Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt Visit and San Diego

Last week Travis held a Christmas Party for his team in San Diego so mom and dad hopped on a plane to California while Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt held down the fort with the kids in Arizona.

Reece had his preschool Christmas party and Grandma and Grandpa helped out in the classroom.  Nineteen 4 year olds building gingerbread houses--Mrs. Hylton is one brave teacher!  The kids had a blast.

 A little soccer playing

Pillow fighting

My parents flew in Monday afternoon so after Family Home Evening Monday night we made Santa Hats.  You take a sugar cone and dip it in melted red chocolate and turn it upside down on to a scoop of ice cream.  Add a little whipped cream and there you have it.  

Meanwhile in San Diego while Travis was busy working I was busy doing a whole lot of nothing.  I didn't really feel up to shopping or too much sightseeing but enjoyed relaxing in the hotel reading and was able to go for a run outside as well.  It was a nice short getaway.

Travis had a dinner for the district one night and it was fun to meet everyone and put some faces to some names.

We did manage to sneak in one sightseeing expedition to the USS Midway which was really cool.

Funny how I was only away from the kids for a few days but I was ready to get back home.  I think that I also was wanting to visit with my parents more since they were in Arizona without me.  They flew in Monday, Travis and I flew to Cali Tuesday-home Thursday and parents flew back to Utah Saturday so it all went really fast.  On Friday we were all together and went to dinner and see some Christmas lights and I really enjoyed having my parents here.  It's always fun to see them come and hard to let them go back home. 

It's beginning to Look a lot like Christmas......

Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year.  It comes and goes too quickly.  

Here we are trimming the tree but the tree topper doesn't fit on top of the tree in our new home.  Oops.  

Mom is the official ornament hander outer.  And everyone helps decorate the tree.  I'm definitely not one of those moms that has to do it all myself to make it look all perfect.  If there are 15 ornaments on the same branch and the kids are happy then that is okay by me.

Ornaments are super special in our family.  Every year the kids get to pick their own new ornament and whenever we go on vacation we always try to find christmas ornaments of the place we are visiting and then that way when we pull out all our christmas stuff we can also remember the fun things we did on different vacations.

 Reece found his "My First Christmas Ornament" and is excited to find a special place for it.

 Here is Landon with his Mickey mouse ears ornament he picked from our 2008 Walt Disney World Trip.  It is a oversized locket and very cool.

 Reece found a monkey surfing on our 2009 Oahu, Hawaii trip

Here is Dayton's Walt Disney World ornament that he decided to put his name on.  (At the time I got upset about that)  Now every year when we pull out this ornament everyone says.  "Oh, Dayton here is your ornament, remember how you put your name on it and mom got so upset about that."  Ya, kids never forget.

A new one to the tree this year from our Spring Break Sedona trip

Homemade ornaments are also some of my favorites

Here is a rudolph snowman/reindeer one that Reece made just yesterday.

Dayton's version of a snowman

Mom and Dad's Maui Hawaii trip turtle ornament 2010

Every mom loves picture ornaments.  Here is Dayton as a baby.

Sadie's pick from Oahu 2009 (okay she was only 1 year old but mom was sure she would love this one)

I've always loved the idea of Advent calendars but haven't ever found one that I loved so I decided to make my own.  

I made it with envelopes with days of the month on the outside, inside is an activity that we can do as a family to countdown until christmas.  There is also a silver snowflake ornament that as we countdown we can put a new ornament on the tree.

Reece's homemade paper chain necklace for the little tree

Dayton's version of the appropriate tree topper

Stockings are hung by the chimney with care..

 

We are ready for Christmas.......