Hidden Treasures

Before leaving for Missouri, Connor and Rachel made some treasures for Ava and Jack to find when they returned from church.

It was a good thing too, because boy did these kids miss their cousins and loved having a note or a treat they had hidden to remind them of all the good times they shared during their Christmas vacation together.

Temple Lights

 

After putting Jack to bed, Kyle and I took Ava to the Mesa Temple to see all the Christmas lights with her cousins.

Ava looked like she was enjoying all the sights.

Before leaving we checked out the Christus statue and walked through a nativity exhibit.

Roasting Marshmallows

We had an impromptu campfire with smores making-the kids loved staying up late with their cousins and pigging out.

Papa Time

Norah is pretty finicky about her interactions with people and regardless absolutely loved pressing the ignition with Papa by her side.

Shooting Rockets

Papa took all the visiting grandkids to a nearby middle school track for some more rocket launching.  Too much fun with cousins.

16 Pounder

Kyle did take the entire day off and devoted quite a bit of it to cooking up this Prime Rib for the family for Christmas dinner.  It was perfectly prepared and the sides made great accompaniments.  Good Day-so much to be thankful for!

Happy

This picture captures a moment that didn't happen too often on this trip amidst Kyle's 8 hour work days at the kitchen table.  It was another vacation that kyle worked through, thankfully there were lots of family members to distract us all from his absence.

Ben's Lute

Ben loves to throw things, so we thought he'd want a plush football to toss around for Christmas.  His second favorite gift, though, was Kyle's new pair of penny loafers.  He would seriously get mad at Kyle when he would try to put them on.

Something I Want

For Christmas I told Kyle I wanted him to get me a purse.  The inspiration purse I showed him was a totally chic, neutral, high quality purse with timeless styling.  It was a Louis Vuitton and, though I secretly wished for this inspiration purse to make it under the tree I never in a million years expected it to be.  Surprise, surprise!  Although I am nervous to carry around such a legit bag, and may return it, I am so thrilled to have something Kyle gave me constantly at my fingertips.

Big Girl Bike

This year we decided to do something different for presents.  We gave everybody something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.  Norah needed a big girl bike to replace her tricycle and that's exactly what she got after Uncle Tate assembled it.

Presents

Once we ate our candy breakfast and some delicious dish by Nana, we convinced the kids to all take baths before opening the presents under the tree.  It was an uphill battle, but having the kids so fresh was nice to take a picture of in front of Nana's tree.

Christmas Morning

The kids were so wiped out after having flu-like symptoms and traveling that we were actually the last ones up in the morning (so unusual).  Once we unwrapped the kids from their rooms we checkout out what Santa had brought and played by the light of the yule-log.

Christmas Eve

Once all the park festivities concluded, we hung out with all the family that was in town and ate some amazing ham and au gratin potatoes for dinner.  After dinner we all got ready for the traditional Nativity reenactment.

The kids all got to play parts and even Kyle weighed in as a wise man with Jacob and Jack.  The girls were both angels and Ben was mostly just running around the whole time.

Next up the kids hit the sack and the rest of us got a big surprise-Matt and Kenzi flew in on a standby flight from NYC, grabbed a shuttle from the airport and walked down the steps to blow all of our minds! 

Originally, they couldn't afford the expensive tickets and we all accepted that they wouldn't be here for Christmas, something we were all sad about-making the surprise so GREAT!!!

Rockets

After playing at the park we headed over to the nearby school and shot off some rockets with Papa.  These went straight up and then a parachute came out to slow the decent while the kids tried to chase the rocket down and catch it before it landed.

Park Day

Despite a weekend of sickness and sleeplessness, we made it out into the beautiful weather and played at the park with the Cluff cousins.  Playing barefoot in the sand felt nothing like a Christmas Eve day.

Leaving...

Our trip to the lake in November clinched the idea that Benny wouldn't make it through the 18 hour car ride to Arizona, so Kyle bought me a ticket and Ben flew on my lap to Arizona while Kyle drove a car full of sick kids halfway across the country by himself.  Such a great guy.

2nd Grade Party

Ava's Christmas party started off with an ice cream cone dipped in frosting and covered with candy to emulate a Christmas tree.  It turned out super cute (and pretty tasty according to Ava).  The rest of the festivities included filling each other's stocking with goodies, eating lunch, watching a slideshow of the class' illustrations for the song "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" and a mean game of pin the star on the tree.

Earlier in the day, Ava got the most secret votes by her classmates for the child to get the first gift of Christmas like in the Polar Express.  Everyone loves this sweetheart.

At noon I got to take Ava home with me for the break-such a fun way to end the school day.

