December Misc.

December is so busy with all of the extra holiday activities. I love this time of year and all that it brings. There is something special in the air. For me, it truly is the most wonderful time of year! Here are a few things to capture that happened in December.

Logan's class met some goals so their teacher brought in some Christmas cookies for them. 

I continued my Christmas goodie making this year. I made several hundred pretzels and a dozen apples. It is quite the process but it makes for wonderful presents for friends, neighbors and co-workers.

Logan's artwork from class.

I don't have a single picture from our annual Fab Five Christmas party. I did take a picture of the thoughtful gifts I got this year. I am so blessed with wonderful friends!

"I made it for you. I love you Mom." From Logan

We had a work party that included an ugly sweater contest, yummy food and a gift exchange.

Merry Christmas! on Christmas Eve!

Since we were heading to Hawaii super early on Christmas morning, we asked Santa if he could visit our house on the 24th instead. Thankfully he was willing to make that happen and we had Christmas a day early! We did all of our normal activities like leave cookies and milk for Santa, the boys said goodbye to Elfie. Since Lincoln had been memorizing the poem, The Nightmare Before Christmas, he recited it for us before bed. We talked about the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ, and hit the sack as early as two little excited boys could.

When we woke up on Christmas Eve, Santa had been to our home and had left the boys some awesome toys, so they must have made the nice list.  Like usual, Logan was our early riser and woke us all up about 7:00 am. He was so excited to see what Santra brought so we woke up Lincoln and after I snapped a few pictures, I let them come out of Lincoln's room together to see what they got. After opening their piles we opened presents from under the tree. While the boys played with their new toys, Ricky and I were finishing packing for our trip. Since we were going on a trip I thought it would be fun for the boys to get spending money as part of their Christmas present from Mom & Dad. We wrapped up a big box for each of them and placed a $100 bill inside of it. Logan about lost his mind when he opened it and Lincoln kept asking if it was real. I think that will likely be a Christmas present they will remember for a long time.

Lincoln's pile included a bike, helmet, Legos, Laser X, Qixels, an iTunes gift card, candy, Minecraft guys, a sweatshirt to match brother, a football and four-square ball. 

Logan got some Magic Tracks, a remote controlled Monorail, some balls, Laser X, iTunes, candy, some movies, some books and a sweatshirt. 

Lincoln's Lego guys. 

Logan loves the Ghostbuster movie so he was so excited to get the ghostbuster car. 

Logan asked Santa for a garbage truck and ended up getting two - a big one from Santa and a smaller one from Mom & Dad. 

Lincoln opened a massive Lego set of the Millennium Falcon.

Bam-Bam got the boys some Star Wars toys. 

Even though Logan won't usually wear pj's he was willing to wear these new train jammies. 

Lincoln made me a Lego box of chocolates. It was awesome! He is so creative and talented when it comes to Lego building. He came up with the idea all on his own and executed it perfectly. Each chocolate piece comes out and the lid covers the box like a regular box of candy. So neat!

Logan talked for months about wanting a lump of coal in his stalking. He didn't want to be bad enough to just get coal but he expressed wanting to get a little so he could see what it was like. Santa delivered the best lump of coal ever. I don't think Logan expected a train when he thought about a lump of coal. I thought Santa was pretty clever. 

Logan put his Monorail track together and was so excited to play with it. I would say this was a hit!

Ricky's 46th Birthday!

In the midst of everything going on in December, we got to celebrate Ricky's 46th birthday! We celebrated it on Friday night as a family and then celebrated with some friends on Saturday night. We also took him to lunch and opened presents on Saturday with him.

 Ricky and Logan at Red Lobster

 Mommy and Lincoln at Red Lobster

 Daddy's birthday treat from Red Lobster

 When you're waiting for food and your hungry and in a silly mood. 

Bundt cake and presents for daddy!

 Dinner at Ah-So with the Curtis' and the Fiamengo's. 

