'Twas the Sunday Before Christmas...

...And Mom was in a lurch, trying to get three kids ready and smiling before church!

Annie wanted Mom to hold her, Ty wanted to read a book, McKay was refusing at the camera to look!

We had to give up without getting a photo that was first-rate.  Mom was yelling, "Load up!  We're going to be late!"
After church we tried again, and this was our best shot.  At least everyone was looking, while before they were not!

Then Annie took off running, and we got one of the brothers.  And what a miracle that at this moment they were getting along with one another!

Well, that's the best that the Marchant kids could do for today.  Now they are all in their jammies, and that's how they are planning to stay.

Look Who's 18 Months Old!

...And headed to nursery!  Well, technically she's not officially 18 months until tomorrow, but since she was born four days late, and she was only born an hour after midnight (meaning if she would have come an hour earlier she's be 18 months today), and mostly since I was teaching Relief Society, I felt totally justified in sending her to nursery class today.  And I figured if anyone said anything about it (nobody did), I would just tell them that she had Bishop approval to start attending today.  Because, let's be honest,  there aren't THAT many perks to the calling, so you have to take advantage of the ones you can!

She was very proud of her paper that she colored.  Actually,  with the exception of her name and a little squiggle at the bottom of the page, it was devoid of all color.  But it was a picture of Jesus, and she loved it nonetheless.

And just because I think it's so fun, here are pictures of my other two on their first days of nursery, too!

I don't think I have ever been so excited about sending a kid off to nursery.  Having your husband serve as Bishop is sort of a game changer--here's to only one hour spent in the hall instead of three!!

Thanksgiving in Utah

About a month ago we decided to spend our Thanksgiving week in Utah.  We had the perfect plan--since Matt would be reporting to the MTC the day before Thanksgiving, he and I would fly out together with the kids and meet Adam there (since he was working in CA the week before).  Then we could have Thanksgiving dinner with my family early, before Matt entered the MTC, and with Adam's family on the actual holiday.

Oh, the best laid plans.  As it turned out, Matt's MTC date got moved up a week, which left me to fly to Utah alone with my three littles.  The flight didn't scare me at all--surely it couldn't be harder than church every Sunday!--but I wasn't sure how I would haul three kids, three carseats, three suitcases, a backpack, a diaper bag, a purse and a stroller through the airport.  Gratefully, some dear friends from our ward took pity on us, took us to the airport, and helped me get everything to the ticket counter.  Disaster averted!  And honestly, the kids were pretty well perfect on the flight, even though we were delayed almost an hour after we were sitting on the plane.  Whew!

A week before our trip Annie got a good black eye.  So she sported a nice shiner throughout the whole vacation.

While we were in Provo, we decided to take the kids down to the MTC so they could see where Matt was.  We were hoping to get a photo by the big "Missionary Training Center" sign, but unbeknownst to us, it was gone!  So we did our best.  Funnily enough, the guy that took our family picture was an instructor in Matt's zone.  We thought that was pretty neat!

We got lots of great cousin time in, both in Provo and in Salt Lake.

I was able to meet up with a high school friend/college roommate that I haven't seen in years.  I am pretty sure the last time we saw each other was at my wedding reception 8 1/2 years ago.  She is working in the Church Office Building, so we had lunch together in the cafeteria there and caught up on many years of each others' lives.  It was wonderful!

Our actual Thanksgiving feast was pretty quiet this year.  It was an "off year" for Adam's brothers, so it was just our family and Bryan with Grandma and Grandpa this year.  We missed everyone else (although we saw them all for pie later that evening), but we loved the time with Grandma and Grandpa Marchant!

The evening after Thanksgiving we decided to head to temple square for the first night of the Christmas lights there.  We stopped first at the Church History Museum, where the kids had lots of fun playing at the Book of Mormon exhibit with some of their cousins.

Then we had dinner at City Creek and headed across the street to Temple Square to see the lights and beautiful statues.  It was CRAZY crowded.  Like, insanely so.  But it was nice to see it all while we were there.

The whole time we were walking around Temple Square, McKay kept complaining that he had "0% energy."  He took turns riding on Daddy and Uncle Spencer's shoulders.  I guess he wasn't kidding--as soon as we got in the car and started driving he zonked out and didn't wake up again until morning!

It's safe to say that we tuckered our kids out pretty well.  This is Annie the following morning as we were going through the Denver airport after our flight home:

We loved being able to spend time together as a family, as well as strengthen our relationships with our extended family.  It was a great trip!