christmas 2014

I'm FINALLY getting around to documenting Christmas. This year, my entire family was home. We spent our annual night in Salt Lake enjoying good food, beautiful lights, swimming, and of course new pjs.

 

Grandpa Kim and his mini me, or as we like to call him, lil' Kim.

Jammie-Jam time!

Christmas Eve started with ice candles on the graves of our family members who have passed on, and then a Chinese feast.

Back at Grandma's house, we decorated gingerbread men. 

Brandon and I got our nerd on at the puzzle table. It's not Christmas without a puzzle.

Ezzy was beyond nervous about Santa's visit. For weeks, she asked question after question wanting to make sure she knew exactly what was going to happen and if she would be safe. Santa (and every other holiday character) is kind of terrifying to my kids. Well, she was relieved to wake up Christmas morning and find that Santa had quietly slipped in and out without anyone seeing or hearing him. Whew. Best of all, he had left her the perfect gift! A purple Frozen bike, and as an extra bonus, an Elsa doll.

Christmas with kids really is the best.

 The perfect-est gift for me. My own pet robot vacuum!!! We call him Mag-neato, and he's amazing.

 Best friend cousins and their matching Elsa dresses. 

 Kyky's favorite gift was this yellow dump truck. It's safe to say he is obsessed with trucks.

half + half = 26.2???

Brandon and I ran 2 half marathons this summer. When I first started running, I tried so hard to get Brandon to sign up for a race with me. He was NOT interested -- at all. Well, this past summer he caught the running bug. In August, we ran the Moonlight Half and LOVED it. Brandon quickly signed up for a second and 2 months later we were running the Howl-oween half. Both races were at night so we decked out in glow sticks and head lamps.

 Best post-race food EVER.

Howl-oween half. Esme wanted to run with us so badly! Someday.

The sunset was amazing... my crappy phone camera could not do it justice.

Yes, a blurry selfie in the middle of our run. ;)

My brother-in-law, James, also ran but was WAY faster than us.

I made the mistake of starting too fast and therefore burned out at the end. I've never hit the "wall" in a race but definitely did on this one. Brandon kept me going and we beat our previous time by almost 20 minutes. My parents met us at the finish with Ezzy and Ky which was so great. Oh, and they provided DDP -- never tasted anything so good.

four.

rub~a~dub~dub 2 babies in a tub

Hiking in the Fall

perfect weather ~ good friends ~ beautiful colors

Pumpkin Patch

We love having a pumpkin patch so close to our house! We spent many afternoons here.

Ezzy took our picture... She's a natural!

We loved this pig.

 Corn maze

 Loved petting the horses and donkeys.

 Hayride with my babes.

Halloween

Man I suck at keeping our family blog up to date. Better late than never.
So I think this was my last year of doing family themed costumes. Esme has always been headstrong and stubborn, but this year she has also become opinionated. She wanted to dress up like Elsa (along with every other girl in the universe) and nothing else. It took quite a bit of persuasion and some negotiations to get her on my side. The compromise was that she could be Elsa for preschool but had to be part of the family costume for trick-or-treating. It worked.
I whipped together an "Elsa" dress for preschool and she was in Heaven and froze every kid who crossed her path.

Being Elsa is exhausting work.

 We went for a Lego Movie theme this year. Ezzy was Uni-Kitty, Ky was Lego Batman, and B and I were really sad looking lego pieces.

 They are the cutest!

Ezzy, of course, LOVED trick-or-treating and was so brave this year. Ky was done after one house; we'll give him a couple more year. ;)