Happy Birthday Carson!!!

Even though I am a bit late on this post, it is definitely still worth mentioning that Carson had a birthday!!!!!

The poor guy had to go back to school and work that day. We were lucky to have a nice Holiday vacation, but it all ended on his big day, happy birthday to him. Kynlee and I tried to spoil him in the small amount of time we did see him.

He was nice enough to let Kynlee help him open his presents. 

 I tried to make Carson an ice cream cake, but it did not turn out nearly as fantastic as I had it pictured in my head (especially after it fell out of the freezer, yeah I struggle with life).

Kynlee and I are so lucky to have such a hard working man in our lives who takes such good care of us. 

Happy Birthday Carson!!!!!!!

An Imperfect Christmas!

So I saw a little thing on the news in December about how we make ourselves miserable trying to create a perfect Christmas for ourselves and our families. The segment went on to explain how we need to plan on not having everything be perfect for Christmas in order to easily enjoy the holiday. I realized that I have been doing just that. Not that I make myself miserable, but I plan too many things that we have to get done before Christmas. 

This year I was going to make all kinds of Christmas candies and goodies, in reality I only ended up making 2 things, and the cookies always look way better in my head that they turn out in frosting. The lack of Christmas baking is better for our waistbands in the end though.

I was going to learn a handful of new Christmas songs on the piano. I practiced all the Christmas songs in the hymn book lots for my calling, but I only casually played the other ones that I was going to learn. Oh well I guess I will just have to play Christmas songs all year.

I was going to read the dozens of the Christmas books from the library that I look longingly at the rest of the year but force myself to wait to check out. I only read 2.

I was going to get my shopping done early, but the 23rd of December had us in crowded stores doing Christmas shopping for my procrastinating brother-in-law.

We had fun doing a white elephant with family on Christmas Eve, but it started way later than we had planned because kiddos did not want to go to bed nicely that night. 

Our child could have cared less that we spent a whopping  $7.50 on toys for her, all she wanted was the candy in her stocking.

And Christmas is always crazy in Moab between us trying to bounce back and forth between families trying not to miss any of the fun.

And you know what.... it was all perfect

 This pretty much summed up Kynlee helping frost the cookies. She would put frosting on a cookie, lick it all off, then add some more, lick it off...you get the idea.

 We made gingerbread houses with Grandma Sue. Kynlee thought having all that candy and frosting within her reach was awesome.

We did a live nativity at my Dad's house. Carson and Andrew were enlisted to be wisemen (I think they were thrilled about it) We also couldn't get anyone to play Joseph, so we will just pretend he was out getting diapers.

 We celebrated winter birthdays for Carson, Andrew, and Alex.

 Marie's white elephant gift. She sings "Don't you wish your Grandma was HOT like me."

 Dad trying on his white elephant gift.

 Checking out the goods on Christmas morning.

 This is the best picture of the 3 of us on Christmas day.

 Nathan trying on one of the little girls hat. (good thing he doesn't read my blog).

 Kynlee trying out her new high heels from Papa and Marie, she actually walks pretty well in them.

 Kynlee thought it was great to climb up the pile of presents at Grandma Sue and Grandpa Dan's house.

 She also loved the little tent they gave her.

 And finally our third Christmas back at home. Kynlee really liked the body spray that Carson got for me.

 My new shoes!!

 Carson's much needed new shoes. He was still wearing the ones from his mission, and they were not even black anymore.

 And the very best part for this little one was when she finally got this candy out of its wrapper. 

I hope everyone else had just as imperfect a Christmas as we did, and took some time to do some service, and reflect on our Savior and his love for us.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!!

Sledding!!

We got to go sledding in Moab over our Christmas break, and even though it was just a short little trip, we had lots of fun. 

Dad was the bravest of us and tried the hill first, as usual he went all the way down and hit the road at the bottom before stopping with a nice crash. 

 Megan looking super cute in the awesome hat I made her for Christmas. (I have the pattern memorized if anyone else wants one)

Andrew and Alex ready to brave the hill.

 My first time down. I'm not nearly as fearless as I used to be with things like this. I don't really like these flat sleds because they are pretty much designed for you to go down head first on your belly. Well that was not appealing to me, so I insisted on going down like this. I did end up kicking snow in my face with my feet out in front though, so it probably wasn't the best plan.

 Cheznie watching the show.

 Cute little Kynlee enjoying running around in her snow suit.

 I'm not sure if she is very happy to go down with me.

 Here is where Carson and Andrew decided that we would all race down. I won the first race, and I would have won the second race if I hadn't ended up in a big bush with snow and sticks all over my face letting Andrew have the victory. Luckily I didn't feel anything except the cold on my face when I crashed.

 Carson and Kynlee going down.

We always manage to have good times with family in Moab!!!