Zoo Lights!

This little boy turned 11 months yesterday and what a better way to celebrate being almost 1 than to go to the zoo?  We decided to hit Zoo Lights tonight with Cassidy's family.  We had a pretty good time even though it was freezing, literally the high temperature today was only 33 degrees.  

Do you think Alden was bundled up enough?  Here we are just starting out.

They had these very nice heating station set around.  Here is a group shot even though you can't see anyone's faces they are happy.

No worries about the awesome ice sculptures melting.  There was also a swan.

Treygann and some kind of monkey.  Below is a whole bunch of gorillas.  They all moved and changed poses.  There were a lot of light displays that moved to make it look like the animals were moving.

Tryegann decided to crawl through this log and Grandpa decided to scare him.  It worked like a charm  he is screaming in the picture.

And the final display of the night was at the amphitheater.  It played the 12 Days Of Christmas and each number lit up as it counted down.  We were very cold by the end, but I am so happy we went what could be better than lights and the zoo put together?  Ok maybe if we had gone on a warmer night we would have seen more animals we will just have to test this theory next year :)

Days and Days of presents (in other words Christmas)

The Peterson family is so blessed to live fairly close to both sides of our family.  So this means we got to celebrate Christmas with both of our families. We headed to Elko on Friday after work and stayed until Christmas Eve.  Jamie's family also came to Elko on Friday after work so we got to spend the weekend with them.  While we were there it snowed a ton.  This was the first time for both of the little boys to experience snow (more than just a little falling from the sky) so of course there had to be pictures.  

 

Alden was a little unsure of it.  I think this might have had something to do with it being almost nap time.  Jonathan loved it and went running around.  These boys are so different I can't wait to see how they play together in about 3 years.

My dad had to work Christmas Eve and we had to leave shortly after he got home to head back to Utah.  So we decided to let the little boys open presents early instead of trying to rush them on Christmas Eve when the rest of us opened presents.  This is Alden's first Christmas and I wanted to enjoy it not feel rushed.  This was the first present he opened.  He wasn't too sure of what he was doing.

Don't worry he figured it out pretty fast :)

Uncle BJ and Aunt Shawna gave us Christmas books that we love.  This How Do Dinosaurs Say series is so cute.  If you have small children I highly recommend it.

Grandma and Grandpa Norton gave Alden a quiet book for church that Grandma made. It is pretty awesome and we can't wait to use it.

After opening presents we made cookies for Santa because this was our Christmas Eve.  Alden is totally my child.  He was not very interested in cutting cookies out he just kept shoveling the cookie dough in his mouth.  I wonder where he has seen that before...

Christmas Eve morning we opened presents with the Nortons.  I think it is safe to say that we all had a very merry Christmas and were slightly spoiled.

After presents we hopped in the car and headed straight to the Peterson's house.  We had a fantastic dinner, watched an interesting nativity play put on by the kids and spent a long time tracking Santa across Africa and Europe on Norad's website.  He had delivered over 4 billion presents by that time and wasn't even close to Utah yet just for your gee whiz file.

We spent Christmas Eve at Cassidy's parent's house and opened presents with them on Christmas morning.  Alden was really excited for his dinosaur pajamas and his John Deer tractor.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.

Then we headed over to Dan'e house.  Treygann modeled his new carpentry set for us.  I think he is pretty excited to be able to help his dad :)

We had a great Christmas and felt very blessed to have so much family in our lives.  We are grateful for our Savior and that through his atonement we can be with our families forever.  We hope you all enjoyed Christmas as well and were as blessed as we were. 

Building Up To Christmas

December turned out to be a pretty crazy month for our little family, but don't worry we did find time to sqeeze in a couple of fun Christmas activities. One of my favorite that we were able to do twice this year is going to see the light on Temple Square.  It is beautiful and with all of the nativities and the Temple in the background it always helps me remember and refocus on why we have this holiday.  The birth of our Saviour truly is a miraculous event to be celebrated.

The first time we went it was us and Aunt LaWayne and it was a perfect night. About 40 and no snow.  Alden loved the lights until he fell asleep and if you can't tell from the pictures below Aunt LaWayne loved Alden :)

Family Shot!

About a week later we got to go again with my cousins Wes and Ashurity and their kids.  That night it was snowing and cold so we didn't stay as long, but it was still beautiful. 

