Christmas!!!

Christmas has come and gone and I can't believe how fast it went. I think my favorite part is the excitement leading up to Christmas because once Christmas is here I am always sad it's over. There is such a wonderful spirit during Christmastime. We had a really good couple of days!

Scott, Kaiser, and I had our Christmas a couple of days before Christmas. We bought Kaiser a few presents, wrapped them, and stuck them in front of them for him to open. Obviously we knew that he didn't really understand the whole Christmas thing, but we still had fun watching him. We bought him his first Matchbox car (of course), some rubber duckies for the tub, and a toy elephant that pops balls out of his trunk. 

 We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at Neil and Andrea's house. That night, Dakota, who is serving his mission in Guam called via Skype and we talked with him--it was fun to see him and hear what he had to say. We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner and enjoyed time together as a family.

In the morning we opened presents together while Kaiser slept :) Since Scott and I work nights, we have gotten him in a routine of going to bed late, and sleeping in late. So he slept while we opened presents. When he woke up he opened his presents....with a little help of course :)

Uncle Connor gave him his a blue toy car. Grandma and Grandpa Perkes gave him some cute clothes, snow stuff, socks, an awesome book that sings songs and talk, the Wheels on the Bus book, and some toy cars.

Haha he's so cute :) I know there are a billion photos of him and none really of us our or the family. I guess it goes to show where our minds are? 

We spent Christmas afternoon and evening at my parents house. My whole family was able to be together, which is amazing since 4 of the 7 of us work at jobs where we work all hours of the day. We opened presents all together and then we made our own personal pizzas. We spent the day being together, watching the grand babies play, and we had a great day.

Cody Chelsea and Boston got Kaiser a xylophone fish and a book, Toni gave him a blanket she knitted and Twas the Night Before Christmas book, and Grandma and Grandpa Lehman gave him a Baby Einstein play place (that they gave him back in November, and he's loved it ever since), some books, stacking cups, an awesome snow outfit, and some cute clothes/jammies.

We had fun this year watching Kaiser try and figure out the whole Christmas thing. Next year he will for sure get it. He loves the toys/clothes/blankets he got from everyone--but just like any baby, he loved playing with the wrapping paper, boxes, and bows most :) Aww, the simplicity of being a baby!

His first Christmas was a hit! It is crazy how different Christmas becomes when you have a baby. It's more magical almost. More exciting.  It was a great Christmas spent in great company!

Salt Lake Stay-cation

I can't believe how fast time is going--I seriously can't keep up with documenting our lives! Wasn't Christmas only like, yesterday?!

My family and I went down to see the lights at temple square on December 19th. (My mom's birthday!) We met and Cody and Chelsea's house. Aren't these little boys cute?

We headed over to City Creek and grabbed a bite to eat before we let Kaiser and cousin Boston sit on Santa's lap--he had a cute little booth in City Creek. We didn't get to take any pictures of Kaiser sitting on Santa's lap though, sadly. We could have for twenty something bucks. I figured I could just hold onto the picture in my brain :) Kaiser did good with Santa! He stared at him and smiled and tried to touch his beard. He isn't into the stranger danger phase yet-so he pretty much loved him.

We then went and walked around temple square. It was freezing, of course. But VERY pretty since it had snowed earlier that day. The temple is seriously one of the prettiest things ever.

 After seeing the lights we went back to our cars where we ate some better than sex cake for my mom's birthday! It was fun to spend the day with my family and to celebrate my mom's birthday together.

Instead of going home, Scott, Kaiser, and I headed over to Midway where we spent the night at a hotel called the Zermatt. It was a wonderful hotel! Scott and I hadn't been able to spend a ton of time together with him being in full-time school and both of us working all the time... I can't even explain how nice it was to be together as a family at this hotel. When we arrived, we quickly put Kaiser in his swimmy and went into the pool for his first time. Kaiser absolutely loved it! He was so cute in the pool! He seemed to figure out that if he kicked his legs and splashed his arms that he would move forward. He spent the whole time kicking and swimming like crazy. It was probably the best night we had as a family in a long time!

The next day we spent a little bit of time shopping around the outlets in Park City, and around town in SLC before we met up with Scott's family at Bethany and Kacee's apartment. They weren't able to come to Logan for Christmas this year so we decided to have Christmas with them on the 20th instead so we could all be together.

We hung out at their apartment until the rest of the gang arrived--Connor and his friend Josie, Jana and Chuck, and Dallin and Kendall. We ate some pizza for dinner and visited for a while and then headed over to temple square again to check out the lights. Here are some pictures of that night:

We went back to their apartment and exchanged gifts. We had a great time spending time together and reminiscing. It was a fun weekend spent with loved ones!