Once there was a Snowman

So what do you do on a Saturday with freshly fallen snow???
You get all bundled up, get the sleds out....

and you build a snowman of course!

Here he is. Frosty. With a corncob pipe and a carrot nose.

He came!

I'm pretty lucky to even have pictures to post with this blog entry. I accidentally erased all of my pics off of my camera. I was so sad! Luckily, our good friend was able to get them off of my sim card. Whew!

Our Christmas started bright and early this year. Not that we are not up pretty early every year, it's just this year Morgan had to work all day Christmas. Booo! Morgan goes in to work at 4:15 am until 4:30 pm. So he was gone all day! We decided to get the kids up at 4 to open gifts. 4 sounds early, but before a guy at Morgans work let him know he could come in at 6, we were actually going to get up at 3!

The kids didn't mind getting up early at all. I mean Santa had come!

Bailey got a guitar from Santa. And boy did she run to see it.

Logan always has such dramatic facial expressions in all of his pictures. This one captured exactly how excited he was to get...........

Nope, not this bike, but he saw his new bedding. (We got everyone in the family new bedding) The boys got Utah bedding! Logan ran past his new bike just to get to his Ute bedding. True Ute fan. Wonder where he gets that from?

Santa brought Carson a remote control Lightening McQueen.

Avery got a princess scooter.

This box of princess barbies was seriously taller then she was.

Avery took her time opening her gifts so her pile got pretty backed up. The other kids were finished opening all of their gifts, so they went over and helped Avery with hers.

I wanted to get Morgan a Kindle Fire for Christmas but I didn't want him to know about it before Christmas. So I called my sister in law and had her order it under her Amazon account. When Morgan opened his gift I'm not sure if his facial expression was the, I'm going to kill you look, or THANKS!! He was so surprised!

I'm going to say it was the THANKS look.

He he. Another Logan face. He opened his Utah hoodie.

One of the things Bay wanted for Christmas was

Just Dance 3! I have to say that Bay was the hardest to shop for this year. She isn't really

into anything like in years past. Like littlest pet shop or High School Musical, so I had to get creative. She got a lava lamp, a digital diary and a curling iron, crimper and straightener. Man we are moving into the teenage years quickly!

After opening gifts dad was off to work. It was really sad for everyone. It was so weird not having Morgan home to put together toys or eat Christmas breakfast with us. I did make him and his guy friends at work homemade biscuits and gravy. And boy was it delish! I think we may have found a new Christmas breakfast.
After breakfast the kids and I got ready for church. Let's just say it was a long day! Thankfully, church was only an hour, so we were able to squeeze in a nap before grandma came over for Christmas dinner. I made a ham, mashed potatoes, and the fixens. And best of all Morgan was able to be home for dinner. Thank goodness he doesn't have to work any major holidays in 2112!

Christmas Eve

It has been a tradition in our family to spend Christmas Eve with Morgan's mom and siblings. This Christmas eve was a bit different. Since Morgan had to work all day on Christmas (boooooo) Jill decided to have the kids open all their gifts from her and Kristy on Christmas Eve. That way Morgan wouldn't miss out on watching the kids open their gifts. Especially because Bailey got the gift she has been dreaming of from grandma this year. An American girl doll!!
Bailey has wanted one of these dolls for three Christmases. Now she finally got one, and there was no way Morgan could miss out on watching Bay open her dream gift. And here she is. Kanani.

Every time I asked Bay what she wanted from Santa it was an American girl doll. I knew grandma had already purchased Kanani back in October, and so I had to convince Bay that she needed to have a back up just in case Santa didn't bring her one. So her back up was a guitar.

Aunt Kristy and uncle Ty Ty got the kids some fun things too. Avery got some fun princess dress up stuff and a Cinderella jewelry box from Disneyland . Bay got an American girl doll bag and some doll earrings. Carson got a remote control Mater and a Cars water bottle that he just loves. And Logan got a finger trick bike and ramp.

Hurry Kristy I just love it!

When we got home we made our sugar cookies for Santa and poured him a glass of Coke. Santas favorite.

Every Christmas Eve the kids all sleep together upstairs. Here they are all zonked out, each wearing a pair of grandmas tratitional handmade pj's

Christmas music

Carson had his preschool Christmas program. Although he didn't sing very much, he sure knew when to use his props. Here he singing a song about Santa. First one on the left.

When we got inside Carson wanted to "hold" Avery. I love these far in between moments of love :)

After the program the kids got to hit a Christmas pinata. Carson hit that thing as hard as he could.

Logan also had a Christmas program this year. Here he is holding the black hole he got to hold up during one of the musical numbers.

All the first graders.

Here is my studly first grader. I still can't believe how fast everything is going by.

Aunt Sue's

Every year around Christmas we get together with Morgan's side of the family. Aunt Sue throws a Christmas party. We eat, play Christmas bingo, get a laugh out of playing pass the Christmas gift game, and even get a visit from a special guest who brings gifts with him.

The girls. They even match :)

Pa and Aspen

Logan had two wiggly front teeth for weeks. As soon as Santa left, out came a tooth!

I always love to get together with family. Especially around Christmas.

Here is a picture of a couple who have been married for 11 WONDERFUL years!!

Yup, it's true. 11 years ago on December 20, 2000 Morgan and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. We were just babies I tell ya!! We looked so young! Maybe it's because Morgan had just turned nineteen four months before we were married. I had just turned twenty.

To celebrate our anniversary we decided to go spend the night at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake.

What's nice about celebrating your anniversary right before Christmas, is that everything is decorated beautifully!

Here is a picture of the courtyard taken from the balcony of our room.

Here is a close up of the fountain. Very festive eh?

Now that you have seen some of the outside of the hotel, here are some snap shots of the inside.

I have to say that the lighting was terrible to get pics.

Lobby

Here is the view from our bed. We had two rooms. A bedroom and a living room area.

Our bathroom. My word there was so much marble!! It was beautiful!

For dinner we walked over to the Little America. On our way into the hotel I couldn't help but take the time for this photo op.

It was so nice to be able to spend time alone together, you know with out the kiddos. To talk about old times and to truly realize how lucky we are to have found each other. It's funny how even though we were trying to have alone time, we talked about the kids a lot. We can't imagine our life with out our babies.

11 years ago I married the man who has taught me how to listen, to trust, and how to be me. A lot has changed since our first kiss, but the one thing remains true, each time I hold him, my heart skips a beat. I love you Morgan Griggs!