Christmas 2011

Every Christmas Eve Lance's family gets together and the grandkids all dress up and the Christmas Story is read. Cayden was a Wiseman and Carlie was the Angel this year. A new grandchild was born a week ago so we even had a real "Baby Jesus" this year:)

all of the grandkids (minus 2 that couldn't be there)

Christmas morning we made them sit in the hallway until we were ready for them to come see what Santa brought!

Santa pulled off a miracle and brought the pink camera with a purple case!!

My friend and I risked our lives to get this on Black Friday and needless to say the kids were VERY excited!! Cayden is going to have to teach us all how to play it since he knows more than us about the Wii!!

Cayden got his remote control helicopter from Santa that he has been waiting for!

Lance was so sure Santa would come through with Cayden's request that he bought his own so they can play together! Luckily Santa makes very good quality toys that can withstand repeated crash landings, Lance didn't have as good of luck with his "store" bought one!!

Christmas morning after opening presents and having our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, we went to church with my parents. We knew we had a better chance of making to to church at 11:00 instead of 9:00 on Christmas morning:) Afterwards we had brunch with my family!!

Christmas Magic

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We surprised Carlie for her 9th birthday and stayed overnight downtown!! This was the view from our hotel room!!

We walked around downtown and looked at all of the pretty lights

We wanted to take the kids ice skating at the Gallivan Center but it was closed for a private party:(

Her favorite gift (besides her American Girl Doll) was the Barbie Pet Dr. dog she has been wanting! She wants to be a Pet Doctor when she grows up:)

We spent her birthday doing all of her favorite things: Swimming, donuts for breakfast, shopping at Claire's and Toy's R Us, eating at her favorite places Panda and Rumbi and eating Ice Cream of course!!

Christmas Concert

I was fortunate enough to get invited to the Christmas Concert at the Conference Center by my good friend Lynda:) She had gotten tickets which are distributed randomly, and had an extra one. We got up early on Sunday morning to go but it was worth it and was a wonderful concert!! It featured guest artists Jane Seymour and Nathan Gunn with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra!!

Dance Recital/Annual Italian Party 2011

It was bound to happen one day!! Carlie's Christmas recital was on the same day, same time as the yearly Christmas Italian Dinner!! We haven't figured out how to be in 2 places at once yet:) Originally Carlie was supposed to dance at the beginning so we thought no big deal this can work out. A couple days before they CHANGED the lineup and she was 28 out of 30 dances in a

1 1/2 hour show!! Luckily we made it (barely) right before Santa Clause arrived which was the most important part anyway:)

Carlie asked for a PINK camera with a PURPLE case

(we are getting very specific the older we get:))

Cayden asked for a remote control helicopter

Birthday Celebrations.....

Carlie had a few friends over to celebrate!! They had pizza, made a craft, decorated sugar cookies and made ice cream sundaes!! It isn't always the worst thing to have a birthday around the holidays:)

I can't believe all of these girls are going to be turning "9"!!

This year because of our lack of space we celebrated with both sides of our family seperately!! It's a lot more work for me but Carlie loved it since it meant more parties for her:)

I found this circus cake idea in a Taste of Home magazine. Just an FYI, don't put the cotton candy on the top until it is time or it will end up looking like this (the moisture from the frosting made it shrivel up):) It still turned out really cute though and no one seemed to mind!!

Uncle Matt flew here from Arizona just to celebrate Carlie's birthday!!

This week was the party with Lance's side of the family

I found this "Willy Wonka" cake idea on the internet. Carlie had to make a sign that said it was her cake, not a bowl of candy because everyone who walked past wanted to take a handful of M&M's!!

Carlie has wanted a REAL American Girl doll forever!! She has had this specific doll picked out for a while now! We surprised her with the doll at the party tonight, she was so excited!! She had a printout of this doll in her room labeled "Carlie's dream doll"!!!

Drive Up Service......

Why wait in all those long lines to see Santa when he will come to you!!:)

Temple Square Christmas lights

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Happy Birthday to a wonderful Husband and Father!!

The kids made birthday cards and when Lance opened them Cayden had put $1 and a penny of his own money inside:) He is such a sweet boy!!

Jr. Jazz

We just had our first clinic for Jr. Jazz Basketball!! Cayden has never played basketball before so we thought we would try it (plus he really, really, really needs to get some energy out while we are living in our tiny apartment)!!!:)

Learning to pass the ball

This volunteer was helping Cayden learn to block

Cayden is excited he gets to play on the same team with his friend Brody!! If the Jazz decide to ever play again they may even get to go to a real game:)