Last Picture of 2017

Here we have it, the kids toasting 2018 at about 9:30pm (those little countdowns you can watch on Netflix are pure genius) with some sparkling cider and cheese popcorn.  2017 was a fun year for us, and I managed to check a few things off my bucket list like taking the kids to Disneyland and finally making it to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  I actually saw both sets of my aunts and uncles in 2017, and I hadn't seen any of them in over a decade.  Chris received his first merit-based raise of his career earlier in the year.  McKenzie started middle school, and Cameron started kindergarten.  I could go on and on.  Here's hoping 2018 will be a good year, too!

Leonardo

Yesterday already marked the last day of Winter Break (well, technically the kids have Monday off, but that's New Year's.  Then it's back to school Tuesday.).  I really could use an extra week to recover from Christmas, but since that isn't the case, we made a little trip to The Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake Friday morning.  

It wasn't too busy, which was nice.  There were even employees walking around, and one helped Parker with this flight simulator.  He had been slowly puttering around on the ground, wondering how to fly.  He had a big smile on his face once he knew what to do.

It took forever to get the boys to leave the giant airplane.  A slide exited the back end, so Cameron just looped around for the longest time.  Poor Kenzers had a cold, but she was a good sport about standing around waiting for her brothers.

This made me laugh, so I had to include it - the first thing the kids spotted inside this museum was the escalator.  "Oh, cool!" called out Kenzie.  "Can we ride on it?" asked both Parker and Cameron.  There's not even anything on the third floor besides conference rooms, but we rode the escalator up and back down anyways!

Cameron showing me his boat next to his house that he was building.  I kept handing him neat looking parts, and he usually threw them back in the pile and ignored me.  He had a plan!

Kenzie and I made a marble run for a little while, and then Parker took over.  He told us, "It just needed some modifications."

 Big surprise, Kenzie was drawing an owl.

 Parker thought making his head disappear on the green screen by putting the green hat over his face was hilarious.  The boys occupied themselves here for some time, and then we headed home for lunch.  So ends Winter Break!

Planetarium

Cameron waving from the rocket/slide at the Clark Planetarium.  Wednesday we took a quick little trip to watch an IMAX movie before my pass expired in January.

Parker's mouth was hanging open and he forgot to blink.  He takes engineering seriously, even if it's just making things light up.

Look, Kenzie was on her phone!  That's odd.

She did put it away to make some tornados while we waited for the show to start.

Cameron loves to see how much he'd weigh on all the planets.  

 Having some popcorn as the show started.  Being an educational film about the planet and the International Space Station, it was a little dry.  Cameron kept whispering to me, "How much minutes are left?"  Between the popcorn and some packages of fruit snacks I had in my purse, he was pretty good, though.  Parker and Kenzie claimed they enjoyed it.  It was kind of funny how the astronauts left milk and cookies in a hatch for Santa on Christmas (a pouch of milk and a sealed package that I guess contained a cookie.  They were floating around with, "For Santa," written on them.).  Then it was back home to try to find space for all the toys they got this year!

Christmas with the Arnolds

 Excited to head to Grandma & Grandpa's on Christmas.  Parker brought his "pirate telescope" that Santa brought him.  Cameron brought some tools and his penguin, and packed them in his medic bag.  

 Kenzie just brought her phone!  She was busy texting all her friends and giving them her new number.

 Both boys fell asleep during the 45 minute drive.  Christmas is hard work!

 Bookie had been looking forward to her special Christmas present from me for months now, as I would tease her often that I had spent a whole $2.00 on her, even though I didn't even have her name this year, and I knew she'd love it.  When Bookie was little, one year it was hilarious to ask her what her baby sister was going to be for Halloween.  Camille was a unicorn, but Bookie couldn't say that, plus for some reason she was angry about the unicorn, so she'd say, "A stupid coin-coin."  Anywho, I wrote, "Stupid Coin Coin," on this unicorn headband for her.  Everyone got a good laugh out of it.  We're a mature family.

 Look, Kenzers put down the phone long enough to eat some croissants!

 Cameron opening his presents.  He got a Transformer from his grandparents and he didn't set it down the rest of the evening.

 The big hit was Jessie and Mitchell's baby girl, Millie, who was just born on Thursday.  Here Great-Aunt Hannah was getting a turn to hold her.  Besides admiring the baby, we stuffed our faces with cheeses and played some games, and just like that, Christmas was over for another year!

Christmas Morning

 Parker eyeing the presents, and Kenzie the pre-teen resting in the chair before we started.

 Cameron was so happy to get Pocket the Penguin.  He had hugged and hugged the one he'd seen in the store.  "How does Santa know I just like this?"  

 Such a flurry of activity.  I didn't even take a picture of the boys with their stuff this year because Parker hauled it all off and Cameron had it all over!  They were so excited about everything.

 Kenzie organized all her stuff, though.  She got a ton of books, a ton of owls, some Legos and other fun stuff, but the main event was finally getting her own phone.  She didn't stop smiling all morning.

 Parker starting to play Minecraft right after breakfast.  He didn't even finish his cinnamon roll because he was too eager to get building his world.

Safety first! Cameron loved his new set of tools from his grandparents.  It was a fun morning!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve dinner!  We watched The Nativity before we started eating and it was cute to hear Cameron's answers as we asked him about what was happening.  We wanted to make sure it wasn't all about Santa!

Earlier in the day Cameron asked if it was present time.  I told him, "Not yet."  He sighed and said, "I'm just starting to lose my patience!"  Here he's eagerly holding up his gifts to Kenzie and Parker that he picked out.  He was so excited to finally give them their presents.  (When picking out a present for Parker, Cameron kept picking toys for himself instead.  I said, "No, think of what Parker would want."  Cameron paused and said, "But, he can share?")

