Christmas Catch-Up#2, Snow, Zoo, Christmas Eve and Day, New Years, Star Wars, Ice Cream

Here's the Christmas catch-up post number two.  A lot has happened in the past 10 days so here we go.

We finally got some snow that stuck.  The first few real snow storms the kids are so excited to go out and shovel/play in the snow.  Too bad that excitement doesn't last through all of winter, though.  Even Noah decided he wanted to help shovel the snow this time:

 Daniel came out and could only find a small shovel left after Josh and Noah took the regular snow shovels.  After some sweet talking Daniel somehow got Noah to switch shovels with him.  Noah ended up with the tiny dirt shovel while Daniel got the regular snow shovel.  Daniel can be a smooth talker when he wants something--haha!

 After a few minutes, though, it all devolved into Josh, Aaron and Matthew actually shoveling snow while the three youngest kids built a snowman and a snow fort.  Aaron taught Josh how to work the snow blower which makes it easier than shoveling the snow.  Here's Aaron, Josh and Matthew actually shoveling/snow blowing:

 Here's the three youngest building their snowman:

Meet Fred:

 Christmas Eve we had my family over for lunch and to play some games.  My brother, Bryan, and his family, my sister, Johanna, and her family and G&G T came for lunch.  Since our regular church meets at 1 pm we decided to go to the 9 am meeting instead so we could enjoy lunch with my family. Aaron smoked two hams and everyone helped out with bringing different sides.  Lunch was delicious.  After lunch we talked and played some games while the cousins played.  After everyone left that evening after lunch we headed out to look at Ogden's Christmas Village.  It ended up being quite chilly outside.  Here's a few of the little decorated houses we saw in the village:

 We had to get a picture by the Christmas Train thanks to Matthew:

 On our way home from the Village it started really snowing.  We did stop by one of our favorite decorated homes in Clinton.  This house always decorates so much every year.  It is fun to compare it from year to year to see what new decorations they get.  They live on a corner so this is only one side of the house.  The other side is decorated just as much, too:

 When we got home we let the kids open one present.  That one present it usually matching Christmas jammy pants that I have sewn, but this year that didn't quite work.  I didn't buy enough material so I couldn't make everyone matching jammy pants--doh!  The kids keep growing so I guesstimated wrong with the material amount this year--darn it.  Next year hopefully I will guesstimate a bit better when  I am buying the material.  All was not lost, though.  The kids had drawn names for one of their siblings for being their secret Santa.  They all had fun picking out a gift for the prospective recipient and wrapping them, too.  When someone opened their gift they tried to guess who gave it to them.  It was pretty fun.  Here's Matthew giving Sarah a love for getting him a road atlas which is a perfect gift for the 'Human GPS' as Matthew calls himself:

 We read the Christmas Story from the scriptures and then put the kids to bed.  They all slept in Sarah and Noah's rooms that night--which means there wasn't a whole lot of sleeping going on....  The next morning we woke up to a very white Christmas at about 6 am:

 And, yes, Santa did come:

 G&G T didn't spend the night with us, but they came over bright and early to watch the kids open all their presents.  We did have matchy jammies because I had all the kids find their pants I had sewn from last year which miraculously still fit them. Here they are all waiting patiently after waking up to see if Santa came:

 They anxiously waited until we got everything settled and then we let them come find their stocking next to their presents:

 We opened one present at a time so we could see everyone's face as they opened their goodies:

 Matthew got a grilled cheese sandwich maker which he was pretty excited about as you can see his hands flapping:

 Sarah opened a box with a note inside telling her to check the garage where she found her new bike:

 Daniel opened a box with a note that said to go upstairs where he found his weight set:

 Josh got running shoes with spikes:

 Noah got an X-Box game he wanted:

 For dinner Aaron had found a pretty good sale on some steak which he wanted to smoke.  Here's the seasoned steaks:

 He also made some au gratin potatoes to smoke along with the steak.  I have to say that I really like the smoker.  It has really cut down on the number of dinners I actually have to cook--haha!  Aaron gets excited to make dinner because he loves his smoker and I am really okay with that--Ha!  Here's our Christmas dinner:

Speaking of smoking things Aaron has tried out a few other recipes that were pretty tasty, too.  He's done some frilled onion bacon cheese buds which are onion blossoms stuffed with bacon, cheese, drizzled with some olive oil and smoked.  They were pretty good.

 He also made some 'Pork Shots' which are a slice of smoked sausage with bacon wrapped around it forming a cup held in place with a toothpick.  The cup is then stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, grated cheddar cheese and a sliced jalapeño.  He also made a few jalapeño poppers to go with it, too.

 Did I mention that I don't have to cook as much since Aaron got his smoker--haha?!

Christmas night without any prompting Josh was really sweet and volunteered to snow blow the sidewalk and driveway for Aaron.  It was pretty awesome!!

 All throughout the day the kids would take a few catnaps because I don't think they slept very well the night before.  I guess all the kids sleeping in two bedrooms would do that to you--haha!  Here's Sarah snoozing on my shoulder:

 Daniel snoozing.  He was on my shoulder, too, but didn't wake up when I got up because he was pretty tired:

 It was a great Christmas.

