Thursday, December 26, 2013

The Big Day is Finally Here!

It's finally Christmas!  I've been so excited this year for Christmas to come.  There were a few gifts I was very excited to give so I've been having a hard time waiting.  We went to my parents house on Christmas Eve for dinner...and to talk to Quin!  The kids couldn't wait to talk to him either.  It took a while to finally connect with him because of the internet connections but we finally got it.  It was so good to see him.  It was funny to hear him speak Tagalog because it sounds completely like gibberish.  He forgot the English words when talking to us a few times.  It was great!  The kids get to open one gift on Christmas Eve so they had been excited all day.  

Haven opened one from Phillip's grandma and grandpa.  It was the cutest doll! It even had her name embroidered on it.  She loved it!

I got the big kids personalized books with their names, birthdays, friends, etc... built into the story.  They loved them.  Especially Cooper.  He thought it was super cool that he was a race car driver and he WON the race!

We headed home to get ready for Santa to come.  The kids spotted him in the sky (haha) and couldn't wait to get to bed.  Christmas is so fun with little kids!

After Santa came...

He was wowed by his pirate ship.  He played with it all morning and could barely come away from it to open other things.

Very excited about her rainbow loom

And magic set.  This was one of the 3 things she asked Santa for.  She loved it and proceeded to do magic tricks for us for the entire rest of the day (with the help of Grandpa!)

This was one of the things I was most excited to give this year.  Last year I got this American Girl doll on a crazy good sale before Addison even knew what an American Girl doll was.  All I knew was that I loved them when I was younger and I never got one so I jumped on the chance to get it at a great price whether she wanted one or not! I saved it all year hoping she would like it and a few months ago she all of a sudden started asking for one all the time.  I guess some of her friends had them so of course she wanted one too ; )  I was beyond excited for her to have it and it was worth the wait.  She LOVED it.  And she hasn't put it down since.  She has changed her clothes at least 10 times and put her to bed all snuggled up her new doll bed from Grammy.  I'm just so glad she loved it!



Pretty girls in matching dresses.  So cute!
 

My kids have been obsessed with "Frozen" since we saw it on Thanksgiving.  It was such a cute movie, it's no wonder they love it.  I ended up taking back 2 things for Cooper that I wasn't really excited about to get this instead.  He has especially loved "Olaf" the snowman from the movie and the song he sings about wondering what Summer is like.  He LOVES it.  When he opened it he shouted "It's my happy snowman!"  Love it.  The snowman sings the song and Coop just sings along with him.  It's been really cute to watch.  He's been carrying it around everywhere.  

Haven's had a cold for a few days and she was pretty miserable this morning so she ended up taking a nap but was feeling a lot better when she came back down.  She puked all over her Christmas jammies but luckily Grammy had gotten her some new ones for Christmas so it was perfect.  She didn't get the hang of opening the presents but Cooper was eager to help ; ) 


This was definitely her favorite and has been playing with it for most of the day.  It's a little piano from GG and Papa Tom.  She loves music and loved every time she banged on it.  We loved watching her!


We spent the rest of the day cleaning up, playing with the kids, watching A Christmas Story with Grandpa, taking naps and eating a yummy roast for dinner.  It was nice to not have to leave our house at all (and not having to get dressed ; )  And then of course Phillip and I played the kids Battleship game after the kids went to bed!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

10 Years!

Phillip and I made it to 10 years!  It didn't seem to be a big deal when I turned 30 but it seems crazy to me that we've been married for 10 years.  Phillip really wanted to do something special since its such a big one so he planned a trip to Asheville.  It was something we had talked about doing for a long time but we never actually did it.  I'm so glad we did!  We had such a great time.  

We stayed at a really nice hotel, the Grove Park Inn.  It has beautiful views from just about everywhere.  This is right outside the lobby.  Pictures don't really do it justice and I can't even imagine what it looks like when the leaves are turning colors.  
 

They have 2 amazing fireplaces in the lobby that are as big as Phillip.  They were gorgeous!


They had a gingerbread competition going on and they were on display all over the hotel.  This one was my favorite.  It won 3rd place overall.  So cool!

A view from the side.  Beautiful!

We decided to take Haven with us since we couldn't bear to be away from her for 3 days and she did great!  She was so good whenever we went anywhere and she just loved to look around at everything.  Glad we didn't have to worry about her the whole time!


We went to the Biltmore Estate and walked around the outside and gardens during the day before our nighttime tour.  This was inside the greenhouse.  It was beautiful.








Christmas Festivities

Just a few pictures of the past few weeks with all of the Christmas festivities we've had going on.

Cutest kids ever!  Love their Christmas outfits this year.

The first weekend in December we went down to Myrtle Beach to visit Phillip's family for a few days.  
The kids made "gingerbread" trees and had so much fun decorating them.  Much easier than everyone doing a whole gingerbread house!

Finished products


We went to Shawna's ward Christmas party that night and Cooper could not wait to see Santa.  He was  beyond excited!

A few days later my mom came over to do gingerbread houses with the kids.  Addison had been asking to do this for weeks so she was glad to do it finally!  My mom helped Cooper and Addison and I worked on one together.  They came out great!



We went to my dad and Phillip's Christmas party last week and they always have a Santa there.  We all love him.  And I love Haven's face in this picture.  She does NOT want to be there!




Hahaha!  Classic!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Day at the Park

We had some great weather yesterday so we went to the park by my parents house for the afternoon.  The kids brought their scooters and had fun riding them.  At least for a little while, haha.  Cooper had some trouble but we'll try again soon!


Got some cute pictures of my girls!  It was so beautiful there!






She went on the swings for the first time.  She was a little scared at first but then she LOVED it. She could not get enough and every time Phillip pushed her harder she died laughing and smiling.  It was awesome.  


"Hey there!"



Love the climbing rock!