Giant Gingerbread House & Crying with Santa

I love the giant gingerbread house at the Grand America Hotel. Maybe it's because I love that amazing hotel itself. Who knows? But it's something fun to do, so we went.

Ignore the creepy eye reflection.

This is out of order, but Sof fell asleep on the way to see the gingerbread house. Greg and I were so confused how it happened! 

 

Sof came home as the cutest reindeer one day from preschool.

We got lost in our neighbor's fun backyard one day. 

He's an artist, so there's all kinds of creative stuff to play around with.

Then we crashed Santa's party one night at Station Park. I'm pretty sure getting our kids to cry with Santa is the highlight of the season for Greg.

The Johnson's hosted a non-Christmas party for the Spjute's, and we ate good food and played some fun games.

She did pretty good.

Grandma Jolley's 80th Birthday

We were back down to Cedar City 3 weeks after Thanksgiving to celebrate my Grandma Jolley's 80th Birthday. We had to bring my Dad's diesel truck back down after having it loaned to us, so Greg blissfully drove it down while I drove the van with a screaming Claire the whole way. Yay us! I have yet to figure out why my kids don't blissfully sleep in the car like everyone else's children. It's a mystery to us all.

First road trip in Superstar! 

Despite having screamed for all but 20 min of the trip, she sure was a happy little thing!

My cute mom bought the oldest 3 girls of my family, and their spouses, tickets to the Nasvhille Tribute Band. It was so much fun! My parents bravely took on all the grandkids back home, and got them in bed for us. It was a fun night spent with adults and sleepy Greggy.

Poor Greg was exhausted and yawned through the whole concert. He only got 4 hours of sleep the night before.

Sofi blissfully sleeping in her cute sleeping bag in Shelby's room. Turns out, Sof was the hardest of all the grandkids to get to bed. Go figure. When the parents are away, Sofi will play!

The next morning was the gift exchange, and the girls were so excited!

All Sof wanted was an Elena dress. She didn't take it off for the rest of the day.

 

Poor Claire.

Sof gave Lexi a matching sleeping bag!

Having a tea party with her new tea set!

Still wearing the dress while bonding over the ipad.

Later, Sof and I cruised the neighborhood on this little beauty. We were gone so long, Greg called to make sure we weren't roadkill somewhere.

My cute Grandma! She lights up whenever her family is in the room.

My "little" cousins aren't so little anymore.

Cute Aly walked Claire so I could eat.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

 

The next day we visited Grandma one last time before heading home. Her face was still lit up from her party the night before. She's the best!

My cute Dad with Claire. He's often working when we visit, so I always love seeing him take some time to hold my kids.

The 3rd bench was my bed the whole way home. I slept while Greg drove, and it was at this moment that I realized owning a van was going to be okay :).

Christmas Bus 2018

Sof talked about the Christmas Bus for weeks! Every time we saw a school bus she asked if that was the one we would ride on, so it was such a relief to wake up this morning knowing all of Sof's dreams would come true.

Sof is often the honorary member of the Johnson family.

I always love hearing Mark play his cello.

Thanks to Kathy, these are the best-dressed nativity characters. Sof was Mary this year and she did a great job! Cute Claire was a moody angel.

I love that despite her sass, Claire's cousins still like to try and hold her.

The cutest little Mary.

Poor Greg. He had me pulling faces at him in the back.

She loves that baby Jesus.

Jesus was carried around by Sof for the rest of the night.

I was having deja vu  while holding Claire in the nativity. I did the exact same thing with Sof.

The cutest little characters!

After the Christmas Program, we all caravanned to the church. There, we played games and ate yummy food while waiting for the bus to come and get us. The games were hilarious!

Zach kept cracking me up!

This game was obviously a contest to see who was the best Christmas tree. But, they all won.

Airborn!

Jenna was so cute with Claire, and Claire was content to poke her in the eye. A true friendship.

We failed to get the family picture in front of the bus, but know that it did indeed pick us up, and Sof was so excited to ride in the back with her cousins.

I had to document Claire letting someone e law hold her. It's a Christmas miracle.

You wouldn't believe the amount of people who asked where we got these lights. People way underutilized their Dollar Stores. It's no surprise that she didn't get lost.

 I never mentioned Greg's cute grandma, aunt and uncle all made the trip down from Boise for the Christmas bus. It's always so fun to have them! They are truly some of the greatest people, and it was fun to have Uncle Dave walk around the temple with us.

After the bus dropped us off, I made Greg get a picture with Grandma with the girls. You never know if it will be the last one.

It's not perfect, but it's them. 😍

It makes me so happy whenever Claire wears this suit.

We love Aunt Lisa and definitely don't see her near as much as we would like!