Crazy Holiday-Part 1

The last two weeks have been crazy.  We have been going, going, going.  We had a great Christmas with lot's of family time.  My siblings all came in the few days before Christmas.  Our first excursion was to ride Trax downtown to see the lights.  I feel like it's a ton easier to drive but I knew Sam would love the train and he did.  I made mistake of telling him that morning that we were going to ride a train and he would not stop talking about it.

He loved it just as I had suspected.  He talked about riding the train for days after.  Temple square was great but it was cold and I hate crowds so towards the end I was ready to head home.  Dan met up with us and I'm glad we did it. 

I wish I would have known how huge that coat made me look.  I am getting huge but I swear this coat makes me look even larger.  So much for a good family picture in front of the temple. 

Christmas Eve we went up to Hardware Ranch before our Christmas Eve party in Brigham City.  

Sam was very excited to go on a ride to see the 'reindeer'.  Yeah, they were elk but every time I mentioned seeing Santa Clause Sam would let me know that he would rather see Santa's reindeer.  So we tried to convince them that they were reindeer but the kid's not stupid and knew that they weren't reindeer.   Doesn't he look excited!

Christmas Story anyone?  Yep, we had the kid bundled tight, it was freezing up there!

My sister Kath and her hubby.  She is due 5 weeks ahead of me with a baby girl as well.  Unfortunately her pregnancy hasn't been half as un-eventful as mine has.  It's a long story but let's just say many days in the hospital, a life flight ride from St. George to Salt Lake, a couple surgeries and thousands of dollars in bills.  I'm telling you, she's had it rough.  What we do for children 'eh.

Here we all our enjoying our ride.  It got really cold out there.  We were the last ride for the night and we now know why, brrr!

My nephew Fox.  Seriously look at that face, adorable!

After Hardware Ranch we headed down to Brigham City to a family party with my mom's extended family.  It's an interesting group of people and always provides some awesome people watching.  Good times folks, good times!

Sam actually did great on Santa's lap.  He ran right up and hopped up there and told him what he wanted, "a marble game."  I couldn't get a smile out of him but atleast he got up there and talked to him.  

We headed back to my parents and read the Bible version of the birth of Christ.  My mom made blankets for all the grandkids to go along with the pajamas.  She is crazy but it was great!  We pulled out the chimes and played some songs.  The chimes are fun, I quite enjoy them.  These two little ones were killing me though.  They of course had no idea what they were doing but they sure were playing along. 

We headed home and Sam was out.  That is the great advantage of running and playing hard all day.  The kid slept like a champ.  

I kind of felt bad about our own little Christmas morning.  Sam slept in until 8:30 (I know right?).  Anyway, we hurried and rushed him to open his presents b/c we had to hurry up to my parents for present opening and then over to the Simmons for brunch.  He would open one present and want to play with it but we were in such a rush we were just forcing the presents at him.  Anyway, Sam loves games right now and is always asking me to play games with him.  We stocked him up on some games and he was pretty excited about it.  

The one thing Sam would consistently ask for when I asked him what he wanted was a marble game.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to get one for him b/c my parents have one and it is kind of a grandpa/Sam bonding time thing.  Anyway, the morning of Christmas Eve I had Dan run to Toys R'Us and get him one.  My parents is much better and sturdier so I'm glad that he still loves my parents.  The craziness continues but this is enough for one blog post.