Christmas Class Parties (December 22nd)

Legacy doesn't tend to have too many class parties but they did have a Christmas party on the last day of school before break. Thankfully I was able to attend both parties for the morning. The kids ate a ton of junk food, played some games and laughed with their friends. I am so grateful that they have wonderful teachers, a good school and kind friends to play with. I also left that day with their second quarter report cards and I am very proud of both of them.

Star Wars Ditch Day (December 15th)

When a new Star Wars movie comes to theaters and you have a flight to Idaho opening night, you have to ditch school to go see it during the day! That's sort of how it went down. Logan already had a neurology appointment scheduled for that morning so the boys were going to miss a bit of school anyway. Then after we realized that Tutu wanted us in Pocatello Friday night and we had already had tickets to Star Wars, we made the executive decision to take them out to school and we had a family fun day. First Logan's doctor's appointment, then lunch, then Star Wars and then off to the airport to fly to Idaho. Some days like that are needed for good mental health.

 When you have a Darth Vader ugly Christmas sweater you wear it to the opening day of Star Wars. 

Tutu's Anniversary - Part 2

Sunday morning we made a stop at Micah and Kolissa's house in town. It was so fun to see the girls and see the progress on the construction that Micah is making in the house. He totally gutted the downstairs and is rebuilding it. He had done quite a bit of work since we were there in July. The girls seem to adore Lincoln and Logan. They couldn't get enough of them and didn't want to give them a break from playing. Their little personalities are the cutest! It was nice to visit and catch up with them and we can't wait to see them when we go camping next July. 

After the visit to Micah's it was back to Reed and Sandi's house for dinner before we departed for the airport.  It was a pretty quick weekend and then we were headed back home to finish that last week of school before winter break!

Since there were so many families at Tutu's we stayed in Pocatello at the Marriott. The boys liked watching the snow from the window. 

Auntie Eden and Odette. 

Auntie Eden with Miranova and Lincoln.

Logan and Mira

Rory with Auntie Eden and Logan

Manchan cousins!

Tutu's 50th Anniversary - Part 1

Reed and Sandi have been married for 50 years. The one thing that they wanted for their anniversary was for all of the family to be together. They wanted updated family portraits and they wanted to have a slide show with pictures of the last 50 years. We took the weekend of their actual anniversary, December 15th, and flew up to Pocatello to celebrate with them. It was cold, snowing and oh ya, really cold!  The boys had a great time playing with their cousins. Tutus cut a cake that was a replica of their wedding cake. We had great food and the kids put on the Christmas Day play. The boys wanted to play in the snow so badly so we let them. They lasted about 20 minutes before they were purple and freezing so we made them go inside. We didn't have the right snow gear for such cold weather. They had a good time for the little while they were out there. I took advantage of trying to get some pictures with the while gorgeous snow as the background.

 The boys are such great travelers. They love airplanes and keep themselves entertained. Lincoln was Daddy's seat partner for this leg of the trip and Logan was mine.

 We prepped the boys that we would be flying on a small airplane from SLC into Pocatello. Luckily for us, the plane is bigger than the little 12 seater that it used to be. 

Lincoln was my seat mate from SLC to Pocatello. 

Reed and Sandi with all of their family (except Marissa, Sierra, and her husband, Devin).

Reed and Sandi with all of their grandchildren (except Sierra and Marissa).

All eight of the Phillips children.

Logan being Joseph.

Braden helped to narrate the play with the scriptures.

Lincoln was a wiseman.

The ski resort in Inkom behind the boys. 

Family portrait on the front balcony. 

I had this jar made for Tutu's and everyone put special notes, stories, appreciation letters in the jar for them. 

I think Logan looks, and has a personality, most like his cousin Ashlee. 

Logan loves Minnie and I would venture to say she sure loves him. 

Erica and Lincoln

Logan and his cousin Nolan. These two seem to get along really well and were great buddies all weekend.