Christmas Vacation Part IV: Fun with the Newmans

On Monday we had Jessica bring the kiddos over so we could decorate Gingerbread Houses and Sugar Cookies. It was so fun to spend time with them. 

 Ashtynn!

 Ashtynn & Grey!

 I hadn't had a chance to shower yet so don't mind my gorgeousness! LOL!

 Nannies making frosting for the sugar cookies.

 Grandpa & Grey

 The finished product!

 Decorating the cookies

They made little Christmas trees made from stars. They were so cute! 

 Kennadee with her tree!

 Law with his tree!

That night we went over to their house for dinner. It was delicious! Steak, potatoes, veggies! Yum! 

Then we played the traditional game of Monopoly that Russell and Cole love to play. Russell was actually the first one out followed by Cole! Usually Jay and I are out first and the game goes on between Russell and Cole for hours! But this time I actually won! It was great!

Christmas Vacation Part III: Winder Dairy, Night Before Christmas Street, and Temple Square

One of our many family Christmas traditions is to go to Winder Dairy to look at their lights and eat scones and hot chocolate. We did that every year as far back as I can remember. We decided that we had to do that again this year for traditions sake. It was great to go back. It has changed quite a bit since I was there last. Scones made me sick once growing up so every year after that I would have a cookie or brownie or something else while the family had scones. This year I decided to try a scone again. I pretty much had no choice anyway because they don't sell any of that other stuff anymore. I was pretty bummed about that. 

After Winder Dairy we went and drove around The Night Before Christmas Street which is another tradition. It is a street (well, cul-de-sac) where every house is all decked out with lights and each one has a billboard of a part of The Night Before Christmas story. I have always loved going there and my hubby was like a kid in a candy store. He kept saying " I want to live on this street" It was so fun!

After that we went and hopped on the TRAX which is Utah's rail system and headed down to Temple Square.

 Temple Square was beautiful!! It was really crowded also. It was hard to get pictures that didn't have elbows or people in them. 

 The Temple is so beautiful!

 View from Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

When we went to get back on the Train someone had had an accident on the platform and they stopped the trains for an hour while the ambulance came and got him. It was freezing cold! 

Kennadee had been sick since before we left for our trip and we had gone all over the place that day so she was exhausted so she fell asleep while we were waiting! 

When we finally got back to our car we headed over to Coachman's for dinner. It is another one of my favorite Utah restaurants. 

It was 10:00 by the time we ate and then we headed out to go to my Mom's which was 3 hours away. I ended up getting sick on the way home. I'm sure it was due to overeating, eating really late, lack of sleep, and a bit of dehydration! It was not fun!

Christmas Vacation Part II: Crandall Family Get together, Village Inn & Such

After Los Hermanos we went to stay with my dad for the night. We watched Home Alone which is a tradition for he and I. It was so fun to laugh at all the parts we used to laugh about. I felt like a kid again. We ate candy and popcorn and had a blast. It was great!

The next morning we got up and it was flurrying a little bit so Kennadee and I went outside to check it out. It was such a small amount you can't even see it falling. This would be some of the only "snow" we saw the whole trip! It was such a bummer!

  We went out to lunch at Tucano's with my Dad and Aileen and My Grandpa and his friend Verna. Tucano's was DELICIOUS!!! It's a Brazilian BBQ & Buffet. There was a lot of yummy things on the buffet but we mostly stuck to the meat they bring around to the tables. It was so good! And best of all was the Grilled Pineapple! It was so good!

That night we went to Aunt Peggy's & Uncle Bryan's for a family get together. I didn't think to get out my camera. I was bummed when I realized that afterward! It was so good to catch up with everyone. It was such a great visit! 

That night Kennadee and I went to spend the night at Laura & Ben's and I had to go get Russell from the airport. He was due to arrive at 12:00 but his flight was delayed so it came it at 12:40. We got to bed at 2:40 a.m.! 

The next morning we got up to go meet my Dad & Aileen for breakfast at Village Inn. Another family tradition. Kennadee got the funny face pancakes and had a blast visiting with Evan while they ate. 

