:Christmas:

Christmas this year was more on the less-traditional side of things.  The week of Christmas we were in tropical paradise!  Namely Cozumel, Mexico - Costa Rica - Panama.  The Cutler folks treated us to a fantastic week of cruisin' on the M.S. Carnival Freedom!  Though they couldn't enjoy more than a few days with us, we are so grateful to them for providing a wonderful week for us all.  I will post about our cruise soon.  For now, here is an overview of our Christmas here in the states.  

We spent a few days in Utah before we flew out to Florida to hop on board the ship.  It was so nice to see my family again!  We had a Christmas program (Jaden wore the manger animal costumes), ate a delicious Christmas feast, opened presents, went to see my nephew's preschool program, and ended the trip with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert featuring David Archuleta (a.maz.ing)!

Unfortunately we lost a bunch of our photos while transferring them to our external hard drive.  I was only able to salvage some videos and pics from Cody's phone.   

 :Parker's preschool program:

 

 

:at the Conference Center:

After our fun times in the Caribbean, we celebrated a more traditional Christmas at home.  It was so, so fun!  Cody and I stuffed each other's stockings and stayed up late being Santa for our first time (last year we were at my parents house for Jaden's 1st Christmas).  It is a long-lived Moon tradition to do stocking hunts each year.  So we hid each other's stockings and set up clues for each other and Jaden.  We loved it; Jaden loved it; definite success:)

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone!

'Tis the Season

The Christmas season thus far has been so much fun.  I love the decorations, sights, smells, music, crazy shopping, snow, yummy goodies, family traditions... everything really.  We started off the season with a progressive dinner with our friends.  We pulled out the old high school gowns to dress it up a bit.  

We probably had a little too much fun trying on the zillions of dresses.  Even pulled out the wedding dress!

:my date and me:

:started the evening with drinks at the Beck's house:

:we had a yummy bread appetizer at the Wade's house:

Next was salad at the Goff's.  Unfortunately they got sick earlier that day, so it was off to our house for the main course.  We sure missed them!

  

We ended the night at the Thompsons.  We tried all their amazing desserts and then played some games including a white elephant gift exchange.  Fun, fun, fun:)

 This past weekend was our ward Christmas dinner.  After much planning, preparation, and rehearsing... it was a success!  These pictures were taken during the program.  We basically told the Christmas story from Luke with several musical numbers in between.  Everyone did such a great job!

 And of course Santa was a big highlight!  Jaden wasn't quite in the mood, but maybe next year!:)

We did a mini-family Christmas this week since we'll be leaving town for the next couple weeks.  Jaden loved every minute of it.

 

Can't wait for more Christmas fun!

: all things jaden :

To give you an idea of what our little man has been up to...

:reading in one of his favorite hang out spots:

:playing the piano every chance he gets:

 (He loves to play so much that we lowered Cody's old keyboard so Jaden would have easy access.  He knows how to turn it on and will scoot that little drum up to the piano so he has a seat.  Seriously cute.)

:getting all bundled up:

"helping" around the house with vacuuming...

 laundry...

and cooking.

 :falling asleep during play time:

:snacking of course:

:reading as always:

:hanging out under tables (another fave):

 :riding with Mr. Froggy all over town:

:piggy-back riding with mom and dad:

 :doing some pull-ups with Daddy:

:learning to feed and dress himself:

:climbing up on everything (esp. his truck):

:snuggling with the teddies (totally loving the stuffed animals lately):

:keeping up with his expanding fan base:

 :reading some more on one of his make-shift seats and banging on his drumset from the Merkleys:

What else?  Yep, reading some more.  This is another favorite hang out spot for him.  Can't get enough of it.

Hanging for a couple days with Kiera while her mom was at school.  They had a blast together!  

Love that kid.

This year's Thanksgiving...

was an adventure!  Our 4.5 hour drive down to Tennessee (to see my sister and her family) turned into 6 hours with lots of rain and heavy traffic.  I guess we weren't the only ones on the road wanting to see our family for the holiday!;)  It was great to finally arrive and catch up with the fam.  Aunt Debbie, Dave, and Ben joined us the next day.  The kitchen was hustling and bustling all morning long while the boys played in a good ol' traditional turkey bowl.... well they played soccer instead:)  We were debating if we wanted to go "all out" or make it a more simplified Thanksgiving.  I told Christine, "This is our year to go BIG!  Let's do it all, girl."  So that we did.  Pies, turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green been casserole, salad, gravy, and Debbi did a great job on the rolls and mashed potatoes.  YUM.

:the busy kitchen: (yes, the boys did some relaxing)

:even Jaden and Madsen tagged along for the Turkey Bowl:

Sweet McCoy thought she'd teach Jaden some piano skills.

:the fancy spread (Christine's and Cliff's wedding china!):

:diggin' in:

:the crew:

 The following day we took a trip up to Nashville to see some of the sights.  The Grand Opry Hotel was incredible!  Biggest and most beautiful hotel I have ever beheld.  Seriously cool.  Check out the Christmas get-up! 

 :all of us checking out the view:

 :gotta love the tropical paradise and Christmas combo:

You could say Christine and I had A LOT of fun sister moments.  

To name a few: Notice the spilled whip cream on the floor?  Yeah... that is a direct result of us singing and dancing to "Sisters, sisters, nothing ever better than a sister..." while attempting to spread the cream on the pie.  We also did some crazy shopping and had a mini-fashion show for our men when we got home.  (I wish I had more pics of Christine in all her new outfits.  She looked hot!)

Jaden loved, I mean LOVED the Brady's slide in their backyard.  He was so brave and just pushed himself down for Daddy to catch him.  He would squeal and clap in pure delight before and after each time down the slide.  Adorable.

To end the fun and eventful week, Jaden took a little fall (not off the slide) and hurt his foot/ankle.  We're pretty certain he stepped on something sharp on the carpet and twisted his ankle trying to retreat.  We had to take him to the ER since we were out of town and it was a weekend.  They took some x-rays but couldn't see much since his bones are still young and not completely developed.  They put a temporary splint on him out of precaution until his doctor could check it out here in Indy.  We saw the orthopedic surgeon today and Jaden has improved quite a bit.  He will pull up on furniture and take a few limping steps with a walker.  We hope he'll be back to walking by next week!:)

A huge thank you to the Brady's for hosting all of us!  It was such a fun week!  Happy (late) Thanksgiving, everyone!

12 Month Photos!

The very talented Krystal Dawn Jenks never ceases to amaze us.  We are in love with these photos!

Don't mind Jaden's little runny nose he had during the entire photo shoot:)

 

After Jaden played with some of his walking baby friends today, he decided to come home and practice his walking skills all day.  His friends seem to always be a good motivation for him:)