Christmas Festivities

We were kinda crazy this year and spent the week of Christmas at home and then left around 11:30 on Chrismas day to drive half way to Kanab, spent the night there and then headed to my parents the next day.  It was good to break up the drive for Isabelle since she's not so happy nowadays in her car seat and just wants to be on the move. 

Christmas morning pic - of course Matthew didn't get up until 8 am, and I was anxiously waiting for him to get out of bed.  When he woke up he made a beeline for the table and saw that Santa "ate the cookies and drank the milk" with wide eyes.  Santa left him a note thanking him for the cookies and the oatmeal for the reindeer.  We had to then go look outside to see if the reindeer ate the oatmeal which they did!  Christmas morning started off in a great way!  He's always so enthusiastic so we couldn't help but get in the Christmas mood.

Our first few nights were at Grandma's house.  We were relaxing our 3rd night there and I decided I better take some pictures before we moved onto our next stop on the Stephens Christmas Vacation.

Don't you just love the huge drool about to drip.  Poor Isabelle has been teething forever and 2 bottom teeth are finally popping!

Matthew played I think about 10-11 games with Grandma this day.  He wore her out!

On Wednesday we met up with some friends we met in London and haven't seen for 2 years.  We ate at Crown Burger and then headed over to the Children's museum at Gateway center.  It snowed a ton this day.  We were so unprepared for Utah weather, but I'm not going to buy snow items for 1 day of use that will be outgrown before it's next use.

They had this great water feature that Matthew and Owen loved.  Matthew was soaked by the end.

Group pic!

My brother's family was our second stop on the Stephens traveling Christmas Vacation. They live a half hour from my parents and since they were hosting New Year's Eve we decided to stop there on the 30th and 31st. It dumped a ton of snow on the 30th so mid-day on New Year's Eve Matthew went sledding for the first time with Jordan, my brother Russ and their kids. Me, Isabelle, and my sister-in-law Kari went fabric shopping. Matthew had so much fun! My sister Laura and her husband Carl and my parents joined us for New Year's Eve and we celebrated with TONS of food that we could not possibly eat. Jordan made Korean Bulgogi that was scrumptious and we had lots of other yummy items. We played Boxers or Briefs where people said not nice things to me (j/k) and played Beatles Rock Band. 

On the 1st before we left for our last destination on our traveling tour my other brother Ken and his family stopped by on their way back from their vacation to Disneyland. They recently moved to Wyoming from Utah so it was good to see them for a little bit. We are hoping to go visit Wyoming this summer and see the vastness of where they live.

 

Brady, Kelsey, Karly, Matthew, Dylan

We were talking about sledding at Dylan's house the other day and Matthew said "Dylan didn't like sledding" which is true because Dylan wasn't feeling well and we got him and dropped him back home along with Brady and Kelsey who got hurt before heading out to shop.  I am continually amazed by what our son remembers and processes.

Jordan said Matthew loved just laying and playing in the snow.  Papa (grandpa) made his hat!

My brother got some sweet air!

My niece got even bigger air.  Karly is a die hard sledder.

Matthew went down once by himself but that was "scary" so he went the rest of the time with Jordan.

Our last stop on our traveling tour was on the 1st to stay with my sister Laura and her family.  My nephew Colby is a New Year's baby so we ate Ice Cream Cake with them.  Matthew LOVED it!  Colby's girlfriend Tee Cee is one of his favorite people and he kept asking to see her and finally got to see her on the 1st.  So cute!

We left Utah on the 3rd and drove the whole way home.  Isabelle did much better than I expected and for some reason we made record time at 11.5 hrs.  Isabelle ran a fever that day and the next 2 days but is doing better now.

I just finished laundry and repacking for our trip back to Utah for Grandma's funeral.  This time I'm flying up early with the 2 kiddos myself (please pray for a good flight and cooperative kids) and Jordan will meet me up there later.  We're all flying back together and then the next day I leave for a work trip for 5 days.  Let's just say January is starting off a little crazier than expected.

All in all a great Christmas and fun memories.