During the winter months in Utah we ALWAYS love going to Arizona for some needed sun time, and it makes it that much better that we'd be down there for christmas! It's sad to say, but this was probably the last Christmas we will be able to make the trip down to spend actual Christmas day with my family. :( We'll still make the trip down during Christmas time to spend it with my family but, unless we rent a U-HAUL to carry the presents, we don't have room for all our junk plus presents. We barely fit everything we needed this trip.
We could barley fit our own children in this packed, packed car. (Nixon being a cheeseball and putting his face in a box) :)
All packed and ready to start the long 12+ hour journey to Arizona.
(we had no idea the "fun" we would have)
The first part of the drive started out pretty calm. kids sat quietly in their carseats, playing with toys and enjoying the scenery and then falling asleep.
Poor Nixon has a hard time falling asleep in his carseat. He doesn't have a good head rest so his head keeps falling forward which causes him to get frustrated and cry. Lance was finally able to convince him to use his blankie as somewhat of a pillow.
Sadly the peacefulness only lasted for about half of the drive. I think the boys were starting to think they would never get out of those carseats. We did have a portable DVD player which helped Nixon at moments but didn't captivate his attention the whole drive like we were hoping it would.
We found out right before we left for Arizona that Jaxon had pink eye! (What a wonderful christmas gift to give to everyone, right?) So during our stops he had to give him his medicated eye drops. He looks happy and calm in this picture but it's false advertising. I would probably react how he did if someone was trying to put stuff in my eyes. (which later I did have to put some of that stuff in my eye because I got pink eye :/ )
This picture was the calm before the storm. During this stop I had fed Jaxon and thought I got a decent burp out of him before putting him back in his carseat. A little later down the road Jaxon started crying and crying. We kept driving thinking he was just tired and would soon fall asleep, but that wasn't the case. His crying got louder and I thought maybe I didn't get a good burp out of him and he was in pain. At this point Nixon also started crying and was coughing pretty bad. We were surrounded by desert and wouldn't reach a town for a while, so Lance decided to just pull off the road onto this dirt path. I went and got Jaxon and tried to burp him and Lance went to Nixon to try and calm him down when all of a sudden Nixon throws up all over himself! Poor kid was in hysteria after that. Nothing and no one could calm him down. While Lance cleaned off the throw up on his carseat and off his blanket (which he can't live without) I tried to get him dressed in his pajama's that luckily I had taken out earlier. Like I said he was in complete hysteria so this was no easy task. Meanwhile during this whole ordeal poor Jaxon was left to cry it out in his carseat. We all finally got settled back in the car, somewhat content, when Nixon starts coughing and throws up AGAIN!! We were so close to reaching our destination, it was late, we were all tired from driving all day, so needless to say we all weren't happy at this point. There was no clean clothes reachable so we had to wipe him off (and his blanket) as well as we could and hope we could make it the rest of the way without any more hiccups.
Nixon loved showing Grandpa T and Krew how to play with cars
Story time with Grandpa
We like to play games when we get together and Nixon likes to play too
Hanging out with Uncle Zac
Jaxon enjoyed the baby swing (most of the time)
These boys love their Aunt Chelsie
While we were down there we were able to be a part of my brother Connor blessing his little boy Krew. It was a great experience to be a part of.
The cute blessing boy and his amazing parents
This boy loves to eat!
cute boys in their Christmas church outfits
Jaxon loves his grandma Taylor
Nixon liked to accompany Matt on the piano
Since our last family picture there have been 2 additions to the family so while we were all together my mom wanted to make sure we got an updated family picture.
Uncle Zac with his 3 favorite nephews
What a beautiful family! I am so grateful to call them mine!
These boys are lucky to have these amazing grandparents
We were able to take individual family photos as well and I'll say It's not easy trying to get a 2 year old and a 3 month old to smile and look at the camera. Jaxon wouldn't move his hands from his face and we had to bribe Nixon with candy to sit still. With how crazy it was to get both boys to look at the camera I am very happy with how they turned out.
Nixon eating his late night snack... ICE (even better Sonic ice)
Nixon and Krew became the best of friends. Krew wasn't yet walking so Nixon would get down on the floor and crawl around with Krew.
