Better Late Than Never!

I finally decided to take a little time out from reading other blogs and post a few new pictures. We had a wonderful Holiday! The kids were so excited about Santa! (mostly Kate) She did not understand why Santa had to come while she was sleeping! :)

Temple Square

Will opened up his stocking very first, found new cars, and that was it for him. He was not interested in anything else!

Kate on the other hand could not get enough. She asked every Santa we saw for a violin. (and, yes every Santa said, what?) She was more than thrilled about her new violin!! However, with all the songs she was playing I had to quickly find a "special" mute to bring down the beautiful music just a notch! :)


We had a great time with all our family, especially Carrie, Mark and Allie who came to celebrate from Washington.

We spent New Years in St.George and had a wild and crazy time with all the cousins!

DANCE

Kate just had her first dance recital a few weeks ago! Crazy to think she is growing up so fast. I was a little worried she would refuse to go on stage, or possibly just stand there on stage without moving. Much to our surprise she did just what she was supposed to. She watched her teacher intently and was quite serious! She did a great job! Three-year-old dance recitals are very entertaining to watch! I wish I could figure out how to get the video uploaded!

Graduation and Babies

Last weekend we headed to St.George to celebrate the new RN in the family and the arrival of twin baby girls. (I made it to the baby shower, but she had the twins 2 days after I came home!)

Lydia is now an official Registered Nurse -- Congrats!

We had a great time at the baby shower and 5 days later the girls arrived! Abigail and Emmaline were both 5 pounds and healthy!

Of course the kids had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa and Kate couldn't get enough of her new christmas dress from Grandma!

BIRTHDAY TIME

William and Jason both celebrated their birthdays this weekend! Will turned the big TWO and he was absolutely thrilled with all of his presents, especially the cars!




I have been very slow to start solid foods with Zachary, mostly because I am too lazy, however, we have recently started and as you can see Zach has many helping hands!

HALLOWEEN!

Well, we had a great Halloween! Kate was thrilled to be a witch and William loved his spider costume. I was amazed he wore it all night without any complaints or bribery! We attempted to dress Zachary as a giraffe, however, the costume was a little big and he was not happy about it. He is always such a good kid, so we knew he was miserable when he started to cry. You can see from the last picture that he was more than happy to be out of his costume!

Catch Up

Well, over the past few weeks it seems like quite a bit has happened. Here is a quick review...

...Grandma and Grandpa Carlson came down from Alaska and we had a great visit with them! The kids are so lucky to have such amazing Great Grandparents!



...Chandra, Cody, Annalise, Alyson, Jessica and Caleb were able to stay at our house for a short visit while Caleb had a minor surgery at Primary Children's. Having cousins around is the greatest and it totally entertains Kate and Will! It was Kate's first real sleepover and she thought it was the best!




...We had a visit from some of our awesome Carlson cousins. Heidi and Millie stayed with us over conference weekend and we had a great time watching conference, chatting and eating good food. Heidi became Kate and Will's new best friend and Zach loved her so much he puked on her about 5 times!



...We headed down to St.George where we were able to attend the temple with Lydia and Nathan, watch some awesome soccer from Julia, play our violins together and just hang out.




...We arrived home to a house covered in snow! I am definitely not ready for winter, but the kids had a great time!




...Oh, and we were able to visit with Sara, Brandon, Isaac and Andrew when they came to Salt Lake (I forgot to take pictures) and our sweet little Zachary is 4 months!

Arizona

A few weeks ago we were able to spend a few days in Phoenix with Sara, Boo, Isaac and Andrew. We had a great time swimming, watching baseball, relaxing, and eating good food! Amazingly enough the kids were great on the flight! Kate was so excited to fly on an airplane and she wouldn't stop talking the entire flight!

The nice weather was great for swimming!

Swimming buddies Kate and Andrew.



Andrew and Will were best little buds at times (this picture was one of those times) :)

All ready for the game in our Diamondback gear.

I think Kate and Will mostly enjoyed the popcorn, drinks, peanuts and slushies!

Aunt Sara was Kate's new best friend!

Zachary was the best little kid the entire trip. Even with the late nights and crazy schedule he was almost always happy!