Another Wave Cave Hike

Off on a cold morning hike with Aydia going us.

We attempted to spell Jones. Zoe's S is my favorite!

Gotta surf the wave! 

Zoe was sad about the snack situation and Chase tried to help her. I love how thoughtful he is.

I say it every time but hiking and spending time with my family is the best! 

Christmas Day 2017

The excitement on Christmas morning is the best! They totally slept in longer than we expected. I got up early to get a run in before and surprisingly they were still asleep when I got back so I had time to shower! But of course I got right back into pjs. 

This is the kids tree upstairs. 

I seriously love his excitement for his backpack. He's wanted it for months. it has Mickey and Donald climbing a mountain. 

He still doesn't want to put it down because he's so happy! The magic of Christmas morning is my favorite! 

Lego's and sleeping bags

The kids were happy with all their presents. 

Growing up my grandparents had the best Christmas treat spread when we came over Christmas morning. I've always done something similar but with not as much. These are all treats that even I can eat and they are delicious and Derek and the kids love them too.

What's not pictured was when my parents came over for breakfast. Christmas morning breakfast is always delicious when Derek is cooking. Then later Derek's parents and Grandma came over too.

Zoe made herself her own little room in her tent with all her Christmas presents. 

Maeley looked like a news reporter walking around outside. 

Christmas is my favorite holiday. Its so fun as a parent to watch the kids excitement and their joy in giving and receiving gifts. I sure love my little family! 

Christmas Eve

We somehow missed getting our traditional family picture on the Sunday before Christmas. At least we got the kids. I enjoyed having church on Christmas Eve. Great way to kick off our celebrations. For us Christmas Eve is our busy day with extended family rather than Christmas Day. 

After church the kids got to exchange their presents to eachother. 

 

Chase picked out an outfit for Maeley

Maeley got Zoe a Minnie stuffed animal

Zoe got Chase a Mickey stuffed animal. Zoe didn't know that Maeley had already picked out her gift so it was funny when she picked out the Mickey for Chase. 

It's more fun to have the pair anyways. 

Maeley loves to send friends Instagram messages with the fun filters. 

We had dinner at Derek's parents that evening, then had a nice Christmas program. Maeley and Zoe both played a Christmas song on the piano. I recited the Living Christ as I memorized it the month before. Zoe and Lydia were having a great time. After the program we went to look at Christmas lights. The kids got to ride in the back of Papa's truck with Tama and Aunt Kari.

Christmas lights and other stuff

December 19th we finally made it out to see Christmas lights. This Christmas season was more busy than an other. As the kids are getting old and more involved the less time we have for fun activities like looking at Christmas lights. 

Made it to the Mesa Tempe lights too with our friend Aydia.

Derek found us like this one afternoon. Not surprised, we were none stop in December.

We got a fun puzzle from my sister. The kids didn't help much this year and because Derek had a little cold he finished most of it. It was finished in just under 24 hours. 

This may not seem like much but its a big deal. After going gluten, dairy, soy, and peanut free (basically I eat mostly paleo) I've been on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Cookies are my treat of choice. I love to bake. While I have made many that were good they still lacked something. For my birthday my mother in law got me a paleo dessert cook book. This recipe was in it. Chase calls them the Rockstar cookies because they taste the closest to my old cookie recipe. 

Christmas Sugar cookies 2017

This was done by Derek and pretty much kick started many other Disney themed cookies. Good thing I have several friends that are Disney fans as well.

This is about one third of the cookies we made.

I think I'm going through Disney withdraws because the Disney ones were my favorite. It was also fun to get some creativity out.  

Our tradition of giving a plate of sugar cookies to friends, neighbors and Derek's work might be getting out of hand. We made 4 batches of sugar cookies, 2 batches of gingerbread cookies and a big batch of fudge. It took Derek and I too any hours to count on frosting the cookies. With that being said I still love doing this. Next year year I will plan ahead better and do his work cookies separate from friends and neighbors or maybe just do them all at one time but earlier in the month.

Zoe's Christmas performance

I love getting to watch the kids in school performances. Zoe had a great time singing some Christmas songs.