Winter Break Staycation

We decided to do a staycation for the kids winter break. We get tired of traveling since most of our family lives super far away. We drove 15 minutes from our house and stayed in a motel that had a separate kid room with bunk beds and tv (so great to not have to share a tv with the kids). The pool had a slide and the continental breakfast was great! We also found an outdoor skating rink. It was so much fun. Crew still reminds us everyday that we went, "swimmin' and ice.... skating." All 3 kids keep asking if we can do it again. Conor thinks it should be our new tradition. I think we should do it like once a month. It was so relaxing and fun!!

Kya Papaya

We got to go to Kya's first grade Christmas program in December. I didn't do to good taking pictures because I was more focused on videoing since she got to play the triangle for one of the songs and I didn't want to miss getting it on video. She was so proud of her part. I of course was also proud since percussion is what I played in JH and HS. It was like a little mini me up there playing the triangle. So fun! She did a great job too. She's a natural.

It think Santa was reminding Kya that she has to be a good girl. She kind of has that look on her face like, I hope Santa doesn't really know whether I've been naughty or nice.

Crew and Santa BFF

It was so fun to watch Crew get excited about Christmas this year. He got to see Santa 3 times this year! The first time he saw him was at our friends house. His little face lit up and he kept saying, "Cripus (Christmas), it's cripus." He then went right up to Santa and sat on his lap and just talked and talked like they were old friends. He wanted Santa all to himself and didn't want to give the other waiting kids a turn. We eventually had to peel him off Santa's lap. All three times he has told Santa he wants candy for "cripus." I kept telling him he should ask Santa for a toy but he would say, "No, I tell him I want candy." Luckily Santa pulled through and brought him some candy. Apparantly it wasn't enough for his needs because he ate all of his and then ate all of his sister's chocolate out of her stocking. Aren't siblings great!

At our friends house
At our ward party


At storytime at the library

Thaksgiving

We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. It was the first time in about 2 years that we were all together at the same time. I never forget my camera but this time I did. Luckily we got a professional family pic taken. I might add a couple pics to this post when I can get some from my moms camera. Poor Conor was so sick with a stomach bug and we had to drag him to Show Low for pictures. Poor guy. We had planned to go to Snowflake from there to hang out with Tom's family but Conor begged us to just take him home. So unfortunatly we didn't get to see Tom's family this time. The photographer told us that almost every time a big family comes for pictures the day after Thanksgiving at least one person is sick. I guess we'll have to plan a summertime pic next time!