New Years Eve & New Years Day

Before any of the fun began Monte had his first Dentist appointment. He was very brave! 

We then headed to my extended Family's cabin that they rented in Midway during the holidays! The drive was beautiful!

It was really nice seeing my family since most of them live out of state and I don't get to see them very often. Fortunately, Ben's family is only a 20 minute drive and we spent the New Years Eve Evening at the Annual Burton New Years Eve Party! This is a party that I look forward to throughout the year. We play hilarious games, pig out on crab, and spend quality time with family! This party is with my in-laws and they are AMAZING! Sara, our exchange student has met them many times but I was SOOO excited to share this holiday with her! 

Kira, my super loving and talented Sister-in-law made this beautiful blanket for Sammy! 

Playing games!

Sara shared with us a tradition that they do in Spain is eat 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds of the year. While counting down each second you put 1 grape in your mouth equaling 12 grapes. Of course we had to try this at the party and everyone was excited to try the Spanish tradition. 

We really did the count down for 10:00 P.M. since we have 2 kids under the age of 2 and Sara wanted to go to our Local LDS Mormon Church's New Years Even Dance. 

For New Years Day we loafed around and then went Sledding! 

We left our little 6 month old, Sammy at home but Monte had a blast sledding and playing on the playgound near the sledding area. 

Happy New Year! 

Sara's 15th Birthday!

Sara's Birthday is the day after Christmas, even though it is around the busy holidays we wanted to try our best to make it special and fun for her! The very first thing we did in the morning was give her gifts because we could not wait any longer(I wanted to give her them at midnight the day prior)! 

Here is a photo of some of the gifts she got for her birthday: The card with our faces cut out and pasted on the card, a watch, a homemade super soft pink minky blanket,

and a waffle love food truck shirt! 

My Mother, Sara's host Grandmother came over and gave her this really cute BYU Victoria Secret Pink brand Sweater and it  has sparkles! 

The night before her birthday I asked her if she would be interested in going to Denny's because they give you a FREE grand slam breakfast on your birthday! She of course said yes and was excited because she has never had a free meal on her birthday in Spain. 

We then headed over to Firehouse Subs because they give you a FREE sandwich on your birthday! 

Later that day we went to Chili's the Restaurant for the Chocolate Molten cake. Sara loves this place and so do I! When they first brought out the cake at least eight workers came out singing to Sara, haha! But the next picture explains that our expectations were not met! The cake was cold, not just not warm, but cold. Freezing like it just came out of the freezer or fridge! 

We told our waitress and then she was SUPER nice about it all and later explained how sorry she was and how she is new and didn't know she needed to put it in the microwave before serving! It was hilarious and we got two cakes out of it. One frozen. One delicious. 

Here we are happy with our YUMMY and CORRECT cake:)

After we feasted all day we then had a Birthday party for her! It was a Gold, Pink, Nutella, and Oreo Theme! We invited her friends, neighbors and family! 

Getting ready to blowout the fifteen candles....

Make a wish...

Oh no! They are trick candles and keep lighting themselves! Keep blowing...

Almost done...

After the party Sara had some friends stay to watch a movie in our theatre room downstairs! 

Happy Birthday Sara! We love you! 

Christmas

This was a special Christmas this year because we decided to do three gifts for our own immediate family that represent the gifts that Christ got from the Wisemen, Frankincense (Clothing), Gold (want), and Mur (Spiritual). Also, the stockings from Santa:) We couldn't wait to open our gifts, so we went to Sara's bedroom door and started singing Jingle bells as her alarm clock! 

Monte's first year able to open his own presents by himself!

Sam's first Christmas! 

Relaxing during Christmas morning!

Monte and Sam playing with the Nativity toy!

Monte's first time in a snowsuit! The Christmas Story Movie?

Monte loved playing in the snow for the first time!

Monte and Sara!

Monte throwing a snowball while it is covering up Sam's face!

Christmas Snow Ride!

After our Christmas morning we headed over to Ben's parents for our sibling gift exchange! 

Ben's brother in law carved him this amazing clock!

After we visited with Ben's family we made plans to make 12 inch crepes with my Mother at our house! Monte loved mixing the ingredients together! 

Here we are with our HUGE crepes! We made Chicken Cordon Blue crepes and then feasted on dessert crepes! After we finished with the crepes we watched the movie, ELF! 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the year because it is a day full of worshiping Christ, spending time with family and eating food! We were so thankful that Sara was able to spend Christmas time with our family and it was so fun having her here with us! 

Here is a photo of our attempt of getting a family photo for Christmas! 

Sam's first Christmas

We went to a Family Christmas Party for Ben's side of the Family; Monte had SO much fun playing with his 2nd Cousins! 

Ben's Siblings with Baby Sammy at the Family Party!

Every year the children act out the nativity while someone is reading the scriptures; it is beautiful and one of my favorite parts of the evening! 

Grandpa also always reads, "The Night before Christmas!"

After the party we went over to Ben's parents house and we gave them our gift to them because we could not wait any longer! 

After we thought the evening was finished and we relaxed for a while...Sara and I came upstairs and noticed that it had snowed A TON! At this point it was 2 A.M. and we decided to go for a walk in the snow which lasted about an hour! It was a beautiful walk. It was peaceful, fun, beautiful, and not cold! It was perfect! We either stayed up so late because we are crazy or super excited for Christmas the next day!?

Merry Christmas Eve!