Livin' it up in the SLC

After our super awesome Christmas down in St. George, we headed to Salt Lake for a visit. It's always so nice to go home and hang out but it's also super busy. It seems like there are always a million fun family things and so many friends we'd like to see while we are there. Unfortunately, we never get to see everyone we want to but we tried to fit as much in as we could while we were there. Some of the happenings...

My mom did her annual Christmas party for the kids. She is sweet and waited for Owen to be in attendance. It was great to have Christmas last just a bit longer.

There were crafts:

 And games:

 And singing:

 And cute babies:

And a giant slumber party in grandma and gramdpa's room that I didn't get a picture of.

Bummer.

Owen was in heaven with his cousins. Not only these cousins, but also THESE cousins.

We were super excited to welcome the newest member of the Rhodes' clan.

This is Oliver, being held by his beautiful mother Carrie.

Todd and Carrie have been waiting for this guy for a very long time. He finally made his appearance in December. Part of the reason we were staying in Salt Lake until January was because Carrie was due to have this little man on January 6th and we didn't want to miss meeting him.  He decided he wanted out early, the beginning of December, while his dad was in Syngapore. All worked out well though and we were so happy to have some extra time to get to know him.

Since his arrival was long awaited, everyone was anxious to meet him, so Tyler's other brother and his family made the trip to come from Idaho, where they spent Christmas, just to spend the day with little Ollie, so we were fortunate enough to hang out with them as well.

Tyler loved spending some quality time with his siblings:

While Owen could not get enough of Cosby reruns:

Seriously, can you see the joy on this kids face? Oh Bill Cosby. We love you.

We were also able to see a few friends while we were in town.

This is New Years, when you have children. People show up around six for food:

Then while the adults try to play games or talk:

the kids run around like maniacs.

Then everyone leaves by 11:00 to miss the traffic.

While Tyler was ringing in the new year with Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark, I was falling asleep in the other room. I feel ok about it though because I've always felt like the best part of New Years is actual New Years day when you wake up to a shoe filled with one last gift from Santa. This is a family tradition I brought to the marraige and I love it.

 Owen and Collette liked that part too.



Other happenings:

More family:

More friends:

Quick side note about this picture. I'd like everyone to take a quick look at our friend Greg's beard. Isn't it the most impressive one you've ever seen? For reals though. This man really knows how to grow his facial hair.

P.S. We missed you Ty! You have to be there next year!

And finally, some SNOW! YAY! So many pictures but I couldn't help it. There is almost nothing cuter than kids playing in the snow.

 My cute Aunt Joe took us around her mountain and showed us such a good time. Thanks Joe!

 We had such a blast in Utah and are totally missing our friends and family. But I'll be honest, I'm not so sad about coming back to the sun and the beach. 

Now we just need those friends and family to come to us. Serious guys. Come see us. Soon.  

Christmas

Sorry you're still having to read about Christmas. Do people hate that? One month later still reading about Christmas? Too bad... Christmas deserves being posted about.

We spent our Christmas holiday in St. George with Ty's parents and sister this year. It was such a blast! Tyler's mom is a way fun Grandma and had "themed days" throughout our visit.

There was Car Day:

Cars and car carpet and riding a big wheele (his car) to the park:

Dinosaur Day:

Dinosaur books and every type of dinosaur toy available in St. George.

Creative Day:
White board and play dough and a ton of other things creative:

Pretend Day:

Reading the story about the gingerbread man and then making them.
Also, Ty's mom kept all of their dress up clothes from when they were young. So fun, especially when you have a two year old wearing clown pajamas and a seven month old daughter you can put wigs on.

Seriously though, isn't she the cutest little lady ever?

Music Day:
Full of musical instruments and Tyler playing the recorder while Collette played in a basket. She loved this. Loved it.

We also spent time at the movies, shopping and lunch with the girls (so fun), hiking, and time at the park. Where I think Tyler and I had as much fun as Owen did. This park is seriously amazing.

Christmas Eve was so great.We had the most amazing dinner of tri-tip steak (not to brag or anything but Tyler makes the BEST tri-tip steak EVER- for reals people).

Yummmy.

We had some unexpected guests at the last minute, a super nice older couple. During our nice quiet dinner conversation, there was a lull in conversation. Of course during the silence Owen yelled as loud as he could, "POO POO, DOGGY POO POO!". You may wonder why or where that came from. Great question. If you figure it out, could you let us know? Owen has just started saying it and laughing super hard. He has also taken to singing every song he knows and substituting the words bum into it. Like Jingle Bells, it's now Jungle Bum. Why does my two year old think this is hilarious?

Next we read and acted out the story of Jesus birth.
Honestly though, isn't this the cutest shephard boy you've ever seen?

Then opened the Christmas Eve pajamas.

Christmas was so fanstastic. We woke up and Owen went to town on his gifts.

