Holidays are Fun!

I find myself a little bummed at the beginning of this blog post. Last night I stayed up till 11:30 working on it and then woke up this morning to add the finishing touches to discover that my blog post I had worked so hard on had disappeared. So after a bit of moping around and feeling sorry for myself I have decided to do another blog post, but with less details and pictures than I usually would. So sorry about that!

Our November and December were a lot of fun. In November we celebrated Nathan's birthday by having a night away just the two of us eating expensive seafood and spending a night at Larry & Kristy's Condo overlooking the ocean. The next day we then went to the San Diego Zoo with Wrenn and Larry & Kristy. It was a lot of fun. We finished up our celebrating with brownies, ice cream, games, and gifts. All in all a good birthday I think.

Here are pictures of us at the zoo:

Also in November is of course Thanksgiving! We spent our thanksgiving with Nathan's side of the family this year. We had a lot of fun cooking and Nathan even made a pumpkin pie completely from scratch (roasting and pureeing the pumpkin) for the men's pie baking competition. We also of course played games during our trip, and went to the park on black Friday instead of shopping. Wrenn tried out the big kid swing which he seemed to enjoy.

Then it was the Christmas season, and I was really excited. I might have gone a little overboard in making all my holiday decorations and most of my gifts, but it was still fun. And this year we bought our first Christmas tree which was a lot of fun as well. It was a pretty nice tree, but I was grateful when Wrenn finally lost interest in pulling off the ornaments.

We made ornaments and a garland of stars for our tree.

December was a bit crazy with all the festivities. We had our ward party where Wrenn decided he hated Santa (instant tears). We attempted to throw an ugly sweater party that only three people showed up for (we still had fun). We did shopping, and discovered garage sales to be the best place to buy kids toys (let's just say Wrenn got spoiled.) We made candles and photo.books for family gifts. We also bought ourselves a minivan in preparation for the drive out to Utah. It was time for us to have two cars.

Wrenn got one of his gifts early since we didn't want to drive it out to Utah. We found him a coupe car for only 3 dollars at a garage sale so we were pretty happy.

Then after all the preparation and hustle and bustle it was time to go see my side of the family for Christmas. We had a lot of fun in Utah. We played in the snow, hung out with my family, saw friends, saw the lights at temple square, and visited our grandmas. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas, and I was happy to be  home for a little bit.

We made snowmen and pulled Wrenn around on a sled. We had to be creative with snow gear for him.

 Nathan's first ever snowman.

 

On Christmas Eve we went and saw the Elk at Hardware Ranch up close and got to ride on horse drawn sleds. It was cold but enjoyable. That night we played some games, sang Christmas Carols and read the Christmas story.

We opened gifts Christmas morning. Wrenn started to get the whole opening gifts thing, but he mainly enjoyed playing with the gifts he got.

 

After we opened gifts my siblings came up and joined us for a delicious breakfast. We then opened gifts to each other, and played some games including a silly candy saran ball game that I had made for our dud of a Christmas party. I also got to hold my baby niece Tilly which was of course awesome.  In the middle of the day Nathan, Wrenn, my Dad, and I snuck away to see if Wrenn would like sledding. We finished of the day with an amazing roast dinner and watching Pitch Perfect 2. It was a nice relaxing Christmas. I really enjoyed seeing my brothers and their families.

 

Then before we knew it Christmas was over and we were packing up our minivan and heading back to Los Angeles. We did make a stop on our way out of town to visit Jared (Nathan's brother) and his wife Jen and see the Christmas lights. It was pretty cold, but still pretty.

Then after a long drive we were home again. Although briefly we had a few days to unpack and recover then it was down to see the Tate's for New Years. We opened some more gifts and did Wrenn's hunt, and of course played games. It was a nice little weekend.

Wrenn got a ball pit for his hunt. He was pretty happy.

Yay cousins!

Now it is January and the holidays are over. Although I am a bit sad, I'm kind of happy too. Now it feels like we can get settled into a routine again and start getting ready for our little baby girl coming in March. Hopefully I will write again before she comes, but who knows. Anyways happy New Years everyone!