Sub For Santa

Merry Christmas! I feel so good today! I'm so very thankful today for the opportunity our family had to help organize Heart2Home's sub for Santa. We were able to Gift 38 families last night. It was amazing to pick up all these gifts and see the love that went into each of these families' gifts. Very very humbling. The party was great. ROC came and performed for us. Santa and his cute elf, Pat were there as well. The kids were so excited to see all the packages lined up. It was such a good feeling there. The real spirit of Christmas... Giving!

Ethan & I went to Greg's office to pick up some packages. They had an assembly line! I've never seen realtors work so hard. J/K! But for real. Their conference room was FULL. They ended up with a HUGE gargbage bag full of extra toys that we gave to a shelter after the party! Thank you Prudential!

Here's another amazing Elves' kids showing off her trunk! Deb took on almost half of the list! She was amazing! Thank you Deb for all you do!

My little Elves, Ashon, Nikki and Ethan. They were given the task of handing Santa the right bags for each family. They did a great job! I have a feeling Santa is going to reward them Christmas morning for their help!

Kathy Cahoon read an amazing story. There were lots of tears. My kids were very touched by the story. On the way home they retold it to us. I was amazed at how much they listened.

Here comes Santa! And now for the fun part. Here are some of the sweet children that were helped. They were beautiful, sweet and amazing! I cry just looking at their pictures. They've been through alot. Many are still struggling. Many were very ill, some couldn't make it as they are patients at Primary Children's. Merry Christmas to you all! I hope we were able to give you some hope for your futures! Bless you!

These cute kids were so excited to dive into their box. So sweet!

Merry Christmas from the whole Heart2home family!

GINGERBREAD HOUSES!

This year Ashy and Ethan got do decorate their own gingerbread houses which was so great to not fight over designing ideas! We had a lot of fun! The kitchen was dstroyed but oh so worth it!

2nd annual City Pass trip! Our new tradition!

If you haven't ever done the SLC city pass you are missing out. It's a must! We did it last year and had so much fun we are making it our new family tradition. You buy a citypass that gets you into all these cool places in Salt Lake. There's so many places to see we didn't even do half. Here were some of 0ur favorites:
Started off at Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. Beautiful as ever!

Greg's bro Lee came with us as our tour guide/5 and 6 hands. Thanks Lee for the sweet hookup on a hotel room and for all of your help.

Ethan doesn't love snuggling his sissy so much!

That changed after a while. I love this picture. I thought it was so sweet!

Off to This is the place.

We stopped at the candy store in the village and each picked one. Ty tried a lil of everyone's.

We even got to see Father Christmas and his reinderer. The kids loved that!

The kids warming their hands.

In front of the old school house! We watched a puppet show there!

Ethan didn't make it back to the hotel awake. He was plum tuckered out!

Hogle Zoo! We've never thought to go during the winter but let me tell you it's awesome! There were so many animals that were active that you don't normally get to see. Plus 3 new babies and no crowds! SCORE!

The zebras were one of E's favs.

The baby giraffe! The family's favorite!

I've never seen a cheetah this close before. No, I didn't zoom in on my camera! AMAZING!

The big horn sheep!

The siberian tiger! SO cool!

The lynx

Ethan loved the little monkeys. He's reading the zoo map to the monkey here.

Tyson loved the Apes. Here's the gorilla!

After the zoo we headed over to the Lion house for our lunch. Yes, it's included in the city pass! Yipee! Greg was so excited for the rolls and honey butter. It was soo good!

We missed our imax movie at the Gateway so we decided to skip it and head down to Thanksgiving Point's Dinosaur museum!

All the dinosaur displays were decorated! The kids loved it!

The kids dug for dinosaurs for a long time. Ty looked so cute in his little apron. Greg and I have decided he needs dinosaurs in his stocking! He loved them!

Ashton was so good with Ty. She helped him dig for lots of dinos!

See what I mean about the apron and dinosaurs?

My little paleontologist. Did you find a fossil Ty?

They were so excited to find these dino bones. They were sure it was a TREX!

We had a great family day! Thank you SLC city pass!

Surprise....it's Ashy

I was uploading pictures from my camera and surprise, it's Ashton! She is so Silly! She steals the camera all the time and takes pictures of whatever she feels is important. Well, She was important this time. Here's to you girlie!

Bah Humbug........

no longer!!! I've had a hard time getting into the Christmas groove this year. It hasn't felt like Christmas...until now! Why the change you ask?
#1 Took the kids to see Santa at the ward party. Ashton was so excited because,"It's REALLY him!" She was so excited to know that Santa knew she had 2 cats. Later that night as I was tucking Ethan in bed he told me how funny it was that Santa looked just like our neighbor Steve. We had a good laugh at that! How could they look so much like eachother? Who knew?



Ty was too fussy to meet Santa.

#2 Motab Christmas concert at the tabernacle! We go every year. This year Natalie Cole sang with them. We were able take Ashton for the first time (legally) since she's 8 now.

#3 My kids are getting into the christmas spirit! Our ward is doing "Stocking for Seniors" and we are organizing the sub for Santa for Heart to Home. I love love love that my kids are so giving. I took the boys to Walmart today and Ethan insisted on giving the guy with the bell outside some money for his red bucket. He was so excited and asked me if that put him on the nice list. Of Course! We picked up 4 bags full of presents from my mother in law today to give to these families. Ethan thought it was the coolest thing.
Thank you for beating the Bah Humbug out of me! Merry Christmas!