Six Christmases!

Christmas #1 -- Home: We woke the kids at 7 and furiously opened presents so we could be out the door by 8:15. Izzypop got the bulk of the gifts this year. Her favorite is the 3 story Barbie mansion. Even B got into the Christmas spirit.

Christmas #2 -- Grandma Sherrie's: A fun-filled morning full of Fancy Nancy, bongo music and lots of hugs.




Christmas #3 -- Grandma and Grandpa Orr's: Barbie clothes, a sewing machine and mmmmm.....Converse. Layne also opened the Nightmare Before Christmas quilt that my mom and I made. We were pretty proud :)

Christmas #4 -- Grandma June's: Had a great time seeing all the Bennion family. So much fun, we didn't get any pictures. As we were leaving, though, we saw a little girl with a scooter which Izzypop eyed longingly. (She had asked Santa for one, but for some reason, he did not leave one at our house. :) )

"That was a pretty cool scooter, huh?" I asked her. "Do you still think you're going to get one?"

"Yep," she replied confidently, "I just have to keep going to grandparent's houses."

She knows how it works. Ahh, to have the faith of a child again. So...we went on to the next grandparent's house.

Christmas #5 -- Grandma and Grandpa Bennion's: THE SCOOTER!!! (And a much needed nap for both of the little ones.)

Christmas #6 -- Grandma and Grandpa Yo-Yo's: Again, no pictures. We were too busy stuffing ourselves with delicious Christmas Eve leftovers.

End Result: Having zero time at home and 6 Christmases ends up looking like this:

I hope I can recover in the next week before I have to go back to work.

Thank you so much to everyone for a wonderful Christmas. We love you all so much!

Skating Party

Every year, my extended family on my mom's side gets together at Classic Skating for a ginormous Christmas party. This year was no exception. There was skating, bouncy houses, lazer tag, a mountain of food and most importantly....SANTA.

Izzypop had been practicing for weeks on what she was going to ask Santa for: a scooter, Baby All Gone, and a new magic wand. Once she was up there on the spot with a mic in her face, though, she got a little frazzled. All she was able to get out was "Baby All Gone".... Football? What's a football?

Skeeto was a trooper and didn't scream. He also gave a good yank on Santa's mustache....just to be sure.


We also got to spend some quality time with family members we don't get to see very often -- some we hadn't seen in a couple years. It was great!

Temple Square

Tonight we made the pilgrimage down to Temple Square to see the lights and Grandma came with us! We were all bundled up and ready to go. The excitement was palpable. We had smiles on our faces and were ready to see the lights...Ten seconds later one of us was asleep.

Oh well, on with the show! We first took Izzypop's first Trax ride ever. I think her favorite part was looking at herself in the windows.

Then there were the lights, the fountains, the temple and nativities.










We had a great night remembering Christ's birth and thank Grandma for joining us and providing Izzypop's favorite part of the night -- cookies!!!




Skeeto missed pretty much the whole thing, but at least he had some awesome hat hair to show for it.

Say CHEESE!

We think that Skeeto might have a future in male modeling. I just hope he is an ambiturner.

It's a Major Award!!!

Izzypop put the finishing touch on the tree the other night.















And then *it* arrived. Hmmm....must be Italian.















You should see it from the street!

Now all I want for Christmas is a Red Rider BB Gun with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.

Christmas is Coming...

The Christmas season is upon us and some of us are feeling the spirit more than others:

We're still working on getting the decorations up. I think the tree will be picked up tomorrow. I have, at least, finished Skeeto's stocking.

And now the family of stockings is complete:

Little Miss Muffett...

Izzypop was old enough this year to decide for herself what she and her brother should be for Halloween. I loved her idea. So after weekends of sewing, scheming and plotting (special thanks to Grandma and "Lorraine's") and without further ado, I give you "Little Miss Muffett" and "the spider":




Happy Halloween!!!

Skeeto Is 7 Months...

...and we have a new set of pictures! Thanks Steph!

And my personal favorite (today)...

Jack-O-Lanterns

Halloween just isn't Halloween until you've carved a rediculous face into a pumpkin with your fam. Izzypop picked out a Daddy pumpkin, a Mommy pumpkin, an Izzy pumpkin and an itty bitty baby pumpkin for the festivities. Skeeto did the initial inspection.


And his sister helped with the guts scooping. She's such a girl!

I think Izzy's and my own have striking resemblances to thier carvers.

And the fruits -- or vegetables -- of our labor:

Happy Pre-Halloween everyone!

Mappios!

In case you don't know, this is a mappio [mop-ee-oh]:

Izzypop has been calling buffaloes "mappios" since the trip to Yellowstone we took when she was 2. We just returned from our annual trip to Yellowstone last week and saw plenty of mappios. We also saw some beautiful scenery and other wildlife.



We also got to see Old Faithful.


Mostly, we spent time with the fam in the park.

But we did get a little relaxing in. I love Yellowstone.