The past few months have been very busy for us. I was going to break this post up into several different ones, but I just ended up putting everything into one. Sorry it's a little lengthy, but now I can breathe easier knowing I'm caught up.
I had to start off, of course, with Garret and Jaida making a "tower" in one of the first snow storms in November. She couldn't believe he could do that with snow! Needless to say, she cried when they had to come in.
I came in the living room to find these two in the laundry basket. They stayed in there for quite a while. Kamden surprises me every day. I love how he hangs on Jaida's every word and follows her around like a little puppy. I can tell that sometimes she just wants to be alone, but for the most part she is very sweet to him....thankfully!
That grin just makes me melt.
Jaida's amazing "man" drawing.
Nearly inseparable!
Decorating the Christmas tree
I absolutely love this picture! I don't think they could shove the cookies in any further.
We celebrated Christmas a couple of days early this year because of traveling and weddings. When we were putting Kamden's horse together, I thought, "this might be a little small for our not-so-small son". It said 1-3 years, but apparently they don't take into consideration my children's long limbs. Oh well, he still loves it!
Jaida's art desk was the perfect gift for her. The look on her face says it all!
We debated on whether to give this baseball and bat to Kam because of his tendency to hit, but we did it anyway. He LOVES it, and we haven't been whacked too many times so far.
PJ's, movies, and books
Jaida doesn't have a barbie, but we thought she might like this "princess horse". It's a fave!
Garret, his parents and the kids had plane tickets to Washington DC on Christmas morning, so we drove down to Salt Lake on Christmas Eve. We ended up going to see the lights that night. It was a perfect night for it...no wind and not too cold.
Me, Kam, Garret, Jaida, Amy (G's mom), Jordan (G's brother), and Lori (G's aunt).
I originally had tickets to go to DC with my fam back in July. Jordan and Caitlin were getting married in the temple there on Dec. 29th. A couple months later we found out that my brother Dayne had planned to get married in the SL temple on the 28th. I couldn't miss it, so I changed my flight to leave after Dayne and Meagan's sealing. It was so neat to be there, and I'm so grateful that I was able to hang out with my amazing sisters and their family's.
I had no kids of my own there, so I made sure to photograph some of my adorable nieces and nephews. This is Blaze, Abby, and Aisha.
My flight was scheduled to leave around 3 and I was supposed to have a short lay-over in Atlanta. When I checked in at the airport, it said my flight was delayed out of SL. This was during all of that bad weather in the south. Garret called and let me know that my flight was delayed over 2 hours, and because of that I would miss my connecting flight to DC. I talked to the lady at the front desk and asked if there were any direct flights to DC. They didn't have anything into DC, but they did have 1 seat available into Baltimore. It would be over an hour drive back to Garret's sister's home, but it was definitely worth it to be able to make it to Jordan's wedding in the morning. The seat was in first class, by the way. I felt very blessed!
I cannot tell you how much I missed my amazing husband and kids. My arms were empty and a part of me was missing. When my plane landed, all of my fears about flying without them went away. I love these people so much...they are my eternity.
All of Garret's family were able to be at the wedding. From left to right...Matt, Jamie holding Easton, me, Garret holding Kam, (below) Jaida, Avery, Mattson, Jim, beautiful Caitlin, Jordan, Amy, Kevin holding Riley, Kasey holding Emery, and Aidan (below).
Kamden's "cheese" face and Jaida's "it's cold" face.
This picture was hilarious! Every baby was crying and the other kids were very concerned for their siblings. It didn't turn out like it was supposed to!
All the girls
All the boys
The next day they had a reception in Ohio. These pics was taken there.
The next day we all visited Kirtland, Ohio since we were so close. It was really neat!
Garret's sister lives about 30 minutes from DC, so on the last day Jim, Garret and I went into the city to take in some sights. We had all been there before, but we wanted to see a few places that we had missed.
The White House
The World War II Memorial
Garret was obsessed with the Idaho pillar! It was actually really cool to see.
All of the kids on the night before we left. Emery, Aidan, Riley, Jaida, and Kamden.
Jaida before Dayne's reception in Firth.
Brooke and I had curled our girls' hair for the first time. Jaida and Sadie already have natural curl, so we hadn't taken the time to do that yet. Don't they look adorable?
Handsome little man
Jaida and Aisha
I hope we didn't bore you too much. See you again soon!
