Flasback - Cousins in Utah before Christmas

It was really a nice treat for us that the Bronsons decided to come out to be with the Maudsleys on Christmas because we were able to see everybody for a few days as well! We saw the new Chipmunk movie one night and then the next night went to see Santa. Since it was an outdoor mall, Santa was also outdoors. Even though it was freezing, the kids were troopers and didn't complain, they were so excited to have their cousins there to run around with! That night, we had Levi and Lexi over for a sleepover and again, my kids were heaven with so much cousin time. What a fun way to start off our Christmas holidays at home!

Smiles

So I always get backed up with blogs and there are some really important ones I'm working on (Christmas, Kaci's birthday), but I decided in order to not miss the everyday things like i have done so much in the past, I will do "flashbacks" (thanks for the idea, Diana!) and just continue blogging about the present too. :)

Kynzie is already three months old and is such a good baby and is a huge smiler. You just have to say something to her and if she is not hungry or needing to burp or tired...she will reward you with a beautiful smile. We all love her and the children are often seen gathered around her. Here is a taste of what we get to enjoy every day. I had to include a frowny face one so you would know that she's not all smiles, but that she is always cute! :) The one when she is smiling in the gray onesie is when I asked her if she was looking at her cousins Scarlett and her Clark cousin who were not born yet and that was her reaction. We were visiting with the Maudsleys at that time. :)

Getting comfy.

When I was putting together the last post, I noticed that there were several pictures of us being cozy. David and I were in the midst of reading the Hunger Games so he loved to cuddle with our two princesses and relax.


Kaci always loves lying next to Makynzie. I really thought this picture was cute because it shows Kynzie reaching out and trying to touch Kaci.




I loved seeing Mason and Carter have slumber parties with their cousins. It reminded me of many fun nights with our cousins growing up. I looked forward to those times all year round and I know my boys do too. Here is a shot that I took one night as they were "settling down." Poor Levi had a cough and was in on the fun during the day, but needed to sleep up closer to his parents at nighttime

Pre-Christmas fun in Colorado

This year because of David starting a new position in the ER at the hospital, he had to work on Christmas and Christmas Eve. So we decided to make a quick trip to Colorado to see our families the week before Christmas. It seems like whenever we go, we only have time for "quick trip" and I'm hoping one of these days we will be able to stay a bit longer, especially since we have two families to spend time with. It was definitely worth it and we love our time spent in Colorado so much.

Diana and Brandon offered to let us stay with them and it was so fun! I was so happy because the kids got to play with their cousins as much as possible and Diana and Brandon were such good hosts! It was fun to spend time with them.

We also were able to spend time with both of our parents and siblings who live at home and see Dan, Charbel, and Benji who we had been missing since they moved to Arizona this past summer and got a surprise visit from Cindy who is working on her Master's in England.

David's parents took the three oldest and David to the museum one day to see a cool interactive dinosaur exhibit, but I didn't want to take three-week old Makynzie out, so we stayed back. They have one picture online of them there, but I will have to figure out if we can post it here. They had a lot of fun doing that!

Dan and Charbel were so good to pick up on when the kids needed something fun to do and were so fun to play with them, games like hot potato and wheelbarrow races. We sure miss having them around.


Grandma got out play dough for the kids one night and that was a big hit. Uncle Dan bonded with Kaci by each of them saying , "Mine" about something over and over again. :)