Temple Square and Meeting Santa

We had a fun ward Christmas breakfast. We still feel really new to the ward and like we don't know lot of people. We have been here almost 5 months so things are getting more normal. But we were so glad that we had family there and could sit with them. 

Of course Olive and Emily found each other first thing. These two are cute neighbor friends. 

Santa was there and Olive was really good at telling him what she wanted. 

Milo not so much.

That same day we had a family party with all the Sanders. Within the last few months a lot of my cousins have moved back to Utah. This is great news for my kids because they have people to play with. I thought this picture was so cute of all of them, gathered around the fire, admiring and discussing my great aunt Jan's beautiful Christmas Village. It was a really sweet memory for me.  

Another night we got in jammies and drove to see all the Christmas light displays. 

Milo fell asleep and we had to get out and wake him up!

He was pretty ok with it though, because he really liked seeing all the lights!

A few nights later we braved the crowds and went to Temple Square to see the lights. It's a Chrsitmas requirement as far as I'm concerned!

Funny story about this trip. I had really bundled the kids because there is nothing worse than them having a melt down or only lasting for 5 minutes because they are cold. I mean, it is so much work to just get there, we have to make it worth it. Thus, the kids were very warmly bundled. But it turned out to not be a super cold night so Olive was getting hot and stripping off layers fast. She unzipped her coat and ditched her gloves and hat. While we were walking around the temple grounds some teenage girl came up to Olive and said "Merry Christmas" and handed Olive a pair of knit gloves. We were all a bit unsure about what had just happened. It wasn't until I realized that Olive wasn't wearing any gloves that we realized that girl was probably doing a good deed and thought that Olive was someone in need of warm clothing. We were laughing so hard because it was such a kind act but just not fully executed. It was pretty funny to see Olive standing there kinda puzzled like "Mom, this girl just handed me gloves!?!" We were kinda stumped about what to do. Should we give them back? Should we just keep them? We eventually decided to try and pass the good samaritan-ness along and gave them to a guy sitting on the corner with a sign and his dog. Hopefully they will be put to better use! 

Here you can see Milo's awesome Popeye smile. He does this a lot and we both think it's so funny. Sometimes he does it when he is feeling shy. Or when he gets in trouble, or he doesn't want to be in a picture. Here he is doing it to be silly. And of course Olive has her reindeer ears headband on because this girl lives for accessories. 

We stopped in for some desserts at Kneaders after because that just how we roll. 

Christmas Festivities and Friends

We came home from Thanksgiving and promptly put up our new Christmas tree. It was so fun decorating for Christmas in our new house and knowing that this would be a memorable year for our kids as it was our first Christmas here. 

We have such great friends and we love doing so many fun things with them. We decorated gingerbread houses with our friends.

Milo made this adorable gingerbread man at school. He was so proud of it. Then came home and immediately ate it. 

We had a Christmas Lunch Bunch party with these cuties. They had curlers in their hair for a dance performance that evening. 

We made donut snowmen. Yum!

And we did a snowflake craft that Milo took very seriously. 

We went to zoo lights. We had to redeem our experience of 0 degree last year. This year was much more fun!

A ride on the carousel. 

We had to get some hot cocoa and treats to warm up at the end. Nothing like treats with friends!

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a such a great Thanksgiving this year! We were with the Pattersons this year and everyone went down for a great weekend in St George. Although Louise was still recovering from her stroke, it was nice to have all of us there that could take over the meal and Grandma and Grandpa didn't have to worry about anything. We had so much food! It was a great day. 

The guys all played some football with the kids. The kids were having a ball and were really getting into it. Milo had a hard time understanding that he doesn't get the football every play and eventually went off to ride bikes. He just wants to be the star player I guess. 

We always have to document our pies! It is the best part of Thanksgiving!

The next day we went out to enjoy the beautiful St George weather. We went on a few easy hikes in Snow Canyon. It was a beautiful day and a fun time spent with family. We are so blessed and our kids really do have best friend cousins. BFC's is what Olive calls them!

Family selfie! Lizzie is an extra member of our family!

All the kids were trying to spell LOVE. Do you see it? I think it would have been perfect if we had a way to take an ariel picture of it. 

They attempted a jumping picture. That was much harder! 

The next day we all did our tradition of decorating gingerbread houses. Grandma Lulu wasn't feeling 100%but she was insistent on keeping this tradition going. Olive loved it!

Reflections 2014

 Olive entered three entries in the Reflections contest this year. I was the chairperson for Reflections at Horizon this year. It was really fun and I had a great committee to help me. It was so exciting for the kids to see their art work and win actual medals and trophies for their accomplishments. We had about 40 more entries than last year. It thought it was really successful and was proud of how everything turned out, the drama and all!

The family doing a little Reflections painting on a Sunday afternoon.

This was Olive's photo entry. The theme this year was "The World Would Be A Better Place If..." Her original idea was to take pictures of people at a soup kitchen but the logistics were kinda complicated and there would be multiple release forms and such to contend with. We suggested she just go meet someone to see if they would be willing to let her take their picture. She agreed, so Scott took her to the mall and met this man named Robert standing on the corner. She was nervous but very brave. I think that experience had a lasting impression on her. She still talks about him and his injured legs. Her artist statement said something like "This is Robert. He hurt his legs in a car crash. He needs help getting places and seeing doctors. The world would be a better place if we helped people like Robert and took care of each other." It was amazing to watch this little 6 year old get an glimpse, even if a small degree, of what is really out there in the world. Her picture had a lasting impression and won and Award of Excellence not only at the school but also among all of the students in the Murray school district. 

This was her 3D entry sculpture. It depicts that when you through your trash away and take care of the earth then there is love. That's what those hearts floating up out of the trash can are. You feel good when you don't liter and the earth is better because you took care of it. 

One day while I was at the school working on Reflections, the Jazz Bear came for an assembly and Milo got to meet him. He was really excited! Now when Milo sees pictures or billboards of the bear he tells me that he's "A mean bear. Grrr! But a nice bear too". I think what that means is that, to Milo, the bear looked mean and angry but was a nice bear when he met him.

Here is Olive receiving her trophy from the Superintendent of the district. 

Here is a rather awkward picture of me on stage hosting the awards assembly. If you look closely you can see Scott in the background because he was my awesome audio/visual go-to helper guy. 

Here is our little artist with all the other photography winners for the school. 

Since she also won at Regionals, we thought a special date was in order. She had recently learned that there is a restaurant named OLIVE! Garden and was shocked that she had never been to this restaurant that was named after her. We thought this was a perfect opportunity to take her there. 

She really liked it and felt that it was a rather fancy restaurant. 

Here is this little winner with her winning photo. 

Here she is receiving her Regional medal. 

All of the Regional winners. 

We are very proud parents! This amazing girl never ceases to impress us with her depth and interest in everything. She certainly has already achieved a lot, even as a first grader!