christmas eve with the lowry's

on christmas eve, we always head to aaron's parents house for a great dinner, a musical program from the children, and a white elephant gift exchange.  we were happy this year to have grandpa lindberg come up from star valley with sherry.  my kids love to see him!  

after the kids finish their performances, grandpa lowry always reads us the story of the birth of jesus from his scriptures.  for many years, when we all had small little children, these cute cousins would dress up and perform the nativity for us.  i can't believe that they are all growing up so fast.

i don't know how i missed getting some pictures from the lovely white elephant exchange.  we were lucky to take home a few " lovely treasures!"  some of them might just get wrapped up again next year:)

cooper turns 3

i think birthday's for 3 year olds just might be my favorite.  it is so easy to make them happy, so little pressure.  i know when he is 12 and his birthday is right before christmas it is going to be a little different.  he helped me pick out crepe paper and balloons at the store and was really excited to have the balloons put up.  he kept asking for them for days before his birthday.

we started the day with carson's soccer game, after the game we grabbed the whole family and went to lunch...cooper requested mcdonalds, but i had a few people in the car begging for something different.  we went to arbys and the birthday boy was just as happy.  he just really wanted some fries.  

after lunch we went home and relaxed and watched the snow fall.  coop took a nap, so he would be a nice little boy when the grandparents came over for the party:)  after all the crazy shopping and crazy weekends it was wonderful to have a quiet saturday at home.

for his birthday dinner we had homemade pizza and green salad...two of his favorites.  he was so excited when his grandparents came over and it was time for presents and cake and ice cream.  

at three years old this little boy loves cars, trucks, all things associated with farms and farm animals, trains, and playing legos (ninjas) with the big boys that come play with his brother.  he loves strawberries more than candy, but he certainly still loves candy as well.  he is getting chatty and saying some of the funniest things. he makes us laugh everyday and we are so happy he is part of our family.

happy birthday coop!

weekend away part 5

on sunday, even though the weather was a little nasty, we drove up to "this is the place" monument.  i wanted my kids to understand a little more about how the church came to salt lake.  it was really cold outside, and it really made us realize how much those poor pioneers suffered and sacrificed.  it was so nice to hop in a warm car after we had been outside for a while.

they had some reindeer at the park.  it was so fun for my kids to see what a real reindeer looked like.  

we were so grateful to have a nice warm car to get into.  we were a little sad to drive to the interstate and start our journey back to reality.  we had such a fun weekend relaxing and spending time with each other:)

weekend away part 4

we made sure when we found our motel, that it had a swimming pool.  i knew that these kids would be happy swimming a couple times a day if we let them.  coop was a little scared at first, but within a few minutes he was loving it.

coop we showing off his muscles:)

weekend away part 3

 after the hands on museum, we walked down to the fountains at gateway and let the brave kids run through them for a few minutes.

it was so fun to take my kids to go see those beautiful lights.  it is always amazing to me to see how many lights they put on those trees.  we had so many pretty pictures, it was way to hard to decide what ones to delete...a bit of a picture overload.

 the cafe at the joseph smith building was selling cookies and hot chocolate.  we stopped in after we walked all around temple square...what a beautiful room they let us take our children into with food;)