January 2012--Back to Apartment Life!

I can't believe it's already 2012!!  We came home from Utah and right back to our ward and apartment life... Detached garage & no backyard--so we go on hikes or play games. It reminds me of my childhood in the blue house on the farm when we would build forts in the kitchen. 

The girls also had their piano recital with teacher Cathy Hanson whom they share with Madison and Kelsey. They all did so well and were so darling! I also got to celebrate my friend Valerie's birthday with a Girls Night Out Ice Skating at the Spectrum and dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! Sometimes it's fun to pretend we are young again;)

Christmas Break 2011-Winter Cabin at The Canyons!

We decided to go in with my brothers on a nice big mountain cabin at the Canyons after Christmas hoping to ski and play in the snow but unfortunately the weather didn't comply--it RAINED the entire time we were there!! The kids were so sad not to ski but we planned some other fun activities instead! I took the kids on snow hikes, we played lots of games, watched movies in the theater room, played pool and the girls even all got their nails done one day! It was a beautiful place regardless of the weather and so fun to spend time there with every sibling except Brycen and Lori--whom Carter missed the most of without any boy cousins left his age! 

Christmas Break 2011--Woodley parties and Temple Square!

We also partied with our Woodley family on Christmas Eve when we went to Kangaroo Zoo and then all met over at Ryan and Jenni's rental house.  The kids performed on their instruments and we played games and opened cousin gifts and ate yummy food.;).  It's so fun for the kids to get to see each other and spend time together and one of my favorite traditions has been buying them princess dresses or matching Jammie's from the Disney store.  There are so many cute little Woodley granddaughters and they are so cute together, it's hard to resist!  We always like to see the lights at Temple Square while we are in Utah over the holidays too! So this year we went with the Johnson and Hawkins families.  We also squeezed in time for breakfast with Mike Utley and his new wife Andrea so that the kids could see Bailie and Brayden!

Christmas Eve & Morning 2011-at The Johnson's

We had our usual Christmas Eve tradition of acting out the nativity with Grandma and Poppy Johnson at their house this year.  And Santa came Christmas morning and surprised us all!  Santa brought a piece of technology to every child this year--McKinley got her leapfrog reader, Carter got his first Huge Remote control car, Madi got a paper white Kindle, Kennidy got her much-hoped for i touch! Grandma and Poppy Johnson surprised Chris and I with a HUGE Painting of the Savior looking over Jerusalem by Greg Olson for our new house (to come)!!  We were thrilled and worried they spent too much money;). After opening gifts and a yummy breakfast we had a lovely Sunday at Grandma and Poppy's ward and we even snuck over to hear Ryan speak in their ward!  What a perfect Christmas;)

Christmas Break 2011-Utah escape!

Since we were living in an apartment for Christmas Break 2011, we decided to spend the WHOLE time in Utah partying with family! First stop was Grandma and Poppy Johnson's house for tubing at Soldier's Hollow and climbing at Provo River Resort and yummy dinners cooked with love by Grandma.;)

December 2011-Kennidy's Activities and Sing Noel!

Kennidy Marie has been a busy girl with Soccer games and Orchestra concerts!  She performed in Sing Noel with her sister Madison and brother Carter for the third year in a row! (Or second I'm not exactly sure ;) She made some homemade gifts for Christmas this year with her sewing skills and helped me dress the whole family in gold Christmas outfits.  (Which turned out to be the popular color with our Belnap family friends too!;). Sometimes it's fun for mom to sneak away with the ladies too! I had a blast at a Christmas Jammie's GNO at Brittany Larsen's house during the stress of Christmas Shopping and wrapping!

December 2011-Preschool & Apartment Life

Holidays with little ones are SO exciting!   McKinley is SUCH a doll at this age and definitely one of her Grandpa Woodley's favorites (see the last pic while he was here during first week in Dec.). She loved sitting on Santa's lap this year and I had so much fun watching her preschool performances with her best little friends--Maysen Sheldon, Lily Belnap, and Scotty Warnick. We also snuck out to Disneyland as much as possible to help the time living in an apartment (with 4 kids--see picture of Carter in my outside washer) go by all the more quickly!  The first picture of McKinley is on the kitchen table in our apartment OVER carpet which was SO yucky most of the time. Little did we know we would still be there for another year!!