One thing on my bucket list during this Christmas holiday was to have my kids sit on Santa's lap and take their picture. Our ward back home wasn't going to have a Santa so my last hope was that my parents ward would have one, and lucky for me they did. They had the ward party at a park where they had brought in some snow so kids could sled down it. I thought Nixon would think that was cool, just to play in the snow, but he was completely scared of it. So we skipped the snow and went straight for Santa. I asked Nixon if he wanted to sit on Santa's lap and he replied (with little tears building in his eyes) "no sit on Santa's lap, no sit on Santa's lap mommy" Poor kid was terrified but I needed that santa picture (mean mom award). I kept reassuring him that he would get a big candy from Santa if he sat on his lap but not even candy could make sitting on Santa's lap sound more appealing.
First up on Santa's lap was Jaxon. He was more then happy to sit and smile for the camera. To bad he wasn't able to eat the yummy candy cane he got.
Next up came Nixon. This picture explains it all.
Let's hope he's not tramatized from this and scared of Santa the rest of his life
Little Krew was last to sit on Santa's lap. He was content and very interested in the candy cane he received
Nixon was sill a little shaken up from sitting on Santa's lap
There must've been a good show on
When we get together we always like to do some big fun activity. This year we decided to ride go carts. I didn't mind sitting out and watching the kids. ;)
He's in heaven!
He loved showing grandpa all the go carts that drove by
Poor guy wanted to ride one so bad
love his smile!
Since he couldn't ride the go carts he found happiness in playing with the drinking fountain
The drivers are ready to ride
Nixon has a special place in his heart for his Grandpa Taylor
Krew loved giving Jaxon kisses
We had to visit the park a couple of times
treating ourselves to a nice pedicure
One night we all headed over to my brother's Zac's place to have dinner and play some pool.
Cute nixon trying to watch the pool game
My sister Chelise and her husband Matt had recently gotten back from a 6 Week trip to southeast Asia and they brought back these cute pants from Thailand for the boys.
Nixon loved his new pants
what a cute couple, they will make cute babies one day ;) (I love nixon sneaking into the room in the background ha)
Poor Jaxon didn't get to eat any of the delicious bbq dinner we had. plus it was like salt in the wound to watch Krew eat some yummy puffs right in front of him.
We continued our tradition of bowling on Christmas eve. It's fun to see how life changes from year to year as we do this tradition. For the past couple of years there has been a new addition, whether it was a spouse or child, and it makes for a much more exciting game.
Nixon and Krew loved rolling the balls around. Luckily no tiny fingers were pinched
And Jaxon enjoyed being held by everyone
The tradition continued with a delicious Christmas Eve dinner, to which the girls did not have to clean up because we won the bowling boys vs girls match. :)
Jaxon loved all the attention from grandma and grandpa
The boys in their cute christmas pajama's from grandma
Christmas morning!!
The first thing Nixon opened was his stocking and he was very happy to find Santa had brought him doughnuts! He probably didn't need all his other gifts, just the doughnuts. (maybe a bigger bag of them though)
Krew helping Nixon see what else he got in his stocking
Portable car DVD from grandma and grandpa (very much needed! it saved a good portion of our sanity on the drive back home)
Jaxon and his bigger than him stuffed animal dog
I believe Nixon was refusing to take a picture because he wanted more doughnuts
Poor Jaxon only got hand-me-down chew toys in his stocking
Nixon's favorite present (besides the doughnuts)
It was a great Christmas morning! I'm grateful to get to spend it with my boys.
Wishing it was warm enough to swim (or looking at all the rocks he threw in the pool)
Trying out the sling shots that Chels and Matt got my brothers for Christmas from their trip
I knocked two down, not to shabby
So tired he can't even keep his tongue in his mouth
Had to check out the Mesa Temple Christmas lights. we didn't last very long because it was chillier then we were expecting it to be
cute "big brother and little brother" outfits from Grandma T
Sadly, like always, our trip had to come to an end. We were so sad to go and nervous about the drive back.
Overall the drive home went a little better than the drive there, in that we didn't have anyone throw up. Poor Nixon would be sitting there and then randomly he would let out a scream (probably out of boredom and frustration) and then go back to watching his show. He did this off and on for the last few hours of the drive.
At one of our pit stops we did get doughnuts to help ease the long car ride. (Our car was even more packed and crammed after packing in all the new christmas gifts. Maybe Nixon was starting to feel claustrophobic )
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