Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!!

Cousins

My brother Henry and his family decided to make the long, and I mean looooooong drive from their home in Ohio to visit us all here in Utah.  It has been 3 years since we have seen their family.  I asked Henry if he would be driving to my house and he said that they had driven 2000 miles.  So I packed up the kids the weekend before Christmas and we drove the 380 miles to my parents house.  Hey - I'm thinking it was a fair trade.  It was so much fun to get to see how all the kids are growing.  The house was full and loud and amazing.  We had a great time.

 

 
This is about 1/2 of the grandkids on my side of the family.  Wish they all could have been there.

Cousins - Orin & Lucas.  Last year when we got Henry & Krista's Christmas card Lucas was confused and kept asking why he was in their family picture.  We tried to explain that it wasn't a picture of him, it was his cousin Orin, but he insisted.  What cute boys.  And they do look alike.

Baby Gordon and Henry.  I seriously wanted to bring this little boy home with me.  Such a sweetie.  Even after his tumble down the entire set of stairs - Ouch!! 

Happy 10th Birthday

 

Happy 10th Birthday to Paige Matea Mangelson!!!  What a great girl.  She is such a great kid, always helping others, looking for projects to do around the house.  She loves to visit our retired neighbors and can sometimes spend all day hanging out with them talking and learning about their family history.  She also loves to knit.  She plays some really fun games with her brother and likes to learn new things from her sister.  She has an old soul like me. 

 

My friend Chelsy Boucher @ B Couture Photography took these pictures of Paige.  I think they turned out so cute.  They captured her perfectly!

 

 

Christmas in the Canyon

This year we decided to go out to Tuacahn to see the live Nativity.  We had hot chocolate, looked at the lights, rode the train, and of course the kids got to see Santa.  It was a fun way to get a little Christmas cheer!!

Dance Recital

Paige's winter dance recital was a huge success.  It's fun to watch her perform.  She is becoming a really great dancer. 

Family Vacation

Our kids have been patiently waiting for what seems like forever to go to Disneyland.  We have tried for many years to plan a trip and have never seemed to get it pulled together.  Well this year was our year.  We looked at Jared's work schedule and decided to go the week after Thanksgiving.  We left on a Thursday morning and just took our time.  Our only destination that day was the beach, then to the hotel to check-in and swim/relax.

 

I'm not sure if it was the weather (cloudy with a little rain) or the fact that it was the week after a holiday but there were not very many people around at all.  We parked right next to the beach.  Parking Meter anyone?  Note to self:  always keep change in your pocket when going to California for the parking meters.  It was like $1.50 for an hour or something minimal like that but since we didn't have change we had to swipe our card and it's an automatic charge of $8.00.  Yikes.  We might have paid for many parked cars that day. 

 

Newport Beach was beautiful.  It was cold I'm sure so the few surfers that were there had to wear their wetsuits.  It was fun to watch them paddle out then ride back on their boards with the long oars.  The kids didn't care that the water was cold.  They were just so amazed by it.  Paige was scared that there was going to be a shark so she spent most of her time collecting shells.  Lucas and MaKady on the other hand loved the water.  Lucas was sopping wet afterwards.

 

After the beach we went back to the hotel, checked in, swam, ate dinner, ran to K-mart to get Lucas a new jacket since the humidity was so high that his clothes never dried out the entire trip, I'm not even kidding.  Once something got wet it just stayed that way.  Super humid, and went then we went to bed.  We had a big day planned for the next day.

Our only destination Friday - Disneyland!!!  Yay!!  Only my third time ever going.  With our vacation package we bought a bus pass to take us from our hotel to the parks.  It was a 5 day pass that you could use all day everyday so we didn't have to worry about parking the car or anything like that.  We will definitely do that again.  It was worth it.

 

Since there weren't too many people there (let's just be honest here would you ever expect Disneyland to be completely desolate?  I don't think so!) But there weren't hoards of people so we were able to walk onto most rides for the first part of the day.  Around noon it started to get a little more busy but it also started to rain.  The rain in California is not like the rain here in Utah.  It doesn't rain hard for 5 minutes then stop and clear off.  It drizzles and it's like mist almost but it lasts a long time and at first you don't notice it but after a while you realize that you are drenched.  I mean to the point where you are literally wringing out your shirt sleeves.  Around noon we rode the Small World ride (my favorite) and when we got out we couldn't take it anymore so we caved in and bought ponchos.  We should've bought them at Kmart for $1 when we were there the night before but you know hindsight...  So we spend $8 each and just went with it.  You live and learn I guess.

 

The kids made autograph books the night before we left (we just bought some sketchpads at Barnes and Noble for $3 each and they decorated the front.  Also as a side note we bought the retractable sharpies because I had read somewhere that the characters had a harder time holding a regular pen and it was easier for them to sign, it was so true) the kids were super excited to get all the autographs they could.



 

On Saturday we went over to California Adventure.  Our first stop - Cars Land.  Ya it's just like you would imagine.  Amazing!!!  You have never seen a happier boy.  He was so excited to see this place.  This moment alone was worth the trip!

Lucas was a little scared and overwhelmed to meet Mater, but Jared was with him so he was ok afterwards.

How cute are all the ornaments?  Christmas at Disneyland was so amazing.  Everything was decorated so cute.  If you have never been to Disneyland during Christmas time you are missing out.  They even re-did the whole inside of Small World and the Haunted Mansion to have Christmas themes.  We had so much fun.  We took our time heading home Sunday.  It may have been a short trip, but our memories will last forever.

Color Me Rad 5K

MaKady decided she wanted to run the Color Me Rad 5K in St. George this year.  She stayed up one night with my sisters Mary and Tabitha and they made their cute t-shirts.  I babysat while these three ran the race.  They have a blast.  But they came home completely covered in chalk color.  What a mess!!