What a wonderful Christmas!

We had such a fun Christmas! On Christmas Eve, we made sugar cookies for Santa and I did alot of other baking/cooking that day. Usually, we go to Kyle's mom's house Christmas Eve and do all the gifts there but Kyle's stepsister wasn't able to come up because of the weather. She decided to come up on Christmas Day so we had quite a long, busy Christmas day. On Christmas Eve, we put out some cookies and milk for Santa and wrote him a note.

Kira came in about 7:15 and wanted to get up right then. Kaylee woke up shortly after so by the time we got everyone ready and downstairs, it was about 7:45. As we were getting ready, Kira came back and said she had peeked downstairs and saw that the cookies were gone. She thought that was pretty cool. (We have a gate on the stairs so she wasn't able to come all the way down to see everything). Santa wrote a note back to her. The kids were so amazed and excited when they walked in. Kira hadn't really known or asked Santa for anything specific but she seemed happy with what she got. They got a large dollhouse to share then other smaller gifts. Kira got a Sleeping Beauty doll and Kaylee got Cinderella that they could use in their dollhouse. We took our time opening gifts then we ate breakfast.

We got all ready then went to Kyle's dad's house about 11:30. We had a nice turkey and ham dinner with all the fixin's. The kids were so patient as we cleaned up and got ready to do gifts. Kira loved opening everything but Kaylee was getting tired and almost seemed like an effort to get her to open anything. Needless to say, she didn't get her nap that day. After that, we headed straight to Kyle's mom's house. We had a nice big dinner there then did gifts there too. There was so much stuff! The girls are definitely spoiled. Poor little Kaylee was so exhausted but she was such a trooper and hung in there and was in such a good mood. We finally left about 8:45 p.m. and they both fell asleep in the car on the way home. When we got home, Kaylee woke up as I was trying to take her in and she started asking for her babies so I had to find them out of the back of the car so she could take them to bed. Didn't take long for both of them to knock out.

What a wonderful day! We love all our family and thank them all so much for all the nice things we received.

On a side note, as we were finishing up with gifts, Kaylee started taking her pj's off and wanted to take her diaper off. She does that alot when she's getting wet. But, I had recently changed her so I didn't think she was wet. She walked into the bathroom and I heard her lift the toilet lid. I didn't think much of it but then she came in with a big smile on her face. I went to check and she had peed on the floor but at least she had the idea of what she was supposed to do, just didn't make it on to the toilet. I was so excited and praised her. I hope this is the first step and she's getting ready to be rid of the diapers. That would be nice!

Elf dancers

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Our trip to Utah.

We had such a wonderful vacation to visit family and friends in Salt Lake City. We had a long day of travel on the 3rd of Dec. but arrived in one piece (and with many pieces of luggage). It was so good to see my parents after it had been nearly a year! The only trouble was the first night, Kaylee woke up about 11:15 and I went to check on her. She threw up. Poor kid! I took her out and cleaned her up and gave her some Tylenol. I took her upstairs to the other bed to lay down with me. I sure could tell when the Tylenol kicked in. She did NOT want to sleep. Kept popping up saying "Hi Moma! Sisssy sleeping, daddy sleeping" etc. Finally, she konked out at about 1:30 a.m. Luckily, she was totally fine the next morning. Unfortunately, we all got hit with a pretty good cold that lasted most of the week but it didn't seem to slow us down any.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese to play some games and had lunch on Thursday. Kyle even said he was like a kid again. On Friday, we got up and rode the train to SLC to Gateway to go to the Children's Museum there. It was so much fun! We spent a few hours there, went to get lunch, went back for awhile then went to Build A Bear. The kids each picked out their own bear. They have stuffed ones on the wall and Kaylee found the one she wanted. She didn't understand that they stuff it and wanted the model one on the wall, REALLY wanted that one. We finally got her over to the stuffing area and she finally understood and then had fun picking out an outfit for her bear. Kira wanted the Sleeping Beauty dress, of course. They were both so tired by then (Kaylee didn't have a nap that day). Kaylee just had to carry her box all the way to the train. She is so stubborn. On the train ride home, the girls were getting a little restless and playing in aisle. Suddenly, Kira called for us to look. She was mooning us! She's never done that before. Kyle, me and Grandma all busted up laughing. Of course, Kyle and I are trying to tell her that's not something she should be doing in public while trying not to laugh. My mom was crying she was laughing so hard. And Kira's best comment was she did it because "I thought it would make you laugh." Such a little ham - takes after dad for sure. What a fun day!

On Saturday, we helped Grandma and Grandpa decorate their tree then all the other family came over for dinner to help celebrate Grandpa's birthday. We had a fun time playing "musical ornaments" together and hanging out. The girls loved all their cousins, Andrea, Mitch and Kimberly. Andrea gave Kira and Kaylee a haircut (Kaylee's first ever) so that was cool.

On Sunday, the girls put together a gingerbread house. Kira ate most of the candy while Kaylee put every one of the tiniest balls on the house. She was having so much fun with that. The finished product wasn't the most beautiful but they had a great time. That evening, Mitch and Kimberly came over and we all went to Temple Square to see all the lights. It was beautiful. True to form, we took the stroller but Kaylee had to walk the whole way. The kids had a great time running around looking at everything. Afterwards, Grandpa got a carriage ride for us. It was fun! The girls got candy canes to eat. Kira kept saying "this is SO much fun!" Someone yelled Merry Christmas to us so after that, Kira would wave at everyone and yell Merry Christmas. Every time the horse would neigh, they would both giggle. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

We went to the Children's Museum in Ogden one day and the other days just did misc. things - go to the mall, hang out at home, take Grandpa to dinner on his b-day, I went to dinner with former work friends. The following are just a couple misc. photos. We had such a great trip and are so lucky to have a wonderful family and friends. We love them and miss them and can't wait to see them again!