Merry Christmas 2018!  Here are some of the adventures and fun times we had celebrating Christmas this year.  It started off with a winter wheeled sleigh ride at Soldier Hollow to visit the North Pole and see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  It was a cold night, so we bundled up warm!

Ashley was so excited to see Santa.  She ran right up and jumped on his lap!  Eliza was much less enthusiastic and didn’t want to get too close.  But we did get Landon and cousin Theo in on the action.

Ashley may have told Santa that she wanted a set of skis for Christmas.  And Santa didn’t really get the memo that that wasn’t in the cards for this year.  So, Santa came by the house again on Christmas eve to have another visit with the kids.  When he asked Ashley what she wanted, she called him out on it and said I just told you the other day.  Santa then remembered about the skis and proceed to do some backpedaling explaining that for one reason or another there wouldn’t be any skis this year.  Ashley was very understanding and said she’d take a dog instead.  Well, maybe she’d settle in the end for white toy doggie with a pink bow.  As luck would have it, with some creative magic, Santa was able to make that happen.

Christmas morning!  Time to open presents!

The toys and gifts are a lot of fun, but with each Christmas just the fact that we get to slow down and be together and celebrate our Savior’s birth is becoming by far the best part.

Happy Blessing Day Landon.  We love you!

We had a lot of great support from family and friends.  Here are some of the pictures from the day.

Mommy sure loves this little guy.  She even gave him his first haircut in preparation for the big day!

This girl has lost her first tooth!  She’s been wiggling it for a week or more now.  Several people have offered to pull it out for her, but she insisted that I (dad) was the only one allowed to pull it out.  We tried with a tissue and with floss, but there was nothing to grab onto.   We decided that it was time to get serious, so I got a pair of needle nose pliers, leaned the tooth forward, and gripped onto it from the sides.  Then she assured me she was ready and I gave it a gentle tug and it popped right out.  She was so excited she didn’t even care about the pain if there even was any.  Eliza was pretty concerned but was relieved when she asked Ashley if it hurt and she replied that it didn’t.  Just look how proud she is in these pictures!  Can’t believe she’s growing up so fast and has already lost her first tooth!

Ashley has ditched the training wheels.  Here is a little video montage of the day it happened.