Fun At The Park

Weather has been beautiful lately, so we decided to go to the park. I had a lot of fun practicing taking video with my new dslr as well. I had so many videos I decided to put this together. It may be a little long, but I hope you enjoy watching! :)
 

Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's Day, the kids and I went to our annual Valentine's Day party at our friend's house. This is the third year in a row that we've done this, so it's become kind of a tradition. A really fun one. :) Claire was so super excited about giving out her valentines that she wanted to get started as soon as we got there. We decorated our boxes first.

After our boxes were made we gathered all the kids together for a picture - 8 little ones are hard to get to look at the camera all at the same time. :) 

After pictures, we then passed out our valentines. I love Pinterest. :) Claire is pretty obsessed with the movie "Frozen". One of her favorite songs is, "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?", so of course she loved this idea. She helped me put the valentines together and even wrote her name all by herself. She was getting really good on the last couple she made! :)

After the chaos of passing out valentines among 8 small children, Everett couldn't wait to see what was put into his box. We played some games afterwards like "duck, duck, goose" and "hide and seek" but Claire didn't get very into it. All she wanted to do was go home so she could build a snowman. She has built at least 3 of them herself. :)

Pizza with the Family

While my sister was visiting, we also got together with the rest of our family living close by. We all met up at our place and enjoyed some time together talking, playing, eating pizza and letting all the little cousins show off how well they knew the new "Frozen" songs. It was a fun night. :)

Tubing

My sister Kristy and her family visited for a few days so while they were here we went tubing. My other sister Heidi works at the Soldier Hollow tubing hills and so she was able to get us all in for free. :) We had a blast! We started the kids on the little kiddie hill, cuz last time when we went sledding they didn't love it, but this time Claire really did LOVE it. After a few times on the kiddie hill, she was asking to go down the big hill.

The little boy cousins and I waited at the bottom while Scott took Claire up with the others. I was a little scared for her and when Scott took her down he was a little worried it was so fast that it may have scared her too, but when they reached the bottom she looked up at us and yelled "that was fun!".

She went down several more times with Scott, myself, Heidi, and once Kristy watched Everett so all three of us were able to go down together. Everett thought that sitting in the tube and being pulled around was so fun and soothing that he fell asleep. :)

We ended the fun by building a snowman. Since watching "Frozen", that's what Claire was most excited about doing when she heard we were going to be playing out in the snow. Sadly, the snow was horrible for making snowmen so we only ended up making a little miniature snowman right before leaving. She was happy with it. :)

the year that was

2013 has come and gone and these are the memories that just missed out on some of our other blogs. there's a lot of them, so hope you've got some extra time on your hands. i do wish the videos on blogger were better quality. enjoy them anyways. we sure did. :)

it's hard not to laugh a little at such a cute little cry.

this is a video claire took of herself with the ipod while she was in her room. it took us a bit to realize she happened to be on the potty when taking this video. :)

everett having fun in the kids' new playhouse we made for them.

this is from way back at the beginning of the year when everett was just learning to crawl. claire wasn't the most helpful sometimes. :)

our tired little eater

everett obviously thought the movie was pretty funny.

every once in a while, claire and everett play together so beautifully. we love how everett is handing claire the blocks to help her build her awesome tower.

 everett really loves splash pads!

the kids playing in our fun chair.

claire and everett had a fantastic new years eve!

and the best of the rest...

Temple Square Lights

Being cold is not my favorite thing and I usually tend to stay away from activities that involve being outside in the winter. This year my sisters and I decided to get together with our families and go see the lights at Temple Square. So we bundled all up for the second time that week to join them. :) We rode the frontrunner train up to SLC which I think was the kids favorite part. They loved being able to look out the windows and sit next to their cousins and aunts.

When we got there we went inside the visitors center to warm up before we met up with the rest of the family. Everett may have thrown a tantrum or two and when he does he likes to throw himself on the ground. I don't think he was able to get back up on his own after falling down in all his layers. :)

As soon as the rest of the group got there we headed outside to see the lights and first thing that happened was we lost the group. :) So we looked around for a little while by ourselves.



We eventually found the rest of our group and walked around for just a little while longer.

And then we headed back home on the train.


It was a fun little trip, even though we didn't have much time with the rest of our family, I did enjoy the small time we did have together looking at Christmas lights. :)

it's Christmas time!

we sure do love this time of year. there is so much to like: family time, pretty lights, good music, giving presents to each other, yummy food, and just the spirit of Christ is so abundant everywhere you go. we started Christmas off this year with a visit down to spanish fork to hang out with my brother's family on Christmas eve. it was extra special this year because amber's sister heidi joined us for the fun and my brother dan has moved up here from texas, so we were blessed with even more family this year. our nieces and nephews put on a whole program for us with music, games, and scriptures. claire had a blast running around doing a scavenger hunt with the rest of the kids.

after the fun with family, we headed home to open our one Christmas eve present. the kids got pajamas and amber and i got some snow boots. the kiddos look so cute in their pjs. it was then off to bed because saint nicholas soon would be here. ;)

the next morning, after we all woke up, we started our Christmas day festivities by opening our stockings. in our stockings we always put some candy, one small present from santa, and our Christmas breakfast. while we ate breakfast, we watched the animated nativity story.

we then began the fun of opening presents. first we gave the kids small presents from us. claire got a board game and everett got a buzz action figure. then we had the kids give their gifts for each other. claire gave everett a little toy bus and everett got claire beauty & the beast little people. then we gave the kids their big gifts. claire got some squigz (these little suction construction toys that we think are pretty cool) and everett got a little toy train set. amber got a couple lens attachments, a flash, and a battery grip, and i got an ipad mini and a bunch of accessories. i then slyly hid one more small present under the tree. it was a key that opened the filing cabinet, where amber found her last present: her new canon 70d camera! we then spent some time playing with our new toys before heading back to spanish fork for some more fun.

ken and sherry wanted to take their family sledding this year, so we thought we'd join them. we bundled ourselves up pretty well (because we really don't like the cold) and then hit the slopes. it was fun (even in spite of our little crash), but we were done pretty quickly. :)

we headed home for nap time, then had a nice dinner with amber's siblings upstairs. it was a wonderful holiday and we've had a blast spending time with family and playing with our new toys. merry Christmas to one and all!