Some Christmas Activities

Here are some of the things we did to celebrate Christmas this year.

We took the TRAX train downtown to see the lights at Temple Square.





Cute Isaac


My two crazy boys


Mary and Joseph in the nativity story


all bundled up


Daddy and the kids


The famous, beautiful red tree!


Our dolly


Sweet Eli smiling and wearing his "glubs" (gloves)


This year these statues were sitting in the reflection pool. It looked very cool.


What a pretty picture


a view of the luminaries


standing on the slippery pedestal in front of the temple!


standing by the grove of orange trees, they were so pretty.


We went indoors to thaw out and see the Christus statue.





Going back home on the train





Isaac made this candy train at school.

Random pictures and Santa!

Little Eli is so cute with toys. He gets attached to one or another and carries it everywhere!


extreme close-up!


Kate and her cousin, Serenity playing dress-up. Notice how much taller Kate is...:)


Little Eli fighting with all his might to get off of Santa's lap. After that night he kept saying,"Santa... scary."


Big Isaac is not scared anymore.


Miss Herriman had to move Kate's hands so they wouldn't be in front of her face. She was kinda nervous.


Joseph was not afraid to tell Santa his name.


Even uncle Jarom went to see Santa!


Eli was giving his doggie an upside down piggyback ride.


so sweet!

First Haircut!

At 22 months it was time to give little E his first haircut. I had put it off and put it off because he had these cute little curls on the back of his head and it took so long to grow any hair in the first place! Finally I realized it was time to cut it off.

Here he is totally unaware of what is about to happen...


See his lovely locks! I had at least one person who thought he was a girl...


Mommy, what are you doing with those scissors?


all done! It was not a perfect job, but somebody had to do it. It has grown out a little since then and now he has some curls that flip out just over his ears! It's so cute!

Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Bartletts this year.

Here is Grandma and Grandpa Bartlett


Eli just hanging out...


Monica, Ivan's girlfriend, and her beautiful arrangement of crackers.


and Ivan's...


The vegetable tray...


The turkey...


Colleen's stuffing...


our mashed potatoes...


and the most delicious sweet potatoes you will ever eat!


The cranberry apple pie that Ryan and Mary Joyce made...


their pecan pie too...


coconut cream...


and lemon meringue...


Nate and I were in the middle of our weight loss competition when Thanksgiving came around but we still had to eat some of these pies and the other yummy things at our Thanksgiving dinner! Thanks for a great day, Bartletts!

Joseph's Christmas Story

by Joseph

Rudolph was ready to
help Santa when a
Snowmonster ate Santa!!!
then Rudolph had to
fite the Snowmonster
but the Snowmonster
was to big. so Rudolph
called the uthr raendeers
and Elvs. then the
raendeers and Elvs
kiled the Snowmonster
when thae took
Santa out of
The Snowmonster
Santa was ded

The Grand America Hotel

Warning: this post will be long, I had so many pictures I wanted to share!

On the second weekend in November we took the kids to stay at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake.


This was our room, it had a kitchen with a full fridge and microwave, etc. and a washer and dryer too.


The kids soon found something to do.


What strong legs he must have to lift all those pounds!


Kate eating her mashed potatoes


Joseph eating his pizza and Isaac ready to eat his hamburger


We wanted to show off Eli with these goggles. He made us laugh so hard!


We took the kids to see the Utah State Capital


Nate found his look-a-like


a view of the ceiling


The capital was beautiful at night


Eli liked the elevators at the hotel


Kate did too


4 little monkeys, sitting on the bed!


The food was really good and we had room service for all our meals.
Nate's dessert


Kate's food


Nate's dinner-chicken fettichinni alfredo


Isaac's mac and cheese


Joseph's hamburger


We went to Taffy Town and bought a bunch of yummy taffy.


We hiked up to the U on the mountain


U of U


This is the view from way up there!


It was very steep climbing up the side of the U. The kids were scared and Kate keep freaking out and freezing in place. I was nervous too but knew we couldn't stop climbing or we would slide all the way down! This is our picture showing the kids crying because they were afraid we would never get back down.


We made it down the mountain without any falling, just some dirt on our pants from going down the steep hill sitting down.

After that we took the kids to Memory Grove.


This is Eli's pose. I love it!


Joseph and Dad arm wrestling at Memory Grove


Kate kept raising her arms above her head for the pictures and I couldn't figure out why. Then I noticed that she was making a heart above her head!


Cute Eli!


Our little princess


Later that day we took the kids to the Church History Museum just west of Temple Square. They had a new section especially for kids.
Here is Kate creating a stain glass window.


and the boys building temples...nice tongue Eli...


Kate sitting on the wooden pews that are examples of the ones in the Tabernacle


"And now Elder Eli W. Bartlett will speak to us..."


Isaac's turn...with Joseph's smile and Kate peaking up too


We walked around the courtyard at the hotel and found these deer.


I just love Kate's head in this one!!


Eli waiting to eat his breakfast. (the first night at the hotel Eli was really cranky and hardly slept at all. I took him into the Dr. the next day and He had a bad ear infection, ready to burst! We got him on some medicine and he was much happier! ) Poor little guy!


What a spread!


Mom's eggs, hashbrowns and chicken apple sausage


Dad's fresh salmon with capers and cream cheese eaten on top of a bagel


Isaac ordered strawberry crepes


We got these chocolate crepes too...shhh! don't tell...


Just look at those perfectly round pancakes!