4th Anniversary

Our celebrations are not quite over for the year yet. Last night we went out to enjoy 4 years of truly happy and amazing eternal marriage. It was a cold and snowy day, just like our wedding day...what were we thinking?! ;-) Our tradition thus far for our anniversary is to go to a Chinese restaurant and movie. Since we moved out to Herriman we weren't sure of any close places, so we drove around looking, but didn't find anything. So we went to a place we've been once or twice before to satisfy our Chinese craving. Honestly, the best thing that we had was their cream cheese wontons, but it was fun evening.

After we asked them to take a picture for us because it's our anniversary, the young waiter surprised us with a cheesecake on the house. It was very sweet and delicious and was a nice ending to our meal.

Then since we had a baby free night thanks to Kelly & James, we headed to the movie Avatar out at the District. We had heard great things about it, and we even forked it out to go the 3D verision.
The last time we had been to a 3D movie of any sort was in Sea World when we were dating. What a long time ago that seems. :-) It was a really good movie and a wonderful night together.

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!

The last few weeks of December are one party after another for us. As you can see we started off with the Christmas festivities, and then the day after when everyone else in the world thinks the celebrations are over we get to keep partying with Mike's birthday! He turned 27 on Saturday, and this year was extra special because Christina's sister Ginger was in town and she had her 44 birthday on Sunday!
Since we had two birthdays to celebrate we started off the day early by going to the 10:45 am Sherlock Holmes movie at the District. We TOTALLY recommend it! It was funny and suspenseful, and Robert Downey Jr. truly is amazing in it. After that we waited for about 30 minutes at Red Robin for them to sit 22 people! As you can tell from the pictures we had quite the crowd, and we've posted two because in the one the faces are more clear, except Cheri's head is cut off. Anyway, it was a crazy lunch but the food was tasty and the one waitress that they gave us actually did a great job.
After eating way too many bottomless steak fries, some friends had to get going, but a few were able to come back to our house for presents and cake. Carter helped make one of his Daddy's cake, and he was very precise where the candles should go.

We didn't have 27 candles so we made the number 27 instead, and while Mike was lighting them Carter was trying to blow them out since he knows just what to do. The video we took was adorable, but unfortunately too long to post. Needless to say Carter is already a pyro like his Dad.

Some might think that Mike's birthday might get swallowed up in the Christmas season, but his family has tried really hard to make it a special day. He got some more tasty candy to add to his collection, and also a sweet thermal shirt, a multi-plier set, and a sweet dress shirt and tie.
What his babies (C^2) got him without his knowledge was new drum heads and sticks to replace his 10+ year old heads. Christina just called up the only drum store she could find on google maps and they hooked her up. The new heads are coated so they have a different sound, but he loves them.
Here are the old verses new heads. It's not hard to see that they are pretty worn.
Of course we had to do one last video of the old heads and then the new ones. Can you tell the difference?

Christina's sister and brother-in-law Julie and Nathan were able to come out and stay the day, which is HUGE! Their ranch doesn't allow them to play very often, but they worked it out and we so enjoyed their company. They drove in from Ruby Valley, NV with Ginger for the movie, then they were able to stay overnight before they had to head back home.
Carter has this things about guys, he totally will go to them over girls. He has probably only seen Nathan a couple of times when he was much younger, yet he went right to him and hung out. He definitely is a little boy.
Nathan & Carter also enjoyed rocking it out on the new drum heads.

Our house was full this weekend and it was so much fun! We love having a home to host our friends and family. Carter's cousin Joey can speak quite a bit in comparison since he is the youngest of 7, and Joey LOVES to help Carter, but sometime it's a little more rough that single-child Carter is use to. This video is actually pretty sweet since it doesn't end in crying. :-)

We ended off Mike's birthday with games, relaxing, more food, visiting, and lots of laughter. It was a great day!




Ginger's birthday was a little more calm since the party happened the night before and everyone had left, but Mike was super sweet and baked her a red velvet cake from scratch! There is a crazy amount of red food coloring that goes in to this cake. We had a nice morning of watching shows, playing with Carter, and Ginger even got in another nap.

We only got to have Ginger until 3 pm before she was whisked away by another friend to spend the day, but not before she had some of her cake. Carter of course loved helping with the candle.

We loved having so many friends and family come celebrate the birthdays with us, and we're so grateful for all the Mike and Ginger do and for their fun and loving personalities. Happy Birthday!!

