Trip to Utah for AJ's wedding!

We were so excited to go to Utah for Andrew and Brittany's wedding! We left the night of the 27th. It was Harvey's first flight.

He did fall asleep about halfway through but never slept very peacefully. I can't imagine he was very comfortable. The big kids did great sitting next to Dad and watching movies on the iPad.

 We made it down to Mitchell and Shayna's place (our old apartment!) around 2am. Whew. We were quite the circus getting our 3 car seats and lots of luggage around with 3 sleepy kids. Tyler is a superstar.

The next morning Harvey ended up napping for about 4 hours so Tyler took the big kids to meet up with Garrett and McKenna at the Bean Museum! Millie was so excited to see snow and touched it every chance she got.

They came back to the apartment afterward to hang out, which to the kids meant wrestle. Max was especially little-boyish on this trip and needed lots of rough housing.

We ventured out to find the big kids some ski gloves so they could touch snow, since they were so insistent on doing that. In hopes of finding more snow to play with we went to Rock Canyon Park, but didn't have much luck there either. Anywhere the sun was shining the snow had melted. Millie made do with what she could find in the shadows.

That evening we went to Pizza Pie Cafe with Mitchell, Shayna, Garrett, and McKenna before heading up to Salt Lake! It was delicious. Gigi, Poppy, and AJ flew in and met us at Temple Square to see the beautiful Christmas lights. We were hoping that since it was after Christmas it wouldn't be so crowded, but no such luck! Guess we weren't the only ones with that idea. It was so beautiful and fun to walk around.

The kids loved having aunts and uncles to play with.

The next morning Poppy treated us all to breakfast at Magleby's Fresh (got my french toast fix). I took Harvey home to nap and Gigi and Tyler took Millie and Max back to the Bean Museum, as well as the Museum of Paleontology.

We went down to Spanish Fork to see Garrett and McKenna's new place! It's so cute and we're so excited for them. On our way home we had to show the kids the football stadium when we drove by and it was randomly open. They climbed right to the top with Poppy.

Future Cougar?

That night we met Brittany's family at Costa Vida and had fun visiting with them and being excited for AJ & Brittany's wedding! Such fun times! Tyler and I were switching off eating/visiting and watching the kids in the play area and we neglected to take any pictures. 3 kids felt like a lot during much of this trip haha.

Saturday was the big day! The sealing was at 11:30, so we weren't too rushed getting ready and getting to the Payson Temple. Harvey fell asleep in the car and Tyler's cousin Natalie was so sweet to come sit in the car with him (and Max) so I could go into the sealing with Tyler. Millie got to play with the other little kids in the waiting room. It was such a beautiful ceremony! We are so happy for Andrew and Brittany!

Then it was picture time! The Payson temple is kind of on a hill with not much around it, making it windy almost all the time. That day was no exception. 

The kids were troopers and let us take their coats off when it was their turn to be in a picture.

I was hoping to get a family picture in front of the temple but by the time we were done with wedding pictures none of us were interested in staying outside for one more minute! It was so very cold!

From the temple we went back to Provo for the luncheon. It was at La Jolla Groves in the river woods, which was beautiful and delicious! They had a sweet program. Millie and Max joined Brittany's cute cousins in singing a medley of "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "I Love to See the Temple."

Have to document when Harvey snuggles with anyone other than me!

 SO happy for Andrew!!

The happy couple during their bubble sendoff. 

I tried once more for a family picture but the kids were over it. I kind of love this picture though. Makes me laugh every time I see it.

 All the wedding festivities were over by 6:30 but we were all beat! We went back to Mitchell and Shayna's apartment, got in comfortable pajamas, and spent the evening playing games and eating treats.

Sunday morning we packed to go home. We got to go to Tyler's cousin's baby's blessing (whew that's a mouthful haha) but left right after the sacrament so we could get to the airport. Had to stop and show the kids our temple, since we don't know when we'll be back there again!

Unfortunately we were already at the airport when we learned that our flight was delayed 2 hours. But that meant we had plenty of time to get our Cafe Rio fix and let the kids run around the terminal before taking off.

This plane had two seats on each side of the aisle, so we let the big kids try sitting together and Tyler and I sat on the other side with Harvey. Millie and Max had been bickering a lot during the trip so we weren't sure it was going to go well, but thankfully they were okay.

Millie was very into the safety instructions.

Goodbye, beautiful mountains!

Terrible picture but had to remember the irony. I wrestled Harvey for the whole flight and was so thankful that Tyler was next to me instead of a stranger like last time. It was super helpful to let Harvey move around a bit more. He finally passed out in my arms literally as the wheels hit the ground when we landed! It was so funny and ironic. 

