More fun in Dallas Christmas 2013

Waiting for our next flight.

Our first night in Dallas, Brooklyn and I went with my parents to their ward Christmas party. The decorations were amazing, it was a Grinch theme, the food was delicous, and the program was a great reminder of why and how we should celebrate Christmas. My mom was so happy that Brooklyn warmed up so quickly to her and was willing to snuggle right up.

Coloring with Nana

Another fun activity while in Dallas was going to play at the indoor bounce houses.Chloe and Aidan my little cousins came with my Uncle Lance and his wife Donna. Chloe was so cute and helpful with Brooklyn. Nana and Pops came to watch the fun as well. Ironically, Brooklyn's favorite part was going on the train. She went on it over and over and over.

Snuggles with Nana

   

Chloe and Brooklyn riding the train.

 

Rub a dub dub four cuties in a tub.

My sister Ashley and I were giving Brooklyn and Vona baths together when Alex and Emmett came in.  Alex kept saying "I'm reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaally dirty! I think I need a bath". So the boys jumped in as well.

Brushing teeth with the cousins.

Computer time.

Checking out "Santee Clause" with her pops.

The blowup snowman outside Nana and Pops'.

Wearing the Christmas dress from  Nana and Pops.

Playing Pat-a-cake with Nana.

Alex taught Brooklyn how to wrestle.

The kids had a mattress up against the couch and were pretending to sled down.

Pops and his two littlest grandchildren.

Loved relaxing in front of the Christmas tree.

Dallas Children's Museum

One day of our Christmas vacation we went to downtown Dallas and visited the Dallas Children's Museum with my parents and sisters' families.
Some highlights included:
The dinosaur bones.

Alex, Brooklyn, Vona, Emmett

My loves.  Seriously, a man carrying a diaper bag is so sexy.

That tongue!

The sports arena where you could race different athletes or animals.

 The children's play area with a water table, camp site, store, and building block area.

Cute little cousins playing at the water table.  Love the aprons.

Daddy daughter bonding time at the water table.

Camp area.

Little cuties in the farm truck.

Practicing our whistles after creating our own bird.

Alex was so cute at the building station.  He was directing the other kids what shapes blocks to send up and singing the Bob the Builder song.

Pure joy!

 

Cousin hugs

Flyin' like an eagle.

A flying stimulator that had sensors so you could direct the flight of an eagle on a big screen.

So much fun for all of us and the best part was seeing the cousins play together, priceless.

Christmas at Nana and Pops'

The Christmas morning setup.  Clockwise from upper left: Santa's note to the cousins who spent the night at Nana and Pops', the tree and presents (notice Brooklyn peeking out from the wagon), and Brooklyn scoping out what Santa brought from upstairs.

Christmas morning at my parents house Brooklyn was the first one up! Two of my three sisters and their kids and spouses spent the night there too.  Every one else got up and we headed down stairs to see what Santa had brought.  Santa had brought cousin Vona a wagon and play kitchen that Brooklyn had a blast playing with.  It was pretty much mayhem once everyone started opening their individual gifts but just the kind of atmosphere that you love and expect with so many kids and people.
With all of the individual gifts opened we played our $10 gift exchange game that we do every year.  I'm kind of a cheater and always buy something that I will want and I think the last two years I've ended up with it! Bea ended up with an ice cream maker that I am coveting after she made us homemade ice cream with it.
Once presents were opened we scrambled to get ready for family pictures.  All of my Grandma Larkin's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were in town for Christmas so we got a huge family picture taken.  My sister Bea also got pictures of individual families which turned out so cute.

The wagon and playdough were a big hit with the kids.  Justin and Ashley found some brownie/cookie treat called Brookies and put them in Brooklyn's stocking. Brooklyn and cousin Vona were too cute giving each other love and hugs.

Ivan's brother, Daniel, came from Utah to spend Christmas with all of us. 

All the little boy cousins got ninja turtle costumes.

