Noah

Little Noah surprised us and came 4 weeks early.

Congrats Corey and Jill!

Wish we could be there to kiss those sweet cheeks!

Our New Toys

Well, we decided to make a little investment in Matt's career and get him a macro lens with a ring flash. This way he can take pictures of all his patients before and after every procedure for his portfolio. We couldn't figure out a way that we could get away with him having the camera at school all the time and me not having a camera (that's just not going to work with me!), so I got a new camera body! I am now the proud owner of a new Nikon d90 body (no new lenses) and LOVING it! And Matt has been having fun figuring out his new toys too. I forgot to take pictures of his set up so google pictures will have to do.

{Cold Weather Perks}

The weather has been very chilly lately. And as much as I complain about being cold, this weather does have its perks.

{hot chocolate}

{sweaters}

{cuddling under blankets}

{warm rice bag warming my toes}

{LOTS of indoor photography opportunities}

{watching movies} 

{scarves}

{rediscovering the extent of our game collection, like Rainbow Jumbling Tower :) }

Hope your cold winter days have their perks too :)

The Days After Christmas

The day after Christmas we went to Body Worlds in Salt Lake. It was SO cool and would recommend it. There was a LOT of information but it was really cool. We had the audio tour (which I also recommend). I think I got more out of it with the audio than I would just reading the plaques.

What trip to Utah would be complete without the all-night Halo parties? Matt and his brothers/ brothers-in-law had tons of fun shooting things while the girls went and saw Twilight! I've seen it 3 times and still love it. There are a few parts that I wish would have been done closer to the book, but oh well.

We also played games with the Barber's. Jeff, Kendra, and boys, and Curt, Brittany, and Lexi came too. Some good laughs were had as we played The Office DVD Game, Charoodles, and Clue. 

Dan, Jessica, Sophie, and Tessa got to Salt Lake on the 27th.

I wasted no time getting to know little Tessa. She is so precious.

Daniel got a balloon art kit and it was the funniest thing. Every time he would try to blow up a green balloon it would explode. So he and Matt had the funniest faces while he was making his various balloon animals. Neither of them were brave enough to look directly at the balloon, which resulted in a dog with a very small, gimpy leg. But luckily Daniel improved his skills and is already thinking about potential birthday parties :)

    Getting in a few more games with the guys...

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we spent with the Burk's and then the evening with the Chapman's.

We watched Justin open all his numerous gifts - mostly things to make him somehow more buff than he already is. We opened our gifts and ate too many treats from our stockings.

After a yummy breakfast and some relaxation, we headed over to the Chapman house. It snowed a ton Christmas Eve and Christmas morning so we decided to make a big snowman. The snow was so dense that wherever we rolled the snowball we uncovered the green grass underneath. We also quickly realized that the snow was too heavy to lift. Matt had to shave off some before we were able to lift them into place, and then we filled it in around the edges. Nina had a cute snowman kit with all the pieces (except the gloves, Matt's hands were a bit cold). We had the cutest snowman on the block. 

Trying to lift the VERY heavy snowball :)

 

The Chapman fam had a $5 cap on gifts this year. Needless to say, there were some creative gifts! Matt got a whole bunch of games/toys, including his fancy new gold grill! And Candice was VERY excited to get the mint-condition, never-been-opened Legs of Steel video, which might look familiar from October 2 years ago.

This was the least favorite toy of Elise and Sophie. This Tigger bounces up and down when you squeeze his tail, and gets faster and faster the more times you squeeze his tail. They were so scared of him. Elise even got to the point where she pushed him under the armoire and insisted that it stay at Grandma's house and not go home with her. And of course Matt was loving every chance he had to squeeze his tail whenever the girls were nearby - just to see their faces. Who knew Tigger would be so unpopular.

Taking a picture with a wiggly 2 yr old is not easy. I think this is the best one we got all night. But she sure is cute!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at the Burk house is one of my favorite things.

All the grandkids get cozy new jammies. We LOVE our nieces and nephews!

We all get a new Christmas book. This year: A Merry Little Christmas. Then we all read it together. Even some of the grandkids took a turn reading a page.

I found out, by accident, that dark hot chocolate is NOT one of my favorite things. Some milk and LOTS of sugar fixed that problem :)

Temple Square and Trax

Christmas Eve we froze our buns off in downtown SLC seeing all the lights at temple square. Our yummy hot chocolate helped a lot. We rode Trax both ways and Izzy, Parker, and Payton joined us on the way back. They LOVED their first ride on the public transit system. Oh yeah, and Justin was told multiple times how crazy he was for wearing shorts. It was FREEZING!

   

What would you do with all your time?

Matt:

{plays as many video games as he possibly can and still be able to function reasonably}

(games and apple beer in the wee hours of the morning does some strange things. Love you, Bud!)

{drinks LOTS of Apple Beer}

{hangs out with is brothers plotting how better to kill the zombies...or whatever it is they do}

Cami:

{finishes reading Eclipse and Breaking Dawn (LOVED them!!)}

 

{reads the partial rough draft of Midnight Sun (Yes, I'm obsessed with all things Twilight!)}

{gets up at 5:20am to do some water aerobics with Nina and Candice}

{LOVES playing with all her cute nieces and nephews}

{takes way too many pictures, as usual}

Party! Party! Party!

On December 20th we had three parties to go to. In the morning we had breakfast at the ward christmas party. They had very yummy stuffed french toast, ham, and fruit. (sorry, no pictures).

That afternoon we had the Burk Family party. It’s always a blast to have the whole Burk clan all together. The grandkids love running around the house while the adults try to talk to each other. We had soup and bread bowls (one of my favorite Burk family traditions) and the grandkids opened their presents from each other. After they were done, they were all corralled down to the basement to watch a movie so the adults could finally have some quiet. We played our gift exchange game (we got a Cuisinart food processor, sweet!). From Mom and Dad we got a 2-person 72 hour emergency kit and I got a Willow Tree angel. All the girls got an angel that applied to them. We all loved them!

For dinner we were at the Chapman family party. We had Little Caesar’s Pizza (yum!) and snacks. The night before, Candice and I helped make Christmas mice for the table decorations. They looked so cute on the table. Brian took it one step further and got chocolate sprinkles to spread on the plate and table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We sang Christmas songs, saw Santa, read The Night Before Christmas, acted out the nativity, gave Grandma her awesome picture quilt, enjoyed being with all the Chapman Clan.  Spending the holidays with family the best! Who cares if it does get a little crazy?!