Christmas in Cali

This year we did Christmas in California with Nate's whole family. We drove (ugggh) and spent the night in Las Vegas on the way. Claire still talks about our castle hotel.


We got there just in time for Christmas Eve. Grandma gave all the grandkids their Christmas jammies.


Then each family showcased a talent.

The Christophers: acrobatics




The Langlois: musical instruments


Us: Claire (singing, although she made look like she's doing acrobatics)


Plowmans: singing


Jason: changing Luke's diaper (he gets the award for best talent in my opinion)


Then we set out cookies for Santa. Can you tell Claire's excited?


Christmas morning! Claire and Brooklyn trying not to peek.


The one thing Claire asked for from Santa: a race car track. We're not sure where she came up with this idea, but she stuck to her guns. So Santa had to pull through.


Luke was very unsure. But he liked watching everyone.


The next day was probably my favorite...MAGIC MOUNTAIN! I love that place. Here's our group, about to hit up Tatsu.


"The Jason."


Standing in the line for X. That ride is not overrated.


The next day we went geocaching. If you have never been, it's now time to go. It's defined as "is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location." It was a ton of fun. Nate and Aaron both had their running watches and would find the coordinates and we'd find the treasure.

We told the kids we were pirates looking for our buried treasure. They LOVED it. Here goes Brianne, Claire and Brookie on the hunt.


Luke was happily along for the ride.


This was a serious hike. It involved steep hills, mud, cactus and walking sticks.


Cute girls!


It was some beautiful terrain.


Finding the treasure!


Group shot. What a fun day.


The rest of the trip was spent playing Kinect, Monopoly card game (if you haven't played yet, go buy it now), and swimming/hot tubbing.






Poor, beat-up Zach. He had a few falls during the trip. :)


The last day of the trip we ended up at Instacare with Luke who had a double ear infection and sinus infection. His nose never stopped, and neither did his smile. :)


One last shot of the grandkids before we had to leave each other. :(


We spent the night in St George on the way home. Claire and Luke were so glad to get out of the car and do some swimming.


It was a Christmas to remember if you ask me.

Have yourself a...

What's a Christmas Season

without some Temple Square lights?



Claire was "freezing and tired."


Luke was happy.


And so were we!


I love Christmas traditions!

Testing out some new studio lighting

and guess who my test subjects were?

Heart them.

Once there was a snowman...

Claire and Nate decided to build a snowman and lucky for us, we had been given a "Snowman Kit" a few years back (thanks again Langlois!). We busted it out (and the camera of course) and they went to work...well, after I made them pose for a picture.



Then Claire tackled Nate.




Then they went to work.


She's built!


Claire named her "Jilly."

Love us some snow.

The first big snowfall was in mid-November and Claire was loving it.





Then she thought it'd be fun to "sneak up" on Nate's truck (he was still at church) and throw a snowball at it. Here she is "sneaking up."


She's not much of a thrower. More like a presser.


"Ha ha ha! Got it!" So proud of herself.

happy thanksgiving!

I realize that I haven't blogged about September yet, but it seems too daunting to go back...I'm going to try to do it next week though!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving planned. I asked Claire what she was grateful for and this was her list...keep in mind that this is verbatim:
~Mommy (I'll take that!)
~My buddy, Luke
~Boo (her stuffed animal from Monsters Inc)
~Movies
~God (I love that she said God, not Heavenly Father)
~That she can make Luke smile
~Cousins
~Daddy
~Pictures (so proud this made her list)

Ahhh...the simple joys.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Luke is six months!

I can't believe how much faster time flies with your second child. The Lukey-man is officially six months old. He's been sitting like a champ for a few weeks and he smiles every time you look at him, which means his pictures super easy.



Some of his favorite things to do are:
-Sit by himself
-Smile, especially when Claire comes to get him from his nap
-Eat anything we feed him
-Sleep - he still sleeps 18-19 hours a day
-Smile
-Take baths with his sister, although he doesn't like water dumped on his head
-Smile :)



Stats:
Weight: 16.5 lbs 48th percentile
Height: 28 inches 85th percentile





Love that bum. :)