Christmas in Idaho

Hello!  Did you have a good Christmas?  I did I did!  But we are now home again and I have a million posts up my sleeve.  So get ready because I will be posting A LOT.  :)

Christmas at our house was on Monday December 23rd.  I was super excited to see the kids open their gifts from santa.  Also thanks to planning ahead we were in bed by 9:30 the night before so no late nights for us.

Both kids slept through the night (Christmas miracle).  Adalyn woke up first and came straight to our room so she had no idea that santa had come.  We quickly woke up Jensen and headed out to the living room to see what santa had brought.

Waiting to go and see their presents

What Santa brought...

It took Adalyn a few minutes to understand what was going on, but she soon got it and started opening any gift she could get her hands on.  Jensen could have cared less about opening a present, but he loved stealing Adalyn's toys once they were opened.

This year Adalyn got a wooden cradle for her dolls and some dollhouse people and a doll house van.  Maybe in the future Santa will make a Doll house for her.  :)

This year Jensen got a huge dump truck and some sports balls.

They both also got an outfit and a couple books.  They loved it all and are excited to have new toys to play with.

I am excited to get all of the toys organized into some new boxes/system.

Mommy and Daddy also got some fun stuff too.  I got some clothes and a stainless steal frying pan.  McKay got some emergency preparedness things and a personal calendar for his office.  

So grateful to have such a fun morning with the family.  After we ate a nice breakfast, we packed up and headed to Salt Lake for our Christmas vacation. 

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Pace Family!

p.s. If you feel bad that you didn't get a Christmas card from us, don't because we did not send them this year.  Had to let something go this year and Christmas cards was it.  But thank you to everyone who sent us one this year.  So fun to see everyone's family pictures. :)



Tonight is Christmas Eve for our family.  Tomorrow morning Santa will visit our home and after opening gifts in morning we will be heading out for our Christmas fun in Salt Lake and Evanston.  I am SO excited!  Seriously ready for some family time and Christmas fun!

We have an insane schedule for the next week including lots of driving and Jensen's first birthday party thrown in for good measure.  I stressed about our plans a lot before, but the past few days I have felt really good about everything.  We are going and doing what we need to be doing and I happy to spend so much time with family.  With that being said I really hope our DVD player in the van doesn't act up again because it would really help the hours pass in the car.  :)


McKay has had work off since last Thursday.  After getting 2 crowns on at the dentist (4 hours later)he was all ours for a whole week (say what?!).  We love having him home and are so grateful he gets to spend so much time with us during the holidays.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas this year! 

P.P.S. Guess who will be one in five days?!  This kid will :)

4 Years :)

Last Sunday was our 4 year wedding Anniversary.  Happy Anniversary to us!

Quick flash back because I love wedding photos...

Thanks Cioco Photography!

Each year we usually half way forget about our anniversary since it is so close to Christmas.  We never budget anything in for it, because once again everything goes to Christmas.  We really do love each other, but we aren't so awesome at planning fun anniversaries.  I didn't even blog about our Anniversary last year because all we did was a little before baby date.  Nothing special. 

But this year McKay did plan.  He surprised me with a over night trip to a hotel in Salt Lake.  Yay!  I felt loved.

We packed up and headed out Friday morning (he even took the day off just for us).  We were on the road for about 20 minutes when Adalyn threw up.  Gross!  We cleaned all up and headed down the road for a little bit till she threw up AGAIN and again. This time we cleaned her up and called my mom (she was our babysitter) and said Adalyn was sick and we were just going to turn around and go home.  boo! 2 hrs. later we were home and all feeling a little blue.  McKay and I were scared that she was really sick and that we might all get it.  Hate throwing up!  But in the end she had food poisoning and just threw up a few more times and then was good the next day.

So in the end we spent our anniversary at home, with the kids, watching movies.  We did get a few more things done for Christmas cleaned the whole house, and wrapped all the presents so it wasn't totally un successful (but definitely not the relaxing weekend we were excited about).  But McKay gave me flowers and we each got a gift of choice.  He got a trimmer/ edger whatever those things are called ($7 at a thrift store) and I got some new boots on a super awesome sale.  They came in the mail yesterday and I LOVE them.

Here are some snap shots to document our 4th Anniversary...

Matching shirts and all :)

Not the best anniversary yet, but we are going to go on a little getaway over Christmas break so we will get our much anticipated mini vacation after all.  yay!

Love our life together and love being married to McKay.  He is wonderful to me and our family.  Here's to another great year!

Oh What Fun this Holiday Season is!

Hello readers.  Today I don't have a specific topic, just wanted to write.

I am loving this time of year.  Life is good for us right now, both McKay and I are very grateful for it.  The kids are just delightful, can I say that enough?  They are SO much fun.  Today they were wrestling and laughing hysterically.  Watching them start to interact more has been thrilling.  Before this it was like we had 2 babies who acknowledged each other, but didn't really interact a ton, but we are on the verge of having two toddlers and it is so much fun!

