It's the most wonderful time of the year!

 

Enjoying the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday!  I must admit, the business of the season with baking, caroling, present preparations, etc. about wore me out. (I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that baby #5 is due in July!)  But, we made it!  A few days before Christmas, we traveled to Colorado and Utah to be with family.  First, we stayed at my sister Sheri's home outside of Denver for two nights.  The timing of our visit was great because we arrived just before her children all came home for the holiday.  All but one of her 8 children were there!  (One is serving a mission in Brazil).  One of them, Cami, I hadn't seen in 5 years!  She has served a mission, gotten married and had a child since I saw her last!  We were able to see my other sister, Terilynn, her husband,  and her children- Ryan, Elisha, Trisha and Christina- the next day.  So great to be able to catch up with everyone!  I did not do a good job of taking pictures of our time in Colorado- we were just soaking up being with everyone!
Sunday morning, we attended Sacrament meeting with Sheri and her family.  It was the day of their Christmas program and, being a musical family, they shared their musical talents in a few numbers.  It was incredible!   My niece, Debi played 'O, Come Emmanuel' on the harp accompanied by her brother, Derek, on the cello.  It was incredible!  I thoroughly enjoyed being there. 
We left after sacrament meeting to make the drive to my mom's in Salt Lake City.    The kids actually did quite well traveling this trip.  I read a loud The Forgotten Carols by Michael McClean, listening to each of the songs along with the story.  It was very nice.  It is a favorite of Kenneth's and I loved reading it again.  I was still touched and got emotional which the girls always think is funny/ interesting.  Emma told us afterwards that she felt the spirit during the  'Let Him In' song.  Pretty special. 
We also started to listen to The Little Princess by Frances Hodgeson Burnett. One of my most favorite books from my childhood.  The girls didn't want to stop listening!  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it again after all these years. 
We had a great time being with my mom!  She lives right in the heart of Salt Lake City, so we walk out of her apartment building and are on Temple Square.  We made several trips over there and to the conference center, Joseph Smith building and Deseret Book.  So much fun!

Grant with his reindeer pancakes

Cute!

During a tour of the conference center.  It was interesting with these kiddos. Notice Grant crawling on the ground behind the roped off area.  Nice.  That is the original of that painting.  Isn't it amazing! 

The girls in the Conference Center

Walking back to my mom's apartment. . .or shall I say running?  I love her face in this one!

Monday evening, Emma, Arianna and I went to see the Nutcracker ballet performed by a community ballet.  It was very well done and we thoroughly enjoyed it!  It was special to share that with the girls. 

These girls looked so beautiful for our outing!  Here they are posing with Grandma's nutcracker to remember the night.

We will remember this night!  What a great memory!

Grandma sure made special food for us!

On Tuesday, we did some more sightseeing around the temple square area. In the afternoon,  Kenneth and I were able to a session in the Salt Lake Temple.  It was wonderful~ especially since we live 3 hours from the temple here in Kansas.  While we were at the temple, Grandma made gingerbread houses with the kids.  They loved it!  What a good grandma!  In the evening, friends from our ward in California, the Lindsays, came to eat dinner with us.  They are in Salt Lake serving a mission at the family history library and live right above my mom in the same apartment building!

View from the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Arianna and downtown Salt Lake City

The interesting big Christmas tree in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  I had to hold those little ones to get them to stay in the picture!

All of us hanging out enjoying the view

The kids thought these were cool!

Hello, Santa Baby!

Grant is so proud of himself!

The girls had so much fun decorating these little houses.

Our family and my mom with the Lindsays.

Wednesday morning while my mom, Kate and I went out to get our celebratory food for that evening and Christmas morning, Kenneth took the big kids out to temple square and specifically to the visitors' centers. 

In front of the conference center

Three cute kiddos from the South visitors center.

Grant in front of the Temple model.

Grant with the Nativity on the reflecting pool.

Blowing their trumpets like Moroni in front of the temple doors.  The gospel has been restored!

Kids with the Christus Statue

With Daddy!

Wednesday night, Christmas Eve, we walked over to see the lights of temple square up close.  A couple of years when we were there at Christmastime, it was so cold we could hardly enjoy seeing the lights.  But, this year was pleasantly chilly without being uncomfortable.  I was grateful!

Getting on the elevator to go see the lights.  It's fun to have a grandma who lives in an apartment building!

Beautiful

I don't ever get tired of seeing these lights.

Happy Kate during the outing.

Gorgeous!

I can't even imagine putting all those lights on the trees!

