My beautiful blessings!

My beautiful blessings!

Friday, December 27, 2013

Christmas day is finally here!

Christmas morning came way to early for us this year, haha Rome woke up at 5:30 am and wouldn't go back to sleep. He never gets up that early, he usually sleeps till at least 8. I'm thinking he could feel the magic of Christmas morning or maybe he heard Mr. Santa clause drop off gifts to our house ;) I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty excited myself and probably wouldn't of been able to go back to sleep even if he did. I loved watching him open all his gift. Honestly, I don't care about getting gifts for myself anymore. I feel like once you have kids all that really matters on Christmas morning is seeing the excitement on there face as they open there gifts. As expected the four wheeler was a big hit. He absolutely loves it, yay!!! And of course one of the toys we got the best reaction out of and he plays with the most is the little Einstein rocket toy we got from a yard sale lol. 




 


 
 


Thursday, December 26, 2013

Polar Express Christmas!

 
This year my mom started a new tradition of having all us kids from both our side and her hubbies side get together for an early Christmas the Friday and Saturday before Christmas. Keegan and I drove up friday afternoon and arrived in st george at my mom's around 5 pm, just a little before dinner. While we waited for dinner we rode the train that they made for the kids. Of course Rome was in heaven because he has been obsessed with trains ever since he saw Grandpa Stratton's train in his tree last year.



After playing on the train it was time for dinner which was one of my childhood favorites, senora chicken and it was delicious as always. After dinner the kids played a bit then all the kids opened up there christmas pj's from grams and gramps then we listened to one of my all time favorite books I grew up listening to every year, the polar express! The kids all sat and listened pretty well I was impressed. After that we drank hot chocolate and watched the polor express movie then went to bed.


Watching polar express
 
Saturday morning we all got up, ate breakfast then sat in a circle to get ready to start opening presents. Before we opened presents my mom got out the nativity puppets from when we were kids and let the kiddos help tell the story about the birth of Jesus Christ!
Helping tell the Nativity story with puppets
Rome got to be Joseph

My handsome man all ready to see Frozen
 
After the movie (which was so adorable by the way) we went back to my mom's and ate pizza then packed up and headed back home to vegas. Keegan and I both enjoyed this get together so much. It was so fun for me to see Rome enjoying some of the things I grew up doing during Christmas. Keegan had never done anything like that for Christmas before so he really enjoyed it too. Thanks mom and Jan for organizing all of that, we really enjoyed it. You guys did a great job!
 

Holiday fun/craziness!

We have had lots of stress and fun this holiday season filled with lots of great friends and family!! We carried on some old traditions and started some new fun one's and some we hope not to repeat.

This year for thanksgiving we headed up to Jess and Bo's. It's always stressful traveling for the holidays but they usually come to us so I'm sure it was nice for them to have everyone come to them for a change. We drove up the night before and spent the night at there house. We were in charge of bringing the turkey, gravy, stuffing and potatoes, and thank goodness we didn't forget anything. I know everyone was a bit nervous cuz, well I can be a wee bit scatter brained and tend to forget important things.  We stayed up late the first night eating junk and playing our favorite game, settlers of catan and of course I won a game hehe.

We woke up the next morning and the preparations began! Everything went smoothly except for a minor hiccup with the fruit jello.nSomebody accidentally put it in the oven to bake instead of the green bean casserol, we won't mention any names, ahem Bo lol. We talked and laughed and stuffed our faces till we were sick. After we ate we took the kids down the street to play at a park. It's so much fun watching the kids play together and develope friendships. I was always jealous of other kids growing up who had a bunch of cousins that they were close with. My siblings all agree we wanna try to keep our kids close so that they can be friends as they grow up!






The next day we were back home and it was on, all the Christmas fun/craziness was about to begin!! Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. Not because of the presents, I just love the music, the lights, the excitement, the magic and just the all around Christmas spirit. It seams like everyone is trying to be a little more kind, positive and joyful during the Christmas season. It's so nice and I wish we could be that way all year round.
 Santa baby

gingerbread house 
Rearranging the tree

It's the best having a kid at Christmas. It brings back the excitement and magic that I had as a kid. It was such a fun year with Rome. He is 2 1/2 now and is starting to know who Santa is and all the fun stuff. We stayed pretty busy this year, it was way fun and exhausting at the same time. It was nice to be so busy, it really kept my mind off of things but I am tired of running around. Some people enjoy being busy all the time and always have to be hanging out and have tons of friends. There's nothing wrong with that but that is totally not me. I am good with a few really good friends that I trust and staying home some days. Don't get me wrong, I need to get out a few times a week but I definiantly enjoy my easy going stay at home and craft and play with just Rome and I days.