 

Church was next and was so nice. I think I love having Christmas on a Sunday. When we got back, we had a big breakfast and returned to the openeing of presents.

Ty was amazing and got me waterskis (YAY!) and a Nordstrom GC. I guess when your husband sees you wearing holey shorts, the same shirts day and after day and nothing but Old Navy $3.00 flip flops for months, he is influenced into the fantsastic gift of shopping. Thanks baby!

Yes, this is what I look like in the morning. I'm not ashamed that I have bed head, no makeup and super soft comfy pajamas.

Tyler's favorite Christmas gift were his Billy Bob teeth. And why wouldn't they be? I love these boys.

Thanks Rhodes parents for an amazing trip!

Krampus

My first birthday after moving to Florida, Tyler decided to get me an elliptical machine (YAY!). We looked and looked on craigslist, and finally found one that seemed perfect. We called the guy selling it and drove out to take a look at it. Once we got to the house, we checked it out and decided it was exactly what we were looking for. While we were purchasing it, we got to talking to the couple selling it (and talked and talked). When we left their place I was telling Tyler that I thought we should try and hang out with them sometime and as I was saying it, his phone rang. It was the couple asking if we'd want to hang out and telling us not to think it was weird that they called and asked us out. They are now some of our closest friends in Florida.

We love Kathy and Wade, not only because they gave us a fantastic deal on an elliptical machine but also because they are way fun.
 This year for Christmas Kathy decided she wanted to throw a Christmas party so she went and found a Santa suit and talked her husband into dressing up for the kiddos.

That was not all they had in store for us. They also had a ton of very delicious treats:


Collette already at seven months old LOVES treats. She is a girl after her mother's heart.

 

The kids wrote letters to Santa and then he showed up to go over their lists with them (how cute is that?).

After Santa, the kids did some crafts. Owen and his best little girlfriend showing off some of their work:

Since we're in sunny Florida, instead of a hot drink bar, Wade and Kathy provided us with snow cones. YUMM...

There was also great conversation provided (can you see how hard I'm laughing? so hard I've got a major double chin happening. Thanks for that Kathy!)

I'm just going to go ahead and throw this picture in because I think he's super hot and she's probably the cutest little girl ever:

Also, while at the party, Tyler and I learned about a guy called Krampus. Have any of you heard of him?

This is not Krampus, this is Wade showing us a picture of Krampus on his bottle and explaining who he is.


Basically Krampus  is the anti-santa. Apparently, he accompanies Santa on Christmas Eve and if there is a bad child in the home, he puts the child into his sack and devours him for Christmas dinner. Super scary right? Not only does he sound frightening, check out what he looks like:

So next year instead of threatening your children with coal from Santa if they are being naughty, you can bring out this picture and threaten them with Krampus. I think it would work.

Nothing better than a hamster nativity set...

When I was in first grade my teacher announced that for Christmas all of the kids would be exchanging white elephant gifts with each other. I was super excited and came home to tell my mom. She explained to me that a white elephant gift was a gag gift. We found some stuff around the house and my mom sent me school with a pair of holey nylons, a pumpkin seed and this thing you throw in the fire that looked like money when it burned. I was super excited about how funny my gag gift was. When I sat down in the circle and the first kid opened their white elephat and it was a bubble gum machine I realized I might be in trouble. Why didn't the teacher explain to us that her version of a white elephant wasn't a gag gift? WHY? Anyway, the nice, smart thing to do would have been to pick my own gift so nobody else ended up with it but instead I stole that bubble gum machine and left school a happy child. I can't stop thinking about that poor little kid who left school with a pair of holey nylons. Poor child.

This year when a friend of mine invited us to an ugly sweater/white elephant party, I made sure she had gag gifts in mind when she said white elephants. Lucky for us, she did. Nothing better than ugly sweaters, good friends and joke gifts to make for a good night.

Since we live in Florida and sweaters are hard to come by, especially ugly Christmas sweaters, we had to get creative. We ended up with a nice women's Christmas vest for Tyler and a red sweater vest that I made into a Christmas one by hot glueing some velvet ribbon bows on the front and a noel decoration we found at Salvation Army for a dollar onto the back. Luckily for us, someone gave Owen a velvet sequence one peice outfit when he was born so he had the perfect outfit to wear for the occasion.

Our friends McKenzie and Luke really know how to throw a party.

 Collette thoroughly enjoyed herself (Ella loved it too)

The party was full of fantastic friends:

A full hot choclate bar: YUMMM

 Great food:

Side note: Does anything say sexy better than a christmas vest and parted hair? I think not.

 The white elephants were awesome as well. Everyone understood that they were to be gag gifts (phew) and there were some great ones to be had. Including pregnant belly paiting kit:

And the white elephant that we ended up with: A hamster nativity set.  I mean really, if any animals can play the baby Jesus, it's got to be a hamster.

This was just the beginning of our fun December. Many more blog posts about Christmas happenings to come.