Mike, Mary & Fam: Christmas and other things

I have a lot of catching up to do on here! We had a wonderful holiday season. Christmas was really fun this year with the kids being young enough to enjoy all the magic of the season, but old enough to also understand it. After Christmas, we settled back into the routine of school and indoor fun. Rachel's doing so great in Kindergarten and progressing so fast. She can read simple books now, and write pretty well too. It's amazing to watch her grow and learn. She especially loves and is good at math. We're so proud of her. Reed has also made great progress in preschool. When he started, he had a hard time sitting still with a group and interacting with other kids (simply because he's never been in school before), and after a few months, he's gotten so much better at being in a group setting and being receptive to learning. He still has another year of preschool, so the social aspect of it is all we're really focusing on this year, and next year he'll be in "getting ready for kindergarten" mode. He loves school and his teacher says he's a joy to have in class.

Our big news right now is that we're getting ready to move - again. We are closer to Mike's work than we were in our house, but Mike is still not happy with the commute. And since we're already renting anyway, we figured it's not too big of a deal to move again to try and find something closer. We found a nice little apartment that's only 5 minutes from Mike's work. It's smaller than our place here - a two bedroom, so the kids will have to share a room. But we figure it will actually work out well, because Rachel's a super heavy sleeper, and Reed doesn't like being alone anyway, so it will work out well for both of them. The apartment complex is pretty small and has a good community feel, and also has a pool, basketball court, and fitness room in the clubhouse, so we're looking forward to those fun things. It's also closer to a lot of fun places to go to - definitely more centrally located than where we're at right now. We'll probably end up back in a house in a few years, but for now, renting is working out really well for us. Financially, it's much less stressful. We don't have to worry about having to fix things that break, and we have the time and means to be able to spend time together as a family. Sometimes it feels like we've taken a step backward in life, but we're happy and content and we have each other, so that's all that really matters.

Onto the pictures!

This is Rachel watching the "Reindeer Cam", a live feed of Santa's reindeer that Rachel watched obsessively in the couple weeks before Christmas.

Mustache Reed.

Making a gingerbread house. Most of the candy didn't even make it onto the house...

Finished product.

Early in December, we bundled up and took the train up to Temple Square to see the lights.

The kids LOVED the Christus statue.

Temple Square!

Baking cookies for Santa on Christmas eve.

Leaving out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

Christmas morning! Santa brought the kids tablets for Christmas this year. They've been a big hit.

More present unwrapping.

Rachel got a flying fairy for Christmas, and both kids think it's completely awesome. Which it is.

Mike's parents got us a family year pass to Thanksgiving Point for Christmas, which is such an awesome gift! We went up to check out the Dinosaur museum the day after Christmas. We're excited to be able to go all year long, and to visit the gardens and farm in the spring/summer. They're also opening up a kids' discovery museum in the spring that should be lots of fun.

Making sand art.

Sand + Water = Happiness

The big shark. I love Reed's face.

Playing with their tablets. I think this is also when Rachel had a bout of pink eye in January. Luckily no one else caught it and it cleared up pretty quick.