Bad picture, but I love how Emma takes such good care of Kate!

Daddy and the kids

 We came home, read the Christmas story, had dessert, and the kids opened their pajama present.

Kate's first!

She sure is pleased with her pajamas!

When they were all in their pajamas, the games began- - the elf riding the reindeer, etc.

Grandma joined them in her red pajamas.  Now Santa is riding the reindeer!

 
 

Love this one!

With Grandma!

Last but not least, Arianna remembered to put out Santa's cookies! Yes, it's a camel and 2 wise men.  (Daddy ate the third one not knowing it was supposed to be for Santa)

Christmas morning was fun and magical with the kids.  After packing up and having some lunch we drove up to Logan to share the rest of the day with Kenneth's sister, Karen, and her family and his brother, Dennis. 

Opening stockings

Kate got a new hat!

Treasures!

Grandma made special cinnamon rolls

Kenneth with our third annual smoked salmon Christmas breakfast.  Yum!  We added capers this year- even better!

Arianna and Emma each got their own set of scriptures with their names on it.

Emma made Grandma a necklace that said how much she loved her. 

It snowed on Christmas and was beautiful!  Luckily, it wasn't enough snow to make the trip up to Logan dangerous.   Karen made a killer Christmas dinner which we all really enjoyed.  After we got the little children down for the night the rest of us had a gift exchange sort of activity that Kenenth and I prepared.  It was a riot!

Karen got a crepe maker

Allen got. . .er. . .packing peanuts!  Just kidding- he got a gift card.

Kenneth lovingly gave his brother a pet harness- to signify his upcoming marriage. Ha ha!

The next few days were spent playing and enjoying time together.  Kenneth's brother, Dennis, who lives in Logan, was recently engaged and we were able to spend more time with his fiancé and get to know her better. They are getting married in March, so we'll come back to Utah for that!  We went to the Logan temple two times!  Wonderful!  Monday morning, we went into Logan to visit the Ralphs who moved from our ward here in Kansas at the end of the summer.  It was fun to see them and their little baby.  We are so thankful for friends we have made that are scattered all over the country! 
Kenneth's other brother, Jason, and his family, came up to join the party for a few days.  Good times.    Karen is such a gracious host.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time there in the beautiful Cache valley.  Oh!  And Kenneth and his brother got to go skiing, which they really enjoyed.  They wanted to go a second day, but, it turned frigid and they had a tiling project to do at Karen's, so they didn't. 
I got the stomach bug that Arianna had TWICE during our visit to Utah, but luckily it was short-lived and we were able to keep to our regular travel schedule. 

Dancing with Xbox 360.  Boy was that fun!  Even Kate got into it!

Karen, the kind, fun-loving soul that she is, made the girls 'snow'.  Boy did they have fun!  Sorry kids of mine- that was way too messy for me to want to attempt at home!

Arianna really got into it- literally!

The girls put on a play for all of us.  They had a lot of fun!

Part of the play

Watching a replay of the play since Dennis and Beth missed it.

Kate with Uncle Dennis

All the cousins together with one unhappy Kate

The whole bunch of us together

Kenneth insisted we stop and get a picture of him here.  Right above Bear Lake.  It was beautiful- this picture doesn't do it justice. 

We stayed New Year's Eve with my nephew outside of Denver and then returned home on Thursday the 1st. 

Kate loved seeing my nephew's baby!  She couldn't get enough of that live little 'doll'!

On our drive home I started feeling under the weather and wasn't able to do hardly anything on Friday- I laid around all day and fed the kids cereal.  By Saturday morning I could hardly move and decided to go to the doctor.  She figured in was bronchitis and gave me an antibiotic, which, in combination of lots of rest really helped me to get over it pretty quickly.  Kenneth did an awesome job of taking care of everything while I was out of commission.  He made dinner one night and was so proud of himself for sprucing up the jar of spaghetti sauce.  I think he really enjoyed cooking!  (Maybe I should let him do it more often!)  During the course of my recovery, Kate, Grant and Arianna all got the stomach bug.  And Kenneth shortly thereafter.  Boy!  What a week it was!  Seems we are in the clear now, thank heavens.  Sure does make you appreciate being healthy when you deal with that much sickness! 
Well, there you have it.  Just took me a month to get this posted.  That's about par for me nowadays.  We had a great holiday.  Grant declared that next year was the year to stay at home and not travel.  I think maybe I agree with him.  It is fun to travel and be with family, but there is also something special about staying at home in your own home for Christmas.  We'll plan on it!