Christmas Holidays

I always love the holiday season!  This Christmas we were able to drive to Utah and spend it with family.  Jared had 3 whole weeks off and it was nice to go home and see everyone.  Before leaving town we were able to do a few fun Christmas things around KC.  We saw Santa, had our ward Christmas party, went to a fun live nativity in Liberty, and enjoyed Union Station with friends.

Heidi and I made the decision to drive to Utah together with the four kids a few days before Jared and Adam.  We did this because my dad was being made the bishop in the ward, and there was an Anderson Christmas party that we would also be able to go to. While we felt it was worth it, the drive was very long with four kids two and younger. Josie wasn't very good at taking a bottle which was hard, and the others were loud enough and kept each other up that it was a looooong drive.  We busted it all out in one day though and were glad to get out of the car when the time came.  Jared and Adam came a few days after in the other car. They had a much more peaceful drive than we did.


Grammie Heather's Christmas tree is always a favorite with the grandkids and Reese was no exception.  She loved pulling every single character off the tree and playing with them.  I got pretty sick of putting everything back on.

I can't say how glad I am that we were able to be at the Anderson Christmas party.  I don't know how much longer Bobs will be around for, and seeing him do his Santa act and having my girls sit on his lap was priceless.

I got together with a group of my friends and we had a favorite things party.  It was fun to see everyone and have an evening away from the kids.

Christmas eve we acted out the nativity with the Bodine family.  Let's just say I wouldn't call it all the spiritual.  But it was fun! Everyone dressed up in very random costumes and Reese was pretty much just confused what was going on. It was a good time.

We then ran over to the Robins house and did some of the gift exchanges there and ended up spending the night.  We opened our presents Christmas morning with my family.  We of course had to wait forever for Devin, Hailey, and Jace to actually wake up.  Good thing my girls weren't itching to open presents.

We had a fun Robins family bowling excursion.  We unfortunately got to the bowling alley at a bad time and had to wait for over an hour for a lane. By that time, toddlers were coming up on naptime and I knew it was going to be rough.  They did pretty well for the first little bit. They of course fought over who got to roll the ball down the lane and didn't even watch how many got knocked over.  By the end they were all in tears and super super tired. That's how things go with kids thought right? Reese had fun with her cousins.

Of course the highlight of Christmas season is focusing on Christ.  I always love the church's push to do service and think of others during the Christmas season.  I tried to think of fun little things we could do as a family with our kids to serve.  One of the best was picking up trash around the neighborhood.  Reese and Clark had a blast and we found lots of trash to pick up.

We were also able to focus on Christ as we visited temple square, all the beautiful lights, and saw the many nativities they have showing the baby Jesus.

Here are a few last pictures I love from our Utah trip.
Reese coloring with Grammy Tammy

 Hailey painting Reese's nails... she seriously couldn't stop talking about her beautiful nails.

 The cousins grinding wheat with Grandpa Kipp.  This is always a favorite.

Happenings of Late

Life is great for our family.

We sure love our free zoo pass that we get every couple of months because we live in Clay County.  It's nice because everyone in our ward playgroup gets them so we are able to go at the same time.  We took advantage and went to the zoo with some friends.  Reese had a blast seeing all the animals with her little buds, and Jade of course had to tolerate it.
Our ward friends are amazing.  We couldn't have asked for a better ward family!

After Jade's initial blood work that she had completed to test for Addisons Disease the pediatric endocrinologist wanted to do an adrenal stimulation test to just make sure her adrenal glands were working correctly.  We had to go to a clinic and spent most of the morning there.  They put Jade in the cutest little baby gown.  While she of course didn't enjoy getting the IV, she was a little champ.

Halloween was more fun this year since Reese is a little older and understanding what all the fun is about.  We were able to dress up as a family for our ward Halloween activity as the big bad wolf (Jared) and the three little pigs (me, Reese, and Jade). We were able to invite some of our neighbors Briana and Sara to the party.  Reese was so happy Briana was there.

While that was fun, Reese mostly loved dressing up as a princess.  She went trick or treating and to other various Halloween parties in her princess dress and felt oh so beautiful.  Jade wore a tiger outfit because we already had it and it's warm.

Jared and Adam had a few days off for Thanksgiving and we wanted to get away and do something fun. We went to St. Louis for a few days and it was a blast.  We all packed into our mini van which put us at full capacity and pretty tight in there.  Luckily it was only a 4 hour drive.  Nothing compared to the drives to and from Utah we have done. 
When we first got into town we drove to our airBNB we rented.  It was SO cute.  Right in the middle of town and within walking distance to most of the things we had planned.  We had tickets to go see the arch and ride to the top.  That took much longer than expected because apparently only one of the two trams that take you to the top was working.  So not only did it take forever to get to the top but then the line to get back down was super long.  The kids were pretty sick of it by the end but it was still worth it.  Reese almost broke her wrist because her hand got stuck in the sliding door and bent it all funky.  That didn't help with the hunger and exhaustion she was already experiencing.  We got pizza that night and ate it back at our apartment.

The next day was Thanksgiving and we went to the St. Louis zoo!  We had amazing weather and it wasn't busy at all.  We saw lots of animals, but the best was the polar bear.  It was swimming all over the place right in front of a big glass wall that the kids could look through.  We found out for dinner that night we didn't have many options since most places were closed for the holiday.  We ended up finding a chuck-a-rama about 20 minutes from us and had a gourmet feast there. There were lots of interesting people there!

Third day there we went to the city museum.  That place is awesome!  I wished that Reese and Clark were just a little bit older and it would have been perfect for them.  Although, they still had fun, they didn't quite appreciate like an older kid would.  It is a MASSIVE building with multiple floors of just chaotic fun!  We spent the morning then took the kids home for naps then went back after to finish off the fun. 

After getting back, us and the Lewis' took turns going out as couples and riding the scooters around town.  That was a blast.  We were able to ride down to the arch again and ride along the river.  It was fun having a little bit of time with just Jared.

Day 4 we were able to go to the Magic House.  This was similar to a childrens curiosity museum with a play grocery store, doctors office, sand room, science room, music room etc.  Another really cool place for kids. 

Our last night there we had planned to go to Ted Drewes which is a famous frozen custard place.  Many people told us it is amazing.  We drove there and the building said that location was closed for the season but had another address for one that is open.  We drove to the second and couldn't believe our eyes when we pulled up. It was beyond packed.  The entire parking lot was full of hundreds of people.  There was no way we were going to take our 4 small children there.  So we unfortunately drove back to our apartment and just bough ice cream at a grocery store.
Sunday was our last day.  We packed up and found a nearby church.  We went to sacrament meeting then started on our drive home. This ended up not being the smartest decision. We should have just driven straight home.  We got stuck on the freeway in a terrible blizzard.  The first 3 hours of the trip were fine but the last hour was rough. Cars were slipping off the road everyone, visibility was terrible.  Kids were tired and screaming in the back.  Jared was very careful though and we eventually made it home in one piece.