Kindergarten Party

This year Jack's Christmas party had a Mexican theme to it.  Nice sombrero!  So glad I was able to go.

Benny

The kitchen at the rental is on the strange/small side, but to Benny it is as fun as anything else.

Score

Grandpa got an IPhone 5 = more facetime!

BAM

We put two layers of these in each box and stuffed in the tissue to keep things from moving around.

With a scripture on the back and a front like that-I was more than pleased with the product of all MY hard work (Kyle helped box the last few up and ate some, but other than it was all me).

The Year of the Bar

I wasn't too sure about doing our annual Christmas goodies for friends and neighbors this year.  The rental's kitchen is less than small, most of the bake ware is still packed, Kyle is so busy he wouldn't be able to offer ANY support and life seems a little too crazy to add this to the mix.

Enter the bar.  Kyle and I sat down and found six bar recipes we thought would be amazing to give as goodies:

Caramel Bars
Candy Cane Fudge
Butter Cake
Brownie Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
Peanut Butter Bars

We figured the one pan idea would lend itself well to our precarious at best situation.  All went well when I bought some more pans and all the ingredients.  The two days it took to make all these decadent treats went off without a hitch.  Things didn't start to go awry until I began all the bars into 35 squares.  It took two hours to make all 76 cuts.  I almost forgot to pick Ava up from school.

Done

I was able to get our Christmas cards out the door today!  Hurray for when things turn out despite every effort made by your children!  Thanks Aunt Kristine for taking our family picture during our Thanksgiving Tablerock Lake trip.  I love the log we are all sitting on!

Update

We have exterior lights!  Both the lights over the garage and the front entry lights are some of my favorite outdoor features.  The front light were bought through our builder, but when I couldn't find what I wanted to hang over the garage and the inspection couldn't happen without them, I was able to have them install my RH vintage barn sconces.  Love the end result.

Buds

These little guys are all boy and all so handsome.  I'm so glad Jack has some super awesome friends who have super awesome moms!

Photographers

This is the guy who took the last picture of all the moms.  He is getting pretty handy with my phone's camera.  Norah took this one, she's pretty good herself.

Lunch

I was able to eat lunch with some fab ladies who live nearby.  Good food and good convo-can't complain.

Found This

                                                           Me and Mom

My name is Ava. My mom’s name is Danielle. I like to bake. So does my mom. We have three babysitters. Their names are Christine, Megan, and Caitlyn. Lots of times I like to make things. I try my best to be helpful. My mom likes to sleep in. But when Daddy’s not here she can’t. I go to Puster Elementary. When I’m gone she goes to the gym or she does something else. My favorite deserts are  cake, ice cream, brownies, cookies, cupcakes, and peanut butter candy.   

A little story typed on my laptop by Ava.  Love this little girl.

Update

We now have two garage doors that are perfect and painted!  The inside of the house been painted twice now, once the wrong color and now a clean white all over.  The stair treads and wood floors are getting stained this week.  We are just waiting on carpet, sinks/faucets, hardware, landscaping, a fence and all the touch-ups!

The Door

This picture is far from amazing, but the door Ava is standing in front of is!!!  Today, Ava and I spent about 1.5 hours at her school putting together this masterpiece of a nighttime Christmas scene in the forest.  I'm sure fluffy animals might have been appreciated more by her classmates, but after piecing everything together I not only forgot about details like what the kids might actually like but even the ribbon that was meant to be the garland/hold all ornaments up slipped my mind.

All in all I'm pleased with the work, we even cut the perfect hole for the lock to fit through.  No one will look at something like that, but the door cover from last month that we were replacing had a hole torn out just big enough for a key to fit in! Ava says it's perfect and that's pretty telling for a perfectionist such as herself.

Ava and I got to do it together and that was the best part, and maybe the drive afterwards to get some pizza was pretty cool too!

IPad Bedtime Stories

Our kids couldn't be more into the IPad, they could play with that thing all day if we let them and since books were pretty scarce at the party house, Kyle read a Beatrix Potter e-book to the kids and from the zombie stares I guess you could say they were into it!

Where Are We?

We ventured into Branson, a 20 minute drive from the lake, for some fun dinner at Cakes and Cremes.  After sharing a funnel cake topped with caramel/chocolate ice cream and a slice of chocolate cake we drove back to the cabin down "the strip."

It's nothing like Vegas, but the things seen on the side of the street were still pretty crazy.  Things like the Titanic, King Kong, Mt. Rushmore to name a few, were all visible from the car making for a fun ride home.

Loving It

The kids couldn't get enough of the lake and as soon as Ben woke up we all walked down-Ava first of course.

Again

He wouldn't stop and he never fell-he rode without training wheels on his first try and never looked back!

