A Christmas To Remember

Happy Christmas to me!! I have a new (awesome) phone with a decent camera so for the first time in months, I actually can take pictures!! It's the Moto x and I LOVE it. My first smartphone--yay for instagram! :) It actually makes me want to use it (a potential good and bad thing) rather than cringe every time I need to text someone back--my last phone was not Christi friendly.

Thank you Bryce!

My parents, and a few siblings came for half of Christmas (they left that day and since I opened my phone that day, I mostly have pictures from my Mom). It was our first time ever staying home! And one of the biggest differences? Our little clam (aka Cian) was a whole different person. He loves the norm. He loves his house, his bed, his food. His comfort.Which totally explains why he has never had any problems when we have brought sitters to the house to go on dates but he absolutely refuses to attend nursery, and doesn't do well basically anywhere else.

Within his comfort, Cian gave hugs, high fives, conversations, and giggles freely! He is so much happier and we all loved having visitors. Salt Lake City Airport tried to mess things up by closing down but with the help of our favorite negotiator and die hard travelers that drove to Las Vegas to fly out, everyone made it.

Mary Lou's donuts are a must. always.

Staying inside was also basically a must.

Malone's Gym saved us!

Getting ready to go on the rope swing, he did so awesome.

The Sunday before Christmas.

Captions for the following pictures (my computer is being weird): Please excuse my crazy hair. My kid brother is desperately trying to pass me up. "Christmas Eve Dinner"--we had it early--and jammies. We were missing one Shields cousin and she was living it up in Hawaii. Seriously? I guess she can be excused this once. 

"Ticket to Ride" has become a tradition!

We had to wait 7 LONG minutes to enter the Benjamin Harrison home in Indy. It was SO cold! The home was beautiful, my cup of tea for sure. Cian was bored to tears. Literally. The entire time. P.S Got my boats at Goodwill for $3. LOVE them.

My sister flew out Christmas Eve so we stayed in Indy to attend the free day to the Children's Museum. It was our first time and it was.crazy (busy)!

And of course, talking with the missionary. He's doing awesome.

Our traditional Walker ad-full wrapping had mixed reviews from the visitors. (notice our "fireplace" in the lower corner :)

but I LOVE it! I could totally be okay with never buying wrapping paper again.

Christmas Day in Our Christmas Jammies!

Brycen kept us moving along, gladly providing his assistance where needed.

Hundreds of dollars saved meant Christmas Day goodbye hugs.

And totally last minute, Brycen insisted on going with me to the airport. Which then lead to Cian insisting on coming and Mommy insisting on Daddy coming... (please notice my gorgeous earrings from Mike and Jenn)

And then needing an hour break from the car...

In our jammies...at 3 in the afternoon.

After arriving home, the boys enjoyed their boat from the grandparents. FIVE days later the company answered their phone a facebook message (what's the world coming too??) and the missing parts on their way! Hopefully...

Luckily, for now, they don't seem to be needed...

Scopion Huntin'

Mommy: "7 more days until Arizona!!"

Brycen: (immediate waterworks falling from eyes) "I don't want the skeletons to bite me with their butt!"

Mommy: "It's scorpions and it's sting with their tails...(glare at Daddy for telling Brycen about the scorpions)"

Brycen cries harder.

We researched. And promised (every single night leading up to leaving) that we would check our shoes before putting them on in the morning, then keep both: our shoes on all day and our "eyes peeled" (Brycen's new favorite phrase from Curious George) for "skeletons" so they couldn't hurt us.

We arrived and Uncle Mike took Brycen scorpian hunting. To my surprise, Brycen was all up for it! Black lights out in the dark with a hammer was total "fun".  They even found 3 or 4.

Remember when I said my camera broke? All the following pictures turned wrong are from emails that I sent myself from my Mom's iphone. Even though I saved them after editing them to the right direction, they uploaded wrong. Either I couldn't figure out how to fix it (aka lazy) or I may just want to make your day a bit more interesting. Yup, I will go with the latter.

We would able to see great grandparents. Cian's face is right after Great Grandpa volunteered to hold him. Cian is very much our shy little clam. If you are new (to him), he will basically glare or ignore you completely.

Our little family on an-after-church walk to the pond.

4 of the 6 kids reunited. I appear to be the shortest...

BUT not yet. I will cling to that as long as I can.(Baby brother and I are the same height).

Farm-like corn mazing isn't just an Indiana thing after all.

Doing it while getting sunburnt in October though, adds an interesting twist.

Loving the shade built over things idea.

Such as the playground.

Last week as a free one year old! One of the primary reasons for the trip.

I can't ever get enough of my little niece.

My dad even jumped. Write that down, folks.

I swear I take the best action shots of my awesome sister-in-law every time we are together :)

Awesome slide.

Home, home, on the maze.

It's an art apparently not for everyone. Our group of 10 dropped like flies and Bryce, Dallin, and I were the only ones that found all the pictures, solved the mystery, and claimed our prize. A sticker!

Liquid ice box conveniently located in the back yard.

My boys are CRAZY. They shivered for at least an hour straight after.

Yup, sums that up for us.

Getting ready to board the train.

Another beautiful day at a park!

We rode this once.

Twice.

And Grandpa even managed to win over our clam when he promised to take them a 3rd time.

Cian still cried when we had to leave. The tongue sticking out is the "cool thing" to do in preschool these days, have you heard?

Arizona can be quite likeable.

Bryce had to head back to Indiana, as well as Dallin to Utah, but the rest of the crew took a hike. Brycen walked 99% of the 3 miles. I am (as well as my back) SO proud of him.

 

We also got to visit the Arizona State Fair. Brycen took a whirl on the Ferris Wheel with Grandma.

It was a perfect night for the fair.


We sure loved our WARM Fall get-a-way!

 AND Brycen's scorpion hunting stories made him the coolest sunbeam in Primary our first Sunday back.