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Hello from the top of the temple!

 

Christmas in January

This year since we went out of town we

Green Elephant Party 2014 Last post of 2014

It was the 20th anniversary of the Green Elephant Party tradition! Jen was the hostess this year and she had been planning on expanding the celebration to include all our favorite girls! It was so fun and I brought the most guests (but there was no prize). Unfortunately it was a very stressful story getting there and I never took any pictures of all of my guests together! Here are a few fun pictures though.

Jenny did an amazing job and I wish I had a picture of all the beautiful table settings before we ate!
They were stunning!

First Yadira got the green elephant for next year but in a shocking and unexpected twist...

Mandy's mom coerced her into stealing it! So Mandy is our 2015 hostess!

Twenty years later and we are still the best of friends!

During Christmas Break

During the break we had some sick kids but we still managed to have a good time.

It snowed! Wendy came from California and we actually saw her several times!
Here the kids are playing in our backyard.

She even took Ruby and Squish ice skating one night while I was working!

We saw Katie and her kids for the tiniest amount of time possible, like 30 minutes-not long enough!!

Lots and lots of Basketball. And sometimes in a horse head mask.
Sonic has been wanting one for forever and finally got it. I know. Why? But it is actually pretty funny.

Gracie turned 8! Here she is with her sidekick.

Nina with her buddy Kiki-especially when Kiki let's her watch Frozen videos!

Nina finally expressed interest in what Santa brought her-a slide!!

We went to Build a Bear to redeem gift cards from Christmas. That was a fun outing!

Look at Nina's colorful Panda!

We had a fun New Years Eve celebration with family. We ate at the Training Table and then went back to cousin's to hang out and wait for midnight.

And Wendy did my hair that day. She cut about 5 inches and have me "peekaboo" color streaks.

Christmas Eve and Day

Christmas Eve we spent at cousins as usual. We had a nice back to Bethlehem dinner. 

The kids performed a beautiful program. I love this picture of Squish and Gracie singing.

And for Christmas Day our tradition is that we are in charge. This year we had Shrimp Etoufee and it was delicious. Then we went to see Annie again then came back to open presents and have a hot cocoa bar. 

Christmas morning was full of excitement and cheer. Here is what Santa brought! Sadly Nina got sick and woke up throwing up in the middle of the night!

Here are the excited kids ready to see what Santa brought them:

Sonic got an Assassin's Creed Jacket. Yes, I know.

Squish got a basketball hoop!

Santa brought Ruby a real live hamster!
Nina finally woke up long after presents were opened and had no desire whatsoever to touch hers.

December Events

Christmas Season is in full swing!

We saw live Reindeer!

This was the day we saw Annie in a free movie premiere a week before it came out!
I love this wet picture of Nina!

Squish did Break dancing this year. Here he is at his end of the year recital!
It lasted all of about 10 minutes but he rocked it!

Christmas Train

This year we went to see the lights at Temple Square one day just as they turned on at 5 pm. It was awesome and it warranted a selfie with Ruby!

Nina's cute Christmas outfit

Our friends the Ruiz family

Nina in her best Christmas Dress (she had 3)

We bought these cute little mini homemade Gingerbread houses and decorated them.

This is our Santa picture this year. Santa at Chick-fil-A. Kind of sad but he really was a great Santa, his beard was real and he had a light that turned on at his fingertip when he touched the kids noses. Very cool!

Happy Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2014

These are the only pictures I could find from Thanksgiving weekend. And I give full credit to my sister's blog.

We had a delicious turkey dinner and lot's of guests from Wyoming. Then we rested for 5 minutes and went shopping for Black Friday, because that's what we do. Then we woke up early for more black shopping. And then we had pizza that night where we took a picture with the Statue of Liberty because that is as close to NYC as we were going to get. We had some unexpected expenses come up like our second car breaking down again, so we weren't able to make our annual trip to NYC this December. Big frowny face.

Why was Sonic all alone?