After pictures everybody came over to my parent's house for games and dinner.  We were so blessed this Christmas season to spend it with so much family and were reminded of the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas at Home

Before heading to Texas for Christmas with my family we celebrated at home a couple days before.
Brooklyn woke up that morning and came into the living to see what Santa had brought her.  Her reaction was priceless! There were lots of exclamations of "whoa!" and "ho-ho-ho's" in thanks to Santa.  Her big gifts were a teeter-totter and a wood play kitchen.  She gets on the teeter-totter and starts to sing "totter, totter!".

Thomas' parents came over and we exchanged gifts with them and all watched Brooklyn open the rest of her presents.  With each toy she wanted us to open the packaging.  The nice thing about it just being us is that there was no rush so we could open each toy and give her time to play with it before moving on to the next present.  Brooklyn was a pro at opening her own presents.  She had lots of practice the 12 days leading up to Christmas as per tradition she got to open a book each night.  I actually had to keep all the presents up in a closet or in the garage so that she wouldn't open them when I wasn't looking (which happened twice before I got smart).
Some of her favorite gifts included a plush Elmo and Cookie Monster and Sesame Street blanket (she sleeps with them every night), her teeter totter, a fancy prince and princess puppet set, and bubbles.
We had breakfast together with Thomas' parents and then after they left Thomas and I opened our gifts to each other.

The set-up the night before.

Her cash register which has a scanner and microphone.

Trying on her new church shoes.  She walked around in them and her pajamas for about half the day.

Grandma Sandee made her a Sesame Street blanket for her and her dolls.  She now sleeps with "monster" and Elmo every night.

This backpack comes to church with her every Sunday.  She loves that it is a monkey. It also came with a leash but we haven't had to use it yet ;)

I love her look of independence while opening her gift.  She needed very little assistance this year while opening presents.

Her bubbles.  Random fact: Gymboree makes the most long lasting bubbles ever.  Try them.

This is her trying to hide a grin look.

It was awesome to have the calm relaxed Christmas at home and then the crazy fun Christmas with all the cousins at my parents house.

Festival of Trees

At the end of November we headed downtown for some holiday excitement at the Festival of Trees.  I have always wanted to go to this event and we finally made it happen.
The trees we saw were awesome and inspired me.  Besides the trees on display there were also beautifully decorated wreaths, a HUGE interactive train village, and dance performances.
Brooklyn was all about the Latin dancers and was dancing right along with them.
Afterwards we kept with the Latin theme and went to a downtown Mexican restaurant for dinner.  We love trying out new restaurants downtown and have really good luck again, as this one did not disappoint.  Mexican restaurant are always nice for us as a family because the chips and salsa keep Brooklyn occupied and happy.
It turned out to be a fun festive night together as a family, one I hope to repeat each year.

Checking out the train set.

Learning about "Jeesy".

Couldn't take her eyes off of the trains.

Race track tree.

Pinocchio tree

Thanksgiving 2013

We had such a great Thanksgiving! We started the day off by doing a turkey trot 5K in downtown Boise.  I was thinking I'd just make it a nice easy run and Thomas was planning on going all out.  After about a mile of running I felt really good and decided to pick up the pace and push it.  I didn't have my Garmin GPS watch so just checked my phone once to see about where I was on time compared to what time the race started.
Once we finished and checked the results I realized I had beat my all time personal record! Just in time since my goal had been to beat it before the new year. My time was 23:02 (7:25/mile) Thomas beat his 5K times for this past running season as well! He finished in 21:12 (6:50/mile).

We got home and had breakfast with Thomas' parents who had been watching Brooklyn while we ran.  Orange rolls, fresh juice, and bacon and egg crescent rolls (just buy cresent rolls and put scrambled eggs and bacon inside and roll up.  Serve with valentina sause for dipping).
For Thanksgiving dinner we headed over to our friends the O'Brien's.  Sara is such a lovely host and had the cutest table set up with name labels, mini martinellis, and juice boxes and coloring pages for the kids.

The adults drink of choice.

The kiddos drink of choice for the evening.

You can tell Sara was a teacher!

Love that we had such a big group of people to celebrate with.

Brooklyn loved playing with Molly which made for a nice relaxing evening for Thomas and I to chat and kick back with the adults.

Friends.

The group.

I was so thankful to have friends that feel like family who we could celebrate Thanksgiving with.