Monday, December 31, 2018

Ally & Cade get married in Arizona!

After Christmas, we headed down to Arizona for Cade & Ally's wedding.  We were so excited to get down to our old stomping ground!  The wedding, luncheon and reception was a great time (minus Carson's bloody nose during the dance party and me stressing out about the luncheon).  It was exciting to meet Ally's family and be welcomed into her family's home.  The Taylor's are fantastic and Cade is lucky to be a part of their family!

We rented a house in Lehi Crossing (from the Heap's), which was SO fun!!  My parents stayed with us and Cade even slept there with us one night.  We had playdates with friends (Maddox, Emmett, Fisher, Brooklyn & Holly) and walked to the Orange Patch to get some delicious oranges and a treat. We stopped by the nursery to see the peacocks too!  We made sure to get some Blue Bell ice cream, which is our all-time favorite ice cream.  We hiked the wave, which we hadn't done before, but really enjoyed (minus the part when Rachel had to pee behind a rock and the drama was on point).  Of course we went to Organ Stop Pizza.  We went to the Perkinson "farm" and enjoyed all their creatures and company!!  We even snuck over to Last Chance & Oregano's in Phoenix too.  We let the kids play at Uptown Jungle and they got SO sweaty!  We were there for NYE so we did a Netflix countdown and had Martinelli's.  



















Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Christmas Eve / Christmas Morning

We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Hale's this year.  We start at Ellie's grave, then the kids do a piano recital, and they act out the nativity.  Brandon upgraded (sewed) his elf suit and was in true Christmas Spirit form the whole evening.  

Our neighbor's, the Gray family, put out luminaries on our street and it is just magical when we come home.  As per usual, the kids heard Santa's bells and went straight to bed!  In the morning, they were happy to see that Santa had brought their requests: Rachel - polaroid camera and case, Andrew - electric scooter, Kendall - remote control car for her dolls, and Carson got surprised with a bouncy house!  I guess they were pretty good kids this year!  

Also pictured:  our "Christmas Eve" celebration at Nana's house with new pajamas













Monday, December 24, 2018

December Activities

- Alpine Living Nativity with all the Activity Day girls
- Rachel finishing another Harry Potter book
- SNOW
- Art Hub for Kids cartoon drawing lessons 
- Caught Andrew and Kendall sleeping together in the top bunk for a few nights
- Street Party - one of the gifts was a globe with our faces in it and "world's best neighbors"
- Vivint Solar family party ice skating (Carson even got in on the fun)
- Decorating Dan Peterson school with snowflakes from Barratt students
- Ward Christmas Breakfast
- Running into Ezra at the haircut place
- Rachel learning how to dip chocolates with the cousins and Grandma Nancy and visiting Pookie/Papa
- Brandon getting an elf costume from a co-worker, then busting out the sewing machine to make it even better and ordered yellow leggings to complete the ensemble
- Ally's bridal shower (Katherine anonymously gave her lingerie+others stuff that caused a lot of giggles)
- Parker/Thompson Talent Show
- Gingerbread houses
- Grandma Nancy & Grandpa Val sleepover - us adults went to Dalton's for dinner