River of Lights

We went to River of Lights again this year with our friend. His wife wasn't able to come with us, which was sad, but Scott had a lot more fun this year.

Scott was all ready to go!

Bundled up with Dad

Scott kept looking every where and said "Ooooo, oh!"

My two cute boys!

This is what they were looking at. Scott loved the dinosaurs!

We were standing in front of a John Deere tractor, which Scott was all about.

Oh December how we love you!

December has always been one of my favorites. So many fun memories with family and friends. With not being able to go spend time with family this December, we wanted to make it special and lots of fun and we think we succeeded! Here are random pictures of things we did throughout the month here at home. I'll do a separate post for the real holiday stuff.

Scott has been helping me with dishes for a long time now but during the month of December he started taking his own chair over there. I don't mind that he has something to keep him occupied while I get some chores done. He started to be really insistent on having the faucet over his side of the sink so I started to tell him that "mommy needed a turn". Pretty soon he was saying "turn! My turn!" So then I tried to teach him that he needed to "share". He caught onto the word quick but it pretty much became a synonym for "turn". Oh well.

Scott loved the leaves that fell from the tree while we were on our Thanksgiving trip and would grab a few and throw them in air and yell "Weee!"

A truly dedication hobbyist will go outside no matter the weather. Stan set up his newly built radios in the backyard with the antenna strung across the whole yard. He used this emergency battery charger to power it.

Scott was so helpful in pushing our tree to the checkout lane

 

Scott and I would go on walks throughout the month. One day he decided that we should just sit down in the middle of the path.

So we did

And threw the football around for a few.

And we got a climber

Our holiday decor :) One of my favorite things!!

He loves to find and apply chapstick. And to hang out with me while I do laundry

He found some of Dad's ear plugs and was so proud of himself.

Annual anniversary (Happy 3 years to us!!) dinner at Texas Roadhouse, one of our absolute favorites.

Stan outdid himself and totally surprised me with TWO bouquets this year. He said he couldn't decide. I don't know why I didn't get a picture of the other, but this one was absolutely gorgeous!!

Jeff and Jessie came to visit us this year right before Christmas and we LOVED to have them come. Sadly I don't have any pictures except for that Jessie and I made caramels and they were delicious!

Scott had a for a little bit where he liked to pretend to go to sleep. He would tell me he wanted to go in his room then ask me to put the blanket on him and turn off the light. He would only lay there for a few minutes, but it was pretty funny.

We had snow! Scott liked to go slide on the slippery ice.

Scott also had a couple weeks where he would also ask me to sit on the ground and he wanted to sit behind me on the couch and play with my hair. If he knew to be a little more gentle with my hair it would have been heavenly.

Our car needed a wash one day so Scott helped Stan do it...he was a little scared of the high pressure

Stan is a cute dad.

A couple days after Christmas we went out to visit our friends in the east mountains. We had to cut our visit short because it started to snow and was supposed to snow all day, we wanted to be able to get home :)

Thanksgiving Part 2- Idaho

We flew from Phoenix to Salt Lake and on to Twin Falls. It was the first time we did the flight instead of driving from Salt Lake to Twin and it was so nice to just be there without having to drive. Scott did really well on the flights even though it was super awkward to have him on my lap with my big pregnant stomach. He loved the airport though and looking at all the planes:

I hope the cleaning people didn't mind the slobber marks...

It was so fun to fly over our old stomping grounds. This is a view of the mountain Stan proposed on. How we miss the mountains!

And he's out!

Mom and Dad picked us up at the airport and it was freezing! Because we knew there was snow coming, Stan helped Dad set up his new skeet shooter and then Stan shot some.

Scott was a big helper

And he fixed a few other things while he was at it.

We ended up shooting another day but it was sure cold and I didn't join them :) Stan did alright with the new thrower and hit a couple!

And boy did we get snow! Since it has been so long since the trip, I really don't remember what happened when so here are all our snow pictures in no particular order:

He loved watching it pile up on his shoes

I taught him how to put his hands in his pockets and he thought it was so fun. He kept taking them out and putting them back in. "Out...In...Out...In" he kept saying.

I love the Idaho sky, sun, and fresh snow!

This is one of my favorite things, to see the frost pile up on the tree branches.

Scott tried to play in the snow with his cousins once there was lots more and he wasn't a big fan of it. He liked it lots more when it was easier to walk in and didn't get all the way up his pants.

There was lots of fun cousin time:

Scott and Ashley liked sliding down the slide but they liked sliding their stuffed animals down the slide more :)

We loved getting to meet cousin Eliza! We had to get Scott ready for a new brother!

We had lots of early morning play sessions.

I walked in one afternoon and tried to talk to the kids, this was the response I got.

Aunt Kathryn was the most fun to play with and she was so good to play so hard with them. They loved Ring around the Rosies.

The kids were dancing to Josie's playing

And it was sad when it was time to go home. Love the cousin love.

With more cranky kids, we had a hard time getting a picture where they were all happy, but we did what we could!

This boy of mine has turned into a picture hater :( If he knows the camera is out he starts to fuss and say "No, no, no!" I had to tickle him good to get this picture.

So with his attitude, this is the best picture we got with the cousins and Grandma but he melted down. The stinker, but we still love him :)

Scott loved playing Uncle Kevin!

And a little rough housing with Grandpa.

And finding all kinds of fun things to play with

And a little light reading out of Grandma's cookbook.

He played for hours on the horse the whole time we were there.

Stan had a few fun projects he brought to spend his vacation doing and set up shop down in the basement. He was building, by soldering a bunch, an antenna tuner and some radios for "our" ham radio hobby:

Getting everything organized and set up

A little progress

The finished project!

And the antenna tuner

That's about all I can tell you about his project :) He had fun doing it though it was tedious.

We had such a fun time on our vacation with family and playing! We sure love our family and are grateful for any time that we get to spend with them. What a wonderful holiday we had!