Christmas (festivities) with the Cutlers in AZ

For Christmas evening we headed down to Casey's brother's house, about 30 minutes away to join with the Cutler's on the rest of our Christmas festivities! We had a delicious Christmas dinner with ham, rolls, green beans, potatoes, and sparkling cider; the normal awesomeness. Maxson was excited to "cheers" everyone with his cup

The kids spent A TON of time outside on the ball pit tramp all week. Cody and Camille were brilliant to add the balls to the tramp! Sadly it was a tin bit cold all week and with the tramp being in the shade the babies didn't get to spend as much time out there as they would have liked. Whenever the door opened and closed without them going outside they had a fit crying at the door, ha. There were also lots of tears shed on the tramp from kids (cough cough Maxson) being too rough on others.

We went in the evening to see temple lights! Did I mention we loved having Tayli back for Christmas? She is such a joy to be around, truly. We love that girl so much.

The girls got pedicures one afternoon and we all thoroughly enjoyed. It was disgusted at the amount of skin they got off with literally a cheese grater! Eww. BUT the sugar scrub was so wonderful, it's my favorite part! I was stoked for my gold nail polish. On a different day the boys went golfing per usual.

We watched a few movies while together including Far from Madding Crowd, Transformers, and the Ultimate gift. There were 2 games of settlers played together, and a bunch of delicious desserts thanks to Camille!

We went to San Tan Flats for dinner one evening, that sure was a fun place! Imagine this: a "restaurant" outdoors with tons of fire pits and camping tables smooshed together as close as they could fit, loud country music, no waiters, no rules, a building close by you can go in and order great steak/cowboy food. It was just a super fun atmosphere. i wish the babies had been on year older though, they make things difficult ha. Cody and Camille came prepared with skewers and marshmallows. graham crackers, chocolate, and reese's for dessert, it was so fun! It was a little colder than we all anticipated, we totally would have stayed longer if we weren't worried for the babies being cold, oh yeah, and cranky to go to bed. But I definitely recommend this place if you're willing to get there!

The family went to Fat Cats and went golfing, then headed to Oregano's for delicious dinner! I stuck back at my parent's house with the babies to visit a cousin who came in town from SLC. Divide and conquer.

For 3 mornings straight we went to Camille's boot camp she does every morning. It was really fun and super hard! She's got a great thing going on with the group she's apart of. We were all super sore but it was fun working out as a family. Half the year they workout at a park while 2 moms watch the kids on a playground and during the really hot months of the year they workout at a dance studio in one of the rooms.

We met up with my mom at this really fun park kinda far away. It was totally worth the drive though, the Camille's and our kids had an absolute blast there. Do you see that huge structure smack in the middle? It's this super duper tall rope structure that kids can just freely climb. Totally dangerous and totally awesome. I love that these ropes courses give kids a legit challenge and once the succeed their confidence is totally boosted.

For New Year's Eve we went with Cody and Camille to Schnepf Farms! The stake rents out the facility and all are invited! The rides and food were free, the kids loved it all so much. At 7:45 they lit  off fireworks for a great end to the evening. The Cutlers had already left town that morning but my mom joined in with us and we couldn't have done it without her!

Other memories to be added:

Sleeping was hilarious. We began the week with our family of 5 in one room. We can sleep like that for one night but beyond that it's miserable and the babies wake up more and realize we're in the room with them and it's just awful. So we took our air mattress into Cody and Camille's room on their floor where Tayli was on the floor too. It was comical with all the beds everywhere. And their little boy was in their closet, ha. To add to the fun we had to blow up our air mattress like 3 times or more during the night, ha. Oh the memory making.

Often when we're with the Cutlers it feels like I'm living in the beginning part of Home Alone (without the really mean Uncle). There's so much hustle and bustle and noise and people working in every direction, children making mischief, but an overall sense of happiness of being together. And it's always really loud with the children awake.

A week or two later while writing this I know there's fun details I'm missing but oh well. It was a fun time together, Cutlers. Glad we were all able to meet up!

Granny comes to town part 2

With Granny in town it was the perfect reason to have our cousins from an hour and a half away come by and visit. Any excuse to see family!

per usual Maxson's very cooperative picture pose

a. The second baby's reaction to not getting nursed first. They get so offended when they are left on the ground watching the other brother eat, it just makes me laugh so much

b. BQ

Children's museum with the Kelloggs.

