Catching Up

Alright, get ready.  I am catching my blog up from Halloween to almost now.  There are quite a few new posts.  :)

Santa Claus

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus came to the Hamer school concert and I believe that they performed a Christmas miracle.  Abby has been scared of Santa since last year and just flat out wouldn't have anything to do with him but after a lot of coaxing, I finally got her near him!  Santa and Mrs. Claus were done seeing all the kids and just getting ready to go back to the North Pole and right then I finally convinced Abby to at least get close to Santa while I carried her.   She let Mrs. Claus hold her and Santa scooted in close to get the picture but then he talked to Abby a little and now she seems to be okay with him.  I still don't think she will sit on his lap but she says that she does like Santa now!

Jaiden was a little weary too but they had candy and that's all the convincing she needed.  lol

Salt Lake Trip

The kids have never been to Salt Lake during Christmas, so we decided to take them so they could see the lights at Temple Square. I booked our room at the Holiday Inn Express that has a kid size water park in it and the kids LOVED it. We got there kind of late in the evening, so all we did that night was let the kids swim and then went back to the room and ordered pizza. 

The next day we went to the Living Planet Aquarium which I highly recommend.  It was the first time either one of us had been there and it was really neat!
Jaiden with the jellyfish

Octopus

Can't remember what that is...

Stingray

Tyrel touching it.  It's feels really slimy... yuck.

Shark

After the aquarium (and taking a drive to try and get the kids to take a nap... which didn't work)  we went to dinner at the Mayan.   Cool place to eat (not good food though... sorry but it wasn't)

One of the divers. I wish I would have got a picture of them jumping from the high places but I didn't.... 

We ended the evening with walking through Temple Square

The next day we came home but not without going to Cabelas and Smith & Edwards!  A side note, we make look happy and carefree in the above pic (except for Abby) but our trip was filled with tired kids, lots of people, and scary Utah driving... :)  We had fun but it was sure nice to get home to our small town with a small population and a two lane highway.

Getting Our Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving we went and got our Christmas tree.  I don't actually have a picture of our tree but these are the pictures of Tyrel trying to plow through an unplowed road... ya, you can see how it turned out... lol.

:)   He did pick us out a very nice tree though.   Can you believe ALL this snow just the day after Thanksgiving!!  It has been a long time since we have had this much.    CrAzY

Jaidens Birthday

Our little baby, who is growing up so fast, celebrated her 2nd birthday on November 10.

Birthday morning, showing off kitty with blue sucker on her face.  (I don't normally let her eat candy in the morning but I figured it was her birthday, so why not.)

Birthday dinner with the cousins

Hello Kitty cupcakes (yes, I made all of them. 36 to be exact!)

Singing Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candle, er, putting it out with her fingers.... She really did touch it but didn't get burned.

Time for presents

YAY for birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Reiss

Of course her Dad had to throw in something John Deere

Halloween

Halloween 

The Little Witch

And the Bumblebee

For Halloween, I took the kids trick or treating to a few houses in our neighborhood and when Tyrel got home from work we went into Rexburg and visited a few more houses.  Needless to say, the kids had a blast (but really, what kids isn't having fun on Halloween as long as they get candy!)