Scott & Trisha: Holiday Fun!

Ward, friends, and work holiday parties kept us hopping last month. We enjoyed awesome food, fun games, and great company. We are extremely grateful for the many wonderful friends we've made here in Portland over the last couple years and loved celebrating this special season with them.

Cinco hosts some fun parties in pretty
unique venues. Maddox was just glad
he didn't miss the game...

The annual Klug-Layton gingerbread face-off! This year we built traditional gingerbread houses. Scott built us a good, sturdy house and I added some sweet finishing touches. The girls thought we needed more sprinkles though.

Maddox had a little chat with Santa. I was convinced he was going to be terrified of the overweight bearded man, but I wanted to maintain the tradition of visiting Kris Kringle every year. Much to our surprise, Maddox didn't mind him at all - Santa even got a few smiles out of our little man.

Scott and I decorated our cute little tree which we've had since our first Christmas together. Maddox really liked looking at the lights and did well with not touching the cord. It was a great fit and location for our family this year. We opened gifts here at home before we flew to see Scott's family on Christmas Eve.

Maddox has become a little obsessed with throwing things away; he had to go throw the ribbon in the trash before he could begin to think about continuing to unwrap his gift.

We had a wonderful time down in Arizona with Scott's parents and sisters and their families. We had a delay in flying down, but the airport and Maddox luckily provided hours of entertainment.

View of Mt. Hood

We had an awesome feast and read some scriptures of Christ's birth on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning, we enjoyed being a part of some special news and were treated to some very generous gifts. And Scott surprised me by shaving his beard… best present ever!

Maddox developed an addiction to pretzels on our trip.

Then we took a ride in grandpa's fun red truck. It is a '55 Ford F-100. So fun!

That afternoon, the boys went to work helping install some speakers. Scott found some good work clothes in his dad's closet. So hot!!

Christmas Day 2013

We checked out a couple parks in the area and rode a train at one. We absolutely LOVED the beautiful weather!

Of course, we ate lots of good grub!

We had a good visit with Grandma Layton, and the cousins had a lot of fun playing with the toys at Uncle Curt and Aunt Ruth's.

Just hanging out at the house was a lot of fun too!

I love seeing old photos of this handsome guy around the house!

Maddox learned to wave and blow kisses to everyone on our trip.

And of course we shopped until everyone was worn out…

Scott's sisters left on Sunday, and we spent some "alone" time with his parents for the remainder of our visit. Maddox tried nursery out for the first time and he did great! He played with the toys, enjoyed some yummy snacks, colored his picture, held props during singing time, and tried not to get trampled when the bubbles came out at the end. Watching him in that setting helped me realize just how good he is at understanding and following directions. He's such an awesome kid!

Cooking up some fudge - peanut butter and chocolate, delicious!

New Year's Eve we played at the park again, saw the Christmas display at the Mesa Temple, ate some yummy Cafe Rio (the second time in two days), and played games until midnight.