Our Holiday Season 2008....

We had a wonderful holiday season. I won't lie, I feel like I needed one more week once Christmas Eve morning began, but the end result turned out great, so oh well (I just didn't get everything done that I wanted to!). We hope that everyone enjoyed their Holiday Season as well.

{Christmas Eve}

To start off the day my dad drove me and the kids down to my Grandma and Grandpa Simmons' house to meet Carson, Jaime, and her family so that we could spend a little time with them for Christmas. They are always so wonderful to my family, my kids love spending time with them. The last couple of years my grandparents have giving Carson and I very special gifts (well more special to me). Last year they passed down a family recipe for "Arizona" hot dip and then this year they gave us two recipes from my Great Grandma "Mumum". On the recipe they gave had her birthday date and her death date on it. I didn't realize that when she died I was only 6 years old, that is Marcus' age. The crazy thing is I remember so much about her, I remember when she wasn't doing well we were here in Utah at my Grandparents house and I remember my dad Steve on the phone figuring out if we needed to hurry down to Arizona and see her before she passed. I remember her cool chair that moved up and down, and I remember loving to touch her wrinkly skin. It honestly blows my mind to think I was Marcus' age remembering all of those details about her. I can't believe the things that happen in Marcus' life now he could one day remember so vividly. Our next stop was Carson's grandparents. It is always so nice to sit and chat with them, they are some of the nicest people that you will ever meet.

Our next stop was my parents house. We had such a great time! There was my family, Jaime's family, my parents, Molly, Ryan, my Grandpa Rhodes, and my cousin Regi. My mom made a wonderful meal, once again the boys didn't have to much time to enjoy it because they were to busy playing! After we got done eating we exchanged presents with everyone. We got so many wonderful things. One very priceless moment during the night is Olivia giving Abbi her birthday present that for over a month she kept telling us that she wanted us to open it for her, so she was so excited to see Abbi open it and see what was in it, but when we exchanged gifts and Abbi was giving her one she gave her one she was so excited! After opening presents we had a little lesson/discussion on Jesus' birth. I love hearing kids talk about what they know. Us parents also gave the kids their Christmas Eve present, they were all so excited to get PJ's.

After we went home we started our Christmas Eve tradition. My sister Monica a couple of years ago gave us a cute plate and cup that is for Santa himself. Earlier on in the month we had gotten a 2 litter bottle of Coke and it had Santa on it, so that was spoken earlier that was going to be the famous drink of the night. The kids really enjoyed getting the plate all ready, Marcus was very particular with what was going to go on it! After that we all went outside and took turns throwing a little reindeer glitter out in the snow so that Rudolph could find our house. We then read a Christmas story and the kids were off to bed! Oh I did forget to mention our rule for waking up on Christmas morning was 7:00 am!!

{Christmas}

Christmas was such a wonderful "white" day! The kids sleep on the floor in our room on Christmas Eve so sometime in the night I kept hearing Marcus ask if it was time to get up yet and Carson's response was in one more minute. Finally Marcus came over to my side of the bed and asked me the same question, so I looked at the time and it was only 4:29 am! I told Marcus he needed to go back to bed, but I could tell with all of his moving around he never went back to sleep. He kept asking if it was time so finally at 6:58 we gave in woke up the two little ones and got ready to go out! When Marcus first woke up he let us know that he looked out the window and saw Rudolph. And believe me he was dead serious telling us! The first thing I did was looked outside to see if the weather guys were right with about the big snow storm coming in, man they were right! It was a crazy blizzard outside, what a White Christmas we got(I wish I would have taken pictures)!!

Alec and Olivia were still a little bit out of it!

