Christmas Time

We has a wonderful Christmas this year.  I'm sad that it is over, but definitely looking forward to all that the new year has to offer.  Here are some of the highlights from our Christmas.

Charlie and I spent a lot of time making cracker toffee (i.e. Christmas Crack) for neighbors, friends, and Matt's co-workers.  But let's be real...Charlie was just in it to lick the spoon.

 Of course we had the annual N family Christmas pajama party, complete with dinner, gingerbread decorating, pajamas, pictures, musical performances, and the reading of the nativity.

The Saturday before Christmas my parents and my brother Matthew came to our house for a pre-christmas dinner, present opening, and carol singing.  It was such a lovely evening.

We are always so happy when Uncle Matt comes to town!  My kids adore him, we adore him, and it doesn't hurt that he spoils us rotten.:)

 Uncle Matt bought Aubrey a helium balloon kit for Christmas...and it was a huge hit!  She loves balloons so much.

On Christmas eve we had a yummy festive dinner at Matt's sister Joy's home, but I don't have any pictures of that.

 Christmas day was so great.  The kiddos were super excited to see all that Santa had brought.  Aubrey loves her new indoor swing, Charlie is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear, Matt surprised me with the record player I've always wanted, Matt got lots of running gear, and to top it all off...it finally snowed!  We ate a yummy breakfast of sweet rolls and breakfast casserole, stayed in jammies for most of the day, and spent a good portion of the afternoon playing in the fresh snow.  It really could not have been more perfect.

Later that evening we headed to my parents house to have Christmas dinner with them, and both my brothers Matthew, and Jake+family.  I also managed not to get any pictures that night, but I know my brother got some epic photos...so maybe I'll share those later.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

Catch-up post #1

I really hate it when I let the blog go for so long, and then I feel like I need to catch up for the sake of record keeping.  But alas, here we are.  So buckle up and get ready for some updates.

In September we blissfully got back in to the routine of the school year, and enjoyed the beginning of the awesome fall weather.  And of course, no September is complete until we've celebrated the Autumn Equinox.  This years celebration could not have been more perfect.  The weather was ideal with clear and sunny skies and nice cool crisp air.  Perfect for a campfire in the mountains.  We got our favorite camping spot at our favorite campground in American Fork Canyon.  We were basically the only people up there (I can't remember for sure now, but I think it was a Tuesday night), so it was quiet and peaceful.  We explored, collected colorful leaves, ate a yummy dinner, sat around the campfire eating s'mores, and talked a lot about seasons and why they change.

This was our 5th annual Autumn Equinox celebration, and it was so much fun.  Its one of my favorite family traditions, and I hope that our kids keep looking forward to it every year as much as I do.

Coming soon: posts on Halloween, A trip to Moab, potty training, and of course...a personal essay or two.  I'm ready to get back to blogging, so stay tuned!

Bits of Happiness

I've been thinking a lot lately about happiness.  More specifically, about whether or not happiness is a choice... and if so, to what extent.  I'm still not completely sure what the answer is, or if there is an answer to this question.  I think the closest I've come to answering this is to say there are choices we can make that will allow for more space and opportunity for happiness in our lives.  But whether or not we can just say "I'm going to be happy" and have it be so?  I don't think that's real.

But I thought I would take a second to write a few little things that have made me feel happy lately, because I think it's important to take time to acknowledge the good things.  I believe that giving a voice to happiness, big or small, allows it to grow.

-I was out yesterday running some errands and I decided to stop at Bath and Body Works, because I have been out of bubble bath for a few months now.  One of my life philosophies is that a bath can make just about anything better.  But a bath without bubbles is not a bath worth taking...in my opinion.  So I stopped, got a little carried away, and came home with a bunch of yummy smelling bubble bath and body spray.  Even a little aroma therapy.  Yum.  It should last me for a long while. (P.S. The Eucalyptus Tea aroma therapy is to die for.  And apparently it is meant for stress relief.  Just a little tip for you.)

-While I was gone, Matt took the kids over to his parents house so Grandma could cut Charlie's hair.  They were still gone when I got home, so I had a nice chunk of time alone in the house...which NEVER happens.  It was lovely.  And bonus...Matt came home with fresh chocolate chip cookies his mom had just baked.  Score!

-We took the kids up to Silver Lake this afternoon to enjoy the very fall-like weather we've been having lately.  I was really nervous about it, because the last time we took the kids to the mountains, Aubrey had been very stressed out, emotional and difficult.  I just didn't want to have a repeat experience.  But we had a wonderful time!  Both of the kids were very happy to be there.  Aubrey walked happily around the entire lake.  She wandered off the trail with us to explore.  She climbed over fallen trees and rocks.  She waved and smiled at every person we passed on the trail.  And we ended the evening without a single meltdown.  It was like a miracle.  I was so happy that I couldn't stop hugging her and telling her how proud I was of her.  Add to that the fact that we needed to wear hoodies, and I call that the perfect evening.

-Yesterday I was upstairs straightening my hair for a while.  Matt and the kids were downstairs eating a snack.  When I came down the stairs and Charlie saw me, he gasped and said "Mommy!  You so pretty!"  I think I'll keep him.

-Matt and I have been having conversations about what to do with the townhome we still own in South Jordan.  One of the things we've been thinking of is waiting to sell it until we can make a nice chunk of money, and then turning that money over and buying a cabin/cottage/vacation rental property in the mountains somewhere.  The idea being that if we're going to own two properties...we might as well own one that we can get some use/enjoyment out of.  Who knows if anything will materialize out of this dream...and even if it does it won't be for a good long while.  But it is a fun dream to have, and one that makes me happy.

