Christmas Time 2013

Christmas!  We love Christmas!  The kids really enjoyed the holiday and it went off without a hitch.  Here are just a few pictures of the past week or so.  I took none of them opening gifts, which is just fine cause we thoroughly could just enjoy it.

A Christmas Costume Party - I was the leg lamp from A Christmas Story and Fogg was the Gingerbread Man.

 The kids were just cute sitting on the floor in front of the fire watching a show before bed.

 Sunday before Christmas we went grocery shopping and Fogg got the kids some balloons but Nora refused to nap.  Not much longer, she fell asleep in front of the TV holding her balloon, London snuggled up.

 She rolled over, London left, but the little balloon is still there!

 Christmas Day skiing!  Good job Nora!

 A run with the hubby.

 Our Annual Group Picture.  See others here and here

L - Heilig Family (Jared, Sarah, Ava, Ethan and new baby in March)

M - Our little family (my kids insisted on standing on their own by stuff Santa)

R - Gompert Family (Pete, Amy, Jane and Ben)

 The annual gingerbread house made by James and Reed.  See another here

 Nora and Reed got the complete Gabba set and Nora got a Gabba t-shirt.  Here she is with her friends and t-shirt watching.

 Lala got them new slippers, they love them.  Cute kids!

Thanks for all the gifts from everyone, it was a well sized this year!  We love everything.

Cheers~
Meg

Skiing with Santa

We went up for our annual skiing with Santa Tim last weekend.  Now, to give some background before pictures. Since Reed's first Christmas, we've gone up to Snowbasin to see our friend, Tim, who dresses as a fantastic Santa and skis.  Reed has been treasuring this tradition as have I.  Now, this year, Reed is obsessed with Christmas and Santa and all things related.  He even named his Pez Santa "Santa Tim".  He couldn't wait to see him this year.  Luckily, because Tim is a friend and generally awesome dude, he took a whole run and chairlift ride with Reed.  Reed was in little boy Santa heaven!  Nora on the other hand is great with Santa afar, but pretty not excited about being within 10 feet.  She likes the idea, not so much the actual Santa - just like most 2 year old's as I've discovered.  She wasn't a fan last year either really.  He'll win her over soon though! 

So Santa Tim has candy cane striped skis (Reed commented on how he liked that) bells and gives a nice hearty Ho Ho Ho.  We love that this Santa is a skier too!  We saw him at the top of Little Cat run and Nora was a tad upset that he skied by at first and wanted to catch up.  When we did, she screamed and cried that he was too close.

 Reed was so excited!

Then Santa Tim skied with Reed down the race course.  Reed is working on his "french fry turns" which he is doing a great job at!

And for reference, here are the pictures from the past years.

2009 - Reed was 7 months old

2010 - Reed was a year and a half old - not so sure of Santa

2011 - Reed was 2 1/2, liking Santa much more, but shy when he saw him.

 2011 - both kids

 2011 - Nora was 2 months old

2012 - Reed was 3 1/2 - totally excited!

 2012 - both kids

 2012 - Nora was 1, not thrilled at all

Thanks Santa Tim!

Reed's Christmas Program

Last night, Reed did his annual Christmas program for his class.  We had Lala and Nana and Papa there to watch.  Reed's class was clearly the most "non-enthusiastic" about the singing, but I saw him actually mouthing (maybe even actually singing) to the songs.  Still adorable!

Despite Nora's look, she was really excited to watch Reed and she called for him and waved at him each time he sang.

 They sang a hippo song and some other song I haven't heard before.

That's the best I got.  I was very proud of myself that I wasn't like some lady I saw, guessing a grandma.  She used the "hang loose" sign with the kid instead of waving which was interesting.  But the whole time she kept making a gesture for the kid to smile and she was enthusiastically mouthing the words to every song.  Anyway, I just smiled and waved and took a few pictures.  My cute boy.

Thanksgiving 2013 - and some other stuff

We had the pleasure of having Fogg's brother, Dale, his wife Georgette and their daughter (our niece) Gabby come for Thanksgiving this year.  They bought tickets like 10 months ago, they were so cheap!  We had a great time hanging out, taking them around town and skiing.  The kids had such a blast playing with each other, all of them were in a depression after they left.  Here are a few pictures of their time here.

 Reed and Gabby showing off their Sock Monkey's that Great Gram Fogg made for them

 A trip to Smith and Edwards.  We were there for H.O.U.R.S.  and it was fun!

 Uncle Dale and Reed found some funny hats.

 So did Nora.

 One morning, Nora snuggling up with Uncle Dale, so precious.

 Our Thanksgiving "feast"

 On Thanksgiving morning, we went skiing for the first time this year.  Lala got Reed up for his frist run on his new skis!

 Nora skiing for real for the first time.  She did great for a 2 year old!  She shuffled forward then looked up and screamed "I ski!"  Adorable.

 Nora's first lift ride with mom and dad!

 A true proud moment for Fogg and I - all four of us skiing at the same time.

 The whole fam damily.

 The kids dressed up for Thanksgiving, not sure about Reed's hand gesture.

That's about it for Thanksgiving.  We had a great time just hanging out at home, running some errands, doing some activities.  

Before Thanksgiving, Mom and I went to a Michael Buble concert.  It was simply amazing.

 We were soooo close to him.  I even touched his hand.  Dreamy.

At the end they dropped heart shaped confetti to "All You Need is Love".  Awesome.

Even before that, we had a nice weekend getaway with our friends James and Michelle.  Just one night up in PC and some nice dinners out.  It was a great getaway.

 At Grappa.

 James was peaking through this display of ribs.

And then I have some random other shots for you:

 Nora put on every single piece of jewelry at the same time.  Cuteness.

 We love good friends that love our kids.  This is Katelyn, she is a babysitter and great friend to our kids.

 We went to the Christmas Light parade in Ogden last Saturday.  Nora was enamored with the parade and lights, this is what her face looked like the entire time.

 We also got to watch some fireworks.

Reed the sweety.  He grabbed Lucy's hand while we were walking back to the car, so sensitive.  She loved holding his hand.

And last but not least, my adorable girl throwing a fit - as usual.  She pretty much cries about everything nowadays but it's still cute.  

Well, that's what I've got for today, sorry for the super late update on pretty much the past two weeks, it's been crazy!  Bring on Christmas, the whole house is excited for it - especially Reed. He turns on the tree lights every day and asks every single morning if it's Christmas yet.  

Ho Ho Ho!

My kids, they are my favorite

Nothing super special to share today.  Just a few pictures from Instagram.

They are buddies, riding buddies.

 This smart boy clipped his sister into her carseat.  I didn't ask or anything, he just did it. 

 Got a sweet Spiderman costume on sale after halloween.  Why wait to play with it, he loves being Spidy.

 Melted my heart to see this project on the door to Reed's classroom.  Other kids wrote "I'm thankful for Volcano's" or "I'm thankful for lego's". My kid picked me.  Oh man, it makes all that I do worth it.  Every. Single. Thing.

So the big news this week is that Nora got her first haircut.  It was only the bangs and barely even that, but still, it was a big day.  For me anyway.  Here is before.

 And during.  Not super excited about it, but she did good.  My baby is growing up!

That's all for now.  Nighty night.