The kids were so excited with their gifts that they got, it was such a wonderful Christmas with the kids. Probably the hit for the boys was a Wii and Olivia was here baby stuff, oh yea I can't forget how much Alec loved his Batman house that Marcus gave him. {Actually I am here writing this post on January 5 and tonight is when they finished getting all their other toys out of the boxes!} We spent the day eating lots of yummy food and playing the Wii! And we took a wonderful nap!!! When we woke up from our nap someone was nice enough to shovel our driveway, thank you, and by then the snowing had stopped. So Carson's parents drove up and saw what the kids got for Christmas and played a little Wii as well, then my parents came over to see what we got. Ryan enjoyed playing football with Carson and Marcus on the Wii and everyone enjoyed playing a little Mario Kart. I am telling you that thing can be addicting! By the time my parents left it had started to snow and snowed another 2 inches, it snowed a whole 13 inches during the whole day! I loved that it snowed so much and that we could have such a beautiful white christmas and be able to stay nice and cozy in our warm house. Now I probably wouldn't have thought that if we had to travel somewhere, but since we didn't we can just remember it as being a beautiful day!

Christmas of 2008 was a wonderful Christmas with a lot of memories. It was a very relaxing day that could be focused on our kids, it truly can't get any better then that!!

{Temple Square}

The Monday after Christmas Carson and I took the kids to Temple Square. We had so much fun, Marcus commented that he would like to go visit Temple Square everyday! We went to dinner and then rode the train to Temple Square. At first Olivia was very scared, but by the end of the night she couldn't stop talking about the Chu-Chu Train. We were able to show the kids the Tabernacle and go listen about the Manger scene. When Marcus heard President Hinckley's voice he said is he alive again? After that we went into the visitor center and went upstairs to the statue of Jesus. My kids couldn't get enough at looking at him, it is one of those moments that you want to hold on to forever. After that we just walked around and looked at all of the huge paintings while Carson told about each one of them. When we got to the picture with Jesus on the cross you could see the concern in the boys' eyes and in a sense you could tell that their little hearts ached for Jesus and what he went through. After the visitor center we continued to walk around the Temple. Carson and I were also able to show the kids where Carson purposed to me at. Who would have guessed that 7 1/2 years after he asked me to marry him that we would have three kids?!
Honestly that was one of the best days, walking around the Temple, a place that 7 years ago our little Forever Family started. I truly hope the boys hold those feelings and memories forever!

The Train Ride to Temple Square....

The train ride back to the car, Olivia doesn't look quite as scared!

This is were Carson purposed on May 31, 2002

{Visiting With Friends}

One day the kids and I got to go visit some of our friends. When Carson and I first got married we lived by them and had little boys around the same time. We now have three kids and still enjoy visitng and getting caught up! Thanks Jenny and boys for a fun afternoon, I am still sad that there are no pictures! Next time....

{New Years Eve}

New Years Eve was a little bit different this year. I had to work for part of the night, but Carson and the kids had a good time having a party at my parents house with the rest of my family. My dad earlier on in the week had made a couple of slides out of the snow so the kids really enjoyed playing on that and then they enjoyed eating food and playing games. My kids were very excited to bring in the New Year watching the ball drop (little did they know it was truly only 10, 12 est!).

Alec and Austin had fun outside for awhile, but then they decided it would be fun to get warm with Molly!

{New Year's Day}

Carson and Jayson took the boys sleding in the morning, they had a great time. Alec was the only one that came back with a few cuts from crashing! That day we had fun just hanging out at home. The night before I had one a few contests at work, so I brought home some King Crab legs. We brought in the New Year with a nice little feast! The boys love crab, they love checking out the crab legs after!

So now here we are with five days into the new year, the year 2009. I honestly can not believe that 2008 is already over. It is nice to look back and see all the exciting things that changed in our kids' lives, but to be honest it is a year that I am glad is over. I look forward to 2009, I look forward to watching my kids grow and learn new things (I just wish they could stay this age forever!). I look forward to watching Carson and I getting one year older and wiser too! I look forward to spending this next year with Carson after a year of growth that our marriage had to see what this year can bring! I personally look forward to showing more faith and being able to learn more about myself, so that I can become a better mom, wife, and person. I hope for more organization in my life and okay of course you can't leave out to loose weight. I guess it just isn't loose weight, but become more healthy!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that everyone is enjoying bringing on a New Year!