Ending a Great Year!

Well, just to have my huband back would have made it an awesome Christmas but things were made sweeter because we had the best of both worlds this year. My side of the family and Andrew's entire family was able to get together for Christmas, with the exception of Andrew's youngest brother, Jason, who is serving his mission. We did get to talk with him for an hour on Christmas morning!! I have to say this will be a memorable one, we packed so many activities and fun into barely 2 weeks. Here's just a few photos of what we did.

First order of business...catch up on some much needed cuddle time with daddy.
and some tickle torture.

Sledding!!!

Amazingly Anaiya was game for sledding. She normally doesn't like the snow so we didn't think she'd be happy but she was all smiles.

Piggy-back rides from daddy coming back up the hill probably helped too.

Cyri on the other hand was sick so she didn't enjoy it at all. She is normally my snow baby but poor thing had an ear infection she was fighting so maybe next time.

I have a husband again. Yay me!

This is our friend all the way from sunny Hawaii visiting us. Funny story: never having seen snow and only heard it rumored that snow is sooooo "soft and fluffy", first thing he did was run out of the car and do a full belly flop into the snow on the front lawn. Little did he know that it hadn't snowed in a few days and the old, packed snow was no longer soft and fluffy but hard as rock. Needless to say, it did knock the wind out of him and we all had a good laugh. It was very fun and refreshing to see his child-like enthusiam for the snow. We even gave him a complimentary "Utah flu" to take back home to Hawaii. He had a really high fever the night before he flew home.

And we finally have a boy! Ok, not quite but we got a little puppy named Jax. Trinity was so happy and surprised she "didn't know what to say." She was so thoughtful to make daddy and I a Christmas Eve present so daddy decided Jax would be her Christmas Eve present from us.

Even with all the chaos and fun Anaiya was still able to find some cuddle time with Uncle Marc and take a nap. Awww.....he is such a good uncle.

Ta-da!!! The traditional Wheeler Family Christmas Eve fondue dinner. Very yummy and a lot easier than I remembered it the first time. I think we will keep the tradition going for years to come!

The cousins at the kiddie table.

Christmas morning!!! What more can I say!

Some Christmas rock band

Cyri joined the jam session too.

Sweet Cyri was feeling under the weather so she didn't get up to open presents until later that morning but she still enjoyed every minute.

"I'm a little pony, clip-a-tee clop, clip-a-tee-clop!" all the day long.

After so many years of moving back and forth too and from Utah we finally made it to see the Temple Square lights. Very beautiful but the sweetest moment was when Anaiya looked up and instead of noticing all the lights and everything else distracting, her eyes got real big and she was most excited to see the temple.

Where's child #3 you ask? Well, it was by coincidence that my family had just finished temple square and saw us unloading the kids in the parking lot as they were walking to their car so they took Cyri home. It was so well timed that one would of thought we planned and called for reinforcements on purpose but no, we are not that bad of parents, it was just plain luck. (Thanks Mom!)

And ofcourse, how else to end a good year but with hot chocolate and a nice long nap.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!