Fun pictures from my phone in the month of December

I was just going through the pictures on my phone and I realized that I had a lot of really cute ones from the months of Nov and Dec that I thought I should document about. We did a lot of really fun things that I didn't have my camera for. Not sure why, but I have noticed that since I got the iphone, I seem to forget my camera more then I would like. LOL


These first few are from the BYU blackout homecoming game that we went to in Nov. Eli was just being a ham and I got some really cute pictures of him.

These two boys are so cute and so good to each other.

We had a pre birthday party for Eli in Nov, it was on his actual birthday. We were doing his ninja party over the weekend, but we wanted to do something as a family for his actual birthday. We ended up going to Planet Play in Sandy and having a little fun. The boys love this place. And thanks to City Deals, we can always find an amazing deal for the night.

We didnt' want to have to worry about getting a cake or such for this so I just took some candles and we stuck them in an ice cream cone. He was getting a pretty awesome cake for his ninja party so I ddin't think he would really mind, and to be honest with you... he thought the ice cream cone cake was pretty cool.

One of the times that we saw santa, at the ward party actually, this was just a few of the pictures that I caught of these three cheese balls.

Lara lou, bless her heart. She had an entire letter written out and she was very good to tell him about each and everything that she wanted and she reminded him a few times about how good she had been this year. I sure do love this girl.

My boys just being super cute. Grandma wanted a picture of them in front of the tree. 12 of so pictures later, this is what I came up with.

We went to the Cottle christmas party a while back and each year at this party I try to get a picture with the boys and Grandma and Grandpa Cottle.

On our way home from the Cottle party, we stopped by Temple Square. This has been a tradition with Matt and I since we were married. Eli is always so excited, and I think that Ethan will be as he gets just a little older. It was fun to get to have Lara with us this year. Although she has gone with us a few times before.

The kids standing in front of one of the new City Creek fountains.

The kids in front of the Christus statue in the visitor center.

 Lara standing in front of one of my favorite nativities. The one that floats out on the water.

I love that they brought the windows back. The ball in the window is made completely of candy. They were so cool. And so Beautiful. I cant even imagine how long they would take to make even one of them.  

 I love my little family. This was at the end of the night as we were leaving. The beautiful temple in the background. Such an amazing spirit and even more so at this time of the year.

Loving all this SNOW

Just thought I would share some super fun pictures of us having some fun out in the snow. Like I said before, we are loving all this snow, but I really am missing some warmer weather. I think I may have seasonal depression but I actually think most people do. Winter just makes people more gloomy, less active, and just not as enthused about doing pretty much anything. Anyway, we had so much fun just playing out in our front yard, making snow angels, playing with ice sickles, and building big snow hills. To many cute pictures not to share... ENJOY. 

Christmas Time

Christmas was pretty amazingly awesome this year. I love my family so much and I don't know where I would be without them. We have had a tradition for as long as I can remember of doing a Christmas Eve dinner and party at my Dad's house. This year because my parents are on their mission, my oldest brother volunteered up his house to continue the tradition. The boys sang Jingle Bells this year. I was hoping to get something much more entertaining ready this year, but with trying to get ready to move and a few other things that seemed to crash into our lives all about the same time, this was about all that we could get worked out. 

Here are the boys performing their song.

We always act out the nativity each year. This is one of the kids favorite thing to do each year. There is always a competition about who gets to play Mary. Eli was one of the three wise men.

Ethan also played one of the wise men this year. I love how baby Jesus is up and wiggling. Our rendition is always so much fun to watch.

Christmas morning was so much fun. Eli is at the most amazingly fun age ever. He was so excited to get to bed after we put out the milk and cookies. And he had so many questions this year.... that was interesting, but kind of fun to see how his imagination works. Look at how big of a smile this kid has. He was one happy little boy.

Ethan is still a little young to be super excited the night before about Santa. I don't think he quite gets the full idea of Santa but he was definitely all smiles in the morning. He is such a cute little boy.

Then we have miss Lara. I think she had an awesome Christmas. She was very happy as well and I think she   really  enjoyed the things that she got. Sometimes Lara can be a bit of a challenge because she definitely still has the heart and hopes and dreams of a young child but yet.... she is an adult. But in the same sense, sometimes this makes all the more fun because she reminds you of the innocence of children and her excitement and joy of Christmas is still in full swing in her eyes in the morning. It was very fun to have her get to celebrate Christmas morning with us.

My three boys. I love these guys so much. Merry Christmas boys.

Lara with a few of her Christmas presents.

Ethan loving his new Batcave.

Eli playing with his dad and brother. He got a Circuit Board from Santa and was very excited to test it out.

Lara coloring her new bag.

Ethan with his new Tablet... as he likes to call it.

Eli got some new drawing books from Lara, he was very excited about them. She sure knows him well and they are kindred spirits when it comes to drawing. He enjoys it about as much as she does.

This is how excited he was about them. He ran over and gave her a great  big hug.

Eli and Ethan gave Lara the movie Annie because she always wants to watch it, but she doesn't have a copy of her own.... well, now she does.

Eli was super excited to open his Tablet as well. He was extremely sad when Lara opened hers from Grandma and Grandpa and he didnt' think that he was getting one, because this was pretty much the only thing that he asked for. But he was all smiles when he realized he had gotten one to.

The boys gave each other a power ranger ZORD. They are both really into the power rangers right now. Not moms favorite thing in the world. But we have a had a few conversations on the difference between what they see on TV being fake and how they should behave in real life. It only took once of them getting band from watching power rangers for them to not play REAL life power rangers anymore. Now they just play with their action figures instead. And they play really well with them together.

Grandma and Grandpa Hatch came over later in the day to bring them their Christmas presents. Once again, they were very spoiled. And as always, they will continue to be the best dressed kids in town.

Aunt Heather and Uncle Randall gave Eli a Spy kit. If anyone knows Eli, he is very big into make believe and playing spys and detectives is one of his favorite things to do. He was very excited about it.

Ethan playing with his Hot wheels power track.

One of Lara's cute new outfits that she got, well at least the shirt and vest. She got the PJ pants to, but they are not part of the outfit.

Lara's other new shirt. I think she looks so cute in this one. If she puts her three quarter sleeve white one on underneath this one, I think it will be super cute.

Gaye and Randy got Lara this super cute Pink Crock Boots. They fit her perfectly and look really cute on her.

Lara still working on her new coloring bag. I think she will have this one all colored before the day is even up.

Christmas morning wore this poor kid out. We were just sitting there playing games and looked up at him and he was out.

Lara got a new password journal as well. She was super excited about this. Not sure what are all the secrets that she has to keep in that journal of hers, but she wanted one of these so bad.

This is my new all time favorite picture of my son. This just proves without a doubt that this boy belongs to his father. He was so tired after all of the fun activities of Christmas day. He was playing on his new tablet and he was out. Twice today he crashed in some super cute positions that were just to picture perfect.

Merry Christmas everybody. We had a pretty amazing one. Now to start packing up and getting ready to move in a couple of days.