santa came

Christmas morning Dennis and Zola slept in until 9:00 (this was a first) and I woke up to them playing together with Zola's new teddy bear. Probably one of the cutest things I have seen.

 Merry Christmas to ME!!!

 Dennis was sure excited to see that Santa ate a couple of cookies!

 Christmas Jammies from Nonnie!

 Zola loved the bows!

 Dennis was sure cute. He said, "Just what I always wanted!" with every gift that he opened.

 This girl was so happy!

 Good thing we put the tree up on a table... Zola was really interested.

 We are so blessed. I love our kids.

utah christmas

You wouldn't believe how easy it was to travel with Ryan along and checking all of our luggage. I forgot what it was like to travel so light. 

 While in Utah, we went to this thing called Flowrider. We could surf and boogie board on a fake wave. It was super fun.

 Then since Dennis and Zola couldn't participate on the wave, we went to a pool and swam. They had a blast.

One of Dennis's favorite things is playing games. 

 GO Kristen!

 Dennis got to ski and he LOVED it!

 While on the ski lift moving away from the lodge, playing Christmas music, Dennis says to dad, "Daddy, I am crying!" A little concerned Ryan asked why. The response caught him off guard and was not was he was expecting, "the music. It was so boodiful"

 The annual homemade present exchange.

Camille made Dennis this really cool I spy game. 

 Dennis made Kristen a Tshirt with a drawing of them together on it.

 I made Thomas a beard since he has a hard time growing a real one. ;)

 Ryan made Katrina a pyrex with "For Good Thyme, Call Katrina Funk" etched in it.

 Myer made me some cool coasters.

 Taylor made Ryan some very delicious beef jerky.

 Katrina made Zola a super cute teddy bear. It is pictured later... I was holding zola and failed to take one.

Zola loves her knew books!

Everyone looks lovely in this one. The good ol' charms. Dennis loved them. 

...horsey, horsey, on your way, we've been together for a many a day...

Thank you guys for a wonderful Christmas trip. We sure loved every minute!

before utah trip

 It was the first time I had blow dried my hair since Zola was born. She didn't quite know what to think of it. And, the second one was while I was baking cookies. She likes it about as much as I do.

Here is Dennis working on his homemade gift for Kristen. 

 

Dennis starting writing with his "letters" all hooked together. 

 At our ward Christmas party, Dennis really wanted to sing in front of everyone. He saw me go up to the microphone and he saw a friend of his up at the microphone. He told me that he wanted to sing several times and I told him that we would prepare for next year. Where is she? He would ask me. who? The lady in the blue (the host of the evening). Then when he got the opportunity he went up to "the lady in blue" and told her that he wanted to sing. She was so great and asked us all to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. He did a great job singing really loud the last two words of every line after we all did. That crazy kid had me laughing so hard I was crying. He has no fear.

 He also sang with the primary. See how Stella is holding his arm. I love it.

the stitches

 

Here is a video of Zola playing hide and seek with Daddy.