Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year.  It was super busy, as always, but we had a ton of fun.  There were several Christmas parties and get togethers plus some fun family traditions.  Our Christmas card picture was fun this year, it wasn't perfect which was a perfect representation of our family.  We have fun, but it's not perfect.

Zac decided to take the year off from going "all out" for Christmas lights.  And then he got some fun ideas and decided to go bigger and better than ever.

When Julie and Whitney and their families came to town, we headed over to Jake's house for a get together.  Eloise loved the wonder blocks and was so excited to have aunt Julie and uncle Brian make a tower around her!

At the Durtschi Christmas party the kids loved being with their cousins and opening super fun presents from grandma and grandpa Durtschi!  

We made chocolates and caramels to deliver to neighbors.  It is always a highlight to do that together.

We headed up to Felt for the Daniels' family Christmas party as well.  We all had a great time eating yummy food, opening presents, and spending time together!

The kids love picking out gifts for all of their grandparents.  They are so thoughtful and always try to pick out the perfect item.  Watching them open the presents is always really exciting.  Eloise was especially excited about everyone she bought for, she "just knew that they would love it."

We went and did a mini concert at Life Care Center with the Durtschi cousins which was super fun.  It is always great to have a chance to serve and spread Christmas cheer.

Meeting Santa was so fun the kids all had very specific requests.  Teagan wanted a green remote control monster truck, Eloise hoped for roller blades, and Addy hoped for stick on earrings.  Everly was fine with just getting snuggled this year.

I went all out this year and made matching jammies for the whole family, for some reason the picture got cut off which makes me sad.  The girls' dolls and Teagan's Ensiri guy got matching outfits too.  It was really fun to all wear them on Christmas Eve.

The kids were up before 6am ready to see what santa brought.   So exciting!

Christmas morning lasted for a few hours and was just wonderful.  We just relaxed all afternoon and enjoyed our new gifts and spending time together.

Gingerbread Houses

In an effort to simplify some of our traditions this year we got the gingerbread house kits instead of doing our usual graham cracker ones.  It was much easier and we still had just as much fun.  Hooray for new traditions.

Pants Problems

Teagan has been struggling in the pants department lately and it has been the source of a lot of laughter for Zac and I.  A few weeks ago it took 4 tries to get pants that would work:

1. Teagan comes up with pants that have gaping holes in the knees, we asked him to go and change into nicer pants.

2. Teagan comes up in what looks like girl's bell bottoms.  They were super tight, except at the ankles.  We didn't understand why they looked so funny, until I figured out they were pants that were meant for Eloise to grow into and they must have found their way to his drawer.  After laughing hysterically we sent him down to change again.

3. Teagan appears in pants that are clearly several sizes too small, they must have missed the last time I went through his clothes and took out what he'd outgrown.  they were several inches above the ground and super tight skinny jeans.  

At this point I went downstairs and helped him pick out pants that would work, there were several options, he just kept grabbing ones that didn't.  We all laughed pretty hard at the mix ups.

Fast forward a couple weeks, we went to stay at Jeff and Julie's house and there was a pair of pants on the dresser for us.  I didn't look very close and thought they must have been Teagan's that we had left another time.  They were actually hand-me-downs from Kate for Eloise.  When we got home I put them away in Teagan's drawer and found him like this a few mornings later.  He was not super thrilled to be experiencing pants problems again, but Zac and I thought it was hilarious again, awesome parenting at its finest.

New Years Goals

With Jamaica only two months away we have started a rigorous workout regimen to prepare.  I love to paddle board and kayak and when I did those things over the summer, I was so exhausted and sore for so long, I don't want that to happen again.  Time to build some muscles!  Eloise and Adeline love to workout with me to my workout videos.  They also love to give helpful tips, especially when I'm "not doing the same thing as the person on the TV."  "Mom, you are supposed to jump higher," "Mom, you're supposed to touch your toes."  "Mom, you're supposed to do more pushups and not lay down."  Kids are so helpful.  They are also really funny.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert

We were lucky enough to get tickets to The Choir's Christmas Concert again this year!  Julie and Jeff also had tickets so we went and stayed with them and rode the train to downtown.  It was pretty crowded and we all had to stand and the kids had a blast pretending to "fall over" whenever the train made a crazy turn.  My mom got 4 tickets and took her friend Bob and Whitney and Joe, and my dad got tickets and took Beth, Rachel and John.  None of us were sitting together, but we all waved and saw each other in passing which was fun.  

The actual concert was so amazing, I loved it so much.  Zac and Teagan liked it, but decided that next year I can just go by myself with my sisters or something.  It was a little too long for them.

Thanksgiving in Bear Lake

We went to Bear Lake for Thanksgiving with Zac's family again this year and had a great time.  The weather was fabulous and so was the company.  The kids (especially Teagan) spent a lot of the weekend jumping off the balcony into bean bags and piles of blankets and pillows.  

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner that we ate off of for the next couple days.

We also took a few walks down the hill, enjoying the awesome weather.  The view was so beautiful, Bear Lake is gorgeous in the winter!

Taylin was such a sweet cousin and she loved taking care of baby Everly.

Everly's Blessing

This sweet baby girl was blessed by Zac and it was such a memorable day.  The chapel was full to the brim between her blessing and the primary program.  She wore the same dress that Eloise and Aunt Julie wore when they were blessed.  She was given so many amazing promises in her blessing, she has a fabulous life ahead of her.  We are so lucky and happy to have her in our family.

Everyone wanted to help put her dress on her and get her all dolled up for the photoshoot.  I think it's safe to say she didn't love the photoshoot, but she was still a pretty good sport.  We got a little out of hand taking pictures before church, which was good because I don't think I took a single picture at the luncheon.  We had all of the Daniels extended family there and a few of the Durtschi/Packer crew there.  We were so grateful that we had a lot of support.