Forever Remembered

We miss and love you Mom!

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

Christmas Eve we made a little visit to Matt's family before joining my family with dinner and gift exchanges.
We finally got pictures of the boys with Papa and and Baby Elai! Granted, it's not the best but it's amazing we got this. Alex was literally only down for a second before we wandered off again. Good thing our camera can be quick. Evan is getting better at taking pictures. Only on a good day though :).

When it was time to go over to my families home we enjoyed a wonderful meal together and did our gift exchanges.
Alex opening his first gift of Christmas. Candy! He also got a toy airplane that he can but together and take it apart again with a working drill from Grandma and Grandpa.

Evan had fun with the poppers.

He got a trio car set of Disney Cars 2 from Grandma and Grandpa.
Since my family is big, we draw names and we give that person a gift instead of trying to buy everyone gift. Ammon had us and we had him. He gave Matt and I The Plates of Gold DVD and the boys Once Upon a Monster Kinect game for the XBOX.
Mom and Dad gave Matt and I a really nice 115 piece set of tools. You can never have enough tools. Thanks so much!!
We went home and did our traditional gift for Christmas Eve. Pajamas!

The camera wasn't quick enough this time :). Individual it is! He can't get away in his crib.

Evan you have to smile! Santa is coming!!

That's better...

And Santa came!


Here's a video of their reactions.

Alex didn't wake up on his own so he was groggy. Once he was awake enough he wouldn't get out of his car so he opened the rest of his gifts later.

Evan opening his own camera! I hope mine will be left alone now.

This is another fun toy that Alex loves! Evan has fun playing with it too. Everything they got this year is something they all enjoy. I love that when Alex isn't territorial.


The boys also got some practical things like clothes. I love those gifts. For family gifts we got new Kinect games (Wipe Out 2 and Dance Central 2), movies and Apple TV. LOVE! Any household with kids should get one! I no longer have to put in DVD's for the boys because we're uploading all our movies to our computer. Apple TV connects to the computer and our movies play from there. It's our own Netflix. It also plays all our music, shows our photos and we can view Netflix and YouTube from it as well. It does other things but thats all I use it for.
Matt got some backpacking equipment and clothes. I got a new bedding set and clothes. Santa was great to us this year!
Since Christmas was on Sunday we went to church. It was only 30 minutes long! Very welcome since the boys wanted to get back to their toys and see Papa Thompson. When we got to there we opened gifts. The boys got even more spoiled.



(Car Holder)

Matt got even more backpacking equipment and I got my final season of Boy Meets World and some sewing supplies :). We also got some games for the family.
Later Leanna skyped with us from her Mission in Edmonton Canada. It was so fun to be able to see her instead of just talking to her on the phone. She's enjoying her mission so much and it was great talking to her for an hour.
The rest of the day we played games with my mom and one of my sisters at our house.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Fun

Since Michael and Julie will be moving to Cedar the day after Christmas, they thought it would be fun to get together every day leading up to Christmas and do some activities together as a family.
Wednesday we decorated Ginger Bread Houses. It was mainly me doing ours but the boys had fun eating the candy and Matt enjoyed talking with Dad.


Thursday was a movie night but the boys have been hard to be around since they've been off their schedule with the trip. I stayed home to keep everyone sane :).
Friday we went and saw the Spanish Fork lights. I didn't bring my camera but it was different because they re-did the roads. They also had a cool display of lights at the front that literally blinded you almost. It was the best part though :). Evan enjoyed the lights and Alex enjoyed having the opportunity to be out of his car seat and playing with all the buttons on the car. I don't think he noticed the lights at all.
Thanks Michael and Julie for suggesting and putting together all the fun.

Out on the Open Road!

This Christmas Season we headed to the Sacramento area to join in on the Haymore Christmas Party that is thrown every year the Saturday before Christmas. I've never been to one so I looked forward to be in on their traditions but also more importantly, be with Family. I'm so blessed marrying into this amazing family.
Matt took more time off so we can be up there longer and it made it so nice because we didn't drive all night which causes us to be tired and turn around 2 days later and do the same. This time we were able to break up the trip by stopping off in Vegas to get a great night sleep and get in at a decent time. In Vegas we got to see Aunt Mary and Uncle Ron. We miss seeing them so it was an added bonus.
Alex was in heaven being with his Papa. Alex was his shadow this entire trip.


Alex also loved being with Aunt Laura.

Laura wanted more kisses but he said no!

He gave in eventually :).

Our first stop in California was visiting Grandpa Thompson. We stayed there for two days. While there, we visited the State Park Railtown in Jamestown.


This park has preserved much of the Sierra Railway and it houses famous trains in different movies like this one:



If you can't guess where you've seen it, its the train that's on Back to the Future Part III. We got to take the Self Tour instead of having a Guided Tour. I think it was better because we got to go on the train. I don't think we can do that on the Guided Tour :).

Other movies filmed here are: Petticoat Junction, The Wild, Wild West, High Noon, The Virginian, and Unforgiven.
Here are other fun photos from the Park.







Grandpa Thompson told us we needed to visit a street that had a train that went around the neighborhood driven by Rudolph, carrying Santa. There was also a live Santa that the boys got to talk too. The boys loved it and Matt and I thought it was really cool! It was hard to capture how cool it was on camera. Sorry for the bad pictures.



Laura had her 26th birthday there. We celebrated as a family before the trip but we still did some celebrating the day of. I went shopping with her in the morning and we all went to lunch together. Alex loved the slurpees! If he's happy, we're all happy!



Before the Christmas Party we had a little scare. Grandpa Thompson is ok but he decided it was time to get a new car so he ran his 18 year old car into the back of a semi ;). He's now a proud new owner of 2012 Honda Civic.

The Christmas party was so much fun! It started at noon and lasted till late in the evening. There was a lot of food and we had so much fun visiting and playing games. Santa even came to visit!
Evan saying it's his turn to sit on Santa's lap. He asked for a truck again.


Alex of course. I'm hoping he will like to sit on Santa's lap next year.

All the Women got to sit on his lap too. There was some fun wants like new cars, TV's and a diamond ring. I asked for Slippers :). I really want them!
Evan had fun playing with his Cousin Erin who we stayed with the remaining time. He constantly asks to play with her. We enjoyed spending our time with Uncle Ethan, Aunt Becky and their other kids. We always look forward to staying with them. Even though we got to stay longer, it still was too short. Family is the greatest!

ESG Christmas Party 2011

ESG had their Christmas party at Fat Cats again because it was a huge hit last year. We brought Laura along for the fun, because Matt had to leave early for church meetings.


They had contests to win prizes. Alex won a $10 gift card to Cold Stones for bowling the first strike in his age group that was 0-6 years old. He basically bowled it right after they announced it.

Santa came to visit!
Evan was excited to see him and he asked for a truck.


Alex wasn't too thrilled to sit on his lap.

The boys had a blast! We love that ESG centers around families so the boys can be involved in the activities they have.