iDecember...

It's April, and finally spring, and I'm just finishing up blogging about Chrsitmas!  Eeek!  Better late than never.  Here is our Month of December through my iPhone.  

Visiting Santa at the Old James Store / Mitch blowing out the candles on his "Take 5" birthday cake. 

Dieter and Remi during their normal crazy shenanigans / Dieter with his best bud Ossie

Dieter and me at his Nativity program at preschool.

Me, being fixed up by Mitch with anti-nausea meds after a bout with the flu / Drive-thru light show

Westminster Gardens / Finnley's class Christmas party

All dressed up for Mitch's work party / Our little family on Christmas Eve

The Sorber's leading our Christmas carols / Our funny and dysfunctional nativity

Finnley on Christmas Morning / Singing her heart out on her new microphone

Dieter in his new gator / Remi taking a little break on mom's lap

Mitch's gift from the DeHarts, a halter for his horse / Our tree before the storm

It was a great month!  More pictures to come....

Sister's in the City...

The beginning of December, my sisters flew out to New York to hang with me for a few days.  Bonus!  They brought their girls along to play with Finners.  Finnley was thrilled and they had the best time.  We spent a day out in our area and then two days in the city.  We all bunked up into one hotel room (Thanks Ty!) and hit the town doing and seeing all that we could.  Here are a bunch of pictures from our weekend, in no particular order:

These girls were the biggest troopers, and were rewarded with daily diet cokes and a little shopping at American Girl Doll store.  

Sisters meet Shake Shack, Shack Shack meet my sisters.

Rockefeller Square.

We rang in the Christmas season with the Rockettes!  

The girls loved it, and I loved that they did a live nativity at the end.

Santa at the ABC Home Store - Best Santa in NYC!

Late night dinner at Juniors and Finnley getting her second wind after crashing at dinner.

It was fun having my sisters out in our town as well.  They were able to come to one of my spin classes, and snuggle my other kiddos as well.  Its never fun to say goodbye to family, especially knowing we weren't headed home for Christmas, but we had such a great time and I loved having them here!

Thanks girls!  Love your guts.

The Week Before Christmas...

Still blogging about Christmas?  Well, yes I am.

We spent this Christmas together as a family, just the five of us, in New York.  We tried to make it as special as we could, and I think we all had a very magical and memorable Christmas.

Dieter was a shepherd in his preschool program.  It was the cutest, and he was so proud of himself.  He didn't know all the songs, but the parts he knew, he sang loud! He is sweetest.

On Christmas Eve, our elf surprised us by decorating our car with lights and sending us out to look at Christmas lights.  We had hot chocolate and Christmas music, and it was a fun new tradition we can carry out anywhere we live!

Now, onto Christmas morning.

Christmas in the City...

The weekend before Christmas we headed into the city.  I have to say, there's nothing like New York City at Christmas time.  All the buildings are decked out with lights, there are giant christmas displays all over, the department store windows are amazing, and the endless shops make for some great shopping.  

We packed in as much as we could, and our kids were great sports.  We took the train in on Friday evening and went straight to see the Macy's windows.  Mitch hadn't seen them yet, and the kids loved seeing them again.  After, we headed to Schnipper's for dinner.  After checking into our hotel, we bundled ourselves up tight, and went straight to FAO Schwarz.  We walked the isles as the kids begged for toys.  Okay, so it wasn't the smartest idea to go to the most famous toy store just a few days before Christmas.  We caved and they each left with a toy...a small toy.

After FAO, we decided to take a trip to Dylan's for some treats.  It really is "Candy Heaven" and our kids enjoyed filling up their bags with a variety of sweets, sours, and chocolate.  We didn't leave until after 10, and decided to see a few more windows, and must-see's on our way home.  We got back to the hotel just shy of midnight, and tucked ourselves in bed while dreams of sugar ropes danced in our heads. ;)

The next day we woke up, had a yummy breakfast, and headed to Central Park.  The kids played and played at the park and on the rocks until it was time to go on the much anticipated Carriage Ride.  After that, we hit up some shops and had to grab a couple cookies from Levain Bakery.  When we looked in the stroller, both Finnley and Dieter were out cold.  We had a dinner reservation at Dinosaur BBQ all the way up in Harlem, and, since they were asleep, we decided we would walk it and let them snooze.  Well, it ended up being a much longer walk than we had anticipated, and we definitely earned our bbq and cornbread.  It was so good, and we've been craving it ever since.

After two full days of walking, walking, walking, we hopped on the subway home.  I had to get this picture of the Gnome on our train...it was just too funny.

What a fun and memorable weekend.  Mitch and I have already decided that a weekend in the city is our new Christmas tradition.  Hopefully we can keep it up even after we move back West.

Ward Christmas Party 2012

We had our Ward Christmas Party on December 14.  It was a "Christmas Around the World" theme, and our Santa was definitely international! He was a hispanic man from our ward and he made for a lot of laughs...good laughs!  Remmy hasn't changed her mind about Santa Clause, yet we still sat her on his lap and took pictures.  Bad parenting?

We have the cutest missionaries in our ward.  Our kids love them, and for some reason insist on slapping Elder Tingey's hands over and over again - poor guy.  The sisters accept all of Finnley's drawings, and are the sweetest (and most stylish) sisters I've met.  We just said goodbye to Sister Lee and are sad to see her go.