A New Year, Another Road Trip

We had a couple days to wash clothes and repack before it was time to get back in the car and drive up North.  Marianne and my Mom had come to Provo to help Abby with her new baby over Christmas so we stopped in on our way up to say hello.  It was such a fun treat to see my Mom and for the kids to get to see their Nana!  We quickly got to see baby Ezra and then we took the kids over to the hotel to swim in the pool.  Then we went to Abby and Matt's ward with my Mom the next morning.  It was so hard to say goodbye to my Mom again but we were excited that she would be back to stay in only 5 months!

Next, we headed up to Drew and Terry's house so the kids could see them and have a small Christmas with them.  They of course got spoiled and had a great time opening even more presents!

We also celebrated Carter's birthday while we were there.  He got this cool Lego set from Granny and Grandpa along with some knight armor and some other fun things.

He chose to have his birthday lunch at the cheesecake factory and got his very own slice of cheesecake for a birthday cake!  This was the first year we had done Carter's main birthday celebration on his half birthday so we were a little worried he would be sad when we didn't get him more presents on his actual birthday but he was fine with it and said he for sure wants to do a half birthday celebration from now on.  I can't believe he is already 7!  He loves legos, math, and playing with his brother Beckett.  He still loves doing flips and is loving gymnastics with his friend Mathison.  He also loves learning Chinese in his dual immersion program.  Carter is excited to get baptized next year and is a great big brother.  We love our darling Cartchy!

On New Years Eve night we had a little game party with our little family and watched the fireworks from Granny and Grandpa's house.  We did our toasts at "midnight" and had lots of sparkly juice to ring in the New Year!

The next day we drove up to Layton to see the Albrechts since we were so close.  We had dinner with them and I made guacamole and Garrett made his pina coladas.  It was a great visit!

We love getting together and reminiscing about the good old Liberty Lake days.  We also got to see their beautiful new house which was fun.

Dallas spilled all over his clothes so he put on these hand me downs that Camden was giving to Beckett.  These shorts fit him perfectly as pants:)  The next day we headed back to Saint George and were very glad to get a little down time before school and work started up again.  It was a very full and very fun Christmas break!

Christmas in AZ

When we arrived in AZ the kids were so excited to see their cousins and aunts and uncles!  Beckett quickly became especially close with Uncle Brandon who he affectionately nicknamed Uncle Bumblebee:)

One of my main goals of visiting AZ was to eat at Portillos as many times as possible!  It was such a joy to introduce my kids to some of my favorite Chicago food.  They were huge fans, of course.

Dani rented Andrea's neighbor's house for us to stay in and it was perfect.  They had a fun backyard and we were right next door to Andrea's house where Brandon and Erica stayed.  Dallas loved exploring the backyard with his cousins.

Grandma provided lots of fun crafts and activities for the kids everyday.  

Dallas was especially loving the trampoline in the backyard.  Ours had been in the storage unit since we moved to UT so he hadn't ever gotten to jump on a big trampoline before.  After we got home, Garrett decided it was time to set ours up because the kids love it so much.

One of the fun craft activities was to make a gingerbread village.  Dallas was asleep during the creation but he certainly enjoyed eating the houses when he woke up!

They also had a pool in the backyard but it was way too cold, in my opinion, to swim. The kids all kept daring each other to jump in the pool so Carter took the challenge and dove off the diving board.  He got out almost immediately after:)

We did a big Christmas Eve dinner and then the cousins all acted out the Nativity together.  The next morning the kids woke up to their Santa presents.  Notice the stupid clear cereal containers in place of stockings.  I was so bugged that I had forgotten to pack stockings!

Luckily the kids didn't seem to mind since the buckets were full of goodies and fun things.

We did our annual clues that led the kids to their big Santa present and Beckett got to go first.

He was thrilled with his Jake and the Neverland Pirate Lego set!!

Dallas got lots of fun toys from Grandma and he was loving all the Christmas excitement.

Carter got a Lego Ninjago set he had been wanting for months.

Rylynn got an art supply kit that had oil pastels and oil and acrylic paints.  She has been wanting "real art supplies" all year so she was thrilled!

She got some canvases to paint on and she can't wait for Nana to come home from her mission so she can give her painting lessons.

Grandma and Erika also bought all the kids board games.  Rylynn got Yahtzee and we played it over and over during Christmas break. Carter got Sorry and that became a quick favorite too.

