December 2016 - Reno, Sequioa, and California for Christmas

The kids had fun picking out a Christmas tree at a great new place we found in Provo. Tyler affectionately named the tree Crispy, and after we took him down and put him on the street in front of our house for city pick up the kids continued to play with him. Tyler told me for a couple of weeks after Christmas how much he missed Crispy and how fun he was to play with and how nice he was when they had snow ball fights together.  Haha.

We got to see Santa a couple of times.  First, at Thrive's work party and then at the Mitchell's Christmas breakfast party.  Tyler asked for a guitar and Alexa asked for a baby doll.

 We took a road trip to Reno for Kurt and Romy's wedding and had fun visiting both Kurt and Karl.  It was my first time in Reno.

We went from Reno to Sequioa National Park to see the first and third biggest trees in the world, Generals Sherman and Grant.  General Sherman is bigger than a 747 airplane and the Statue of Liberty.  We found a tiny little B&B lodge up in the mountains a couple of miles outside the park entrance where we spent the night.  We were grateful for good weather that kept the roads open inside the park.  We got to walk through a couple of massive trees, including some that were hollow or had tunnels through them.  

From Sequioa, we continued the journey to California for Christmas.  It was cold and rainy the week we were there, but the kids still had lots of fun at the beach.  A seagull came down and took Tyler's peanut butter and jelly sandwich from him, still in the ziploc bag.  He screamed and cried, chasing the seagull while sobbing.  It was quite the sight.

The kids loved swimming in Marmie and Grandpa's hot tub and picking fresh tangerines off their tree.  They even filled bags with tangerines and wrote "Merry Christmas" on them to give out to the homeless at Balboa Park on Christmas Eve (Marmie's wonderful idea).

Our big Christmas present for them was new bikes.  Alexa graduated from training wheels and caught on really well.  She even got Marmie on her new bike :).

We acted out the nativity on Christmas Eve.  Tyler really wanted to be a donkey so he wrapped himself in Kyle's gray hoodie.  Alexa was Mary, Tad was a sheep, Kyle and I were shepherds, Marmie was a wise woman, and Grandpa was the narrator.

We were spoiled Christmas morning and it was wonderful to be with Marmie and Grandpa.  Christmas was on a Sunday, and it was wonderful to go to sacrament meeting and think of the Savior even more on Christmas day.  Don and Mary and the Haskins came over for dinner and games.  

We were able to go to the San Diego Temple and do sealings.  The temple had amazing Christmas decorations and it was wonderful to be there together as a family.

Alexa's big news is that she lost her first tooth!  She has "shark teeth" where the back ones started coming in before the baby ones were loose or had fallen out.  She pointed out one night that she had something sharp that hurt in her mouth and there was a tooth that had broken through!  It took a few weeks for the tooth in front to get loose and fall out and to say that she was excited is a huge understatement.  It was so cute.  She pulled it out by herself at school and was very brave.  She put her baby tooth in an envelope, drew a tooth on it, and wrote "tooth fairy."  I painted a dollar bill in glitter nail polish in exchange for her first tooth.   

Other photos below include her desire to wear a Santa hat to school (charter school, uniforms required) and me stumbling in on her leading Tyler in singing primary songs from her trash can music stand.

Tyler continues to make us laugh.  He's a wonderful, silly big brother.  Pictures below include him being excited at breakfast because his double blueberry had "bum cheeks!" and a picture he drew of a zombie during church.  He told me it was a zombie, but that we would always be nice to him because he is a child of God.

Tad is still huge and adorable.  When Tyler holds him you can see how ginormous he is in comparison.  We are suckers for his blue eyes and infectious smile.  The minute I walk in the door from work he scoots or climbs from wherever he is in the house and starts squealing to get to me.  I have to pick him up immediately or he throws a fit.

Quotes/Stories to remember:

We stopped at a Mexican restaurant on our drive to Reno.  When the waiter came to get our drink order, Tyler handed him his knife and said "umm, excuse me, I can't have this.  Thank you."

Tyler: Alexa's face smells like a rotten cheese stick!

I gave Tyler two swedish fish.  He immediately gave one to Tad and I said "that was so nice!"  He said (word for word), "I wanted to share because sharing is caring.  When you share it shows that you care about someone.  I wanted to make Tad happy."  My heart is melting for this cute, sweet boy.