Jensen's 1st Birthday

Jensen turned 1 on December 27th.  McKay was off of work and we were still in Salt Lake for Christmas.  I loved that we got to have a family day and celebrate his birthday all day long.

For weeks I had been trying to come up with an activity that he would enjoy (other than bath time) and that everyone else would like too.  Oh yeah, it was the middle of winter to no outside stuff.  My first thought was the new Aquarium in Draper, but we soon realized that it was not open yet and didn't feel like spending the money on the old one.  So we found a back-up plan and decided to go to the Church History Museum.  They have an interactive children's area that we thought the kids would enjoy.  It was definitely a hit and we loved that Grandma, Corinne, and Mykelti came with us.

This year the museum is a Book of Mormon theme with a Latin Flare.  Adalyn loved dressing up and doing some Spanish dancing and she also enjoyed making us "dinner"

Jensen loved crawling around and having people to help him practice his walking.  He is getting SO close to walking and has taken up to 6-7 steps at a time. 

 4 beautiful ladies with the little man!

That evening we had Honey Lime Chicken enchiladas for dinner and then cake and icecream. 

I made a Chocolate Whipped Cream cake (thanks Shantel for the recipe).  Jensen did a lot better at eating his cake then Adalyn did on her 1st birthday, but I still think he could have done A LOT better if he hadn't been so stuffed from dinner.  The boy didn't even want ice cream since he was so full. 

He did love touching it though!

Eating cake

1st birthday's are very special days as a parent.  And kind of sad at the same time.  I pretty much cried when I moved him out of his infant carseat the other day... has it really been a year already?

Bath time after the cake

Present time!  He loves the musical instruments that my parents gave him.  Today they are the most played with toys in our house. 

Happy 1st Birthday Jensen!

Jensen's 1st Year Monthly Pictures

Jensen turned 1 year old on December 27th.  I have his birthday post coming soon, but I wanted to start with all of his monthly pictures posted all together.  I love seeing how much he has grown.  The quilt that he is sitting by is the one that my mom made for him and that he sleeps with every night.  Taking these pictures was not always the most exciting thing to do, but I love that I have them now!  Here is our cute little Jensen boy...

*Last Pic taken by Heather Fry

We are so thankful to have this smiley guy in our lives.  What a wonderful year 2013 was!

Christmas In Utah

I was going to break this post up but for the sake of not being too long I decided to just make it one post with lots of pictures.

Christmas festivities in Utah started bright and early Christmas eve morning with the fantastic Cannon family breakfast.  Seriously best meal of the year in my opinion, everything always tastes SO good and the company is even better.  That Cannon family sure is a special one and I love chatting with cousins and family.

After the breakfast we headed to the movie "Frozen".  Cute Cute Cute!  So entertaining, and even better that Adalyn sat through the WHOLE thing.  We all loved it!

Christmas eve night we packed up and headed to Salt Lake for a Danish Christmas party with McKay's family.  


Adalyn loved opening a present from Santa there and dancing around the Christmas tree.  She kept telling Grandma Liz to sing more Christmas songs.

Adalyn loves her cousin Madison.  McKay's sister Jennifer is also SO helpful in entertaining Adalyn and helping out.  We were very thankful for their help since Addie was ALL over the place that night.

Christmas night we slept in Evanston at McKay's Dad's house.  And out of 12 siblings we were the only ones there.  So weird since the house is usually busting at the seems!  The kids went to bed right away that night and the adults stayed up talking way too late.  Seriously threw off my sleep schedule for the rest of  the week. 

Christmas morning we enjoyed a quiet breakfast and then Preston Called from his mission in Michigan.  He sounded great and is really doing amazing things. :)  Other siblings showed up after breakfast and we opened gifts.  After gifts we ate a YUMMY lunch of crab.  Never had it before, but everyone loved it (except for maybe me, still not a fan of much sea food). 

Twins

Jensen "helping" uncle Jace with his long board. Or just trying to eat the tools. 

Christmas afternoon we packed up and headed back to Utah.  We got to my parents house just in time for Christmas dinner (lucky us).  Brent and Heather were there along with my grandma.  Such a relaxing evening spent with family. 

Christmas was especially fun this year with our two little cuties.  They love all of the toys (Jensen really loves the one in the picture above)  Thank you Thank you to our generous parents who gave us wonderful gifts and fed us yummy food all week.  We love you!

And I also want to include in this post that on Saturday the 28th we celebrated Christmas so more by going back to Evanston for a big family party.  The kids and daddy's all played out in the fields with the snowmobiles and sleds while the women went and toured Jennifer and Leslie's new homes that they bought there in town. 

4 little girls in the sled.  Too cute!

Our kids were pretty tired from the week of parties that Saturday so they were cranky and fussy, but we still had fun and it was great to chat with everyone.  I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!  This year was definitely one of the best that we have had together if not THE best.  We REALLY enjoyed it! 

Up next- Jensen's 1st birthday!