Christmas Festivities.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is all the events leading up to the day! Here are some things we did to get in the spirit of Christmas...

Temple Square

Christmas in Color Lights

MoTab Choir

Meeting Santa at the Aquarium

And finally Christmas!
Christmas was sooo fun this year. The girls are finally at an age where they get the excitement of Christmas. We went up Tremonton for Christmas Eve. We had fun spending time with family and during the big Christmas Eve dinner and Nativity play. Unfortunately for us, Quincy tried to sneak some of grandma's delicious, full of gluten, rolls during dinner time and it cut our evening short. Dang you Celiac Disease! She ended up throwing up all over Austin while we were opening our Christmas PJS so we rushed home. Luckily we were able to catch her before she actually swallowed anything so her reaction wasn't as bad as usual. This means our Christmas morning wasn't ruined!
Santa definitely found out us and boy did we got spoiled! Some top presents this year were Quincy got a Paw Patrol Lookout tower and bike. Kennadi got a scooter and gymanstic mat/clothes. I got a carpet cleaner and Austin got some golf clubs.

October/November

A quick recap of some of our Fall Adventures...

Scarecrow Festival.
One of our favorite things to do during the fall is visit the scarecrow festival at Thanksgiving point. We love looking at all the creative things folks come up with. Here are some of our favorites....

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip.
Kennadi had a field trip the pumpkin patch so Quincy and I tagged along. Kennadi got to pick out a small pumpkin and she was very thorough picking it out. She went down every aisle a couple of times while pushing her small wheelbarrow to find the perfect one.

Cedar City Temple Openhouse.
We made a special trip down to Cedar City during the temple open house mainly so the girls can walk through it. Considering my parents live soo close and have a beautiful view of the temple out their windows, I wanted the girls to know what it looked like inside. The temple was beautiful, of course. Every time we drive by it now, the girls remember when we went through it.

Halloween.
This year we followed a Disney theme with our Halloween costumes. Kennadi opted to be Moana and Quincy was Cinderella. They loved getting all dressed up and trick or treating with their cousins. Our neighborhood is the perfect trick or treating neighborhood with the houses so close together so they both got a decent amount of candy. I got to stay home and hand out candy while snuggling with the newborn twins.

Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was spent up in Logan at Darci and Britten's house. Baby Briggs was just born and so tiny! I had to work Thanksgiving morning and again on Black Friday so I just made a quick trip up just for dinner. Austin and the girls stayed in Tremonton for the weekend so I had the house to myself for a few days which meant -- lots of Christmas shopping!!

Quincy | 2.5 years old.

At 2.5 Months Quincy is...

-knows the ABCs and can count to 15 flawlessly
-obsessed with Paw Patrol

-has 2 puppies and 2 panda bears that she religiously carries around

-is definitely a daddy's girl. If dad is around, she wants nothing to do with me. This was especially apparent in San Diego.

-has decided that nap time no longer should apply to her. This has been a tough pill for me to swallow.

-a very picky eater. Her staples are fruit snacks, french fries, cheetos, and chocolate milk.

-is a sassy thing. She is not afraid to voice her opinion about anything.

-Is like a sour patch kid. Can be sweet and then sour.

San Diego | Part 2

If you know anything about us, you know that we like to stop and get donuts at every vacation spot we go to. So of course, we started the morning with a stop to the Donut Bar. Hands down, it was one of my favorite donut places. The donuts were amazing...  My mouth waters just thinking about them.
After breakfast, we made our way to Sea World! This was probably our favorite stop during the trip. We started the day off riding some rides while we waited for shows to start. I was amazed at how brave both girls were on the rides. The had the best time throwing their hands up and squealing on each of the rides. Kennadi and Austin decided to brave Atlantis, their big water rollercoaster. Quincy and I watched from the sidelines and it looked like they were having a good time, except Kennadi walked off that ride just sobbing. She was soaking wet and did not like it one bit. Luckily, our suitcases were in the car because we were switching hotels, so we did a little detour, made a quick outfit change, the and world was spinning again! We watched the Orca, Dolphin, and sea lion show. We oooed and ahhhed during the dolphin show, and laughed during the pet show. The orca show was a little too serious for us, but we still enjoyed it.

After seaworld, we unwinded at the beach. We went to Coronado Beach, one of our favorites. We basically had the whole beach to ourselves which was amazing! We stayed on the beach until the sunset. It was so pretty and serene. The next morning, we made a quick drive over to Cabrillo National Monument. We toured the cute lighthouse, hiked to some monuments, and then Kennadi and Austin walked over to some tide pools. Unfortunately we were there at the wrong time, high tide. After our little adventure, we went back to the hotel, packed our bags, and started heading to the airport. We made a stop at The Corvette Diner first. The place was so fun. The waitresses made the girls some hair bows out of straws, gave them hats, and the atmosphere was funky and fun. I would stop there again.

The girls didn't want to leave San Diego but were pretty excited to ride an airplane home again. We had some chaos at the airport with our original flight being cancelled because it went through Las Vegas and they were in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting. We ended up making it home but the girls are still asking about our next San Diego or airplane trip.

