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.......

Just for fun

Why was I not surprised when I was inside and I heard a loud "MOM!!!" and I walked out and found this.

Followed by, "I was getting my balloon"

Then later that day I saw this.  Can you see it?  A lovely sticky hand thingy magigger stuck on my ceiling in the most convenient place.

That's okay because after getting the mail and noticing that Dayton has been approved for his first credit card I felt better.  Can wait to rack this thing up then call the company and tell them he is 8 years old.  Too bad for them.

What does Dayton need a credit card for anyway.  He is too busy rollerblading and finding dead, smooshed snakes to scrape up with his stick and bring home to show mom.  "Nice honey, that's just lovely."

Don't you love it when you tell your kids to go to bed and they tell you they aren't tired and then later you find them asleep on the stairs.

 Reece is out cold.

How about a game of twister.....except we can't find the spinner

 So we make our own move ideas like "left bum cheek on yellow" and "head on red"

One day we got hungry and called Wendy's to deliver some food.  You didn't know they delivered?  Well, maybe just for us.

 Directly in front of our house.

 Kids hopped the fence to get the free Frosty coupons.

(sorry about the terrible picture, camera battery dying)

 Dad has no idea what we do when he is out of town.  Mom didn't want to sleep in her room all alone so we had a sleepover, on a school night.  We are so rebellious.

 Kids. Loved. It.

 Maybe too much.

Mom in vain: "Guys you need to go to sleep"

 Don't be fooled, they only pretended to be asleep.

 Sadie: "My brothers don't wear shirts to bed so why should I?" 

Mom: "Ummmmmm, I'll explain later.  Like 12 years from now."

Good night my babies.  Sleep tight.

Thanksgiving in Utah!

We decided to pull the kids out of school and make the 10 hour drive to visit family.  It was worth the effort.  We rolled into Grandma and Grandpa's house about Midnight Saturday but first thing Sunday morning Reece and the others were out playing in the snow.

Dayton built about 3 snowmen in Grandma and Grandpa's yard.

Sadie wanted in on the action so big brother Landon helped her make a snowman.

After church we all met over at Aunt Tami's house for icecream Sundaes.  Here I am with all of my nieces and nephews (except Courtney).  The kids definitely love playing with their cousins and I wish we could more often.  We try to make it to Utah at least twice a year but that just isn't enough.

Travis and Erica with Tami's baby Shae

From left to right my brother Travis, Kyle, sister in law Camille, my dad and my brother in law Chris.

It's always a full household when we get together. 14 adults and 13 kids.

Here is my cute mom and my brother Kyle

The next day we decided to make the drive up North and visit Travis's grandmother Peterson.  She is in her 80's yet is still such a mover.  We took her to lunch at the Golden Corral (one of her favorites) and we just laughed when she kept wrapping up leftovers in her napkin to bring home to her dog.  It was a great visit.

Have I mentioned yet that it was super cold in Utah so we opted for an inside activity and headed to the local rollerskating rink.  I use to hang out here a lot growing up.  Grandma even gave it a whirl around the rink a few times.

They rink lets kids ride scooters around the rink too so Landon and cousin Amberly opted for that.

Sadie also had a scooter but needed help from mom to make it around the rink.

Reece on the other hand has been riding a scooter for years and was happy to show off to Grandma and Grandpa and all his cousins his mad skillz.

Dayton is pretty awesome on the rollerblades 

Cousin Amberly Phillips (same age as Landon)

Landon

Cousin Skyler

Sadie gave up the scooter and decided to hitch a ride on mom's hip for some more roller rink action.

Travis rollerbladed too but for some reason I don't have any pictures but I know I have video so I'll have to post that up when I get an extra minute.

Thanksgiving morning we were up early and driving to Travis's parents house for the big feast.  They live about 3 hours away from my parents so we usually split our time when we are in Utah.  I didn't get any pictures of the actual dinner?  I guess we were more focused on the face stuffing.   Rest assured it was delicious.  Travis's mom is a fabulous cook.  

The Day after Thanksgiving Travis and his brother Ben and Landon and Dayton headed out to find some rabbits. (My apologies little bunnies)

The amount of ammo and weapon arsenal needed is mind boggling to me.  But when you have miles and miles of open space (what I refer to as BFE)  it's a great place to test out your fire power.

Travis is pretty cute and looks tough with all those guns.

After the hunting expedition there was more snow play.

Sadie is so cute.

Dayton testing out the tree.

Cousin Brody and Reece were inseparable the whole visit.  They played hard for 3 days straight.

Aunt Kelli and Dayton on the other hand had a serious rivalry going on that would commence each evening when we played cards together. (wink, wink)

Cousin Tannice is sad here because her and Sadie played lots and lots but when it was time for a picture Sadie wouldn't have anything to do with it.  Poor Tannice. :)

All the cousins on Travis's side.

Even the oldest cousin of all Braden. 

Overall it was a great trip.  

Not pictured was also shopping, some running, plenty of eating, movie going, and lots of visiting.

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and at all times of the year.