Stomping Grounds

We knew we wanted to make a trip to Provo to show the kids around the Brigham Young University campus and visit with their Great-Grandma. My Grandma is 95 years young and recent moved out of her home in St. George into a very nice retirement home in Provo. I was surprised to see her memories still intact and find her in great health. The girls remember seeing her at my mom's wedding last year, but this is the time they have really ever been able to visit with her. After we chatted for a bit she suggested we go outside and feed the ducks at a little pond. Jason had been very reserved up til that point but this perked him right up. It took him a little while to get comfortable with the ducks following him around and trying to steal his bread, but he ended up loving it.

He was so focused on his bread that he didn’t notice this duck sneaking up on him.

I’m pretty sure that once he noticed he threw the whole piece of bread at the duck and took off.

It was a great visit and I'm so glad we made time to see her while we were in town.

We took the kids on a little tour around town showing them the different places Justin and I lived. We walked around the BYU campus a little and even did a little shopping at the BYU bookstore where Jason got a cool new hat.

Even though BYU wasn't a school I dreamed of attending, I would love my kids to have the opportunity to attend school there. Especially since they will not grow up with many members of the Church. To find yourself in that environment would be pretty incredible. It really is a special environment.

Who knows maybe these two crazy girls will be roomies at BYU someday

During our entire trip in Utah Jason was on the lookout for temples so we had to stop by the Provo Temple so Jason could get out and take a look.

Christmas Day

It was no surprise that the girls were the first ones up on Christmas morning. Thankfully though they didn't get up til around 7am. My mom reminded me how cruel she thought it was last year when we made the girls wait until Jason woke up at 9:30am before starting the festivities. This year I let them wake Jason up at 7:45 so they didn't have to wait too long.

I thought their note to Santa was pretty funny

“… There are somethings that we can not think of that we would want so give us stuff u know we would like.”

The girls were right, Santa brought them something they’ve really wanted - razor scooters. Santa brought Jason a set of cars from the Disney movie Cars.

There were lots more goodies in each of the kids stockings.

Jason was super excited when he opened up his new tie – he loves to wear a tie “just like Daddy”.

When he was getting dressed later that morning we decided to try it on – what a handsome dude!

By the time Katie woke up everything had been opened but her gift from Jason. (We thought it would be fun to let our kids exchange gifts this year by having them each draw a name. Abigail called it being Secret Santas.) Yes, Katie only had that one gift to open – isn’t that sad? She didn’t seem to mind and besides what does a 8 month old want anyhow besides LOVE and attention. :)

Jason picked out some bath toys for Katie, but of course she was much more interested in the gift wrap.

Katie also got a few things in her stocking including a cute hat and a toothbrush.

She had no problem letting Carly get in there and help her brush her tooth (yep, her first tooth broke through while we were in Utah)

Christmas day was very relaxing. We played games, ate lots of yummy food, and watched a movie in Grandma and Val’s awesome theatre room.

My brother Lee was also visiting from out of town. After spending a few day with my kids I’m pretty sure he went home exhausted. They were always wanting him to run around and play with them.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the day to look forward to when spending Christmas with my family. My Mom now lives about an hour away from my four siblings that live in Utah. Everyone came to her house that afternoon for the festivities. The only family member missing was my sister-in-law who had to work. That makes 30 people for dinner.

My mom always makes clam chowder on Christmas Eve and there is always a special batch of clam-free chowder for me (and my brother who in recent years developed an allergy to shellfish and a brother-in-law who just passed one year being vegetarian). Funny side note: at the end of the evening the same vegetarian brother-in-law mentioned asked me what was in the delicious enchilada dip he had been gobbling up all evening. Let's just say he was a little disappointed when I informed him it had chicken in it. So much for one year meat-free.

After dinner the grandkids performed the story of Christ's birth. Abigail was one of the 2 narrators, Carly and Jason were sheep, and Katie was baby Jesus.

The kids did great and it was nice to spend some time reflecting on the reason for the celebration and sing a few Christ centered Christmas songs.

After the nativity it was time for each of the grandkids to open a gift from Grandma. Abigail got Uno Flash, Carly got a huge container of fun fusion beads, Jason was thrilled to get a cars towel, and Katie received some "indestructible" books which she has since been putting their name to the test.

My Mom gave each of her six kids a CD of photos from her childhood as well as a copy of one of her journals - I love these special gifts that can't be bought and will forever be cherished.

The kiddos also participated in a white elephant gift exchange. It was interesting to find that most kids would rather experience the thrill of opening a new gift than to steal a gift containing $10 or even $20 from one of their cousins.