It didn't take long for the boys to have their Lego creations built!

We have never had a family picture taken with Garrett's family so we were determined to make it happen over Christmas!  Uncle B bought all the boys Seahawk jerseys so we decided to all match them.  Beckett was being super grumpy about taking the picture for some reason but at least we got a picture to document all these Halls.

On the drive home, we had to make one more stop at Portillos!

We drove home the Flagstaff way rather than the Vegas way so we got to stop and see these cool cave houses on the drive.  We also saw this beautiful sunset!  

Garrett did this drive between Seattle and Arizona several times throughout his childhood and he has a picture of him at Carter's age on this exact rock so we had to take a grown up version with the boys.  Carter and Beckett thought it was so cool that their Daddy had taken a picture on the exact same rock twenty years before:)

Tis the Season

Our December started off with a huge snowstorm! Here in Saint George that is highly unusual but we were thrilled because we(the kids and I) have missed our snowy winters.  We ended up getting six inches in one day and it stuck around for weeks.  

 The snowstorm hit on Saturday so church was cancelled the next day.  Garrett and I were scheduled to speak in church so we weren't too sad:)  We decided to spend our Sabbath decorating christmas cookies and drawing pictures of the Nativity.

 Rylynn age 8

 Carter 6 (almost 7)

These were the icicles that hung around for a few weeks after the storm.  The kids loved them and I kept finding gross half licked icicles in our freezer!

Even though we were heading to AZ for Christmas Garrett and the kids insisted that we still go all out on our Christmas decorations.  Garrett had just been called as the Elders Quorum President so he wanted to have a Christmas party at our house to get to know the couples of the Quorum better.  I was not excited about decorating this year since Dallas is very busy and into everything.  He pulled this tree over 4 times before I finally got smart and tied it to the wall!

Dallas would pull out the dining room chair and spend hours watching the village.  First thing when he would wake up in the morning he would drag us in and make us turn on the lights and merry go round and carousel. He was so sad when it was time to put it away for the year.

 The town of Bloomington had a tree lighting ceremony with donuts, hot chocolate, and a visit from Santa.  It was a fun night!  Dallas wasn't a huge fan of Mr and Mrs Claus this year:)

We put off putting up the second tree given the fact that Dallas had been pulling down the other tree for weeks.  I gave Garrett the job of figuring out which lights were out and this is what I came in to find.  He doesn't do so well with late night projects:)

 Our ward Christmas party was a Night in Nauvoo theme this year.  It was so much fun and the kids and I were part of the musical production.  I sang with the choir and then the kids and I acted out a Nauvoo school Christmas scene depicting the school kids acting out the Nativity.  They did a great job!

 A week later Abby went into labor early and since my Mom wasn't flying in until Christmas Eve, I volunteered to drive up and help her during the delivery.  I was able to be there for the birth and stay for a couple of days after to help them adjust.

 Little Ezra was born and we were all thrilled to meet him!

 It was so special for me to be there and be a part of Abby's first birth since she had been there with me for mine.  

 A couple days after I got back home, we had a small Christmas morning with just our family so we wouldn't have to haul all the presents with us to AZ.  

 Dallas is obsessed with Doggies or as he calls them "woo woos" so he was thrilled to get his very own woo woo that barks and paws and does all sorts of cute dog things.

 Beckett and Carter were thrilled to add some new bow and arrows along with matching quivers to their arsenal!

Daddy got a new cabin hat for Christmas and Dallas was a big fan of it.  He would grab it and wear it around any chance he could get.

 Our Christmas party was lots of fun!  We had a white elephant exchange that produced many great treasure such as this huge boom box!

 It was also an ugly sweater party and there were lots of beautiful choices!

 Unfortunately, four couples had to cancel at the last minute with sick kids and broken pipes but we still had great food and lots of laughs.

 We even invited a few lucky High Priest couples.  The Trasks are some of our favorite people in the ward and they are really young at heart so they fit in perfectly.

 We played a few fun get to know you games too and then it was time to award the ugliest sweater award....

Mike's Christmas cardigan came out on top!  

Lindsay and Brandon's matching heart sweaters were the runner ups.  They had white doves attached in the beginning of the night but the ended up on the christmas tree by the time I took this picture.  We are planning to make this an annual event so we are keeping our eyes out for ugly sweaters for next year!