This was Alden's first time to be outside while snow is falling from the sky and it was so funny to watchi him try to catch snowflakes in his mouth.  He was a pretty good kid despite the cold.

I love how happy he is in this picture.

Cass' family has a Taylor family Christmas party every December and this year it was at a trampoline park.  It was a lot of fun.  They had this trapeze for lack of a better word that you climed up to and then swung out and dropped in to a giant pit of foam blocks.  Not sure why I decided to squat while I was going, but oh well.

Jason and Sam came down for the party too. 

Sam loved the little area they had for kids.  She climbed all over in the foam pit.  Alden on the other hand cried almost every time we put him in there.  I love watching the little cousins interact with each other.  They are very close in age, but very different.

Alden and I hung out on the kids trampoline a lot.  He loved bouncing.

And finally, Cass agreed to go with me to the Festival of Trees this year.  I have been wanting to go for years now and we never make it.  There were some pretty amazing trees on display as well as some gingerbread houses.  I love that Cass picked the outhouse gingerbread house out of all of the pictures we took there. 

 

Giving Thanks In Elko

 We were lucky to have 2 Thanksgivings this year.  One the weekend before with the Peterson family and one in Elko on the actual Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately the camera did not make an appearance in Utah so there are only pictures from Elko. Alden spent the day exploring all the fun places at Grandma and Grandpa Norton's house; the storage area in the couch and under the table.

 

He slept through the actual dinner, but did see the Macy's parade with us.  The rest of the Thanksgiving weekend was spent doing Christmas activities.  Alden helped Grandpa put together gingerbread houses for us to decorate.     

 

And then BJ, Shawna, Cass, and Randi competed to see who could make the cutest house.  So it really wasn't a competition, but we did make some pretty cool houses and the best part is they both made the long trips back home to Las Vegas and American Fork with out a problem.

 

Aren't you impressed with these completed projects :) 

 

Later on that night we were lucky enough to have a visit from Santa Clause.  Alden was a little unsure of all of the facial hair, but after Santa started giving him food he was just fine :)

It turns out the whole Peterson family was excited to see Santa

And here is a little video of Alden being a stinker.  He wouldn't pick up the puffs if you only had one he kept kind of doing a bob for apples thing out of you hand.  He certainly can be a stubborn kid, but we love him to death anyway.  

Happy Birthday

In November Randi and Cass celebrated their birthdays. Many of you are thinking Cass and Randi's birthdays are not in November. You are right Randi's birthday is in July and Cass's is in September, but back in about June we found out that Eric Church (a country singer) was coming to Utah and so we bought tickets for our birthdays.

The concert took place at the Mavrik Center in West Valley and we had great seats down on the floor. This is just a picture of us before the concert started.

There was two people that opened for Eric Church. Kip Moore (sorry no picture) who sings Somethin' 'Bout a Truck and Beer Money. The second country singer that opened was Justin Moore who you can see above. Justin sings songs like Til My Last Day and If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away.

Eric Church gave an excellent concert, he played most of his hits from a verity of albums. Cass was bummed he didn't play more from his first album, which is his favorite. 

In all we both had a blast at the concert. The greatest thing about going is that we got a hotel next to the concert. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Peterson to take Alden we were able to have a nice night alone.

Halloween and a little more

We are a tad bit behind in blogging so this post is going to cover all of October.  We trade kid duty with some friends about once a month so the other couple can go to the temple.  I love this picture because all of the boys are playing with books.  I hope they all grow up with a love of reading. 

In October Alden also turned 9 months.  He celebrated by getting his first tooth :)  He is so much fun and his adorable smile is even cuter with a tooth if that is possible.

And finally, we celebrated Halloween.  Family night was pumpkin carving.  We had two pumpkins this year because some friends of ours were giving out free pumpkins from their pumpkin patch.  Here is the master working. 

Alden was also a great helper.

Here are all three pumpkins.

When Halloween day rolled around we spent most of the day like this.  Alden decided Halloween was the perfect day to get sick for the first time.  So he slept and threw up and I held him and cleaned up throw up. 

He did start to feel better by the end of the day so we dressed him up in skeleton outfit and went across the street to trunk or treat for a few minutes.  Isn't Alden a cute Skeleton?

And his costume glowed in the dark.

The following Saturday we headed back to Home Depot for their free kid craft.  November was a Turkey napkin holder.  Here is a picture of the boys hard at work.

And Alden examining the finished product. Don't worry it passed inspection :)