Santa's "Nice" list!!

I love Christmas time- for many reasons. One reason is that my kids seem to be more well behaved. I am pretty sure it is my reminders to them that if they are mean they will be on Santa's naughty list....which means they only get dirt!! We had our ward Christmas party on Dec 5th. The kids were so excited all day because they new that they were going to get to see Santa. For Payton it was his chance to make sure that he WAS on the nice list, as well as telling Santa a few things that he wanted. Well, the Santa finally arrived and Payton was thrilled. He followed Santa around the gym like a lost little puppy. Rilee, on the other hand, was freaked out. She wanted nothing to do with Santa and hung on to Cody's arm as tight as she could. Even the bribery by Santa for a bag of treats wasn't enough to make her sit on his lap alone. As you can tell from the picture, Cody held her on Santa's lap---pretty much against her will, but I really wanted a picture. Payton was so excited when his turn finally came to sit on Santa's lap. He told him that he wanted football clothes and basketball clothes, and then kindly reminded Santa, "I have been good, so I am on the nice list huh!" It was cute. I do have to say, if there were any kids at this party that were kind o f trying to decide if Santa was real or not they probably figured it out at the party. Santa showed up in a sling...I think he had carpal tunnel surgery a few days before. When kids were telling him what they wanted he had no idea what they were talking about. One kid said he wanted a nintendo DS and Santa said," I am sure we can bring you a nintendo EX"---oops! Another little boy said he wanted a playstation 3. Santa said why do you want 3 of them? Anyway, I guess that was the best Santa we could find in Gunnison. HA HA!! It was fun to see the kids so excited.

My little snow angels!!

I can't even describe Payton's and Rilee's excitement when they looked out the window and realized there was snow. For days they had begged to go outside and make snow angels. I explained there had to be snow outside to do that. However, they actually did get all dressed up a few days before these pics and played in the mud in their snow clothes---that was a mess. Anyway, these pics are taken the first real good snow day in Gunnison. I think it took longer to get the kids bundled up in their snow clothes then they actually lasted outside playing in the cold. It was fun for them regardless. It is fun to see something so little as playing in the snow bring so much excitement to a kids face.

Talan's Blessing

On Sunday December 2nd we blessed Talan. We had a lot of family and friends there-despite the nasty weather. Cody did a wonderful job, and I was emotional like I always get when my kids are blessed. Talan wore the outfit that my mom made for Payton. He looked so cute!!! Here are some pictures so you can all see. Plus you won't believe how fast he is growing. He is already almost 10 pounds.