It was such a great visit!

Christmas Vacation Part I: Los Hermanos

    Kennadee and I got to Utah a couple days before Russell so we decided to do some fun things while we waited anxiously for him to come. On Thursday we went to one of my favorite Restaurants, Los Hermanos (or Lost Hormones as my dad calls it). We met up with my Dad and Aileen, Jessica and her kiddos, and My mom and Pete for lunch. I was a bit disappointed that they changed their menu and raised their prices but it was still pretty good.

 Kennadee and Law. I couldn't get them to both look the same direction at the same time. It was so cute!

 Kennadee and Aunt Jessica

 Sisters!

 Me, Mom, Leena, & Jessica

 Kennadee wearing the Los Hermanos shirt standing in front of their Christmas Tree.

 Me, Dad, & Aileen

 I love this picture of me Kennadee my Dad & Aileen. 

 Me, Kennadee and my cute Niece & Nephews Law, Grey, and Ashtynn!

10 Things I love about this girl lately:

I can't believe how quickly my little girl is growing up! I have been thinking about all the things that I am loving about her and things she is doing that I love lately and I had to post them so I don't forget!

1. She sings with me out of the hymn book during sacrament meeting and is actually singing the words.

2. She randomly tells me how much she loves me at just the moment I need to hear it.

3. She is starting to be able to do math in her head. And sees math problems in daily situations (i.e. while watching a cooking show the lady said now this meal feeds a family of four and Kennadee said "Mom that must mean she has 2 kids because if it feeds 4 and there's 2 adults then that means she has 2 kids" Brilliant!) Also on the math assessment she took in school at the first 9 weeks she was the only one in her class to get the correct answer to the hardest math problem on the test! I was so impressed!

4. She is really good at reading and is discovering words to read all around her!

5. She loves to do kigasugu's (sp?) which means acts of kindness without being asked. 

6. She loves to make songs and then laughs herself silly while she sings them!

7. We introduced her to the game "Go Fish" she absolutely loves it and giggles and gets so excited when someone asks someone else for a card that she has in her hand because she knows she will get a match on her next turn.

8. She is finally to the point where she will eat almost anything we giver her for dinner and for those of you who know her well that is a huge deal! (She used to hate meat so much she would suck the Spaghetti sauce off of the hamburger and spit the hamburger out.) 

9. She has been growing leaps and bounds in her height. She will be taller than me by the time she is 8 I just know it! I bought some extra long pants for her this last summer in anticipation that they would fit her perfectly by winter but noooo she had to grow right out of them before she even got much of a chance to wear them!

10. Her teacher told me at parent teacher conference that she is a delight to have in class and she never has any behavior problems from her. I love that!

I just love this girl and I am so glad Heavenly Father blessed me with her! 

Lil' Stepper Dance Clinic

The High School High Steppers were holding a Lil' Stepper Dance Clinic as a fundraiser for their program so Kennadee batted her cute eyelashes at Daddy and convinced him to let her do it. She was so excited to do it and couldn't stop talking about it for the week before she did it. The day came and she went and did the clinic but when it came time to perform in front of the parents she got really nervous and wanted to go home. You can see it in her face in the pictures below.

The other part of this clinic was that they were able to perform at tonight's High School Football game. She got to dance on the field and then sit up in the stands with the High Steppers and cheer! She had so much fun and was sad when it was time to leave. I am so proud of her. I was really nervous at the beginning of the game that she would be too scared to do it but she opened right up and had a blast. 

 

Waiting on the sidelines to go onto the field to do their dance.

Here is a video of her dancing on the field. She is in the back towards the left with the blonde pigtails. 

 

( You may want to turn down the sound because the wind was blowing really hard into the mic)

After they danced they went and stood on the sides of where the players were coming out and then they came back up to sit with the Hight Steppers and cheer for the players. Here are a few pictures of her cheering. I think that was her favorite part.

Here is a video of them cheering when the team scored a touchdown:

All in all she did a great job and had a blast! I'm so glad she did this!