That Just Happened

Jack has been riding with training wheels and hasn't seemed nearly confident to go without them, until today.  There was a bike laying in the backyard with only two wheels and on his first try Jack rode down a steep hill without a helmet or a cry for help.

We all thought it had to be a fluke until he kept doing it.  He'd fly down the hill toward the lake and then turn sharply to avoid the trees, walk the bike back up and do it all over again.  I was absolutely dumb-founded and couldn't stop laughing at this amazing feat!

Surprise

Upon further exploration we found this gem tucked away in the garage.  With seating for and enough gas, we headed out and about.  Off roading wasn't the best, so we decided to stick to the pavement and drove around checking out this lakeside neighborhood.  Totally quaint and actually inspired by houses found in Sweden.  A little scary for those of us riding in the back holding onto a sleepy 1 year old without the aide of a seat belt or two arms, but for the most we all enjoyed our tour.

Lunch on the Deck

After a fun time with the rocks and shells, we headed back to the cabin for some lunch on the deck-nice view!

Checking Things Out

We didn't get a chance to do any sort of exploring last night, so right after we returned, Ben hit the sack and I took the big kids down the hill to the lake.  It was a beautifully clear day and so quiet and peaceful at the lake.  It felt like we were the only people on Earth and hadn't a care in the world.  So different from home!

Billy Gail's

Despite the early morning wake up call and the two times Jack woke Ben up, Kyle was able to get Ben back to sleep and keep Jack from disturbing anyone else with the help of the IPad until around 6:30.

We still hadn't gone to the store, so we ate some of our road snacks on the way to a tiny place nearby that apparently sold the world's largest pancakes!  I tried to order 9 for all of us and after the waitress advised me differently we ended up with three and even those were left unfinished at the end of our meal.

The place was cash only and Kyle needed to field a phone call, so I was left with the four crazies and their hot chocolate highs-needless to say it was a fun outing that ended loudly!

Table Rock Lake

Our cabin, which we found online and ended up loving, was backed up to the lake, had 3 stories, 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, a game room with pool table and Foosball table as well as the perfect set up for Jack and Ben to share a room and a secluded room where the older kids could have a sleepover every night.  The kitchen was small, but the decks were so big we ate outside multiple times.  It felt very cabin-y there with the huge antlers and hooves hanging in the family room.

When we woke up it was super foggy outside and totally chilly.  A nice change from our Texas warmth.

The drive to get breakfast was beautiful and so was the trip to the grocery afterwards.

Party House

The first leg of our tour around the 5 bedroom, three story house that backed up to Table Rock Lake included a trip downstairs to the gameroom/pub.  Neither of us had encountered so many lights made out of beer bottles, and couldn't wait for the onslaught of questions from the youngins.  It was so comical to me that the kids didn't fret a bit about the giant Miller bottle on ice hanging over the pool table.

Shortly after the tour we got settled in and slept soundly until about 4:45 when Jack came racing in ready for the day!

My Own Ride

Despite Ben's mind numbing cries to get out of the car, all he wanted to do when we got inside the restaurant was sit in this car nowhere near where the rest of us were eating our food.  Laughably, Ben and I ended up spending dinner time in the car while everyone else ate inside.  Once he had cooled off and could handle not sitting in the "car" we tried again to sit at the table, he wasn't having it, though, so we packed up and headed to the lake house to get settled.

Road Tripping

A few weeks ago Kyle said to me, "check out these lakeside cabins, we should rent one and spend Thanksgiving there."

My response was either come again or NOO!!  But after about a minute I was like, wait that sounds totally awesome and when he mentioned inviting Kristine and her family-it sounded heavenly!

Family during the holidays can't be beat, that's why we braved the first 45 minutes of this:

and the last 6 hours of this:

Ben was not happy about being in the car and wasn't afraid to let us all know about for nearly 6 hours and that's not even including the 40 minute nap he took!  At this point, Kyle and I began rethinking our Christmas traveling plans!

The crying wasn't the only issue with our drive, the Garmin took us on a wild ride through an hour and a half of switchback roads leaving us all queezy and more than grumpy with all the screaming!  

We were all more than ready to get out when we stopped at Danna's BBQ for dinner.

Breakfast of Champions

Norah loves popcorn and is equally enamored with the air popper,so today the stars aligned and she found herself with a bowlful of salted airpopped popcorn all the herself while the big kids were at school.  She nearly finished it all, and with a spoon!

Thanksgiving Program

Jack's kindergarten class and all the Wednesday preschool classes put on a cute little program today that included songs and a huge spread to get us all ready for next Thursday.  Jack sang his little heart out and ate so much food.  He really enjoys this place and is in for a rude awakening when public school hits him next year!