-I have a board on Pinterest titled "Happiness".  I post anything from pictures to quotes to art...anything that makes me feel happy.  Here is a sampling.

I want to end this post by asking you, my readers, about your thoughts on happiness.  What do you think?  Is happiness a choice?  And if so, to what extent?  And if you are the type of person that think happiness is 100% a choice...what does that look like for you?  I genuinely want to know!  So if you have thoughts on the subject, comment below or on the FB link for this post.

xoxoxo

Mountain Fun (question mark)

One of my favorite things ever is when Matt will take a day off from work right in the middle of a week.  Well, things have been slowing down for him at work lately, and since it's the last full week before school starts again, he decided to take yesterday and today off.  It's been great having him around all day.

 Yesterday the weather was pretty rainy and cloudy all day, so it was pretty low key.  We took the kids to the library for "moving & grooving", we went to Costco, took naps, and then went to Ikea for dinner.  Did you know kids eat for free on Tuesdays? Also, the Ikea cafe is one of the few restaurants we can take Aubrey too, because if we sit right next to the glass balcony she can watch the escalator...and it will keep her attention long enough to sit through a whole meal.  These are the kind of things you learn after 7 years.

This afternoon the sun came out, but it stayed nice and cool.  We decided to head up American Fork Canyon because we figured it wouldn't be crowded on a Wednesday afternoon, and we wanted to spend some time in the great outdoors.  It was absolutely gorgeous, and there were hardly any other folks up there.

We didn't do as much exploring as we would have liked because Aubrey was pretty unhappy most of the time.  She did an awful lot of crying and freaking out.  She seemed really anxious and didn't want to get out of the car whenever we stopped.  But we made her, because well... life has to move on.  Once I pulled out my phone and started taking pictures of her, and let her look at the pictures, she cheered up.  But every time we stopped to get out of the car and walk around, the meltdowns started all over again.

 A smile!

 Matt offered to stay back at the car with Aubrey so Charlie and I could go for a little adventure, but of course Charlie didn't want to go very far without Daddy.

We stopped to play for a while at Tibble Fork Reservoir, and both Aubs and Charlie had a lot of fun at the beach there.

Outings like this are never easy for Aubrey.  Sometimes we come home in a sour mood and wonder why we even did it in the first place.  Some parts of this outing were like that, but some parts were really nice.  So I guess that's why we keep doing it.  And stopping for a little Cafe Rio on the way home definitely didn't hurt the situation. :)

Summer Update

Hello!  That last blog post was just a bit of a downer, eh?  Let's cheer up a bit with some photos of some of the fun we've been having this summer.  Buckle down....this is going to be a long one!

 This is quite possibly my favorite picture ever in the history of the world.

 Feeding ducks with grandma and grandpa A.

 Aubrey has been having SO much fun with her summer nanny, Joanna.  She is one of the aides in Aubrey's class at school, and Matt knows her from high school.  We hired her to come and take Aubrey a couple of times a week for a few hours.  They go and do all kinds of fun stuff like swimming, bowling, riding the ferris wheel at Scheels, and playing at parks.  This is a photo of when she took Aubs to Thanksgiving Point.  It has been a huge help for me this summer...and freed up time for me to do things like grocery shop, run errands, and all sorts of things that are super hard to do with Aubrey and Charlie  in tow.  We just love her!

 It's been hotter than heck down in the Valley, so we head up to the mountains as often as we can.  It's still warm up there...but walking in the shade next to a cool river is much more enjoyable than the alternative.

Aubrey won't let me paint her toe nails...Charlie is a more willing participant.

Charlie enjoying "chocolate toast".

Swimming at Matt's brother's house on the 4th of July has become a bit of a tradition.  One that we love!

This year Aubrey got to swim twice a week at school, and it has made a huge difference in her confidence in the pool.  As long as she has her life jacket on, she is completely independent.  She can swim all over the pool, and even puts her face under the water.

The Avett Brothers finally came back to SLC this summer!  Hooray!  So obviously we got tickets as soon as they went on sale:)  It was at the Red Butte Garden's Amphitheater.  It was the first time we had been to that venue, and it was awesome!  This photo was taken while we were waiting in line to get in...for 2 hours...in the heat.  But we had fun playing cards, and people watching, and talking to the other people waiting in line.

 Of course the show was incredible, as it always is.  But this was our 6th time seeing them live, and I think this was my favorite one yet.  It had been pretty muggy and overcast all day.  Right after the band said "Thank you, we love you, good night!" it started to pour rain.  I mean, down pour.  But we all screamed and screamed and they came out and did 2 more encore songs while we danced in the rain with all the happy people around us, and its gonna sound lame...but it was a really beautiful moment.  We just had the BEST time.

We're cute, don't ya think?  Going to these concerts is my favorite date with Matt.

 Over the weekend we borrowed the N family boat, and invited a few friends to spend the day boating and hanging out with us at Jordanelle Reservoir.  We had so much fun!  Although I managed not to get any pictures of Dave and Mikelle or Brett and Carlee's family.  The boat is Aubrey's happy place.  She would stay on it all day.

 It was a long day for this little Gus Gus.

 How great is this picture?!

 Despite his somber face, Charlie had a lot of fun...and was so good all day.

 Love these folks!

 The cold water is my happy place:-)

 These guys have known each other for a loooong time.  I'm just sad Brett and Dave aren't in this picture.

Matt's happy place.

The end.  Stay tuned, because I have had a blog post churning around in my head for the past couple of days...so I will sit down and write that as soon as I get the chance.