Christmas Wrap Up

Well I figured…before January is over I HAVE to write about ALL of our Christmas festivities! I know Christmas is LONG gone and January is already flyin by but better late then never!

We started off our Christmas celebration with a new tradition with the Friedlis.

The whole Friedli Crew minus Ryan, Lindsay, and Olivia

It was seriously SO much fun! We went to a little ranch in Eden where they take you on a horse and wagon ride to this most beautiful little barn thing with the most gorgeous Christmas trees you have ever seen to pick from. I am not a “real” Christmas tree kinda girl because that is now how I grew up and it just seems like a lot of work. I like the convenience of having a tree already strung with lights I can just put together! ;) But this place almost made me wanna change my mind!! It was magical!

Before you start they have a couple reindeer for you to admire! ;)

And dogs! Poppy helped Dakota a lot! ;)

Then you load up onto the wagon. If it would have been more snowy they have a sleigh which would have been even cooler!!

All Aboard!! Even the dogs!!

Before you get to the Christmas trees they stop and take you right up to their elk. They threw them a piece of hay so they would come right up next to us!


Check out this bad boy!!


Dakota loved this part! I LOVE these 2 faces!!


Everyone enjoyin the ride!!

The GORGEOUS trees!!!

How to pick?!






Dakota and Maelee!!


The lucky winner!!

After we were done they took us back to their barn where we enjoyed hot chocolate and Dakota enjoyed his sucker! ;) (Love his cute face!!)


I am already looking forward to next year! If you are a real tree person you must go here!!!

We spent a couple other nights doing our Friedli Family traditions which I always love! I am so grateful for the time and energy Doug and Vicki put into making Christmas so special and memorable for us all! They are the best!!!

Making Christmas ornaments…

Yes we lay Dakota on the kitchen counter…doesn’t everyone do that to their 5 year olds?! He loves it up there though!! He can see what's going on! You just have to stay right by him because he also loves to roll on the counter! :/

Houston helped entertain Dakota while he waited his turn…

He is such a good cousin!!

Then the kids got to open their new pajamas…



Do a Christmas parade in their new pajamas…

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…
Dakota started as the leader but we were a little too slow! ;)

Then we read the nativity as the kids got to place the characters around.

Dakota’s turn! Grammy and Poppy are always so cute to make sure he is included in EVERYTHING!!

Then the kids sang us a couple Christmas songs!

Dakota mostly whined! ;)

And we finished the night off with each of them getting to put their new special ornament on our “real” Christmas tree we had picked out! Even Navy got her own ornament this year! ;)
 

And of course a whole different night the kids got spoiled by Grammy and Poppy and got a million presents! More then their parents and Santa bring Dakota combined! ;) Grandparents are great! ;)

Dakota wasn't super happy during this point but I know he was grateful for all of his presents!



Dakota got to see Santa a few times this year. The first one was at the Perry City annual Christmas movie. They let all Perry residents go to a free movie on a Saturday and then see Santa afterwards. It is such a fun tradition! I love Perry!!!

Dakota wasn’t too excited if you can’t tell! At least his cute friends we took with us were excited! Love their faces!

The second time around it was a whole other story!! Grammy and Poppy picked him up and took him to go see the Willard Christmas lights. Afterwards they saw that Santa was there so they are so cute and decided to take Dakota to go see him even though it is a lot of work. They asked him in the car if he wanted to go see Santa and he started smiling so they of course had to!
As soon as they put him on Santa’s lap he was all smiles AND laughing!!

Maybe he could tell this was the “REAL” Santa! ;)

On the 16th of December Dakota and I packed up our 3 suitcases, feed bag, diaper bag, suction bag, and car seat and headed to warm and sunny AZ!!! We are seriously quite comical to watch in an airport. I’m sure EVERY person we pass just looks at me like I’m crazy…and I am!!! This trip confirmed to me though that I don’t think there is any way possible to go make this trip on my own once this baby comes!

Can you imagine a baby strapped to my chest, another bag, and another car seat in this madness?? Me neither!! My sister Katie was dying when she picked me up and saw all of this! Luckily she had a SUV!! ;)

Going to AZ ALWAYS make my heart happy! I love the warm sunshine, the hugs and kisses from ALL of my family, going back to the house I grew up in, riding horses, and just spending TIME with my family!! It does my heart good every time I get to go! I LOVE living in UT but there is something about going “home” that is just refreshing every once in awhile. I feel like I have to make up all the lost time in the 10 days that I am there! My poor parents, sisters and their families lives get put on hold so I can see them as much as possible but I LOVE it!!!

Just two days after being there we left the warm sunshine to go to Flagstaff for our Polar Express Ride with my parents and nephew Sutton! My cute parents planned this for us and I was so excited about it!
On the way down my mom read the boys the Polar Express Book to get them pumped!

Dakota was excited…not sure what happened once we got on the train! ;)

We drank hot chocolate, ate cookies, saw the North Pole, Saw Santa, sang Christmas carols, and got our bells!! It was an adventure for sure!!


After our Polar Express trip we then went to my sister Dawn’s cabin to spend a few days. All of my sisters and their kids came up and it was a crazy bunch of fun!!!

The kids LOVED the snow…especially since they don’t live in it! ;) So they spent a lot of time outside sledding and playing in the snow.

The whole crew minus Tori!

Us adults went out one day and tore these kids up in a snowball fight and made some pretty sweet snowmen. I had to teach them a thing or two about snowmen making since they aren’t used to this white stuff! ;)

We totally killed them! ;)



The finished product!


We had so much fun just laughing, talking, watching movies, playing cards, and just being together!

We even had fun comparing our bunions we inherited from our mom! Thanks mom! ;) (I’m not even gonna tell you which feet our mine!  ;)) So sexy!



Me and my sisters/best friends!!

The rest of the trip went by so fast after this! Zach flew in, Christmas came, and then we flew out the day after!

Christmas day my mom had a whole agenda planned. It started off with riding horses and roping. We did our traditional adult white elephant exchange…always a good time! ;) The kids opened presents from nana and papa and so did we. Had some yummy lunch OUTSIDE! ;) The kids all rode the magic carpet ride. And we visited!!

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The magic carpet ride is a lot of fun…but it’s DIRTY!!

Dakota didn’t love it! :(

But we tried!!

We ended up just watching and laughing instead! ;)

Love the beautiful new Gilbert temple in the background! It is now having it’s open house, open to the public. If you live in the area you MUST go!!! I’m so sad I’m not there!!!

Zach got a little practice at what it’s going to be like with 2 kids! ;)

He did pretty good! You won’t catch me trying to hold 2 at the same time! ;)

The best part of the trip is I got Zach to go riding with us! ;) You have to give him a little credit…he is NOT a cowboy AND he is blind! BUT it was quite hilarious to watch his face when his horse jumped the ditch and to hear all of his comments throughout! He was a good sport though. He did say he would rather be riding something with a motor though! ;)


And of course Nana and Papa time made the trip ALL worth while!!


It’s always so hard to say goodbye! Even though I know I will see them again soon I ALWAYS cry! Sure do love my fam and am so blessed for the love they continually show us!!

MERRY late CHRISTMAS!! Hope yours was filled with lots of love and laughter! ;)