Christmas Time

The Christmas season is a magical time of year and it gets better with kids. Stratton didn't understand much about what Christmas is all about last year. This year he is so excited and so curious about the different aspects of Christmas. Blake (the man!) put up lights on our house and Stratton loves them. When we get to the end of our street Stratton always says, "Mom, I can see our lights!" He does noticed all the other lights and he'll casually mention, "Dad, you should do lights like that." (These are the houses that have gone all out with reindeer, presents, snowmen, the works!) Anyway, it has been so much fun for us this year to participate in some Christmas activities and have Stratton be so into them. We decorated upstairs, even though we are not actually living up there yet (it is coming closer - Blake is almost done painting and remodeling, what a guy). We also decided to put a tree downstairs so we could feel festive all the time. During the remodeling Stratton has been helping Blake out and has learned proper tool use ("Hold the screwdriver pointed down.") and proper ladder rules ("Climb only the safe side of the ladder" "Use two hands" and "Don't play on the ladder"). Stratton was able to use these ladder rules while decorating the tree. We had to let him drop the two hands rule, while he put the ornaments up. On a side note, one day while Stratton was helping Blake out he lost the hammer. Blake said, "Stratton where is the hammer? It couldn't just walk away!" Stratton replied, "Dad, it can do somersaults." (Dah, Blake!)

Stratton knows the rules of the ladder, but I still get nervous when he is up there and so I had to help him down. He didn't like this and said, "Mom, I know the ladder rules!"

Marley's job during the decorating was to sit amongst the boxes and play, play, play.

Here is Stratton and his cousin Simon in front of my mom's tree.

We were finally able to get together with Chris and Jane and their cute girls. We went to Temple Square. I think we picked the coldest night EVER!! Oh well. Hallie and Stratton thought the train ride was a riot. The rest of us thought it was a riot that Hallie was waddeling around Temple Square. I wish I had my video camera!!

Here is the fam in front of the famous 'red' tree. We found out from Blake's dad that this tree only gets lit every other year because the tree can't handle more than that. This is Blakes very favorite tree (and Chris and Jane's we found out). We had a vote and decided that Marley had the best time out of anyone. She was bundled up and got to ride around in her stroller the whole night. There was nothing but a smile on her face most of the time.