Christmas 2011

Our Christmas was wonderful! It was packed with good food, family, fun, games, etc. On Christmas Eve, we went to Darrin's family's for dinner, games and the traditional Nativity Story acted out by all the grandkids which is always fun! Last year Parker got to play baby Jesus, this year he was a little big for that so he got the part of a Shepard :).



Doesn't he make a cute little Shepard?

After Christmas Eve at Darrin's family's we headed over to my parents for our traditional PAJAMA OPENING and reading of "The Night Before Christmas". My Mom also made these INCREDIBLE books for each of the Grandkids that she gave to them on Christmas Eve. The book has letters to Parker, family history of me, Darrin and Grandparents on both sides! What a treasure!!

This is what our house looked like Christmas morning:



It was such a great morning spent opening gifts and stockings. Then we were off to church with my sister at 9am. The program was filled with wonderful music and the spirit. I thought it was really nice to have that time set apart to think about the savior and feel the spirit. After church we headed to my parents for breakfast and gift opening/exchanging. My Uncle Richard was able to be there even though he's been in the hospital for the past few days and so it was SO nice to see him!

After my parents, we went back to Darrin's family's and did the gift exchange/opening. And then we did Dinner and games.

We were SO blessed with SO many generous gifts all around! It would take me all day to name them all but to name a few I got LASER HAIR REMOVAL from my Sweetheart :), an extra FREEZER (YAY!!! I cannot explain how SMALL my freezer is!), gloves, COZY socks, "Our Best Bites" cookbook (:)), new KNIVES (mine were TERRIBLE!!!), an apple corer, slicer, peeler (Already used it-LOVE IT!!), FHE book, Bluray player, a Mani-Pedi, a DOUBLE STROLLER and more :) My goodness when I list it all out I realize even more such how much I'm SO blessed. I have such a wonderful family!

Darrin got a new HP TOUCHPAD (which he's been on NON-stop since Christmas :)), a cozy LONG blanket I made him, an XBOX game (can't remember what it's called), an air compressor, staple gun, fishing pole, and more!

Parker got a BASKETBALL HOOP which he LOVES, a remote control TRUCK, CARS, BALLS, Pillow pet, SNOW GEAR (YAY! He LOVES the snow!), Potty Time Signing Time, Lego's, toys and more!

WOW! What an amazing Christmas we had. Here are some pictures:






Darrin, his Dad, and some of his brothers ALL playing on his new Touchpad :)








Parker checkin' out Dad's new toy:


Parker's first try with his new BBall Hoop:


NBA Parker with his new BBall Hoop:

Accident Prone and Gingerbread

Well, it's been busy here and we've had a few accidents lately...
1. Parker slipped on some water he spilled in the kitchen and fell onto his face on the tile resulting in a FAT lip. Poor guy.
2. I feel down the stairs while holding Parker. It resulted in a bruised lower back, heel, and elbow. But luckily Parker, me and the baby are all ok.
3. Darrin split his head open by accidentally hitting the top of his head on an open kitchen cabinet...OUCH! He had to get 7 staples in his head-without even getting it numbed. I can't even explain how much blood and nastiness there was.

ALL of these things happened within a WEEK!!! Can you believe it?! But luckily we are all ok and alive :). Could have been much worse.

Parker's Fat lip:



I didn't get any pictures OR video of the fall down the stairs-crazy right?! haha.

Here's some proof of Darrin's accident:



On a happier note, we recently made our gingerbread houses (our yearly tradition :)). Here are some pictures:




And lastly, some cute pictures of the newest invention at the Simon household. They made the table into a slide and the kids were going nuts. Parker sure likes him some slide :)

Our Life Lately

Well, We've been busy having lots of fun and I wanted to document all of that :). Thanksgiving was great! We spent most of the day with my family and then headed over to Darrin's parents for Black Friday fun. Other things we've been up to is selling the salon stuff from Ogden (FINALLY!!!), we went shooting with some of Darrin's family, Parker and I went with friends to the FREE day at the Aquarium which was a lot of fun!, we went to the festival of trees with our good friends Shane and Mel Otvos, we went to MIDWAY with our good friends Pattyanne and Cory Waddoups and stayed at Zurmatt Resort and it was SO SO much fun to spend the weekend with them and our little ones love spending time with each other and we love spending time with them!, and lastly, we got to go to Lights at the Zoo last night as a little family-a lot of fun!

So, now you know we've been busy having fun. Here are some pictures to prove it:

Shooting in Saratoga Springs with Darrin's Family (my first time). The kids stayed warm in the car watching.






Free day at the Aquarium (Fishy, Fishy Fishy!!!)






Festival of Trees. Parker was not happy that night. He just wanted to be running around everywhere and we couldn't really let him because we would have lost him in a second in all those crowds-SCARY! But we still had a great time. And here's my 22 weeks along prego picture:




Weekend in Midway with the Waddoups. We had SUCH a good time! Parker learned to jump into the pool to Darrin and I-he LOVED it-what a daredevil! And we also saw "Father Christmas" at the Swiss Christmas boutique we went to. We went and saw the "Crater" at the homestead and relaxed.







Last night at the Zoo Lights. We had such a good time even though it was preeety cold! Parker LOVED looking at all the animals-especially the monkey that was right at the glass to see him! And he loved walking around with Mom and Dad holding hands :)













There you have it-our life lately. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends! I just feel overwhelmed with good feelings and I'm SO excited and happy that it's the Christmas season! I LOVE it!