Yes, we are still here....

It has been so long since my last post; I'm not even going to attempt to catch up. Just know that since August things have been going well, busy, but well.

Ok, so I'm just going to recap Christmas and New Years for you.

Christmas:
On Christmas Eve we went up to my mom and dad's house. We broke off from the traditional Coleman activities, and just did our own thing. We played a few Christmas games, ate treats, did the Nativity (no pictures sorry--only iPhone pictures today.) We opened pj's and a few other presents then headed home to go to bed.

Christmas morning we got a wake up call from our sweet 4 year old at 4:00 A freaking M!!! Although waking up to "Mommy, Santa came! And he brought me a dolly house!" is cute, it would have been nice to have a few more hours of uninterupted sleep. I let her hop into bed with us hoping that would get her to go back to sleep for a few hours. No luck. I finally got sick of being kicked in the back/stomach (dispite our California King size bed, there just isn't enough room in there for more than 2 bodies, even if they are small!!) and went to get into her bed. At 5:00 Carson woke up; Abby hadn't fallen back to sleep, so we were up for the day!

Carson's Christmas from Santa:


Abby's Christmas from Santa:


Playing after the choas:


I love Christmas moring and the excitement that it brings. Abby and Carson loved their presents. Abby kept asking for the next one. My parents came down around 10:00 that morning and gave the kids the gifts from them. Then it was off to Logan to Brian's parents' house. We ate a yummy lunch and then opened presents. After a little more chatting we headed home for some much needed rest!

On New Years Eve we went up to Logan for the annual New Year's Eve party at B.J. and Emily's house. This year the kids were invited! Before we went to their house we went up to Hardware Ranch to take a sleigh ride and see the Elk. Abby was pretty excited to go for a real sleigh ride! It was super cold (9 degrees) so we bundled the kiddos up in their snow cloths. I think they had more fun playing in the snow after the sleigh ride though.

Brian and the kids ready to get on the sleigh:


Check out all the Elk:


Abby on the sleigh:


Daddy and Carson telling the horse "thanks for the ride!"


Abby and Carson playing the the snowbank:



We got to B.J. and Emily's house at 7ish that night. We did the usual things eat, talk, play, eat, talk, eat, and watched the ball drop as we counted down till midnight. The kids did pretty well. Carson got tired around 11, and started asking for his blanket. He even asked to go home! Abby did really well. She was a little shy around the other kids and got sad few times, but over all she did well. After watching the ball drop we went outside with a few of the kids and played with sparklers. Carson really enjoyed it; Abby has never been fond of fireworks and would rather stay away from them. It was a very chilly 3 degrees so we didn't stay out there too long! We spent the night at Brian's mom and dad's house and played the next day for a while before heading home again.

Abby 4 minutes till midnight!


Carson with his sparkler: