December Happenings

 Wow, has it really been over a month since I last blogged?  

What is wrong with me?

I will just add some cute pictures then before we have Christmas overload right?

Above is the Clegg sibling dinner at Cafe Trang. Yum!  I always look forward to this annual event.  Love the Clegg siblings!

 So I have this photo turned the right direction on my computer, I don't know why it is not working on the blog.  Sorry.  We also did our annual go to Gateway for dinner, ride trax to Temple Square to see the lights, grab hot chocolate on the way back.  I LOVE this!  I always feel like this comes and goes too quickly. We went with our good friends, the Shepherds.  Can't it be Christmas (or 4th of July) forever?

 Ethan had a very special visitor come to his preschool.  He is so lucky!

 Miss Linda is the best!

 Ethan's cute Christmas tree decorating skills.

 My cute little Elf!

 My handsome Ryan at his Polar Express Day at school.  I love going to school and seeing cute Ry in action.  They are building a candy train & wearing PJ's.  Fun!

 I've been a total stress ball this week helping plan & execute the Ward Christmas Breakfast.  

My dear friend Ashlii totally lit the table cloth on fire.  She's cool like that.  Good thing she's tough, and put it out with her hands.

 Ashlii's Mother-in-law is amazing and let us borrow all of her decorations.  It came together so cute!  (Although, that silver tree above its Ethan's tree, and he was so mad I took it from his room).

 Putting up 15 tables and 130 chairs by myself is SO not fun.  But at least I am super tough now...and I also know that next time...I should ask for help.  I'll admit...listing to Michael Jackson in the church, is pretty cool.

 Ashlii did an amazing job with the hot chocolate bar.

 I totally bought those cute green trees this year, they are adorbs.

My friend Diana made THE BEST homemade syrups for the pancakes. I wish I had a picture of them...and recipes.  Oh man they were good.

It was a lot of work, but it turned out so great. And I think people had a good time (hopefully).

Merry Christmas friends!

Here is a good quote I came upon, and thought I'd share:

"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity. "

-Margaret D. Nadauld

Halloween!

THREE posts in ONE day!  This is Amazing!

For those of you in Salt Lake --Wasn't the weather on Halloween perfect??  Oh how I loved it.  But in Utah Fashion, it did snow the next week.

Ethan at his Preschool Party.

Here is Ethan's adorable preschool group after their party.

There was another Ethan on his soccer team, so my Ethan got nicknamed "Spidey"

So this costume seemed fitting.

He was supposed to be Iron Man (because that's the costume I bought), but changed his mind last minute (like little boys do)...So thanks to my friend, Court, who lent me this costume.

My boys are pretty much the cutest.  I love Halloween!

 

 Our fun neighbor on stilts.  Ryan was nervous, Ethan was terrified!

So the photos above and below are hilarious.  These two awesome people are our friends, and married, and were the ONLY two people who would pose for me in a picture.  Ah, what a cute couple.  

Our neighbor's nanny was able to stay at our house passing out candy so Ben & I could go trick or treating together.  It was so nice to walk around as a family!  Although, I felt bad that I missed seeing all my primary kids come by.  

This year we traded our kids' peanut butter candy & any other candy they wanted to trade for a quarter each for the Book Fair.  Yeah, I'm a genius.  They eat less sugar and they get a book to read!

 

Hope you all had a fabulous Halloween.  I know we did!

Kelly Rae

Our Mini Break -- Separately

Ben & I were able to have little mini getaways with our friends last month.  Ben went to California to the the Utah vs. UCLA game for a short weekend. I am so grateful for them going to Magic Mountain and getting his love for roller-coasters out of the way.  I get too sick to do anything crazy like that.

Ben & Mike also learned how to surf.  Again, another bucket-list item that I don't have to do with him.  Hello! There are sharks in there!

 Although, he sustained a minor injury (that required 9 stitches).  I am thankful to Mike who took him to instacare and held his hand for me.  :-)

Ben said he loved it, and would love to do it again.  Maybe we should move by the ocean??

I was lucky enough to have a mini girls getaway just here in Downtown Salt Lake.  We went to Time Out For Women.  It was so awesome to have a nice time to reflect on things I can do differently, and have a nice time with friends.

This photo was taken after just 3 hours of sleep the night before.  You get 8 girls in 2 hotel rooms and we just end up talking/giggling until 4 am!

I am so grateful for such good friends.  And also so grateful for the friends who could not attend. 

Kelly Rae

The Hunt

I have been a terrible blogger lately.  Do any of you feel extra busy this year, or is it just me?  I feel like our little family has not stopped to catch a breath.  There is always something going on, and no time to sit and blog.  I need to be better though. I'm skipping a ton of pictures and going straight to this one, because I don't have time to upload pictures from the camera at the moment.  

Ben had an awesome opportunity to go pheasant hunting in South Dakota with a few guys from work.  They were there for a week.  How fun! (well, I don't think it sounds fun...but fun for Ben anyway).  Ben is in the back row kind of in the middle...you know, the handsome one.

 The boys and I stayed pretty busy at home while he was gone.  We had Parent/Teacher Conferences, bought books at the Book Fair, Had Playgroup with Ethan, Took to Boys to Wreck it Ralph, I went to my SIL, Lynzie's baby Shower & Uncle Marshall watched the kids (Thanks Marsh!), we had a snowball fight, built a snowman & decorated for Christmas.  That was a "nice" surprise for Daddy when he got home.  :-)

Thanksgiving is next week...I can hardly believe it! 

 What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

Kelly Rae

 

Last Vacation Post - The D Word

 Disneyland is pretty much our favorite place to be.  I love this family vacation!  The boys have so much fun, and so do we.

Cars Land is also my new favorite area.  I could walk down that street at "Radiator Springs" every day. It's like walking into a movie.

So please endure enjoy all of our many pictures from the Land of Disney.

And one day I will post something non-vacation.

The cute new Luigi Tire ride.  But if you're going soon, it's not worth waiting an hour for.

Radiator Springs racers? Totally worth it.

Yes, she is wearing that.  I am glad all you in the blog-sphere can enjoy this view too. If we were not at Disneyland, this would have made my day.  :-)

This is a new found favorite at California Adventure.  I had a drinkable hot fudge sundae (that I am sure was 2000 calories...it's a good thing we walked 12 miles a day).

Can you see why Cars Land was so awesome?  

My boys are adorable!

 Character Breakfast! 

The best way to see the Characters.

 Ethan blowing out his Mickey Birthday Cake.

Happy 5th Birthday Ethan!

Did I mention I love HalloweenTime?

 

 

And here come all the requisite photo spots...

Eating their treat and walking through Radiator Springs for the last time on our last night.

We are sad that it is over. But it is nice to be home and get back on a schedule.