December 2013 Part 1

Well, inevitably, Christmas time came around again. And
with it, our little friend Ellie the elf.  Her first stop was our tree.
She TRIED to move to a new and exciting place every night,
but sometimes she forgot or was lazy :)  Oh Ellie...... 

Chris came to visit!  We genuinely love it when Chris comes.
He's a unique distraction :)  Just like with Grandma, the kids
battle for his attention a little bit.  Anyway, he entertains us.

As brilliant as I am, I can't remember EVERYTHING.  And on
this day I (Ben) forgot the stroller.  Lucky for me (Ben) the mall had
ONE stroller for rent, and Gracie enjoyed sitting up for a change.

Wow Chris.  Wow Riley.  You both are so handsome!

So there is definately a story behind this picture.  I wished I had scanned
in the picture we were re-creating.  When I was maybe 9 or 10, and Chris
around 2, my mom took a picture just like this and it is one of her favs because
she loves how guilty I look while Chris is having a meltdown.  So for
Christmas, I gave her this picture framed next to the old one.  It was great!

Oh!  And I can't forget....Riley was the photographer of the above picture.
So here's a picture of the three of us after our little project was finished.

Ben and I took Riley and Malia (sorry Gracie!) on Frontrunner for the
first time ever this month.  It was quite fun!  We paid $15 and that took
care of our trip up, Trax to Temple Square and back, and the trip back.
Actually, no one ever checked our ticket!  One fun memory...I actually
got a nice phone call on the way up.  A job offer for the new Payson
Instacare.  I had been a grumpy, nervous wreck waiting for that call,
so it came at a good time :)

The Church History Museum has quite a fun little children's area.  

I helped Malia put on a skirt, and she followed the dance
movements of the senorita on the screen.  It was really cute!

And Riley having fun doing...something!

I'm glad we made it to Temple Square.  We will take
our little Gracie next year.

"Mooooommmmm.  Enough with the pictures!"

Riding Trax with a huge candy cane and some crazy hair!