One of our playdates with the Gullicksons! We went to the springs preserve. We saw santa there and rode the train! 

Lots and Lots of baking! I am so tired of sweets, Yuck! Just looking at this pic now makes me sick.

Out and about one night with our pals the Gullickson's. Rome is just like his mamma, he hates the cold and was a bit tired and cranky on this trip. 
Ward Christmas party. We were missing daddy that night, he had to work. Rome was glad to have one of his best buds Jackson there.  
Can't forget to fit in our daily workout. Took Rome on a run with me one day and we hit up the park afterwards! 
Went to Keegan's work Christmas party 
It's not Christmas unless you play in the snow, or eat it haha
Didn't want to leave daddy's side

Magical forest at opportunity villag
 
I didn't get a pic of  Grandpa and Grandma Stratton yet but they live 5 min away from us so we have crashed there party many times expecially this month. Rome loves going over and spending time with them and of course so do I. We will be so sad if they ever move away from us....

Whew, that was a super long post and I am soso tired and exhausted from going none stop by this point but there is still some fun to be had!! Next stop early polar express Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Lindell! It will be in the next post ;)

Friday, November 1, 2013

Halloween Fun 2013

I loved Halloween as a kid. One of my favorite memories of Halloween growing up is dressing up and going trick or treating with the neighborhood kids. Our neighbors the May's would get there trailor and put haybales on it and we would ride from house to house trick or treating. I love, love, loved it and I have found myself the past two years while taking my own kid out missing that and wishing we could do that with him. I don't think it would really work out so well in the big city lol. As I grew older and got in my teens I lost the excitment for Halloween and didn't really get back into it until I started my own family. The only time I think I dressed up and got into it before having kids was while my hubby and I were dating. We dressed up as barbarians for a singles ward activity and we ended up winning best costume and got 2 free movie tickets. oh ya!!

I'd have to say that this year has by far been my favorite Halloween ever, and I'm sure it's just gonna get better and better from here on out. It's so much more fun when you have a kid old enough to understand what's going on and to see him having a blast. Every year we decide to dress up as a family. It's pretty much our little family tradition we have started and I love it! Last year we were Betty, Barney and Bamm bamm from the flinstones. It was fun but the costumes were not warm enough so we were freezing our butts off.

This year we decided to be Gru, lucy and Rome was a minion from the Despicable Me 2 Movie! We got so many compliments on our costumes and Rome was sooo adorable.

The night before Halloween at the ward trunk or treat

Haloween night strolling with my lil dude

Cutest Minions around. Rome with his younger cousin Jandro. We had a few people ask us if they were twins hehe
 
Rome with his buddy Jackson

It was so fun watching them trick or treat


After we were done trick or treating we got to go to gma and gpa strattons house and have pizza and play. Rome adores them and was so excited to see them, he didn't want to leave!
 
 
Here's some pics from earlier in the week!

Carved pumpkins..... they died 2 days later boo

Went to the pumpkin patch again with our good friends the Gullicksons


Riding the train with Cody

hahaha I seriously laughed so hard looking at the pics from the blowup slide.


Sierra and Camden ran into us. Oh gosh we were laughing so hard.
 
I love this little girl she is such a sweetie! I get to snuggle her every week when we do our play dates at the park and storytime and get my baby fix in. Oh, I so hope my next one is as sweet as her. She is such a good baby and so adorable. We went to dinner after the pumpkin patch and I'm pretty sure I starred at her the whole time. Can you blame me???
 
This month treated me good! Iv'e been feeling better and have been more positive and have been keeping busy with lots of family, friends and fun activities! I love the holidays and can't wait for some fun family stuff coming up! Lately, more than ever I've been noticing all the good people we have around us. I'm so greatful for the friendships we have developed and the strong bonds we have with family members! Bring on all the holiday fun!!