Lights at Temple Square

It has been years since Jeremy and I have been to Temple Square during Christmas and looked at the lights.  Since we were in home during Christmas we decided to take the kids. We rode Tracks from Aunt Shana's house to Down Town SLC.  The kids loved it.  Look how happy they are.  

The Salt Lake City Temple!  Beautiful!

Bastianclan @ the Temple.

Beautiful!

Me and the kids getting warm in the Tabernacle.

Jeremy and I have a lot of fond memories in here.  

The Christmas Story.  

Everyone needs to share a kiss on Temple Grounds :-)

What a beautiful reminder of the reason we celebrate Christmas!

 

Natural History Museum of Utah

Aunt Shana volunteers at the Museum and got us free tickets.  It is awesome! Lots of hands on things for the kids to explore.  We must have spent 4 hours here.  It was really cool.

Bastianclan

We love Aunt Shana

This is a wall.  Brooklyn loved all the butterflies.  

Lots of hands on activities to teach the kids.

We all loved the Dinosaur exhibits.

This was the floor.  How cool is that?

I think we spent the most time here.  The kids loved playing in the sand trying to make it so the water wouldn't break through.  Thanks for a super fun day Aunt Shana.

The Forgotton Carols by Michael McLean

We love traditions. One of our favorites is watching The Forgotten Carols in December.  Each year we have a family over and we eat yummy treats and watch this amazing play.  Well this year we surprised the kids with buying tickets to watch it live, with Michael McLean the song/play writer.  They were so excited!!  As we were.  To keep the tradition we also invited our dear friends Tammy and Jared Jackson.  They had just moved back from Germany and we haven't seen them for a while.  

Here is my dear friend Tammy.  I heart her!

Our Group waiting in line to watch the play.

Still so happy to have daddy home.

Jared and Tammy Jackson

   After the play  Michael came back on stage and sang a couple more songs.  He just wrote a new play called, "Women and the stings that hold them together. We got to hear the new song that inspired the play.  We can't wait to see it. We ended the night singing Silent Night. It was very powerful and the spirit was so strong.  

We got to meet Michael McLane!!!  Very cool!!   On our way home we were reflecting on the night and how much fun we had.  Brooklyn, shared how she cried because she felt the spirt and  Kayden said," he got all chocked up" and Chandler pipped in and said, "I slept." we all laughed.  What a wonderful perfect night.  Thank you Michael McLean.

Fun at Grandma's

We were so blessed that we got to spend 3 weeks with family before our big move to Korea.  We had so much fun.  It was really hard to leave our family for 3 years.  But thank heaven we have internet to help us stay connected.  However, grandma will not be able to snatch Chandler and snuggle him in a Blanket. (Good thing I captured this picture. When he misses grandma he can look here.)

So these cute girls performed a song and dance for us.  Aunt Joy recored it and here the girls are watching it.  

It was hilarious.  Just look at those faces.  

Grandma only thought her table fit four :-)  I think we could add a couple more.

Best thing at Grandma's house are the memories that come with it.  All snuggled watching a Christmas movie.

I love Kayden working so hard to be an "Independent Adult".  He is making sure the white shirts are ironed and ready for Church.  Kayden, one day you will reflect on this picture and I will no longer be the Mom that made you M-A-D.

The kids were playing with their kendama and watching a How to video.  They are amazing.  Check them out.

Uncle Shaun and Aunt Joy

Very cool Brothers!

Beautiful Sisters!

Shawn playing with Frogs.  PS Aunt Joy he wants one for Christmas.

We love our Aunt Shana.

Cute girls showing us there stuff.

We are strong and powerful!!!!

Dude!

I heart these three girls.

Loriann's Dr. Seuss Baby Shower!

I was so excited to throw this baby shower  It all turned out so cute.  Loriann & Jason are not going to find out the sex to their little peanut so Loriann said I could choose between "Woodland Animals" or "Dr. Seuss".  I really liked the idea of Dr. Seuss,  I immediately started thinking about all the fun patterns and bold bright colors.  Here are the super cute invitations I made for her. They turned out so stinken cute.  For the last couple months I went crazy making lots of truffula trees, and candy dishes, handmade paper shoes for party favors.  I really enjoyed putting on this Shower for Loriann.  

I also made these cute Thank You cards.  Very fun!!!  Love the colors and patterns.

Here is the entry way to the "One of a kind" Dr. Seuss Baby shower. Do you see the cute truffula trees?

These pictures do not do the decorating justice.  It was adorable.  The sunlight in the background was not my friend.  Boo.  But you can kind of see how cute it is.  

We had some really fun food: green eggs and ham, fruit tarts, cupcakes, and lots of candy.  We made candy cane name place holders.  The morning of the shower Joy, Shana, Mom, and I went through all the Dr. Seuss books to find cute coordinating names for the food and drinks.  I wish I would have wrote them all down.  They were all adorable.  One of Loriann's best friends Ashley helped with the food.  It was all so yummy!!!! and very Dr. Seuss!

This is a better picture of the food.  Fun Fun I just love all the colors.

This is the drink table.  I thought it would be fun to have a silly straw for all the guest. Oh the possibilities.  See what I mean? What a fun Baby Shower!

Now you can see the cute candy cane name holders.  This punch was so fun to make.  

This was the first thing the guests did.  They signed Loriann's book. Oh, the places you will go by Dr. Seuss. We wanted her guest to sign the book and give a little advice for the mother to be.  Mom Bastian helped me with the cute sign.  I also had the guests put their address on an envelope so when Loriann was ready to send out Thank You Cards they were ready for her.  

We turned Mom's house into a Dr. Seuss haven.  We had Dr. Seuss hanging from the ceiling, we had truffula trees all over and Jeremy even decorated the doors. 

Here are the party favors. I made everyone a cute little paper booty filled with peppermint candy.  How cute are they?

And here is the Star, Loraiann and Baby Hemsley.

Loriann opening some super cute gifts.

Aweee, I love this little outfit.

Loriann, Ashley, and I can't remember her name.  They are all friends from High School.

Time to eat.

Catching up; it's been a while.

I just love baby showers.  So much fun.

Everyone was having such a great time talking we didn't want to start any games yet.

Loriann didn't want too many games.  She said we could do one or two.  So we had a Dr. Seuss trivia.  The trivia was taken from Dr. Seuss books and was missing a word or phrase that you had to fill in.  

Everyone working hard on their game. Aunt Shana won lots of candy for getting the most correct. 

Dr. Seuss books yeah!!!

Loriann, received lots of cute things for her new bundle of Joy.

How cute is this little vest.  If it's a boy add a cute blue or orange shirt and a girl add a cute purple or pink shirt.  Soooo stinken cute!

Loriann's guests

Loriann's guests with me.

Sister's and Mom

This is one of my favorite pictures.  I love my family.

Mothers

These girls were so excited they finally got to attend a BabyShower.  I'm not sure if the other girls have been to a baby shower before but this was Brooklyn's first and she was soooo excited.  She thought it was awesome!!!!

Some of Loriann's Best-est Friends!!!!!!