This year Conner wanted to be very involved in decorating the Christmas tree...
You could tell which branches he decorated because there would be 5 or 6 ornaments on each one...
Jayden helped by taste testing every ornament he could get his hands on. 
The weekend before Christmas we went with our neighbors to a house outside of town that is decked out with Christmas lights and decorations.
The coolest part was that they had a real camel there that you could feed carrots to! If you can’t tell by Conner’s face he didn’t agree that it was cool to be that close to a real live camel.
It was FREEZING cold but Jayden stayed toasty in his car seat and looked so cute peeking out! 
They even had a Santa clause there giving out candy canes!
Conner had eaten his candy cane down to a tiny little stub and when he tripped it fell into the dirt. He was SO upset that we had to ask Santa for another one. Conner ate it down to the very end again and when we were walking back to the car he fell again and got it dirty. He cried the entire way back to our car yelling “get another one from Santa!” Besides the candy cane incident we had a ton of fun and I think we will make it a tradition… as long as the people keep doing it year after year!We spent a few days before Christmas up at our cabin. There wasn’t as much snow as usual so my Dad thought that he would try driving in… bad idea! It took a few hours of shoveling to get the Tahoe out! The kids all geared up to snowmobile into the cabin…
Jayden wasn’t too thrilled about all the layers... but didn't mind the snowmobile ride. He fell asleep instantly on the way in and on the way out.Conner LOVED the snowmobile. Every time Nathan would stop he would say “Why you stopping Daddy, keep going!” 
I even taught him how to drive… since I was the one who taught him I got what I deserved. When I was getting onto the snowmobile Conner gunned it and I flew off the back!
We went back to my parent’s house the morning of Christmas Eve. That night we had a delicious turkey dinner and then acted out the nativity scene. Conner did not want to wear anything on his head until he saw how much praise Kynzee was receiving from being Mary. It didn’t take him too long before he said “I be Joseph!”
Afterwards we went out to see some of the Christmas lights. When we got back the Elves had left all of us a present and pj’s. My Sisters and I wearing our new jammies!
Conner and Kynzee both got play kitchens for Christmas. (Despite Nathan’s objections… it is ok for a boy to play with a kitchen. Maybe if Nathan would have gotten a play kitchen when he was 2 he would help out in the kitchen more… that’s my theory! ) We set the kitchens up next to each other and the kids were super excited Christmas morning!
They would have been happy if that was their only present. But it wasn’t… we were all spoiled rotten! 
Jayden would have been happy with just the wrapping paper... We could have gone REALLY cheap this year... :)
Nathan got a new XBox and kinect and we had so much fun having dance offs! I thought I was pretty good until my Mom showed up and beat everyone... I'm going to have to work on my moves! We had a wonderful Christmas! I couldn't ask for a better family!
J
Of course we had to participate in Black Friday but the only big store in Nathan’s home town is Wal-mart so we didn’t have a whole lot of options. Nathan waited in line for two hours and was able to get an Xbox and Kinect. I was in charge of getting the games for the Kinect. They had games that were regularly $49 for only $15! I Iooove me a good deal! I was right up in the front and I got my hands on a copy of Dance Central and turned to leave and this guy… who had not even been waiting in line… ran up and tried to pull it out of my hands. I held on tighter (I wasn’t going to give up that easily!) but he pulled really hard and yanked me to the ground and made off with my game! I can’t believe some people! I saw him later and I said “You STOLE my game!” but he just pretended to be deaf… I was SO mad! It ruined the whole Black Friday experience for me… but I’m pretty sure it won’t stop me from going again next year… I will just be more cautious! The next day the flu started running rampant through the house and one by one we became infected… even those brave enough to visit were unlucky enough to catch it! The kids broke in the new furniture… leather was a good choice! Despite the plague we managed to have a good time spending quality time with family!
He is also making funny little faces all the time. He does this fake cheesy smile where he grins as big as he can and squints his eyes. He also clenches is gums together so tight that he shakes... then laughs because he knows it's funny... or maybe because we are laughing as him! He is such a silly little boy and we love him so much!
Conner dressed up as a cute little Elmo… although it was hard to tell what he was because he wasn’t a big fan of wearing his hood.
Conner was really concerned that Nathan wasn’t wearing a costume. “Where’s Daddy’s costume? What Daddy gonna be?” Nathan told him “I’m going to be a Daddy.” Conner wasn't too impressed with his creativity. We had a ton of fun at the party and Conner was thrilled about all the candy he got. But he wasn't too happy about Jayden checking out his goodies.
The bishop gave out apples and after only eating two pieces of candy Conner chose to eat his apple. I can’t get him to eat more than two bites of apple on a regular day let alone on a day when he has a bucket of candy in front of him!
On Saturday morning we dressed the kids up and went to a little carnival at the community college. They had a lot of games that Conner had a ton of fun playing. Although we realized that we need to work with him on his throwing skills… he would stand six inches from what he was trying to hit and still miss! At the bean bag game he walked all the way up to the hole and stuck the bean bag in rather than attempting to throw! After the carnival we went over to Main Street where you could trick or treat at the businesses. Conner has an obsession with picking up leaves (ever since we collected them on a nature walk) and I think he ended up with as many leaves in his bucket as he did candy!
If the person who answered the door was wearing a scary costume Conner would come grab my hand and make me go with him to get his candy. At most of the doors Conner would keep standing on the doorstep after he got his candy awkwardly staring until the person gave him another piece of candy, shut the door, or I went up to get him. We weren’t planning on staying out too long because Conner already had a ton of candy and it was really cold but the kids were having so much fun that we kept going until us parents were too cold! 
Here he is with his hard earned loot!
In the spirit of the season we got a couple of pumpkins to carve. Conner requested that Nathan carve a spider in his and of course he did... being the nice Daddy that he is. When I asked Conner to stick his hand into the pumpkin he told me “I can’t Mom, it too scary. Monsters in there.” (Apparantly monsters are out to get us...)