San Diego | Part 1

As soon as we got home from Hawaii, I wanted to head on vacation again. Luckily, a couple days after we flew home I found some super cheap airplane tickets to San Diego. I convinced Austin to let us go for Kennadi and our birthday. It was soo hard to keep a secret until Kennadi's birthday but watching her face once she understand that the present she just opened was a countdown chair to a beach vacation was worth it! We ended up picking a perfect time to go to San Diego. Not only did we find cheap flights but October is Kids free month for almost all of the popular attractions. Plus the weather was perfect!

This was Kennadis and Quincys first flight and they couldn't contain their excitement. I sat next to Kennadi while Quincy and Austin sat right behind us. Their faces during take off was priceless. They were so interested in everything around them that it didn't take much to keep them entertained during the flight. Once we landed and were taxing into the gate, Quincy kept demanding we get on a different plane.

Once we got our rental car, we headed to our hotel. We ended up driving right past the San Diego Temple so we made a quick detour. The temple was closed because it was Conference Weekend so it was so quiet and peaceful on the grounds. After the temple, we spent the rest of the day at La Jolla Beach. Quincy spent her time chasing seagulls nonstop, Kennadi and Austin enjoyed boogie boarding, and I enjoyed just soaking up some Vitamin D on the beach. The girls were covered head to toe in sand so you know it was a successful beach trip.

The next day we headed to the famous San Diego Zoo. This zoo is huge! There is so much to see. The girls loved watching the giraffes, gorillas, rhinos, and the baby hippo the best. The highlight was probably the sky tram across the zoo though. The girls kept wanting to go over and over again. Because there is so much to do, there is a lot of walking. We only made it about half way though the zoo before the girls were exhausted (lets be honest, I was exhausted too) so we left. That night, we headed to sunset cliffs and watched the sunset. It was the perfect way to end a day in San Diego.

Keeping Up With Kennadi...

Here is another edition of Keeping up with Kennadi....

-I picked Kennadi up from preschool one day in September. The first thing she asks me as she jumps into the car is, "How many more days until Spring Break? I'm tired of school." It may  be a long school year girlfriend...

-Kennadi completed a book in preschool with information all about herself. One the page titled "What I want to be when I grow up" she drew a picture of her in a hula skirt on the beach. I asked her if she wanted to be a hula girl when she grows up. Her reply, "Nah. I just want to live in Hawaii and have no job." I feel the same way.

-Kennadi loves babies and to pretend she is pregnant. I can often find her sleeping in her bed with a doll stuffed up her nightgown.

Preschool.

Kennadi has been soooo excited to start school. We registered her in January for the upcoming school year and I was constantly asked for months if it was the day for preschool to start. She had her clothes, shoes, and hairstyle picked out days before school started. The morning of her first day she woke me up at 4 am to ask if it was time for school to start. She proceeded to wake me up every 15 minutes until it was an acceptable time to get up. She was so excited. It also helped that her first day fell upon her birthday and she got to be the special spotlight student for the day. Now that school has been in session for a few weeks she is smitten with her teacher, Mrs. Rachel. She has also found some good friends and looks forward to preschool every week.

Kennadi | 5 years old.

At 5 years Kennadi is...

-weighs 52 pounds and is 43 inches tall.
-Started preschool. She can write and identify all of her letters plus can write her name.
-very competitive. Soccer has been a good outlet for her.

-obsessed with natural disasters. She can spout out random facts about tornados, hurricanes, and earthquakes like it is nobody's business.

-Very social. Thinks she must be playing with someone or going to some museum or park every minute or every day.

-favorite food is fruit, veggies, and candy.

-Loves Quincy and is very protective of her.

-Constantly falling asleep in weird positions or with dolls stuffed up her shirt

-Is quite the performer. She loves to dance on her makeshift stages and record youtube videos.

Summer Activites.

I'm Behind on blogging so I'm going to consolidate a bunch of our Summer Activities into one post. Please forgive me for my procrastination...

Silver Lake.
One Sunday afternoon, we decided to take a drive up Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Lake. When we got there, we noticed a boardwalk that circles the lake so we decided to take a Sunday Stroll. Utah is so beautiful! I let these pictures speak for it...

Eclipse.
The major eclipse crossed our path and we were almost in the zone for totality, 91% totality to be exact. The girls were so excited to play outside all morning and wait for the sun to go black. It was almost eerie as the earth slowly got darker and darker in the middle of the day. I was so happy we got some glasses from Austin's dad so we could fully experience the eclipse. Once the peak hit, and the earth started getting lighter, Kennadi started crying. She pictured outside turning pitch black and that it was my fault that it didn't end up that way. (kids, right?). Even if Kennadi ruined the moment, I'm still glad I got to experience it.

Island Park.
We once again made the annual trek to Island Park. We love Island Park and look forward to it every year. Austin spent some time fishing. The girls spent most of their time running around outside with their cousins. We made a special stop to the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center and went kayaking on the river as well. We always have a good time and are sad to see our fun weekend end.