome park.  The pictures don't do the lights justice, seriously this white tree is huge! I guess you'll just have to come see them yourself.  Just be sure to stop by at our house for some hot chocolate afterwards! 

 Funny Fact: My running partner and I have watched these lights go up as we run by in the mornings.  They'd usually have about one tree lit at a time for us to admire.  It was funny to cross paths with each other that night to find out we were wearing the same shirt...a must-photo moment. 

The Path of Destruction

Exhibit A: Breck & Avery in the flour/pancake mix in the pantry

Exhibit B: Three boxes of pasta pulled off of the storage shelf (at MY eye level...I still don't know exactly how they got them down) and dumped into the living room.

Exhibit C: Avery "painting" Tate's homework with mustard.  

Exhibit D: Brecken drawing with a sharpie on my favorite peice of furniture in my house, my bed.
 





FYI:

• All of these pictures were taken in the last two weeks
• I really DO watch them, they're fast and deceptive with their sweet 2-year-old faces. 
• Both found guilty as charged for making our home a wonderful yet crazy and messy place to live.

Disappointing Haircut..

      Last time Tate got a haircut he asked me to "do a mohawk."  So I did & he thought it was pretty cool....cool enough to keep.  These are the pictures of his reaction when I told him he couldn't actually keep the mohawk.  Poor Tate. 

Happy Halloween!

      My Halloween gift to friends and family that read my blog....a Halloween post prior to Thanksgiving.   Happy Halloween. 

We had a great weekend of Halloween celebrations!  Our ward hosted a trunk-or-treat on Friday which was really fun.  We have a great, close-nit neighborhood and it's always fun to get together. 

My good friend Alison dressed up as "Where's Waldo," so cute.  When people asked me where my costume was
 I simply replied that I'd gotten five costumes ready today and was burned out by the time I got to me.  



Alison's daughter Sydney is Keaton's good friend.  She went as Mr. T and Keat was a punk rocker. I
thought their costumes complimented each other very well.



Our friends the Larkin's kiddos.  Claire is a parrot and Laird
is a pumpkin.

       Monday the big boys went to school and I helped with Keaton's class party, very fun.  Then Corey took the kids trick-or-treating while I handed out candy.  The weather held out for the trick-or-treaters and everyone had a great time. 

       Avery was a ballerina.  She borrowed her darling costume from her aunt Hayley who wore it when she was two...so cute.  She really would have rather been an Indian with Breck, but being the only girl in this family she was forced to wear a tiara...sorry sweetheart, but you look beautiful!  Seriously, check out the bum on this costume...I could hardly stand the girly cuteness.  

Keaton originally wanted to be a girl, but this didn't sit well with me (call me a party pooper) so this is what we came up with....punk rocker.   It suited him well and he had lots of fun.  I need to remind him to bug my Mom about a picture of her and Grandpa as punk rockers not so long ago....

Tate wanted to be a black widow which was easy enough...pretty cute black widow.

         McKay wanted to be an Indian with Breck.  Such a sweet boy! 
                                                                                                                                               

 Here's Breck in the Indian costume Keaton wore six years ago.  So cute.  Breck is a tenderhearted kid, but has a stubborn streak and insisted on pulling the wagon with Avery in it. This was originally intended for Corey to pull both kids in, of course.  They were gone for about an hour and a half and made it to less than ten houses...pretty funny. 

 Check out that determined face!!