Wild Neighbors

 So we thought Upton had the corner on friendly neighborhood wildlife...and then we moved here.  Since it doesn't seem likely that our yard is the only gathering spot for the local deer, I can only conclude that this town is over run with them.  A few weeks ago the temperatures dropped off the thermometer and stayed that way for a while.  During that time, several deer took up semi-permanent residence in our backyard, under our trampoline to be more specific.

Two bucks! While watching these guys, I thought at one point they had their antlers tangled together.  Turned out they both had their antlers tangled in the wire fence.  

Here are a couple of the deer in their favorite spot under the trampoline.  We watched them kick the snow out.  They like a tidy spot.

    

I'm not entirely sure how the buck gets out from under there without poking a hole in the tramp mat.

The deer show little concern over our constant observation.

In addition to these furry friends, a family of owls moved into the neighborhood trees shortly before Halloween; presumably, to celebrate the holidays.  It was fun to listen to them hooting at night...for about 6 weeks.  Now, over 12 weeks later, their Non-stop Constant Nighttime Noise is just annoying.  So much for tall fences making good neighbors.

Christmas Day and New Years Eve 2013

Christmas Day was fantastic and, most importantly, relaxing!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Opening the stockings.

Santa brought Colt a Bat Cave.

Sissy enjoyed tearing away at the wrapping paper.

Breeze loves the Baby Doll Santa brought her.  And she shows it by frequently poling her in the eye.

Maybe the best part of Christmas was seeing how happy Dash was with the present Colt gave him - a BYU football and kicking tee.

Silly, sweet Sport loves straws.  (Say that 10 times fast)  He was thrilled to find straws in his stocking.

One of the gifts the kids and I gave Brandan was a picture of the kiddies to put in his classroom.  The kids decorated the mat around the following picture. So cute. Oh, and Brandan got me an embroidery machine!

Christmas Mess

Christmas jammies from Grandma C.

    On the 27th of December we headed to Idaho to see family.  Among other things, we celebrated Grandma M's birthday and had a New Years Eve Day party at the church with the Claysons.  

Sport and Sis playing with the Nursery's kitchen in the church gym on New Year's Eve.

A break between games.

  

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve is by far my favorite part of the holiday season.  The excitement is so thick you can practically trip over it.  We had a great day.

We started a 750 piece puzzle sometime right before Thanksgiving and we finished up just in time for Christmas.  When we bought the puzzle, Colt campaigned hard for us to purchase a 100 piece Batman puzzle instead.  We decided against it, but he didn't let us off easy.  Every time we complained about our puzzle's difficulty, he made a snarky comment about how easily we could have completed the Batman puzzle.

 Christmas Eve afternoon we decorated cookies to take to a widow in our ward.
Funny sidenote: While in SLC the day before, Dash heard several people speaking Spanish in downtown.  Well, that is unique around our parts, so he took notice.  This particular Sister we visited on Christmas Eve has gone on several Spanish speaking missions, and she bore her testimony to us in Spanish before we left.  As we were walking out to the car, I commented to Dash about how cool it was that she learned Spanish in Mexico.  He replied - "Yay, I didn't know they spoke Spanish in Mexico.  I knew they did in Utah, but not Mexico".

Decorating the cookies...and sneaky some licks.

Somebody left the frosting can within Sissy's reach.

 After our visits, we let the kids open one family present.  We got the boys an indoor/over-the-door basketball hoop and we spent most of the afternoon shooting hoops.  Then we had our annual candlelight pizza dinner.

The camera's flash is pretty effective.  You can't tell, but it's really dark around the table.

This year a wonderful family chose us as the recipients of The 12 Days of Christmas.  Every night, for 12 nights, we would answer a knock at our door and find a piece of a Fisher-Price Nativity.  We were so grateful for this kindness and I learned something, too.  So many times I want to do special Christmas service, but I keep waiting to find the family that is "just right".  A family that is in humble need; someone that will really appreciate what we do.  Well, what a waste.  Our family isn't humble, or needy, and this kindness taught us how to give freely.  In fact, because I was having trouble coming up with families to deliver Secret Santa gifts to, I turned the task over to Dash and he immediately named off several people.  We sneaked up to a few of their doors and dropped off treats and when it was all said and done, it was perfect because we all appreciate knowing that someone is thinking of us.

Before going to bed, we asked the kids to use our new nativity and tell us the story of Christ's birth.  Colt and Dash did such a sweet job.  And Sport, well, just take a look...

Dash was bringing the Christmas animals into the barn.  Sport added in Lightening McQueen.

Several times throughout the story, Sport hurdled himself over the stable.  I think he was going for Heralding Angel, but I'm not sure.

The cast.  

Right as Mary brings forth her newborn son, Sport introduced a basketball into the narration.

 The boys were religiously watching Santa Tracker throughout the night and were anxious to be asleep in their beds before he arrived.  In their beds they were, but all sound asleep, they were not.  Dash was still trying to drop off when he heard bells outside his window.  He even heard Santa going up and down the hall between the bedrooms!  Hmmmm....

We didn't put out Santa's milk and cookies until right before bedtime, but the boys were in a panic because Sissy would not leave them alone and they were just sure she would destroy their chances of getting their Christmas wishes.

Temple Square

On December 23, we went into Salt Lake to do some shopping (crazy, right?) and see the lights on Temple Square.  The shopping centers were nothing to the madness at Temple Square.  After being stuck in traffic for 30 minutes on the city block around Temple Square, we finally found a place to park a couple of blocks away.  The Square was so packed with people, I actually felt dizzy.  I know I'm a country bumpkin, but seriously, there had to have been more than three times the number of people in our whole county just in that city block.  Fortunately, the lights are worth it!

The boys and I at Temple Square.

Dash had his heart set on seeing the Christus statue so we stood in line for 30 mins (!) before we got our turn at the top of the ramp.

The reflection pool.  At a store earlier in the day, Dash had found a coin on the ground so he was able to toss it in and make a wish.  Colt was incredibly jealous, but none of us had any spare change.  Luckily, right as we were leaving, I found a quarter on the ground.  Yeah, we probably should have given it to the many homeless people, but Colt got to make his wish.

Brandan and the kiddos.

Brandan took this picture of the temple.  So pretty!

These characters were standing on the sidewalk outside of the Nauvoo Cafe posing for pictures with whoever wanted one.  Afterwards, they gave the kids a One Million Dollar Buddy the Elf Buck.  When we got home, I took a closer look at the fine print and realized we had been accepting some borderline anti-LDS literature.  Wolves in North Pole clothing.