Forever Young: November through beginning of March

We traded in our Ford Escape for a Toyota Highlander.

Morgan loves his new car! The second we got in it to test drive it, we knew it was the one.

We went to CA for Thanksgiving. First we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Watkins.

Puppy fun.

The kids love going in the hot tub and especially loved going in there with Grandma and Grandpa Watkins.

DONUTS! Still the best donuts we've ever had.

Sam shooting Grandpa's Air Soft Gun in the backyard. My dad and Morgan placed stuffed animals all around the backyard for Sam to shoot.

The poor monkey waiting to get it.

Noel spending time with the puppies. It was adorable how they all lined up to see her. She really loves dogs.

Then we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Young's.

I got to play volleyball with my Mom.

Yoga with Uncle Brian.

Morgan and I got away for a night while the kids were being watched by grandparents. When we got to our hotel, the power was out so we couldn't check in til later.

We went to the batting cages which is a tradition of ours.

Morgan got sushi at Mikuni Restaurant. He was one happy man.

Another tradition we have while on these overnight dates is we finish off our time together by walking around Cameron Park Lake. This time we walked around a couple times because we were enjoying it so much and having such good conversation. I sure love my Morgan. He has put up with so much through the years being my husband;) You can see it in his hair;)

On our way back to Utah we made a stop in Lovelock, NV to lock our love. This was a goal on my Vision Board, so, CHECK!, it's done!

Evelyn and I love to snuggle. We get a lot of time together while Noel and Sam are at school. I sure love spending time with her.

December 1st we started our Christmas Chocolate Advent Calendar. The kids love this tradition.

Our babysitter took this picture of Evelyn while Morgan and I were out on a date. Evelyn loves putting on other peoples hats, clothes, shoes, etc.

Sam's class at school celebrated his birthday in December (his half birthday) because his birthday is during the Summer. Each kid in his class fills out one of these pages in a book that is given to him when they celebrate his birthday. This particular page was adorable. It looks like there's a girl in his class that has a crush on him. "Something I like about you is cute and handsome." Awwww.

Evelyn delivering Noel and Sam's letters to the North Pole Mailbox at the Post Office.

It's hard to tell but our van had a flat. We went into Walmart to get a few things and came back out to a flat tire.

Hanging out in the back of the van while AAA came to the rescue.

A Christmas tradition we have is to go to the Festival of Lights here in Spanish Fork. I love how magical it is especially for the kids.

Evelyn and I shoveled snow one day. Our HOA does this for us but on this particular day they hadn't come yet and we needed something to do. Evelyn LOVED it! It was the cutest thing.

Beautiful winter sunset.

Sam had a presentation in his class where he presented a family Christmas tradition that we have. He shared with his class our tradition of leaving out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. He did such a great job!

After he presented, the class asked him questions.

Noel had a 3rd Grade Christmas Program where they sang a lot of Christmas songs. A lot of the songs they sang were so fun and some of them very touching about the true meaning of Christmas.

Noel showing off her grinch art work. She is such a great artist.

All of the kids and Morgan playing Wii Dance.

Noel and her friend used a special marker on their faces that only shows up when a light is
shown on it.

We sold our old stockings and got new ones and finally got a stocking holder.

Grandma and Grandpa Watkins came for a visit the week prior to Christmas. My Dad joined Noel and Sam and Evelyn playing Wii Dance.

Evelyn snuggling with Grandma.

Grandpa and Sam building a lego set.

My brother Mikey had recently moved to a new place so we went and visited him and played with the remaining puppies he had and his dogs.

I LOVE this picture. It cracks me up.

Mikey and his dog Casper, cousin Ty and Noel with puppies.

Sam finished a lego set.

Mikey and Caitlin gave my Dad a funny hat/visor with a head of hair on the top for Christmas.

The weather was so nice prior to Christmas. It was nice to get some fresh air and go to the park.

Grandma and Grandpa Young and Morgan's brother Brian and his fiance Tobias came for Christmas. We had such a good time with them. This is Christmas dinner. It was quite the feast.

The kids in their new Christmas Eve pj's.

Christmas morning. I just love their morning faces.

Noel made these cute bookmarks for everyone for Christmas. Since attending a conference back in November about having a positive mindset, I have shared a few things here and there with the kids about telling yourself positive things so that those things we can eventually become and believe, declarations are what some people call them. This is Noel's that she made all on her own. It was so touching. I hope she always knows she is amazing and that she continues to love herself. She IS so amazing and IS so lovable and loving.

Sam got an X-Wing lego set for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Young and put it together in 1.5 days. He is amazing!

Getting ready for playing in the snow.

We decorated ugly Christmas Sweater Cookies after Christmas because we didn't have time during the holidays.

