Once There was a Snowman...

A day home with dad. What better activity than to build a snowman!

Construction is key. The snow engineers are testing the different areas of the yard for the best packing snow to build with.
The base is complete and now Hannah takes on the task of the torso.

Dallin has got a great start on the head development.

Koen out searching for snowman facial features and accessories.

Kael heading up the search party.

Hannah is preparing for the big unveiling.

Ladies and gentlemen, Hannah proudly presents.....

Snowy the snowman! Ta Da!

Christmas!

Our tree, or what's left of it after the twins have rearranged it numerous times and broken half the ornaments and ate the candy canes. Picture taken right after Santa left. Almost captured him on film but he took off right as I removed the lens cap!

Our tree's nighttime personality.
I know this is a blurry picture and all. My tripod got stolen from our storage unit while we were living in Colorado so this is the best I can do while holding my breath. Anyway, this is our house Christmas Eve at 2:30 a.m. in the morning. I can't believe how light it has been outside. And the sky is even clouded over and snowing.

Koen was pretty excited Christmas morning after pulling a candy cane out of his stocking. He's had to sneak them off the tree and eaten all he could find. Just when he thought they were all gone he found some more!

Post present disaster area. We cleaned a walking path through the living room, got dressed and went up to Bart and Daniel's for Christmas Dinner.

Later that night back at home Hannah and Dallin coloring in some huge coloring books dropped off with a box full of presents from an unknown person Christmas Eve.

Dallin and Hannah

Hannah wanted to get a picture of her on her new scooter but every time she would pose, Kael would jump in the frame. He loves to get his picture taken lately and stands in front of the camera every time he sees one.

We got new slippers!

Hannah already showing off her tricks on her scooter. (Kael is being restrained off to the side.)

Group shot.

Yet another trick. She's an instant pro.

Another group shot

Funny faces

Kael standing right in front of the camera.

Some more silly faces

Merry Christmas!

December Playtime

Koen all ready for bed. Kael loves to jump and throw. He has to jump over the thresh holds in all the doors he passes and jump from the bottom step to the floor. He also loves to throw balls, especially in Dallin's basketball hoop. Kael also loves to snuggle a lot. He's our little snuggle bug. He's holding his bear that he cuddles with at night that Grandma Nield gave him when he was born.

Koen has his bear and blanket and can't wait to be tucked in.......so he can just get out and dump out all his toy bins and remove all his books from their shelves until his destruction has tuckered him out. THEN he crawls back into bed and goes down for the night.

Kael helping to shovel the driveway.

He does a pretty good job with a little of daddy's help.

Koen waiting his turn to shovel

Kael still at it.

Dressed up again to shovel the driveway with dad. This lately has been quite a regular activity.

Little Koey

Kael has learned to make a snowball and absolutely loves throwing them at whatever they happen to hit.

SANTA!!

Hannah & Aidan patiently waiting for Santa.

Aidan was the first to visit with Santa. He was getting impatient waiting just to clam up when confronted by the jolly icon. After I took this pic I was told we were only allowed to take 2 pics per group. So my other pic was of all the kids even though I wanted to get a shot of all the kids with Santa by themselves.


We did a test try with the twins and they did not like Santa on first impression, so only given one shot we threw the kids together and took it as they were. Aidan always cried in his pictures with Santa growing up until last year when he decided the guy was OK, seeing how he always was giving him presents every year (probably trying to get on Aidan's good side).

We ended up paying them to take a family shot hoping to get the kids all looking and smiling but.........well, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Brody and Klayton also saw Santa as well without a tear shed.

Afterwards we played on the kiddie quarter rides. Koen loved the big yellow bus. He stayed in it most of the time.

A cute close up of Hannah.

Aidan & Hannah heading up the Union Pacific.

Klayton riding the 3 wheeler.

Ground control to Major Kael! All I need now is a space background and lasers being shot past him :)

Brody!

Lights at Temple Square

A beautiful night to enjoy the lights at Temple Square.

Reed and beautiful wife Raquel.

US! The twins seemed to like being downtown. Millions of twinkling lights, crowds of people combined with several small choirs singing Christmas music scattered throughout the grounds and of course the trains and horses! Who wouldn't love downtown Salt Lake during the holidays.

Mike, Kyrsten, Klayton and Brody also enjoying the festive air.

Temple in the background with the manger in the foreground.