These days you could call me Mrs. Organized (which is totally not like me, usually I am just a planner not a do-er)  but I am doing well and staying on top of my to do list.  My mother would be so proud. :)  Christmas shopping is done and 3/4 wrapped.

I feel good about everything on my Christmas list... except neighbor gifts.  You see my dear friends last year we gave a neighbor gift that was not a food item.  I could tell it wasn't a huge hit and vowed that I would do a food item from here on out (unless we have another baby in December someday, then I am not promising anything).  So this year I am planning to bake some delicious homemade treats.  Everything is bought and prepped I just have to bake.  Which I am nervous about.  It is A LOT of baking plus babysitting and caring for my own children.  Hope all goes well!

Jensen started sucking on his thumb today.  McKay was an avid thumb sucker so I knew we would get one eventually I just didn't think he would start this late in the game.  Hopefully it was just a fluke...

I kind of wish that I still talked about my healthy eating stuff on my blog because you guys were such good motivation for me.  But I understand that it gets old after awhile so I will resist, but if any of you have good words of motivation send them my way!  Because Thanksgiving was BAD (as in I ate a ton!) and I still have the afternoon sugar cravings.

Tonight I am trying a new form of exercise "bokwa".   Should be interesting, but it is taught by my same Zumba instructors so at least I know that I like them. :)

Today was a PJs day.  It felt good to not worry about getting the kids dressed (although in the end they both did get dressed.)  Staying home a lot during this winter season hasn't been too bad yet.  We found a little gym that I take the kids to a few times a week to help get their energy out.  That activity is definitely helping us not go crazy.

Here are some random pictures from our gingerbread house evening.  Adalyn loved EATING the candy and was totally distracted by the Polar Express which was playing while we decorated.  But don't look too close cause McKay and I are not pro decorators.

Thankful Chain

The preschool teacher in me wants to do lots of cute holiday crafts and activities this time of year.  But Adalyn is only 2 so while I may want to do an extravagate projects she really can only handle the simpliest ones.  So we have done/are doing a few things but definitely not going too overboard.

For Thanksgiving we made a thankful chain for FHE.  It turned out cute and was perfect for Adalyn.

All it entailed was writing things that we are thankful for on each link of the chain and then connecting them together.  I have done this project many times in my sunbeams class so I already had the paper cut and everything.

Adalyn mostly wanted to just color the links, but she did have us write down all of our names (daddy, mommy, and Jensen), Grandma, and papa.  She is really into learning names these days and it is the cutest thing when she says "papa Pace" or "Addie Pace".

And yes this activity was directed towards helping Adalyn become more thankful, but it really helped me focus more on our most basic blessings.  I was pretty focused on my to do list more than thankfulness the week leading up to Thanksgiving so it was nice to reminder.

Idaho Falls Festival of Trees

The weekend before Thanksgiving McKay and I took the kids to the Festival of Trees that is here in Idaho Falls.  It is small, but was the perfect size for our 2 year old.

It was kind of weird to be looking at Christmas trees before Thanksgiving, but I have been in the Christmas spirit since Halloween so I was ok with it.

I made us all dress up in our holiday clothes (one of two times a year that I can force us all to be matching).  Pretty sure McKay thought I was crazy, but I wanted to get as much use out of them as possible this holiday season.  :)

I love it when Jensen's hair is spiked

Adalyn was all over the place the whole time while we were there and would barely stop for a picture.  So much to see and do.

After looking at the trees we shared a yummy slice of carrot cake and listened to a few musical numbers by a choir. 

At the very end, when we were walking out the door we tried to visit santa, but this is the look we got and she wouldn't get within 5 ft of him.  Maybe next year...

Festival of trees was a nice way to kick off the holiday season

p.s. Someday I want to buy one of the trees from the festival of trees...  Probably when I am rich in the next life. ;) 

He's A Keeper

Today I am feeling gratitude for McKay. 

What a husband he is. 

Always there, always helping, always kind. 

The man has SO much patience for me.

I didn't know how awesome life with him was going to be when we got married.  The love for me that I can see in his eyes is amazing.  I am so grateful for it.  The peace and joy that comes from knowing that he loves me is the best feeling ever. 

I am so spoiled with how much he helps me it is almost embarrassing, but it is true.  Last weekend he changed more dirty diapers than me.  

The kids and I are his world whenever he gets home from work.  So thankful that he sacrifices his time, and hobbies for us. 

Him helping so much and being so involved in home life is not something that I expected out of him when we first got married.  But I am so grateful for it.  Our kids are blessed to have such an involved dad.  

I love that he doesn't complain when the house is a disaster and the dishes haven't been touched all day.  He just quietly helps do them all while telling me how hard I work.  Seriously?  If I could only respond that well to all situations. 

I am grateful that he works so hard each day, and that he loves what he does. 

I love his enthusiasm for life.  I am pretty sure he jumped everywhere he went for the first 2 years of our marriage.  The guy has never ending energy!  Always ready to bring a smile to my face and a helping hand with the children. 

Oh how I love him dearly.