Skype with Carlie in Japan!

Our cousin Carlie is serving a mission in Japan and couldn't be with us this Christmas. Our kids love Carlie and miss her a lot. They were excited to be able to see Carlie and talk to her on Christmas eve. We each got to take a turn and spend a few minutes talking with her. We love her so much and are so proud of her. She is such a great example to us and our kids. We pray for her safety and success every day!!!

Christmas Dresses 2012

Our girls looked so cute in their new red Christmas dresses and Carter looked so handsome with his new red Utes tie. I snapped this picture with my phone as we were heading out the door to church. We just love them so much!!!

Carter's field trip to the Ice Sheet

Today was Carter's field trip to the Ice Sheet here in Ogden. The whole 5th grade got to go and Carter was pretty excited. Christy and I had the day off, so we decided to go up there and see him and his friends for a minute. It was a good thing we went, because there were a lot of kids that needed help lacing their skates up tight. I even put on some skates and took Calee around the rink a few times. It was fun.

 Carter and Taylor

 Carter and Jaxon

 Carter and Mark



Calee's pre-school field trip to Christmas Village

Calee was really excited for today. Her pre-school class took a field trip to Ogden's Christmas village to see all the little houses and to meet Mrs. Claus. It was a cold morning, but Calee was all bundled up in her snow gear. Mrs Claus took us on a tour and showed us all the little houses in the village. At the end, we got to go into Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus' house and visit with Mrs. Claus by the fire. Each child got to sit with her and tell her what they wanted for Christmas. They also each got a little goodie bag full of candy from Mrs. Claus. At the very end we all got to eat donuts and hot chocolate. It was a very fun morning.

SCHEELS!!!

Saturday we took a trip down to the new Scheels sporting goods store in Sandy. We have heard about how awesome it is and we finally got to go. Darrin, Holly, and Peyton drove down and met us there and so did Dirk, Misty and their kids. I was amazed at how big of a store it really is. They have just about anything and everything sporting goods that you could ever want. We loved the Utah Utes section and I also loved how they have anything made by under armour that you could ever want. Our kids played in the kids playland while we did some shopping. We bought Carter some really awesome Jordan basketball shoes and some under armour Utah Ute shorts for Christmas. We went upstairs and spent quite a bit of time in the golf department and the gun department. Christy surprised me and let me pick out the handgun I want and buy it for Christmas. I can't wait to go back to Scheels. It is an amazing store. We practically spent all day there and we probably could have spent even more time there. It was lots of fun.

The lights at City Creek and Temple Square

After we were done at Scheels we drove to City Creek center in downtown Salt Lake and spent the evening shopping and eating dinner. We were excited to go shopping in our favorite store (the Disney Store) and then hit a bunch of our other favorites along the way. After dinner, we went back to the car and bundled up in all of our warm snow gear and then walked over to Temple Square. I am always amazed at how many lights there are at Temple Square and at how beautiful everything is. We loved all the different nativity scenes. We loved all the luminaries and even found on in Romanian that said "Pace" which means Peace. Our kids loved the reflection pool and they loved walking around the base of the Salt Lake Temple. We finished the night by standing over by the visitors center and watching the story of Christ's birth. It was so awesome and we could feel the spirit so strong. It was just what we needed to truly put us in the Christmas spirit and remind us what Christmas is all about. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and I am so grateful that I was able to marry Christy in the Salt Lake temple. Salt Lake temple square will always be a really special place to us and I am so glad that we could visit during Chrismas.