Baking and "Snow" in January

I realized I love January!  Every start of a new year I get a little sad for a day when I realize the holidays are over... but I soon get over it and realize that January is lovely.  New start, new year to look forward to, perfectly "cool" Arizona weather, and blue and white dishes to decorate the hutch.  :)  

I made little "medallion snowflakes" - they took a while, but they are so cute!  I strung them up with clear monofilament...

The kids helped in making regular snowflakes for our sliding door...

We ate m&m's while we worked... because we can...

Snowflake making is messy...

For a few days, it actually felt "too cold" to go outside... believe it or not... the highs were in the 40's!  It was fun actually feeling cold.  We cranked up our heater and baked and played inside.  Jake got a set of castle blocks for Christmas - he LOVES them.  This time he built a castle and then came to me and said he wanted me to take a picture of him with his castle...

Becca helped me make lemon cookies - she was a master at rolling cookie dough in powdered sugar...

Jake is so funny - he came to me and was proudly showing off his pez dispensers...

Claire just likes to cheese for a camera...

The kids got the Just Dance Disney game for the Kinect at Christmas - they really love all the dancin' games...

Claire busied herself this morning stuffing toys into my boots...

We "braved the cold" one afternoon and went to have lunch with Ben during his lunch break- every Friday is Food Truck Friday downtown - it was yummy!  We'll definitely go again.  The kids all got corn dogs...

Ben and I got fry bread with steak and greens, and lime, etc... it was awesome...

Today the cold snap seems to have ended - we are back into the 70's!  So, we had lunch outside and got out the sidewalk chalk....

Happy January!

New Years in Utah!

We spent the week of New Years in Utah with my awesome family.  I love them!  We always have the most memorable Utah trips.  Excuse the fact that I have so many instagram pics in this post - but I am loving sharing pictures this way lately - maybe because it makes my mediocre quality phone pictures look passable by being "polaroid vintage".  haha. 

On our way!...

The kids always get so excited when we reach St. George, because it means we are finally in Utah and only a few hours away from Grandma's house!

The closer we got to Grandma's house, the colder it got... :)

We played a lot of games during our visit...

And a lot of Wii - I got stomped..

And we had some yummy lunches out... I love Noodles!  

My family introduced us to The Melty Way - delicious gourmet grilled cheese!

Grandma took the kids out Christmas shopping and they got to pick out some fun new toys.  Emma got a pink guitar- she loves it!  Ben tried to give her some tips...

On New Years Eve, we went to Hogle Zoo lights.  We probably should have checked the temperature before we headed out, because it was crazy cold!  Our kids were SO cold, sad, and whiney.  But now it will be known as "that time we went to see zoo lights in Utah and froze our bums off".

We tried to huddle inside whenever possible and got plenty of hot chocolate, but everyone's toes still felt like they would fall off - Claire looks happy doesn't she?

But the lights were so pretty!

I love Becca's face in this picture...

Are you in there Claire?

Huddled around the heater...

After our very cold outing, we warmed up at home and played games and ate food.  Aaron made us homemade soft pretzels - they were perfect!

We laughed so much while playing Scattegories - everything becomes funny after 11pm....

The kids went to bed around 9 - but first they did some confetti poppers - here's an action shot of their excitement... Happy New Year!  2013!!

Ben built a snow fort for the kids outside.  They helped a little... but it was mostly Ben - he was determined...

Brrr... beware of icicles...

Claire wouldn't really keep gloves on, but whenever she would get snow on her hands, she would come to me like this...

Dad got us a Groupon to go bowling and get pizza and soda.  Guess who won... Jake!

Claire was eating her pizza really weird... she would just eat all the toppings off the top and leave all the bread...

We went to Salt Lake to visit my Grandparents - they are so wonderful...

We went ice skating at The Gallivan Center - it was so fun!  Emma especially enjoyed it - I think she would really love skiing... someday we'll have to take her.  

Waiting for the Zamboni to finish up on the ice...  Watching the Zamboni was Dad's favorite part.  :)

On our last day in Utah we went sledding - we were out there for probably just 20 minutes.  My kids just get cold so quickly and I don't have the best snow clothing for them - but it was fun!

It was such a wonderful visit.  Thank you mom and dad and Aaron and Sarah for all the wonderful gifts and for keeping us so well entertained while we were there.  Look how distraught Claire was having to go home...