December

Here is our Christmas tree for this year and it's beautiful, and we love it. It's tall and skinny and the kids had a blast decorating it. 

We tried a different type of Christmas lights on the house this year. It's a laser that you post in your yard and it illuminates a laser of lights on your house. It looks cool and it's fun to try something different! 

We went to the German market at "This is the Place" last weekend. Emily brought a couple of friends and we all had a fun afternoon.  

Taylor skipped school on Wednesday and went skiing for the first time of the season. He went to Brighton and had a wonderful day skiing in the sunshine with his friends. 

I had a birthday last week. We had a mellow dinner and cake at home. It was perfect. Happy Bday to me! 

We had a snowstorm and it was beautiful. The kids played outside until well after dark making snow caves etc..
It's a wonderful winter day! 

Thanksgiving break!

We had a wonderful relaxing trip to Santa Barbara, Ca for Thanksgiving weekend. We didn't have any plans for the holiday so we decided to take a trip.
We headed out on Tuesday and drove all the way to sunny SB. We stayed a fun hotel in Goleta, and it had a great pool, hot tub and a huge free breakfast included in the room.
We went to Refugio Beach every day of our time in CA. The kids all had wet suits so they boogie boarded, surfed, played in the sand, paddle boarded and explored a the boast for hours.

We had an early Thanksgiving celebration before we left with the Shields crew. It was delicious and so fun!

The weather was perfect on our trip and it felt wonderful to sit in the sun and relax in the warm days. 

Taylor, Emily, Isaac and Lizzie all did great at these new sports. Taylor has really done great at surfing, he's getting to be so good! Danny loves this certain beach and it was great to spend a lot of time there. It's full of good memories! 

One afternoon we headed downtown and spent time on the wharf and we went to the aquarium. The kids really liked seeing all the sea creatures and exploring at the aquarium, they had fun touch tanks etc.. 

Our trip was full of many, many, memories, good days, laughs a few fights and a nice, relaxing week all together!
These sunsets were terrific and they made us want to linger at the beach even longer. 

We drove home part way on Saturday and the rest of the way on Sunday. It was perfect because there was a lot traffic all along the highway, so it was good to get a head start.

We drove home through lots of rain, snow etc.. Today is snowed all day long! So we played in the snow after school for a long time. I guess winter is officially here! 

Nov.

November begins...

We've had a beautiful, warm sunny fall. This is the view off of the balcony. 

Taylor invited a few friends over for an after school snack last week. It ended up being 16 guys at our hose after school or food and drinks. It was fun and crazy! He has a great group of friends and I am happy to have them over. 

Lizzie was the star of the week last week. She made this poster and was really excited about it! I love kindergarten because she gets so excited about everything!

I took Lizzie and a group of friends to the park one warm day last week. It was a gorgeous day, and they had fun running around and playing in the leaves etc... 

Baby Jane went to Canada to see G & G Shields this week. 

We enjoyed Saturday afternoon at Red Butte Garden last weekend. It was SO warm and a gorgeous day to be outside. 

Sunday afternoon we made our Christmas advent calendar out of our Christmas calendars. The kids love this tradition and it's a great way to use all the Halloween candy.
Onto the rest of November!  

Halloween! 🎃

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. The weather was warm, sunny, and not too cold. The kids had a great costumes, and we had tons of fun!

this year for costumes Emily was a chef, as it was the blue morph man, and Lizzie was an adorable cat.

 We have a really fun neighborhood tradition come over we have chili, and dinner before trick-or-treating. Then we all meet for scones and hunt chocolate later. We love our neighborhood, and have wonderful friends and neighbors.

Happy Halloween!