Noel's ugly sweater cookies.

Sam's ugly sweater cookies.

Morgan's and my ugly sweater cookies. Mine are on the left and Morgan's are on the right.

Before school started up again we had some fun playing croquet.

We also went miniature bowling at a new place in town called Doc Brundy's. It's a restaurant, ice cream place, arcade and miniature bowling place.

Sam beat us all!

For New Year's Eve we had quite the spread. Pistachios, hostess cupcakes, cheetos and sour skittles.

We played Jenga and ate our munchies.

Miniature bowling on a date with Morgan.

Playing family twister.

The kids dressing up with Mommy and Daddy's shoes.

Sam's lego collection.

Evelyn wearing a bag.

Noel and I went out on a mommy/daughter date. She chose miniature bowling as our activity.

And we grabbed her a big sugar cookie and soda at Sodalicious.

The Blood Moon.

To celebrate 100 days of school Sam was supposed to decorate a shirt with 100 objects. He choose googly eyes to decorate it with.

A new hair do for Miss Evelyn.

Making homemade pizzas.

I had the chance to play volleyball with some friends. It was so nice to have that to look forward to each week. It was pretty decent play and ton of fun!

We ended up making it to the Championships for our league and took 2nd place!

Evelyn has been dressing herself here and there. It's fun to see what she comes up with. This time it involved swim bottoms.

Evelyn and I found a giant Kit Kat bar while shopping around Valentines Day.

We also found a 3 lb Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar!

Another date with my man. We tried out Red Lobster. We didn't have that great of an experience (except for their biscuits, WOW!), which is a good thing because it was so darn expensive.

We got to see an early showing of the new "How to Train Your Dragon 3" as a family. We all enjoyed that movie!

Noel and Evelyn in their Sunday best.

Evelyn was playing with this Eggo box and ended up falling through it and got stuck. It was hilarious at the time!

Our little artist Noel drew this owl at school.

Reading books with Evelyn. She loves to be read to.

Cousin Remi came over to play.

Noel started piano lessons and is doing amazing and she loves it. She is almost finished with her second month.

We went over to Chris and Kareena's for some snow fun and dinner with the rest of the Utah gang, and my Mom and Grandma, who were in town for a funeral.

Chris got a new toy. Noel and Sam loved their ride on it.

Cousin Charlie taking Evelyn sledding.

Evelyn, Morgan and Ben's turn on the Razor.

Sam and Myles sledding.

Noel and Ty sledding down the hill.

We then got together at Ems and Ben's home for dinner and games while my Mom and Grandma were still in town.

The drive home was a little nerve racking.

Noel injured her big toe really bad in November while in CA for Thanksgiving. When she injured it, she not only jammed her big toe along with a couple of others but her big toenail got ripped up too. Since then, her toenail has slowly been dying but in the process, I'd say every few weeks, she'd re-injure it because it would get snagged on something and get yanked up even more. But it finally came off a couple weeks after the picture below! Poor thing.

Sam brought this from home after celebrating 100 days of school.

It reads, "When I am 100 year old, I... want to have 3 kids, a old wife like me. I want to have a home in Utah with a indoor pool and a spa. My family names will be Jhona (Jonah), Tomis and Alisa and my wifes name will be Marsella. That is what it will be in 100 years." Haha. Love it.

This is what the kids woke up to on Valentines morning.

Valentines Day Dinner. We shaped the Papa Murphy's pizzas like hearts on our own (we were too cheap to spend 2 or 3 more dollars per pizza for their heart shaped pizzas), and had a delicious salad.

I made a heart shaped red velvet cake for dessert.

Another date night with my man. We went axe throwing at a place here in Spanish Fork called "Kiss My Axe". We had a great time!

If we got a bullseye we could sign our names on a wood ledge they had there.

We have had quite a bit of snow. The kids enjoyed making a large snowman with their Dad.

Even more snow. This was driving back from taking the kids to school one morning.

It was Community Helpers Day at Sam and Noel's school. Sam's class was supposed to dress up as something they would like to be when they grow up, or as a Community Helper (policeman, fireman, mailman, garbage track man, etc). The only thing we could come up with what we had for clothing was a Scientist so he could at least be dressed up as something. One thing is for sure, Sam is the cutest Scientist I've ever seen!

Evelyn got a new swimsuit! Awww. She is just too cute for words.

Noel and Evelyn in matching dresses for Church.

Here is an example of how nice Sam's handwriting is. This was an assignment where he had to write the best he could.

The kids and I get the mail after picking them up from school and the kids will run all the way home from our mailbox. No joke, our mailbox is I'd say probably just a little less than 1/4 mile from our home. That's some pretty good exercise for those little legs!