McKay's 2nd Day Skiing - Park City

How fun it is to live 15 minutes from Park City.  While Garrett built snow forts at a friends house, and Tanner went tubing at Soldier Hollow with a friend, and Bryson and a few buddies hit the black diamonds - Little Mac and I had the chance to ski together at Park City.  We did several runs with Ryan (R not E), Jackson and Madison (and Cache), but were alone for most of the time. What a blast to watch your 3 year-old get psyched about skiing.  His most common phrase was "Dad, this is awesome!" or "Dad I'm really good aren't I?".  It was fun just having a chance to be with Mckay.  He doesn't get one-on-one time as often as he should - and after Saturday, I am resolving to do better in that area.  

Mckay can ski!

We finally had a nice Saturday last weekend, so Paul took Mckay and the older boys skiing. We have waited for just the right day to take a 3 year old skiing - not to cold and no snow falling - the day was perfect!   
Mckay loved it!  We even got some footage of him going down the slopes, but we are smart enough to figure out how to post it (help us out bros).
Bryson has now ventured off to do black diamond runs with his friends.  He takes my cell phone and heads off to ski with Parker and Preston.  I think Bryson is almost as good as his Mom now!  I can't believe how fast he's growing up!

Tanner FINALLY lost a tooth!

Tanner has been wiggling his loose tooth for a very long time!   Paul decided it was time for the tooth to come out, even though I thought it was a little early, but Tanner was extremely ready! Paul loves this job, and Tanner was a very willing participant.   Within minutes the tooth was out!  
Tanner was excited to see his new smile.  The toothfairy left him a baggie full of quarters because he had waited so long.  Tanner's new trick is to sip out of a straw through the hole in his smile.  What a cute first grader!

Gingerbread Cookies

Tanner has been begging me for days to make "Christmas cookies", he even had written a recipe for me to follow. With a few changes to his recipe, we were able to make some delicious gingerbread cookies and decorate them. In the process I also found my new favorite kitchen tool - Betty Crocker decorator icing and tips - all ready to use, so much easier!


Here are some of our creations...I wish I would have kept the camera out a little longer to get a picture of the last batch of gingerbread men. I should have guessed with all boys that "cute" gingerbread men are not in. The boys started purposely breaking off arms and legs, then making "blood" ooze from the break. The face were made to show the anguish the gingerbread man felt. These gingerbread men looked as if they had just survived World War 3. And you guess it, these are the gingerbread men that the boys wanted to share with a few of our neighbors. At least they tasted good!

In the Chirstmas Spirit. . .

I've been laughing ever since I heard what Tanner said in Primary on Sunday. Apparently the Primary President asked in Sharing Time what kind of gifts could they give to Jesus this holiday season. When she called on a child, they would come up and say some kind of service they could perform and put a piece of hay in the manager. Then she called on Tanner. He ran up to the front of the primary room, grabbed his hay and said loudly, "I wish I could go to every single BYU game in the WORLD!"

Big Blue Eyes

How can you resist such an adorable baby? I love this age of babies! Logan is so fun right now, he is such a flirt and loves to smile at everyone. What can I say? He is so cute!

The Polar Express Ride

As you see, Tanner was extremely excited about going on the Polar Express and meeting Santa. Thanks to the Danleys, we were able to go on the train's first Polar Express ride this season for free! It was so fun and now after doing it, I can say I would pay to go on it again. It was just like the book, we had hot chocolate and warm cookies, we sang Christmas carols, and yes, we even picked up Santa at the North Pole.

Here is one of the elves named Pop Tart. She seemed overly fond of Bryson and made an effort to talk to him as much as possible. I'm not quite sure what I think of that. But, what can I say, he is hot stuff (like his Dad)!
This is the first year Mckay didn't scream when he saw Santa. However, he was very cautious of the man with the beard. Mckay knew he needed to tell him he wanted "a racetrack with cars that crash into each other". I was proud of Mckay for being so brave and talking to Santa.
Logan on the other hand wasn't to excited to meet the scary looking man and Tanner couldn't believe he was actually meeting Santa!
Garrett told me that there is no way this was the real Santa, but he enjoyed the whole experience like the rest of us and had fun reading the Polar Express book as we traveled. We finished the night of right with a trip to Dairy Keen.