Our Early Christmas Celebrations

Christmas has come and gone! It always seems to go so quickly. We had a wonderful holiday season this year. One of my favorite traditions is going to SLC and visiting Temple Square to see the lights. They're beautiful and majestic and definitely bring the spirit of the season. We went with my family and we all had a great time. Kayla's face says it all!

We made a gingerbread train for FHE on week. It ended up being Brett and I doing all the work while Kayla shoveled the candy into her mouth as quickly as she could. Immediately after we snapped the photo of the finished product, it all collapsed, haha! 

Kayla and I spent one morning making Christmas sugar cookies. She wore the apron Grandma Jean made for her and loved cutting out the cookies, and of course eating the dough!

The weekend before Christmas, we went to Pocatello to visit Nick, Melanie, Carly, and Natalie who were visiting Tom and RaeJean from Nebraska. It was so good to see them! Kayla and Carly had a blast together, (as much as two toddlers do). 

More than anything, Kayla loved baby Natalie. She couldn't get enough of this sweet baby girl. 

These two even got to have their first sleepovers together! That was mostly successful. :)

Kayla also loved Uncle Nick, although she couldn't remember his name. At first he was Carly's daddy and then he was just Uncle. :)

 

All the kids loved Grandma time! Grandma and Grandpa watched all four kids while we went to see Star Wars. It was a really fun double date!

The whole crew in our Sunday best! We celebrated an early Christmas on Sunday, ham dinner, gifts, and all. And we had a little photo shoot with the kids all dressed up. Grandma got matching dresses for the girls and they all looked beautiful! 

Tyson was happy to be eating while the girls took their photos :)

The girls loved dancing around and twirling in their princess dresses!

 

We tried getting a cute picture of the babies, but they weren't cooperative. :)

On Monday, we took the kids to the indoor pool at Lava Hot Springs. After Kayla recovered from the "hot water" and the noise inside, everyone had a blast! Its basically a splash pad in a hot tub inside. Perfect for the winter weather!

We had a great visit and wish Mel and Nick lived closer. Kayla has been talking about Carly ever since we left. I love seeing her develop relationships with her cousins! We had a great early Christmas celebration!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Thanksgiving season has come and gone. I truly loved this fall and Thanksgiving! I am overwhelmed with how blessed we've been this year. There were a lot of answered prayers this year! I never thought we'd be able to live in Idaho again, let alone so close to family. We were so blessed with Brett's job moving us back close to home. The job itself is also such a huge blessing! Brett comes home so happy and stress-free everyday. He loves the job, the atmosphere, the coworkers and the many benefits! We were so blessed to sell our house so quickly. We are blessed with happy, healthy children that are adjusting beautifully to our new home. We are blessed to have the Gospel and our testimonies of it that continually encourgages us to be better people, parents, and spouses. We are blessed to see our family so often! My list could go on and on, but suffice it to say, we are very blessed and have much to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for. I'm even thankful for the trials that life brings and the lessons that accompany said trials. I'm grateful for opportunities to grow and learn and stretch. 

To emphasize our gratitude, we put up a Thankful Tree on November 1 and all four of us put something we were grateful for every day until Thanksgiving. Kayla named a lot of people that she loves. We basically chose things for Tyson that he loves. It was good for us to think of something new everyday that we're grateful for. Kayla and I also had some fun doing some Thanksgiving crafts. We made a Native American headband, a handprint turkey, and colored lots of pictures. We talked a lot about the pilgrims and Native Americans and what Thanksgiving is all about. It probably didn't stick too well, but I love that she's old enough to discuss such things. 

 

The night before Thanksgiving, we drove through a snow storm to get to Pocatello. I'm glad we went when we did before the snow got too bad but I'm also so happy there was so much snow when we woke up Thanksgiving morning! 

  

We took the kids sledding on ISU campus and they both had a blast! We tried to build a snowman but the snow wouldn't pack well. Kayla improvised a little and made herself the snowman. She even walked around singing, "thumpity thump thump!"

We had a great day hanging out with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Jean! 

The meal was beautiful and delicious in true RaeJean fashion! I love being able to spend time in the kitchen learning from her. We also had a lot of fun doing Dubsmashes! 

 

Kayla loves playing at Grandma's house! She has a room full of awesome toys and Kayla can't get enough of it!

On Friday, we did a little shopping without the kids and even got to go dancing and have some dance training with Brett's Nielsen cousins. It was a lot of fun!! That night, we left the kids with Grandma Jean while Brett and I went to the Forgotten Carols with my dad, Sheryl, Haley, Jon and Sheryl's family. It was so good to see everyone! Also, there's no better way to ring in the Christmas season than with the Forgotten Carols performance. I love the music and the message! 

On Saturday morning, we drove to Soda to have a second Thanksgiving with my mom and Haley and Jon. The boys put up all the Christmas lights while we cooked dinner and got some stuff done inside the house. We also helped mom put up her Christmas tree and some of her Christmas decor. It was a great day and the kids had a lot of fun! I really love that we're able to spend time with our entire family for the holidays! I love having Brett off work for the entire holiday season as well! Life is good and we are truly blessed in so many ways!

 

Tyson's 1st Birthday Party!

We had a fun little birthday for our little man! It's so nice to be so close to so much family to celebrate our milestones and holidays with.  For our gifts to Tyson, we got him the tool bench and train set. He loves the tools and carries them around everywhere with him. He also loved the balloons I blew up. They floated around for a couple weeks and he would giggle as he chased them around the house. 

 

I made this smash cake for him and I love how he's eye-balling it in this photo!

He got spoiled from his grandparents! He didn't quite understand the unwrapping portion of it all, but Kayla was quick to jump in and assist/demonstrate for him. 

 

We took him outside on the deck to eat his cake. I remember Kayla being a little more hesitant, but he dug right in! He went straight for the frosting and when he got to the cake underneath, he ate even faster! It was pretty darn funny!

 

 

 

We kept interrupting him to take group photos and he was a pretty good sport. Maybe he appreciated the chance to digest a little bit. :)

 

 

At one point, Uncle Jon moved the cake close enough that Tyson didn't even need to use his hands. He just dug right in with his mouth! 

 

 

We also had cupcakes so the rest of us got a little treat. It was a great time visiting with everyone and just being together celebrating Tyson! We missed Grandma Jean, who was in California with Meri's family, but were thankful to Grandpa Tom for letting us use their house! 

It was a gorgeous day and a happy one for sure! 

That night we headed to Soda Springs to spend the weekend with my mom where we celebrated her birthday! Again, it was so nice to be able to be all together! It was a perfect birthday weekend!