Christmas Eve was the first time my family has seen Katie. She did awesome in Utah and surprised me by letting other people hold her - love that! This was also our first time meeting a new brother-in-law and his daughter as well as meeting the youngest member of the family, my niece, Brooklyn that was born 16 days after Katie.

How perfect that Katie and Brooklyn had the same Christmas jammies.

To Grandmother’s House We Go

The kids and I were greeted at the airport by ten family members (Justin arrived 3 days later than us and was greeted by one - me). Never before have I had that kind of welcome home. I don't think I've ever gone an entire year without coming home either.

The kids were surprised (and extremely thrilled) to learn that four of their cousins were coming to stay at Grandmas house with us for a few days. Those first few days were likely the best of the trip for the kids. The four girls decided to share a queen-sized bed at night and we were surprised that they stuck with it all three nights. Of course it took them a while to fall asleep but nobody fell out of bed and they got a decent enough nights sleep. Jason warmed up immediately to the big boys and they were very good with him tagging along and sharing a room together.

We arrived to rain but overnight it turned to snow and it easily snowed over a foot those first few days. The kids went sledding several times while we were in Utah. Not only did Grandma and Val take the kids to different sledding hills they spent just as much time riding down the hills as the kids.

Sledding at the “up and down park”

Grandma and Carly

At first Jason didn’t want to get any snow in his face so he preferred to sit behind someone else. Here he is riding with Val.

See he really is there – and LOVING every minute of it

It didn’t take long for Jason to feel comfortable riding solo. In fact he became quite the dare devil and figured out how to get himself spinning around in circles and throwing himself off the sled. So much for not getting any snow in his face.

“The Girls”

On day two we all went to the aquarium, who would have thought Salt Lake would have an aquarium? Jason was very excited to see the fish and penguins, but wasn't too keen on getting close to the stingrays.

The big kids didn’t have any problems touching the stingrays.

Katie also thought the fish were pretty interesting

Grandma had lots of other fun things for the kids to do with their cousins. They made gingerbread houses (the kids turned this into a boy vs. girl contest - the boys gingerbread house was the last house standing.)

They also made rice crispy treats and decorated cookies.

Grandma’s train was also a big hit with the kids

Later in the week Grandma gave each of the girls a craft project. Both projects ended up being a bit challenging for the girls, but they loved it.

Grandma spent lots of time helping Carly with her first cross-stitch

Abigail’s project involved a butterfly pattern, small pieces of yarn, and a latch-hook tool – I love these classic crafts from my childhood.

Pre-Christmas with the Fletcher Family

We celebrated Christmas with Justin’s family on Friday, December 17^th. Appetizers and pizza were followed by the much-anticipated opening of presents. Grandma once again had stockings for the kids. I think the girls favorite thing in their stockings were silly bands. Abigail now has over 100 silly bands and not a single one was purchased by us.

Jason’s favorite was, of course, a car.

This was Katie’s first time opening gifts. I let her get a feel for things before the chaos began.

No surprise that the wrapping paper was just as desirable as anything else.

The girls were thrilled to get rollerblades from Grandma and Grandpa Fletcher. Abigail used her friend’s Mom’s skates a few times this summer (yes, her feet are that big) and wanted a pair of her own. Carly has only been on roller-skates before, but we knew she’d catch on quick.

The first chance they got the following day they were trying them out. I was shocked how well they both did. Carly fell down only a few times, but hopped right back up. Looks like they’ll be having lots of fun with these.

Decorating the Christmas Tree(s)

I was excited to be able to help in Carly’s classroom during their Christmas party. I was in charge of supervising the Christmas tree decorating. Carly started out being very careful with her frosting and placing the candy in just the right spots, but as time was running out she caught on that the more candy she piled onto her plate = the more candy she got to take home and eat – that’s my girl!

Here’s Jason decorating our Christmas tree.

Yep, that’s the only tree we had up this year. With the house up for sale we didn’t feel like getting out a bunch of holiday decorations especially since we were spending Christmas in Utah anyhow. It did feel a little unfestive, but it felt great coming home last night and not having a bunch of decorations to pack away.

Reader Beware

I took over 1,000 pictures in Utah. With that many pictures I thought about just skipping the task of posting them on the blog. But I just can’t. One of our day trips while we were there was showing the kids around BYU. Justin has a great memory. Mine stinks. There was a point during the day that Justin commented that it’s too bad we didn’t keep a blog back then because then I’d have better luck remembering the experiences we had. I kept a scrapbook from that time in our lives but we didn’t write down any of the memories to go with them. So over the next few days I’m going to work on going through our recent pictures and posting a bit about the fun we had (I have to go in chronological order so I have a little to post pre-Utah as well).