Merry Christmas!!!
Santa Came!!

What a fantastic day! Santa stayed up pretty late getting everything just right, but it was all worth the effort. It was a lazy morning with opening our stockings, eating cinnamon rolls, and then opening presents. It was fun to see Carter get excited for each new gift. He really got into opening presents this year, but it would take awhile for him to be interested in opening another gift when he was enjoying playing with his latest new thing. Santa did a great job in leaving just the right sweets and little presents for each person.
STOCKINGS

The first thing Carter went for was this toy that Santa got at Ikea. He was super excited to open that and show us how it works. He was so proud. The only downside is that Santa didn't think about how loud it would be on the tile floor. :-)

PRESENTS
We tried to not go so overboard this year with presents, but it truly is hard to stop when it comes to such a cute little boy! We LOVED buying new toys and clothes for Carter because he really does love each new thing. Christina got Mike just a couple of more expensive items this year, like an electric shaver and a 1 TB external hard drive, and Mike got Christina lots of great kitchen stuff and nice leather gloves. The true joy of our Christmas morning was watching Carter light up at each new thing.

COOLEST PRESENT
Probably the coolest present Carter got from Mom & Dad was a remote control car. This is a car with lights and 3 big wheels so that it can spin and move in all sorts of directions. Carter picked up on how to work the remote control way fast, and he even discovered a sweet spin for the car. The funniest thing is that he loves the car when it'd driving and turning, but as soon as it comes towards him he has a little scared cry. Such a dramatic boy! :-)

This face is what Christmas morning is all about.

LOVES
Of course Carter was super thankful for all his new gifts and we loved relishing in his sweet kisses and hugs.

JENSON FAMILY CHRISTMAS

After our little Christmas morning we made some dishes to bring for Christmas dinner at the Jenson parents' house. It is also a fun tradition to go to the parents to open presents with everyone. Cheri & Terry do too much by stuffing our stockings overfull with the best treats for each person and a little gift. Our family grew this year with the addition of Analise, and that is always fun to see. Next year we will definitely have one new little baby, and hopefully 1-2 more as well. :-) Carter was a crack up this year because Mike's Aunt Lori gave us this chair that her kids grew out of, and he absolutely loves it! We taught him to cross his legs on it, so he sits like a stud.


SECRET SANTA

Since our family is growing, for the last 2 years we've had the kids and spouses just draw names for each other, and then everyone gets the parents a gift. It's definitely hard to not buy for everyone, but it makes the wallet a little happier, plus you get to focus on one person and get them a great gift. This year Mike had Steve and Christina had Andy, and Dan & Analise had us.

We were also blessed to have Steve's son, Brandon around for the holidays. He is 16 now and a real sweetheart. He got a DS something from Santa so he was pretty enthralled with that, but we got him to look up for a couple of pictures and presents. ;-) Angela was super sweet and got everyone something with their name. She always finds the perfect thing and goes the extra mile.



We all got so many presents from each other and they truly were perfect in every way. We have a tradition that we make up a list for each person to make the gift buying game a little easier, but it's always nice to get some surprises as well. This year Cheri & Terry gave everyone a game, so we're excited to try them this holiday season.
Two of Carter's favorite presents was a little dog vacuum from us, and then a mini drum set from Grandma & Grandpa Jenson. It was a Walmart steal for only $20 and it comes with a base drum, two side drums, a cymbal, and a little stool to sit on. Carter absolutely loved it and was super adorable rocking out on it! He loves playing the big drums at home so this will be fun for him to do when he's at Grandma's house.

Carter was so intrigued by Brandon's DSI. He kept looking at what Brandon was doing, but he was pretty good about not touching it or trying to take it away. These pictures we captured are just priceless.

GRANDMA & GRANDPA JENSON VISIT

Every year Grandma & Grandpa Jenson come and visit all their kids and grandkids and they bring a present for each person. This year they had spent so much time and energy creating a scrapbook with everyone in it at least once. Grandma does a cute thing and takes the faces and puts them on different scenes so it's a pretty hilarious book. She is so creative and we are so grateful that she took the time to complete them for everyone.

THE LOOT :-)
Every year we have to take a picture of our loot from the day, and then we make a resolution not to go as crazy the next year. We know that the stuff below doesn't matter much, but the memories made today, and the true reason for the season is what today is all about. We have been so blessed by our loving Heavenly Father, and we try each day to live our lives as a Thank you to Him.