Christmas 2018

If we didn't love coming to town for Christmas, we wouldn't do it. We love it. and we are very blessed that we have two awesome families to celebrate with. But it is a WHIRLWIND trying to do everything with both our families!

Christmas Eve Breakfast @ Sue's
Sometime Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, both families usually go to a movie. We sat holiday movies out this year.
Christmas Eve Afternoon- Grandma Cook's Christmas Party
Christmas Eve Night- Grandma Jane's Christmas Party
Christmas Eve later @ Night- Open sibling gifts at my parents house
Christmas Eve Late- Gavin & I always open gifts to & from each other
Christmas morning- open our little family's Christmas gifts from Santa
Christmas morning- go to my parents to open gifts from Santa
Christmas morning- every year Gavin's Aunt Lorean hosts a Christmas morning breakfast. This was the first year we missed it.
Christmas afternoon- Gavin's family's Christmas celebration, dinner, & gifts.

Phew! 
Here's some pictures...

Both my boys got ear infections the day we left for Utah. Owen got over his really fast, but J was miserable for a couple weeks, despite shots and antibiotics. Poor baby! If you can't tell in these pictures- his face is all swollen and runny.

My parents always get us matching pajamas on Christmas Eve. It's such a fun tradition! Usually we get pajamas that we love and will wear again and again. No offense mom, but these ones aren't getting worn all too often!

Funny stories about the pajamas-

• At first, Owen REFUSED to put the pajamas on. Gavin said he'd never been so proud in his life. Eventually we got him to put the pajamas on by convincing him that he'd be able to run extra fast in these pajamas because he wasn't wearing pants.
• Because everyone looked the same, people were getting each other mixed up. At one point, I handed Trace my phone, thinking he was Gavin. The funniest is when Hailey came up behind Jake, wrapped her arm in his, and laid her head on his shoulder. Jake let her sit like that for about a whole minute until someone else noticed what was going on.
• Megan's friend from the singles ward came over to my parent's house while we were all there opening presents. It was a little bit awkward. Jake texted the family "why is this guy here?" After the guy left, Jake said "I went to high school with him! Do you know how embarrassing that was?!"

Santa left a bike for Owen at our apartment in Texas. Owen looked over this picture again and again, and examined every inch of the bike. He told everyone he got a bike with a water bottle!

Soo spoiled!

One fun gift my sisters and I all got- tickets to see Wicked in Salt Lake in February! So, Owen and I got a bonus present of plane tickets to come back to Utah, so that I can see Wicked with my family!

Austin for Thanksgiving

We miss spending Thanksgiving with our families, but it really is fun to celebrate with friends! Our first Thanksgiving here in Texas, Troy and Jazmin Owen came up to Dallas from Houston to feast with us and our friends Kalie & Spencer Knaras. This year, we decided to meet in the middle. We booked a VRBO in Austin, TX. The Owen's brought some of their friends from Houston, then last minute, the Knaras's couldn't make it. So, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Austin with the Owens (Troy, Jazmin, and 1 yr old Jaxon), and the Hansens (Rob, Gentri, and their 1 yr old Caleb.) I'm glad we made it happen!

Stopping at Buc-cee's on the drive down, of course!

The place & the people...

Owen pretty much refused to be in any picture. While we were taking this picture, Owen fell down the stairs and scratched up his face! Only Owen would fall down a spiral staircase!

I love being in new places and finding fun things to do and see! So of course I took advantage of that opportunity.

We visited Hamilton Pool, which was worth the hype!

We also rode the Zilker train. We could have spent all day at this park. Hopefully we come back to Austin soon and can do more here!

Austin's slogan is "Keep Austin Weird." Unique food places are a big part of what makes Austin Austin! For the sake of experiencing it, we went to Loro and Gourdough's for our girls night. Loro is the product of "the best bbq" and "the best Asian" restaurant in Austin... so yah... a mix of smokey barbeque and fresh Asian... it's unique! Gourdoughs deep fried donuts topped with any mixture of fruit and frosting. I wish I would have taken pictures of the food!

Also worth noting from our Austin trip is that Owen bonded with the VRBO neighbor's cat.

We have so much to be thankful for, and had so much fun celebrating Thanksgiving this year!

October 2018

I listened to a podcast (because I'm into those now) about the importance of journaling. They mentioned to just start where you are and not feel overwhelmed by the thought of catching up. So, maybe one day I'll catch up.... but here's where we are at now!

Our October started out in Utah! We went out there to bless J. Fall is Gavin's busiest time of year for work, so Gavin just came to Utah for the weekend- to celebrate his birthday and give J a blessing. Then Gavin went back to Texas to work, and I stayed in Utah with the boys for another 10 days. It always amazes me how fast the time goes by there! 
We spent lots of time with family, doing festive Halloween things, and enjoying the beauty that is fall in Utah!
We went to Gardner's Village to do the witch scavenger hunt with the kiddos. Owen's "Catboy" costume was a gift from my mom. It wasn't intended to be his Halloween costume, but that's what he wanted to wear through the whole month of October, so it worked!

Drove the Alpine Loop in between conference sessions. For personal records sake- this was the highly anticipated conference where they announced the new two-hour church block!

 I freaking love this picture- Megan is helping Owen pee into the weeds, and I'm trying to keep J warm while breastfeeding him. We were in the wild, ookayy?!

Bells Canyon- gotta take advantage of the being able to hike while we're in Utah!

 

We flew back to Texas just me and the two boys! It was a lot of work, but they did great!

We only enjoyed this peaceful scene for about 20 minutes, but I'll take it!

Owen is a nervous kid. He was really nervous driving the Alpine Loop (and I'd be lying if I said it didn't freak me out a little too), and he was pretty scared to ride the airplane too. There was a lot of hand-holding through it all, which I don't mind!

Back in Texas- this was the coolest (temperature-wise) October we've had here, which was nice! It rained a lot, so we had to spend more time indoors than usual. Here are a few things we did:

Arbor Hills Nature Preserve- every time we go, we get off the path right here and throw rocks in the water.

 

 another breastfeeding in the "wild" picture!

Play Street Museum- these little indoor play museums are all over Texas and they are so cute!

We went to a Pumpkin Patch

 And celebrated Halloween as the PJ Masks crew!

Here are a few other random pictures of our cute little boys this month!