2012 Catch-up (December)

heck ya...project catch-up almost officially complete

 

December

Justin and I got invited to go to Hyland's Christmas Party this year, they actually asked me to do their company party pictures and than let us have a super yummy dinner afterwards. We had a lot of fun with Justin's "sort of" co-workers. I love these two pictures we got that night-especially since Justin has a real true smile in the first one.

taking pictures inside of frames is super cheesy, but it sort of fits when you are doing silly pictures with funny props.  

Alexis helped Makenna write her Santa letter this year, and in her cute little voice asked for princess', Minnie Mouse and a BOX. yes, a BOX, we thought maybe she said blocks, but no she wanted a BOX.

Kyle and I were messing around one night and decided to take silly pictures of each other. But my rule is for every silly picture we take we have to take one good one.  I sure love this little man he is such a good boy and reminds me so much of me when I was little, very sensitive, definitely avoids confrontation and can be a little shy, but has such sweet heart.

 Turns out the rule goes for mom too. For every silly picture he has to get a good one. Did I mention that I love that my kids can take such cute pictures? At least I have a few more pictures to prove that I was actually there.

 

The first part of December we had such nice weather, we decided to brave the crowds and take the kids to Temple Square. Let's just preface this with...the rest of the Salt Lake Valley also had the same idea. CHAOS isn't even a word that can describe how crowded it was. Alexis was my official photographer for the night-looks like both her and Kyle are becoming pretty awesome at using my camera.

Makenna was so happy being outside and seeing all the Christmas Lights. She learned how to say Christmas Lights this month, and every time she sees any lights she says it over and over and than says" more Christmas lights momma, more".  

She is such a Daddy's girl.  9 times out of 10 she want's Justin over me. I knew this little girl would have him wrapped around her little finger, and at just two years old, she can pretty much get everything she wants from him. 

 

Here's our attempt at getting Ty's family in a picture, but I think this was about the breaking point for McKadin-if you can't tell.

I love this little Lincoln man. He has the cutest brown eyes and is just so adorable. I also love that he always wants to come to me when I'm around. 

Here is our attempt at a family picture. Kyle may be hidden, but at least all three kids are looking at the camera.  I can actually say this picture was the beginning of the end. I honestly think 1/2 of mine and Ty's kids had breakdowns the second after we took this picture. We literally walked out of the East Gate with kids screaming and kicking, that ate up all of our patience on the walk back to the car. At least we had a semi-enjoyable first half of the night. Oh did I mention that Justin HATES crowds and probably got more ornery than all of the kids combined-let's say ornery kids and crowds...yep they don't equal a happy husband.

 

This is Ellie, our Elf on the Shelf. Until the kids sent their letters to Santa, she was just a stuffed toy. But after the letters were sent she came to life and caused all sorts of trouble.

including writing on our mirror with toothpaste, taking a bath in a bowl full of marshmallows, hanging upside down from our frames in the hallway, hiding in the Christmas tree, making a nativity train with all the wooden statues, playing slide with roll of toilet paper down two sets of stairs and opening up one of the kids presents on Christmas Eve's Eve. The kids were so sad that Ellie went back to the North Pole until next winter. But Ellie honestly made this holiday season so much fun for them. Every single morning the first thing Alexis and Kyle did was run around the house look for what trouble she got into while they were sleeping.

The kids were off track from Thanksgiving until after the New Year, which meant lots of sleepovers for Kyle and Alexis. One night Makenna was the only one home with us, so we decided to have a little play date. Her way of playing involves getting every single toy out, dumping them all over the ground and than kicking them everywhere.  I walked out of the room for a couple of minutes and came back to find this adorable little set-up. Don't you just love the car's all lined up.

Kenzie is such a silly little girl, and loved having mom and dad's full attention for the entire night. I just can't resist those little cheeks and kissable lips. 

Alexis came with me to City Creek to go to lunch with my friend Ricki and her girls. After we had a yummy lunch we decided to do a little shopping and explore City Creek. While we were in the Anthropologie store it started to flurry and it was so beautiful. I loved this picture of Alexis staring out the window, something just magical about Christmas shopping with my girl with the perfect snow flurries and amazing location. 

Our Boulter family Christmas party was pretty fun this year, eerily quiet for the Boulter's. But it was fun seeing everyone and doing the nativity and having Santa come and visit. 

Here is my mom with my Grandpa B and Makenna.

 

You would never know that Makenna was throwing a temper tantrum on my lap while we took this picture. She was not happy that Grandma put her down to take this picture.

Right after our party Alexis started to feel pretty yucky and by the morning was really sick.  We spent a few hours in a very crowded instacare on Sunday to find out that she had strep throat and an ear infection. She was so sad that she had to miss Grandma Meredith's Christmas party, but we had a nice relaxing day of watching Hallmark Christmas movies together while Dad was at the party with Kyle and Makenna. The next day on Christmas Eve Makenna starting throwing up and got an awful fever, so we had to cancel our party with Ty's family and my Dad and basically had a little dinner with my mom and than went to bed after watching like 6 episodes of The Big Bang Theory.   

 

On Christmas morning Kyle came in my bed about 6:30am and had no clue it was Christmas-yes he actually forgot that Santa had come.  He just wanted to cuddle with me for a while and than it hit him that it really was Christmas. Lucky for me and Justin, Alexis was still asleep and we finally woke her up at 7:30am. Makenna on the other hand, she was not a happy camper. She still felt awful and didn't want anything to do with her presents. I basically just held her and cuddled her the whole time Kyle and Alexis opened up their gifts from Santa.  All I can say is this flu is nasty, and even nastier when your kids get it the week of Christmas.



This might just be the best reaction to a Christmas present ever-especially since it was to Kyle opening his DS. Alexis was over the moon excited that Kyle got a DS from Santa (she had even asked Santa in her letter to please bring him a DS so he'll stop playing hers).

After Makenna's Tylenol kicked in she figured out that all the presents under the tree had toys for her and started ripping them open. She loved her doctor set more than anything and has given all of us non-stop check-ups everyday since Christmas. 

Besides his DS, this little guy is Kyle's favorite toy. Who knew a little green ninja would make a little boy so happy.  Good thing too, because the day after Christmas my little man got the nasty flu, and was super sick for the next couple of days.  Followed by Justin getting the flu on Friday. Somehow I've escaped this flu so far (knock on wood).

 

We had a very relaxing and quiet Christmas week with sick kiddos, but it was actually sort of nice to not run from party to party and to just stay at home. 

 

This year has been a year full of changes and new opportunities for all of us. I absolutely love my new job and am so thankful that I followed my heart and left ABC4 when I did.  A couple weeks ago I heard from some former co-workers that the new television group that bought the station has decided to hub traffic and accounting out of Arkansas and everyone is being laid off as of January 8th.  My heart sank when I heard this. I can't even imagine how stressful this holiday season would of been if I had still been there, but instead I have a fantastic job, have been able to travel all over the country and work with some of the most amazing people I have ever met. Some of these people I know will be friends for life. I have also had so many people tell me that I truly seem happy now, and I really am.

 

 I'm hoping that next year at this time I will of met my weightloss goal (pre-baby/SUU weight)-only 5 more pounds to go; have a diaper-free house-wish me luck-I have the most stubborn 2 year old in the world and have a feeling this potty training thing is not going to be easy; and Justin and I are hoping to take our kids to Disneyland and Legoland this Fall.

 

Here's to a fabulous 2012. I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us.