 We are so happy for Andrew and Brittany and so thankful to Gigi and Poppy for making the trip happen for us!

Christmas (weekend) 2017

This is going to be a really long post with lots of pictures, sorry in advance! We had a wonderful Christmas weekend with our families. Millie didn't have school the Friday before Christmas so we left that morning to head to San Antonio for a couple days. Millie got really comfortable on our drive there.

Gotta have a Bucee's stop!

When we got there the Webb kids weren't out of school yet, but Millie, Max, and Harvey had no trouble making themselves right at home while they waited. At one point that afternoon Max said, "Don't you just love this house?"

Grandma, Grandpa, and Sarah joined us that afternoon too. That night some of the crew went to Leighton's belt advancement in tae kwon do. I stayed behind with Harvey and got him to bed early. We played games that night and had so much fun! 

Saturday morning we went to the Webb's church building to play in the gym. The girls and Dad were singing in church the next day so we practiced in the chapel for a few minutes too. The kids especially enjoyed playing capture the flag. 

I got to take a nap with Harvey in the afternoon.

After we woke up we all went downtown and took a boat tour on the river! It was a little colder than we anticipated. Eva and Dean were so nice to share spare coats with Millie and Max. 

The river was beautiful!

Harvey was grinning at himself in the forward facing camera again. Never gets old for either of us.

Stopped in a giant candy store while waiting for our table. It was insane! I was a little tempted by a full yard of Twix bars!

We had to introduce everyone to Casa Rio. Their chips and salsa are delicious!

By the time we were done eating all the lights on the riverwalk were on and we enjoyed seeing it all as we walked back to the car. We would have stayed longer were it not freezing cold and super crowded. There are some sections along the riverwalk that don't have any kind of railing and it made me nervous walking along there holding Harvey!

They hang super long strings of lights down from the trees. My camera couldn't capture how magical it looked!

On Christmas Eve we got ready for church slowly and the kids took to playing on the stairs. Not sure why but they were happy there.

We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas program at the Webb's ward. I'm definitely a fan of having Christmas Eve land on a Sunday for that reason! We stopped on the way home for a few pictures. Grammy gave me a gold and black gingham skirt a long time ago and Mom helped me turn it into a skirt for Millie and me. It was fun to match my girl.

We spent the afternoon getting ready for the evening and trying to keep the kids busy. We took a walk to their park down the street at one point but stayed at home other than that. Steph and Andrew invited a couple from their ward over for dinner so we had a full house! After dinner we presented Grandma and Grandpa with their gifts. For Grandpa, The grandkids had illustrated the Christmas story Grandpa wrote and we printed the story with the pictures in a book. The kids loved showing Grandpa which picture was theirs and he read the story for us. 

Grandma's gift was a full set of nativity costumes! We had just presented them to her when the doorbell rang and some people from the Webb's ward caroled to us. We invited them in and they joined us for the nativity. It was nice to have enough people to use all of the costumes!

Leighton especially rocked the wiseman look.

The whole cast.

After everyone left we had mint brownies with ice cream and watched "Mr. Krueger's Christmas." 

Max didn't quite make it through, which set a lovely tone for the evening. All the kids slept together in the game room and they were all so quiet, not wanting to wake Max up. They all went to sleep right away! A Christmas miracle! The adults had fun playing Balderdash way too late into the night.

Christmas morning came a little too soon for the adults who only had a couple of hours of sleep! But the kids were so excited we couldn't hold them back. They were so excited to see what Santa brought.

Max got a Cars race track. Unfortunately Santa neglected to bring batteries to make it work, but Max was a good sport about it. 

Santa brought Millie the doll ice cream truck she's been asking for for a couple of years. She was (and still is!) so excited.

Santa didn't forget Harvey! He got some musical instruments, including a drum. Harvey loves to bang on the drum and nod his head like he's super into it. It's so cute.

Some Christmas morning snuggles.

We enjoyed some breakfast casserole and monkey bread and played a fun game called Curses. Steph and Andrew both had curses that involved their hands being stuck in funny places. 

We left to head back to Houston around noon. Tyler and I got to enjoy a quiet car ride as all the kids fell asleep!

We went straight to Gigi and Poppy's house and the Christmas fun continued! We enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts. 

We were shocked by this spinning top that also had flashing lights and played music. Max couldn't believe it. 

I put Harvey down and we let the big kids stay up late so we could play games. Five Crowns was a hit! We had so much fun. 

After sleeping in the next morning, we went with Gigi and AJ to see Ferdinand. It was a really cute movie! We were a little spread out since the theater was almost sold out. Luckily everyone had a buddy.

It was a Christmas to remember!