The next day Aaron had to go to work, but was able to score some cheap afternoon tickets to the latest Star Wars movie at the theater with comfy reclining seats.  The kids rounded up their Star Wars shirts and Aaron and I wore our matching Chewbacca hoodies so we were truly all Star Wars nerds--haha!  The kids had more fun playing with their recliners than watching the movie at times....It was a good movie, though.

 Wednesday was a free admission to the zoo day.  Since some of the funding for the zoo comes from tax dollars with have a few free days for the public to say thanks.  Aaron took the day off of work and we went as a family.  When you have a big family days like these are awesome since regularly it would have been almost $100 for us on a normal day.  It was busy, but not too bad, though.  When we got there they had a small owl out you could see and learn about perched on the handler's hand:

 They also had a falcon out to see and learn about as well:

 The kids had to stop by the lion fountain:

 It was fun to see the lions so close to the glass:

 Monkeys--not just my kids, either--haha!

 Here's how the kids measured up to the gorilla arm spans:

 Learning about the elephants:

 We even got a peak at one of the new polar bears which was pretty cool:

 Here's how the kids measured up to the different types of bears:

 As we were walking around there was a zoo handler who had gathered up three large eagles and was taking them for their feeding time.  We got to be really close up to them which was really cool.  We were so close, in fact, that we got to see one of the spit out/throw up their previous feeding remains they couldn't digest--ick!  It was neat to see them so close up, though.  You could see more details from their sharp beaks and sharp talons to their feathers.  I have never been so close to an eagle before.

 On our way home from the zoo the kids wanted to spend their Fiiz gift cards they had gotten for Christmas.  Any excuse to go to Fiiz, right?!

  Aaron had to work Thursday so I decided to take the kids to McDonald's for lunch on my own.  As soon as we got there Matthew saw some friends from high school and plopped down to eat his lunch with them whether they wanted him to or not.  They were really sweet and let him eat his lunch with them, though.  The rest of us shared a booth and ate lunch, too:

 Isn't it crazy that the smoke detector always starts beeping/chirping with a low battery in the middle of the night--ugh!  Good thing it didn't take long to find out which one was chirping. Also can I say that having a tall kid really makes things a lot easier when it comes to changing out batteries and for decorating Christmas trees--haha?! Josh is not standing on anything--he can just reach it because he is tall enough to touch the ceiling.

 New Years Eve we went to church and when we got home I had the kids pick up.  That usually turns into playing with toys instead of cleaning.  Daniel was 'helping' pick up Sarah's room when he thought he'd be funny and try on a dress up skirt.  I think the joke is on him because now I have a funny blackmail pic I can't wait to show his future dates in a few years--haha!

 New Year's Eve we had the Einzinger family over for dinner and to bring in the new year.  Aaron smoked a pork shoulder and we all brought different side dishes to share.  Dinner was really yummy!  After dinner was over the girls wanted to get their jammies on.  Here a few of them are hanging out (including a photo bombing Daniel in the background) waiting for the treats to make an appearance--haha!

 All the kids except Drew stayed awake until midnight.  Wahoo!  They celebrated a Happy New Years with lots of pot and pan banging in the front yard from all the kids:

It was a fun night and a great way to bring in the New Year!  Thanks Einzingers!!

New Years Day I wanted to take the kids up to a very small ski resort that offers cheap tubing.  All morning we found all of our winter gear and dressed warmly.  We then made the 90 minute drive to the resort--Cherry Peak up in Richmond, Utah.  We paid for our three hour tubing pass and went around the building to pick up our tubes.  When we got there the guy running the tube station told us the tubing hill wasn't open quite yet, but to wait and see if they could get things going.  After waiting in the lodge for 30 minutes and not hearing anything, Aaron went to talk with them to see what was going on.  It was then found out that they hadn't groomed the tubing run and it wasn't going to be open that day--DOH!  Luckily, they refunded our money, but it meant we had just blown our whole day and we weren't relishing the thought of letting Matthew know we wouldn't be tubing that day.  He gets pretty upset when plans change....To make up for all the headache they did give us free tubing passes to come again when the tubing run is actually open, but they did let us know that we would need to call before we came just to make sure the tubing would be running.  Matthew did have a small meltdown as we had to get back into the car which wasn't fun.  However, we were pretty close to the Casper's Ice Cream shop which is the Fatboy Ice-cream sandwich factory where they have cheap ice cream.  We were able to appease him by letting him know we would be stopping by and getting some ice cream.  We stopped by and let the kids pick out some ice cream despite it being so cold outside. We didn't hear any complaints, though.

 Daniel even got to try out some Caramel Cashew ice cream for the first time ever since he is barely over his cashew allergy.  Surprisingly enough he did not like it.  It was awesome he got to try it out, though.

 I was excited to get some black licorice ice cream.  I really like this flavor, but you don't find it very many places.  Wahoo!

Despite the disappointment of not being able to go tubing, we still had a fun family day for the most part.  Hopefully 2018 will be a good year for our family!!