It's always cute that they all hug and thank each other for their new toys.  

 I made little chocolate cakes for our dessert, so we saved an extra one for Santa this year.  Parker left a picture and a note, which says, "I hope you like the picture I made and the cake.  P.S. I wish I could see you again."  (Parker insists that a few years ago he looked out the window late at night and saw Santa and his reindeer.  Kids at school have tried to tell him Santa isn't real, but Parker is adamant.  "No, I saw him!"  It's very sweet.)

Preparing for Christmas

Things that needed to happen for tradition's sake: we watched The Muppets Christmas Carol last night.  We have cheese and crackers and a little veggie tray and the kids think it's great (ok, I do, too.).  

 Here's a newer tradition, but we have to leave a space under the tree for the cat to sleep.  She loves to hide under the tree all season long.

 And finally, trying to take a few nice pictures in front of the tree.

Now we're ready!

Frosting Everywhere

Sunday the kiddos decorated gingerbread cookies.  They were very creative with the faces, and even Cameron did pretty well with the frosting bag on his own.

Then Monday we constructed our little "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses.  Cameron is always wearing his penguin blanket!

I like that these projects, although messy (the floor was covered in sprinkles after Parker knocked some over), are something the three of them like to do together.  Kenzie emerges from her room and happily joins in with her brothers.  Cameron is thrilled to be included in something his bigger siblings are doing, too.  

 Cameron was quite proud of his house.  "Now I can eat it?" he wanted to know.  

Kenzie really went to town this year - she used the colored frosting to make a pattern of "lights" around the roof, and made "icicles" out of the white frosting even.  It turned out really cute.

Parker was the last one done, as always.  He takes his masterpieces seriously!

I think we officially have enough sugar in the house to finish out the year!

Yearly Post

Not too long ago I was reflecting that it was almost time to post something for Kyle's birthday today.  I felt like I had posted most of my favorite memories already, and it made me sad to feel like I'd run out of things to say.  As I headed to the Billy Joel concert a few weeks ago, however, I thought to myself which songs I hoped he'd play, and one of them was, "We Didn't Start the Fire."  That was my favorite when I was little, mainly because he said Disneyland in it.  I figured I would make a clip of Billy Joel singing that part and it would give me something to talk about today.  When Billy Joel waved and left the stage, he hadn't played it.  It still had been a fun concert, so I wasn't too disappointed, but he did come back for an encore (and wound up playing about 5 more songs).  The first one he started off with was, "We Didn't Start the Fire."

I hadn't listened to that song in years and years, so it brought back all sorts of random memories of "dancing" with my little brother in our living room.  I say "dancing" in quotations because it was literally just running in circles around the coffee table, not actually dancing.  (That's probably still how I would dance now, if I ever tried.)  Anyways, at least it made me realize there are still many little things that I remember, and I haven't quite run out of them yet, even after 12 years.

Glasses

 

 Last night we drove through the Christmas in Color display over in South Jordan.  We went to a different one last year, and we all enjoyed the lights set to the music, so we were happy to see a closer location was added this year.  It was still fun, but what was extra cute was the boys brought their special stuffed animals in the car.  Here Cameron is holding Stitch.  He proudly tells us all the time that Stitch was, "Sitting on a shelf at Disneyland," waiting for him.  They were given some glasses that made the lights have a shimmery effect, and Cameron did not take his off.

I knew this wouldn't turn out well since it was so dark, but if you look closely you can see pure joy on Cameron's face here.  He loved the Christmas lights and bobbed his head to the music.

Parker brought his seahorse and panda with him, and had fun checking out the Christmas tree with his new glasses when he got home.  I always think the kids are all growing up too quickly, so it was fun to have the boys act like true little kids (Kenzie enjoyed the lights, too, but she let the boys use the glasses and didn't bring her stuffed animals).  We are all getting excited for Christmas over here!

Another Concert

The next Wednesday after the Billy Joel concert, we found ourselves at yet another concert, this time at the middle school.  Kenzers had her Christmas band concert.  She is still enjoying the flute.

Kenzers is in the front row, just left of the director.  She didn't keep her Santa hat on because she claimed the pom pom part kept flipping into her face. 

 Parker and Cameron were really antsy since the concert was running long, but they were very excited to see Kenzie.  They stood, cheered, and clapped like she'd won an Olympic gold medal!  They gave her big hugs afterwards, too.  It's a cute fan club!

Billy Joel

Wednesday Chris and I got to go see Billy Joel in concert in Salt Lake.  Back in May I debated for a few weeks about buying the tickets.  Even the cheaper seats up high (where we were) were only "cheap" in a relative sense.  Finally I figured he's not getting any younger, and neither are we! I would say it was totally worth it.  The atmosphere in the crowd was really fun, and we were laughing constantly at both the crowd (some of those old guys had some funky dance moves!) and also at the show.  I didn't know anything about Billy Joel's personality beforehand, so I wasn't expecting him to be sarcastic.  I enjoyed his self-deprecating humor.

It looked neat when everyone started using the flashlights on their cell phones and waving them around during slow songs.  

Chris took this picture.  Although we were up pretty high, we were close to the stage.  Billy Joel's piano rotated around, so half the time he was facing us, and the giant screen was right next to us, too.  We certainly could hear everything, too (my ears were fuzzy feeling all night!)!  Anyways, it was a lot of fun.

 I had in mind a couple of songs I hoped he would play, and he did not disappoint.  Here is a short clip, because the Cadillac-ac-ac-ac... part is my favorite line of any Billy Joel song (and now you know!).  Anyways, it was an awesome date and it was worth spending all of my Christmas money from last year on, so if that's not a glowing review, I don't know what is!