Merry Christmas!

When you wake up to these two smiley guys, you know it's has to be a great Christmas!

We have a tradition of changing into our normal clothes before going down for presents. Despite Jon's protests, we've done it every year.

Here's the loot:


Poor Colton just got diapers, wipes and a carseat for Christmas. Santa loves him, but knows he won't remember this Christmas too well.


Pictures of the cutest Baby Claus.



And a picture of the best gift given - from Colton to Jon.

Hanging out during the afternoon with Jon's family.


Getting ready for bed. All in all, we had a great Christmas! Hope you did too!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is a big deal at Jon's parents' home, so we made sure to drive down and join in on the fun.


Here we are in our super Christmas-y outfits and the other pic is with Jon's brother Paul. He and Colton share the same birthday! Just so you know, Colton is wearing a shirt that my mom sent that says "All My Mommy Wants for Christmas is a Silent Night." So true. That's all I ever wish for :) It will come someday I'm sure.


We were lucky enough to be there went Santa decided to visit! He even brought along some cute elves.



Here I am with Santa. When he asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I quickly drew his attention to Colton's shirt.


Of course Santa wanted some time with that darling Colton. First Colton's papa helped him out and then Santa took over and had a nice "talk" with Colton about how he needed to give his mama what she was asking for :) This may have been my most favorite part of the night.


Colton also got to star in the Nativity Story. He was our darling Baby Jesus.


But soon after the wisemen showed up, Colton decided he'd be happier in the wiseman's arms than in Joseph's.... I guess the wiseman reminded him of his real father.

It was a good time. Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Pictures with Santa

Colton Clause was quite popular this year. He had to go out and visit all the good boys and girls of Minnesota and he looked good doing it.

Here's some cute ones with his padres.


And he was well loved by our friends Katie and Camie at our girls lunch + Colton (he's not a girl). I think many people in the restaurant were excited to see Santa come in to dine!

Baby it's cold out there!

We definitely had a COLD first winter here. Here are some pictures showing off the fun of bundling up!

It was about 20 or 30 degrees one day in November and so Jon decided that he better take advantage of the "warmth" and put up the Christmas lights. Colton hid in Jon's coat to go check out the pretty lights.



A picture of my hard working snow shoveler. Jon worked hard to make large snow mounds on each side of the driveway in hope of eventually making a snow fort...


And one more picture of Colton looking very cute as he got bundled up to brave the outdoors. The cute hat and gloves were made by my sweet friend Katie D. They were well used!!!

A WICKED first date

Jon and I went on our very first date!!! Well at least our first date since Colton was born. We were very glad that our friend Camie had a birthday that needed to be celebrated and even happier that she suggested we all go to Wicked to celebrate. What could be a better first date than that? It was so fun to go and see this awesome musical again and fun to go out with our friends. We loved it!


And as you can see from our "girls" picture, some children were invited to join in on the fun. Camie's darling daughter was there too and it was so fun to watch her as she was enthralled by the performance.


It was funny how the entire night it felt like we had forgotten something since Colton wasn't with us, but I guess that's just what happens when you are away from someone for the first time in 5 months. He was well taken care of at his Grandma and Grandpa's house and we were so glad that they were willing to watch him!!! It was a Wicked fun night!!!

Oh Christmas Tree

Just two days after Thanksgiving we were suddenly feeling the Christmas Spirit! So we decided to visit our local Christmas tree farm - less than 2 miles away!!! It was very fun. There were farm animals to check out and we even got free apple cider, what could be better than that? And Colton looked very cute in his snuggly full body coat - thank you Kari and David!


Apparently our eyes were a little bigger than our house, and we had to chop a little off the top so the angel could fit on. Here is my very kind husband who was willing to light the entire tree despite the painful pine needles that cut his hands. I stopped helping very quickly because I got too many pricks.



And here is the finished product! As you can see, the lights definitely make a difference!

Giving Thanks

Nothing is better than Thanksgiving in March, right? So we did have a good Thanksgiving. We joined Jon's parents at their house for our yummy Thanksgiving meal (just 25 minutes south of us). Since his dad is the Mission President here, we were joined by many missionaries, some of the friends they have made here in MN, and Jon's brother and sister that flew in from Utah to join us! It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have from that day. Hopefully I can get more from his parents for Colton's baby book...


The following day we celebrated Jon's youngest sister's birthday and LB wanted to party hard. So we went to the indoor waterpark here and had a great time!

As you can see by the picture, Colton was a little surprised that the water wasn't as warm here as it is in his bath.



But once we found the indoor surfing machine, Colton was quickly lulled to sleep - so basically, we all had a great time!!!


Nothing's better than a water park in the middle of winter in Minnesota!

COUSINS!

In early November we were so happy because my sister Kristen and her sweet family came for a quick visit. It actually was a long layover on their way back from Mexico and to their home in Seattle. I'm still not sure how Minneapolis was along the way, but we were so glad they could come and visit us. They flew in Saturday night and didn't have to leave until Sunday evening so we had some good time to catch up, eat good food, and Colton got to meet his cousins.

Sarah and Joshua were so cute with Colton. Here are some darling shots of Sarah doting on little Colton.

Joshua is Colton's closest in age cousin on my side of the family and they became fast friends. Josh was so good at showing Colton how to play on his playmat and did a great job of mauling Colton while finding his mouth and eyes - it was so cute and definitely a sign of affection.

As you can see, Joshua is a super happy kid with the biggest grin. We love that boy!

And of course we had to get a group picture with the adults so that we had proof of the rendezvous. Photography courtesy of Sarah the Great at 5 years of age. It's always funny seeing yourself from their angle.

We love having them visit and hope that they will come again soon!