Utah was fun, and now we're back

I started this post a month ago... ah well.  Here it is!

I loved being with family, and I even enjoyed playing in the snow.  But, I am so happy to be back in my own home and nice warm weather again :D  Preston said his favorite part about going home was the feeling of realizing we'll be back in Utah in less than a year!  If all goes as planned :)  Which it doesn't seem to do all that often.  So, we'll see.  Brayden and Zander loved seeing family and playing with new toys.  Brayden really loved playing with big cousing Mikayla this year.  They watched Barbie movies on the bunkbed together, used Mikayla's new check-out stand toy, and played with Brayden's toys too.  He is also getting more interested in playing games with us, although not quite ready to actually learn the rules.  Zander loved it too.  It was fun to see my boys and little cousin Makaila play together.  She and Zander are only a couple weeks apart in age and they liked to copy each other.  Although I'm pretty sure there was a little competitive feeling too.  Zander made her cry a few times.  He's turned in to quite a loud child and Kaila is not used to that.  She really liked being with Brayden though.  And he's getting to be a nice little boy who shares with the little ones.  But, we still have struggles every now and then.  I haven't decided if my favorite part was taking Brayden skiing at Solitude (although that was a lot of work!), seeing one of my best old friends (haha, meaning a best friend from the past) get sealed in the temple, or just seeing all the family and friends.  My least favorite part was having both kids get so sick it knocked them out with a fever for a couple days.  They both slept all day.  Yep, that's never happened before.  And it was actually sort of nice. But not at the same time.  You know...

Well, shucks.  I'm blabbing again.  I'll just load up the pictures.  That's what you really want to see anyway.

Our own family "Christmas" before we left for Utah.  Brayden was concentrating hard on the story and remembered almost all of it and performed it again for Grandma and Papa Brown.

Christmas Cookies!

Getting ready to ski

Santa couldn't eat all 25 cookies ;) So, he left a note and saved some for our breakfast!

We borrowed some of Grandy's stockings to use.

Our little Zander Clause again.  They both traded Santa and elf costumes for our different family parties.  They were really both Zander's size, but Brayden still looked good.

And the lovely temple square lights

building a snowman with Grampy

A shopping cart!!!  What they don't tell you is that you can't take it apart once you put it together. . . we had to leave that toy behind to get later.

a new vacuum for Brayden.  I requested that one!

Zander doing his tricks.  He's quite the little clown.

Mikayla with the purse, flower, and necklace we bought her and wearing the skirt I made!

Great Grandma Cottrell.

Preston's best buds - Rob and Steve (Plus Sara now!)

huge icecycles growing on the Brown's tree.

Driving his new car!

YAY Lacey!!  Beautiful bride!

Me and my sisters

crazy siblings

Christmas

Only two catch-up posts left! One after this. Hope you enjoy!

I know Christmas is long gone, but I still wanted to post about the great time we had. I'm lumping our whole vacation into "Christmas" because, well, that's the reason we were gone. I got to spend a whole month with family, which was great.

I left on Dec. 10 and flew to San Diego for a little girls (and kids) getaway with my sister, Mom, and Grammy. We spent about a week there. Mostly going on walks, relaxing, some hot tubbing, one day at the beach (but not the water. . . too cold), and we even tried the pool. Pool was not a good idea. Brayden had goose bumps while he swam and then he whined after getting out because he was frozen so we had him dry off in the sauna. But he was a trooper. I was the lucky, sacrificing mother who got to get in with Brayden and you better believe I went strait to the hot tub while my mom took Brayden to the sauna. I met them in there. Brayden, Zander and Makaila loved being with their Grandy and Grammy and got some good bonding time.

After that, we all went to Utah and I met up with Preston and the rest of our families. Things of note that we did:
- Zander got his special name and blessing in my parents home
-  I got to see my little brother for the first time in 2 1/2 years! (he was serving a mission in the New York, New York South mission.)
- We played lots of new boardgames
- I got to go to the temple with my sister (so much closer! and no need for baby swap!)
- I saw a ton of high school friends! I need to better at staying in touch!
- We met our newest little niece and nephew - they're 3 yr old foster twins that Preston's sister has.
- We saw Preston's grandma for what we both feel like will be the last time.
- Went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert
- Stayed up til 3:30am playing with cousins and aunts/uncles on New Year's Eve. We had 9 am church the next morning.
- And last but not least, we opened presents! More than we expected (again). We planned on checking 2 suitcases. We needed 4. :)  Such generous family.

Here's the good stuff- pictures!

Flying out to San Diego

Did I mention my Mom came to help me out? THANKS MOM!!

Brayden's battle wound from the elevator... now I understand why kids should't touch the doors. In Brayden's defense (and partly mine as the responsible adult), he wasn't actually trying to touch the door.  The door opened for an older couple that was with us and the husband was trying to keep Brayden from exiting too early, so he put his hand in front of Brayden to block his path. Next thing ya know, Brayden was crying and his finger was jammed pretty good in the door. But, he was very brave!

A boat parade of Christmas lights!

Brayden and Grammy watching the boats

Bathtime with Grandy

A makeshift baby seat. Brayden would push him around in there :)

Swimming outdoors in 60 degree weather. Cold.

Cute cousins

Brayden likes fitting in small spaces. He seriously asked me to put him in there. He opened the cupboard, pointed and said "up?"

Once there was a snowman named Zander

Old roommates!

This is the Up house replica. Right in the neighborhood of my old roommate, Ka.

Before haircut

After haircut

Christmas morning at the Brown's! (we did Christmas two days in a row, so this was technically Christmas Eve morn)

7am - can you tell?

Zander with his great-Grandma C. Possibly the only time he will ever meet her.

Our fun Christmassy family. Brayden's shirt is a little elf :)

Meet Zander Clause

Christmas Dinner

Brayden's new favorite place. . . in the dog kennel. Jack liked it because Brayden would let him out when no one was looking :)

Long story, but the short explaination is that this is performing artist Colby Rampton and his wife after a private performance thanks to my little brother Dan (also in the pic). Preston stayed home with his fam while he can. But, one of "our songs" (our favorite one) is done by a group Colby used to be in - Loose Change. It's called the dragon song. Look it up. My fav.

Smiles with Aunt Beck

New Year's fun for the kids before bedtime. We (not the kids) stayed up 'til 4.