Christmas Part IV: Pleasant Grove, UT

 We spent Christmas weekend at Stephanie and Adam's house in Pleasant Grove. Between all those kids, there were a TON of presents! It was a little ridiculous. You couldn't even get close to the tree there were so many. Christmas was on a Sunday, so before we dug into the huge pile of presents, we went to church. It was the best meeting. The music was amazing. I think Christmas on Sunday is my favorite. Even though we had to wait for presents, I loved starting out the day feeling the true meaning of Christmas. 

 All the Heaton cousins.

 Jaden and Anderson.

I seriously love taking my kids to Steph and Adam's. I have 4 babysitters who LOVE my boys and it makes for a great time for us.

 We read the Night Before Christmas. Anderson however preferred to make towers out of presents.

 New jammies.

 Matchy matchy!

 We left food out for Santa's reindeer.

 The toys Santa brought were a hit!

 Jack has been wanting a rake for Christmas for the past couple months. He wants to be able to help his dad rake the grass and the leaves. When we pulled that present out from behind the tree he looks at it and says, "I think this looks like it could be my raaaakkkee!!" He was so excited about it. Isn't it nice that my kids are so happy with a $7 rake? I'm sure I will miss these days when they get big and start asking for ipods and a wii.

 He practiced raking the wrapping paper. :) 

And yes, we brought that in our suitcase!

 Photo props! Anderson was supposed to be rudolph, but he refused to put the nose the right way so we could see the cute red glitter. Oh well, they were still cute.

We also snuck in a visit to the Mortensen family! It was so great to see them. This picture is classic, right? The things we do to try and get a good picture of all the kids. Poor Will was not wanting to do it, but we tried. And Eli is grinning from ear to ear. I love it!

Another Christmas has come and gone. We haven't been with family for the past two years on Christmas so we had such a great time. It was a TON of work but we pulled it off and it was worth it!

Christmas Part III: Temple Square

 We went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City on the 23rd. We haven't been to Temple Square at Christmas in a long time, so we were excited to go. It was so cold that night, but we bundled up the best we could and made the best of it. The lights were amazing. The boys were super excited to see the Salt Lake temple and to see Moroni on the top. We see the SL temple in pictures all the time, but there is something amazing about seeing it in person. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.

 The trees were solid lights.

 We stopped at the reflection pond for a while to see the nativity. We stayed for a few minutes and started walking towards the Joseph Smith Memorial building to warm up and see the tree. Well about ten feet down the sidewalk Justin looks down in the stroller and Anderson is missing. He was buckled in the front seat of the stroller while we were at the pond and now he is gone. There is a million people there and I instantly burst into tears and start running back to the pond. About 30 seconds later (which felt like 30 minutes!!) we see our brother-in-law, Adam, holding him up to see the water. He had taken him out of his buckle to hold him, and neither of us saw that happen. Are we good parents or what?! My heart was pounding. For the 30 seconds that he was "missing" I thought we would never find him in that crowd. It was horrible. Something I never want to relive. Luckily he was safe and all was well, but way to give me a heart attack!

 The inside of the Joseph Smith Memorial building is gorgeous. I could sit in there forever and just look around and listen to the beautiful music that was being played on the piano. There was so many people there though.

 Getting out at the big tree.

It was a great night...minus the part where Anderson went missing!

Christmas Part II: Parowan

 We got up bright and early to leave for Utah so we could stop in Parowan on our way. We went and met up with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins at my Aunt Marie's house for lunch. She had a delicious soup bar with homemade tomato soup which was perfect for a cold and windy winter day. Jack couldn't wait any longer though, and quickly bundled up to go play in the snow. The only problem was it hadn't snowed in a while so it was more like playing in the ice.

 But that didn't stop him from trying to make a snow/ice angel.

 Preston wanted to join in the fun, so Jack tried to pull him on the sled.

 Anderson did not think that the sled or the snow was very fun. He would get mad every time a little piece of snow would get on his boots. So then I would try and bring him inside but he didn't want that either. So he pretty much stood on the porch and cried. Eventually I made him come inside and warm up. It was so windy and freezing!

 Uncle Alma, Jack and Preston, Justin.

Riding down the ice.

 It also happened to be Holly's birthday!! We stayed just long enough to sing Happy Birthday and take some ice cream cake to go. Justin and Ryan were catching a 4pm shuttle up to Idaho Falls to see their mom and dad so we were on a tight schedule. It was such a quick stop but so great to see everyone! I have a lot of memories in Parowan and I was glad that Justin was able to see a tiny piece of it.

Holly, me and Jamie

Thanks for hosting Marie! I promise the next time we come, we will stay longer than 2 hours. :)

Christmas part I: Vegas

 We started out our Christmas vacation at Justin's brother's house in Las Vegas. We flew out of New Orleans so that we could fly on Southwest. It was a much better deal considering that you can take 2 free bags per ticket. And since we were taking four of us, plus our Christmas presents, we knew we were going to need as many bags as possible. When Ryan met us at the airport, he looked at all of our luggage and just laughed. It looked like we were moving in! Jack had been getting a fever off and on for a couple days, so we spent some time relaxing and getting over our bugs. As soon as we were up and running, we went and saw the Magical Forest. It was full of Christmas lights, rides, food, hot chocolate, and the favorite... a train ride through the forest.

 While we were waiting in line, Elvis was there playing his guitar and singing. Only in Vegas do you get to be entertained by Elvis at Christmas! He came right up to Jack and I said, "Smile Jack!" ...this is what I got. Haha! He did not want a picture with Elvis.

 Do you love that Jack's wolf got to come with us?

 Riding the train!!

 I have no pictures of Stephanie from our whole time in Vegas. She must have been taking all the pictures....sneaky Steph!

 The carrousel was another favorite.

 We were all smiles.....

 ...until we had to get off.

 It was a very cold night!

 These three played non stop.

 We made gingerbread houses.

 And played with this little cutie pie, Sadie. Jack calls her the Sadie bug. She is the best baby on the planet!

We left and went to Utah for a while before coming back to Las Vegas. When we got back, we took the kids bowling, which is always a hit in our family. Jack and Anderson tied with 73 points using the ramp. Not too bad!!

Ryan and Stephanie were excellent hosts, but as always, I am sure they were ready to have their house back and their normal life. Now it's their turn to come and see us. :) ...right?

The Dental Crew

 We hosted a Christmas party for the dental residents. We had a hot chocolate bar, played some Christmas minute to win it games, at yummy food, and stayed up chatting until 1:45am! It was a great time. The girls have fun chatting about random things, while the guys talk about dentistry. I'm not sure why, but that topic always comes up! I end up tuning them out instead of pretending that I know what a pulpotomy is.

I saw these cute photo props on Pinterest and Carrie was nice enough to make them for the party. One less thing on my to-do list. 

 Carrie and Eric Winterton                           Jon and Dorsey Willison

 Laura and Rad Robbins                               Riley and Krista Adams

 

Riley Adams and Evan Roberts                      Emily and Jacob Sladky

Evan's wife is in dental school in Texas so I always feel so bad that he doesn't get to be with her very often. I was happy that he came to kick off the holidays.

Me and Angela Cook 

(the only girl resident, having to put up with all the guys!)

I'm not sure how we lucked out, but we have such a great group of residents! Everyone is so fun to be around and it has really helped with our move out here.