Pumpkin Smile

This tooth has been working it's way out for a good long time.  The adult tooth beneath it has already made it's appearance even, but the baby tooth was holding on tight.  Until tonight!  Adam is confident that the tooth fairy will make a generous trade tonight, and hopes that she will bring, "five- no one hundred- no one thousand dollar bills for my tooth!"  He has waaay more confidence in her prolific funds than I do.

Between this and reading chapter books like a pro, learning the rules of basketball and brushing his remaining teeth without being asked, it seems that Adam is officially growing up, and all too fast at that.

The Break of All Breaks

We are finally back from our nearly 4-week trip out West.  It takes such a long time to get there that we always try to pack in as much as we possibly can to maximize our time and effort!  We had been planning to spend Christmas at home and then travel to Utah the next day for Leah's baptism and Grandma Camp (aka the glorious time in which my parents watched our kids while we traveled to Puerto Rico).  But as we got closer to the holiday we decided that, since we were already traveling out, we really wanted to enjoy our trip to the fullest extent.  So the day after school let out we packed up Marshmallow and headed out!

Colorado is a quick 10 hours from Des Moines, so after a few stops along the way (including a heaven-sent art gallery that provided the perfect indoor place to get our wiggles out) we were there!

Grandma's house is always so fun- full of GI Joes and books and cookies, but really, my favorite reason for going is to discover gems like this-

 What a stud.  I love that he's hugging his knee.

The kids set up a super elaborate GI Joe battlefield in the bathroom and played in there for two days.

We also got our traditional Christmas Sunday picture by the tree.  And before we knew it, it was time to hop back in the car and make the trek over to Utah.  Once we were there the kids wasted no time settling into their favorites- dress-ups, aunties, hiding places, Legos, and cousins.

Christmas Eve included the traditional nativity

and siblings gift exchange.  The kids each put a lot of thought into the gifts they gave each other, and they loved both the receiving and giving of their hand-picked gifts.  Emma was so, so thrilled with her "ca-mah-didor". (a harmonica)

We also had a not-so-traditional but super fun trip to the new Discovery Museum (another great opportunity to get our Christmas Eve energies out)

and a family white elephant gift exchange.

A few cookies, scriptures, and prayers later, and Christmas morning was finally here.  My poor little kids, they just aren't early morning people.

 Utah provided us a beautiful white Christmas morning.

Ahh, Christmas.  I still, eight years in, feel like I do not have a real handle on what I want Christmas morning to look and feel like for our family.  We don't have many toys in our house, we don't buy toys except at birthdays and Christmas, and I don't like wrapping up presents just for the sake of having one more present to open (socks?  underwear?), but nothing all year long beats that feeling of Christmas morning anticipation and excitement.  It's magical.

And it seems that the kids expectations are equally super low (Adam told me at one point that all he wants for Christmas is new batteries for his remote control car) and so high that even they don't know what to expect.  (Leah saw her modest sized pile of presents on Christmas morning and asked, "Am I on the naughty list this year?")

But we were all more than spoiled.  We always are.  We had a wonderful Christmas morning with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Allison, and the Hulls joined us for a delicious Christmas dinner.

This year we had the unique opportunity to celebrate Christmas with both of our families.  Because of travel requirements, we have always spent the entire holiday with one family or the other, but Jason's family was in Utah as well, so we got to spend time with them, too.

We spent the night with them in a condo near Salt Lake, playing with toys and games and enjoying the company- time slips by so fast and it was great to catch up with Jason's sisters.  We also wanted to see the beautiful Christmas lights display at Temple Square while we were so close.  It was fun but super cold, and we headed back inside just as soon as two kids had slipped on the ice and the rest of us couldn't feel our toes.

Jason and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple nearly eleven years ago, and look at us now!

Christmas for us this year was just as magical as could be- surrounded by all of our loved ones and so happy to be together.  And with the anticipation of two more exciting events in the days to come!