Christmas 2011

Christmas morning. The youngest get to go first up the stairs. It was hard for Spencer to wait patiently for Benson as he crawled up slowly.

This about sums up his Christmas - Even though the tractor was for Spencer!

Benson loved it - a dinosaur and tractor (truck) what more could you want?

Here is a glimpse of our post Christmas fun!

We went to the Bean Museum at BYU with the Tingey family and even got to pet the animals!

And went bowling twice, once with each family.

Zoo Fun!

I took the boys to the zoo in November when they had their Community Family Day. They loved all the animals - even though it felt like we saw the whole zoo in record speed. It made me miss Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Once you've been there it's hard to be satisfied with anything else! But we had a lot of fun with it!

With the Community Day they had all kinds of activities going on at the park. Spencer loved all the sports and Benson couldn't get enough of the train ride around the pond.

12 days (events) before Christmas

Here are our top 12 Pre-Christmas Events.

1. Ward party and gingerbread party with friends

2. Mom's 10k & Finals - Sabrina ran her first 10k and Brooks finished the semester with flying colors!!

3. Road trip - although the car rides were not the best part the people we saw on the way made it all worth it! We spent a night in Phoenix seeing the temple lights and visiting Santa with Brooks before he left of a 10 day trip to Brazil (this is worth it's own post), we spent a night with Grandma Kay and Grandpa Tingey, and we spent a few days with the Clawsons in Cedar City.

4. Tabernacle Choir & Orchestra Christmas Concert: we arrived in Utah and my mom said she had tickets to the concert they had been to the night before. Rebecca and I went up to the concert (amazing, as always!) and enjoyed the lights on Temple Square.

5. Pride & Prejudice with Grandma Riska and the girls. Best. Movie. Ever!! (Or at least one of the top!)

6. A bit of exercise: P90X, Zumba, basketball & Ultimate Frisbee.

7. Snow in Tabby! We didn't see much snow on our trip, but there was a little in Tabby to give us all a good chill. Spencer warmed up fast when Grandpa took him to feed the fish! Benson didn't seem to mind the cold anymore once he was on a horse!

8. An airport pickup: may not seem very festive or special, but we were all anxious for Brooks to return home. After 10 days with VERY limited contact we were all excited to have him back and hear about his adventure.

9. Aunts & Uncles & Cousins Oh My! Spencer LOVE, love, LOVES his cousins and aunts and uncles. There wasn't a time the whole trip that he didn't cry when someone left or when we left someones house. We got to see all the cousins - even Reese and Madison! It was also fun to catch up with Uncle Roy and his family!!

10. Family Christmas Party - We had our Turnbow family Christmas party with everyone except Pearl and Kurt who were off playing in the Bahamas!

11. Caroling to Grandma & Grandpa Riska: so G&G Riska's house connects to G&G Turnbow's, but we thought it would be fun to go caroling to them for a nice surprise! We were all shivering from the cold, but it was so fun to see Grandpa's big smile as we sang to him!

12. Christmas Eve shopping with Grandpa Turnbow: We always go shopping for Grandma on Christmas Eve, Grandpa takes the kids on a carousel ride, and then we grab a bite to eat!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Flagstaff with Grandma Kay, Grandpa Tingey, Kaitlin & Jordan. The weekend was full of eating wonderful food (way too much - like always), games and more games, shopping, and great company - we finally got to see 'pregnant Kaitlin' (although she didn't look very prego at the time!). We played a couple rounds of horseshoes, took a stroll to the park, replenished Grandpa's hidden treasure box (geocache box), played a little Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke, the guys put the Christmas lights on the house, the girls went shopping, and the boys discovered Grandpa's ancient Nintendo set. All in all it was a wonderful weekend!

Oh so yummy food!

Healthy Competition Always the favorite . . . !

Grandpa's secret treasure box

Halloween

We had a lot of fun with Halloween this year. Spencer was so excited about his costume (once he finally decided what he was going to be!). He loved getting dressed up in his costume. We went to a couple ward parties and went Trick or Treating with a bunch of friends to a retirement home next to our complex. We had a lot of fun. On Halloween night we stayed home, carved pumpkins and made carmel apples. Not a single Trick or Treater came to our house though. Hmmm? More candy for us I guess!! :)