Max really got into train making that day.

a. At the zoo (goes a long with the next section of pictures)

So yes, one day while my mo was here she took us to the Lincoln zoo! It is the perfect little zoo for little ones. 

b. Max had NO FEAR when it came to touching the boa constrictor. He immediately went up and tried to touch its face, oh goodness.

The train ride around the zoo was definitely a hi-light of his life. 

a. Camels and my favorite stroller.

b. Monkeys wh performed perfectly.

Made a warm baby pool out of the sled while Max played in the big colder pool. Of course he just ended up in the warm sled one too.

Because my wonderful mother was in town we got to got to the temple together up in Omaha! It had been months and I am SOOOOOO happy we got to go together! We even had enough time to get ice cream before hand, fist bump.

b. How to eat ice cream in the car without getting the car dirty

Winter quarters temple before and after our session. Beauty

On our final day together with my mom we ventured out to the Sunken Gardens in the rain. Again, absolutely beautiful. We love us some plants!

Max was excellent at jumping in the puddles.

Their fish pond is unreal with all the lily pads, fish, and gorgeous varieties of flowers.

The end of Granny's time in Nebraska. Thanks for coming, mom! Muah!

picturas de iFono

a. Some couples eat ice cream together at night, we eat chocolate cereal. Usually always cocoa pebbles, but on this occasion casey bought the chocolate  marshmallow matey's for himself.

b. Waking up from naps with books in hand

c. Gearing up for the ice bucket challenge. 

d. Park play.

a.-c. Children's Museum

d. Having a blast at Toys r Us

 a.-b. We found this bounce house at a garage sale for $50 and couldn't resist. Maxson has a BLAST on it as well as all the neighborhood kids. $50 well spent in our books

c. Child locks = parenting VICTORY

d. Table playing

 a.-b. Switched off temple sessions while watching Maxson at the Winter Quarter's temple.

c. Toddler bed completely FINISHED with all my wanted little details.

d. Playing ring around the rosie in the empty pool.

 a. Labor Day BBQ with friends, Casey played with the kids the whole time

b. SWIMMING! It was finally hot enough when we got back from our summer trips, we were very happy!

c. Lucky Casey always gets the rare occasions for Maxson to fall asleep on him.

d. Celebrating our little friend's birthday while playing with his new toys, ha.

 a.-d. Daddy came to the Children's Museum with us! (And pushed just as many buttons as Max did) They had a blast together (while I tried to sit a lot and watch)

 a. King of the bed.

b. Tractor watching.

c. tip: I don't make very many freezer meals but when I do, I line the bottom with tin foil so once it's frozen I can take the pan away and keep using my dish again.

d. mess maker (eggs)

 a. Baby boy bow ties!

b. Family guacamole party

c. Maxson is always very interested in my sewing

d. Trying to reach far lost toys

 a. More tractors, he LOVES watching these tractors. Sadly, they're not working by our house anymore

b.-c. Hot cocoa sharing

d. This cartoon has stayed up somewhere in all of our homes since 2010. Usually in the kitchen

 a.-d. We got to go to the Omaha zoo with our friends a couple weeks ago. It was so very fun! We nay saw a few exhibits because I can't last very long walking and little children's attention spans can't last long either. 

 a.-b. enchanted by the monkeys

d. Max took a 40 minute nap on the way home from the zoo and was wide awake but the time we got back. I on the other hand was DOG TIRED exhausted and dying for a nap. Frozen kept his attention for 15 minutes, enough time for me to at least get a quick power nap.

 a. Frozen peas for lunch

b. Proud momma to see this, HE finally put all the ducks in the pond himself!

c. Dental BBQ (annual lamb roast) that I didn't get to go to because I was sick.

d. The view of watching him struggle carrying the watering can to the garden will only be lasting a little bit longer sadly. It's so stinking cute though

 a. My to-do list is slowly disappearing, YAY!

b. September is/was busy for us. This probably doesn't look very busy compared to other families but for this family 3 and a very pregnant momma we've been ultra busy.

c. Lincoln biker gang

d. The Halloween aisle captivates Maxson

 a. He lugs the milk into the house torus after grocery shopping and it's hilarious.

b. I'm starting to eat A LOT of food these days. 2 sandwiches please.

c. Insisting he sit at the table to eat a meal for the second time in a row

d. one of the babies crawled under the car and ALL the children were very eager to watch.

 My pregnant belly table.