Christmas 2010

We are finally home and settled from all of our Christmas adventures so I finally have some time to give a little summery.

On Christmas Eve we packed up the car and headed south the Utah. The drive was going great until we were about 5 miles out of Brigham City and the car died. We managed to get off the freeway. Around 2-3 minutes after the car died a nice young family stopped to see what was going on. These very kind people ran home and picked up jumper cables and a tow strap. They also came back with a snack for Lily. While Tyson and this very nice guy (we never got his name) looked over the car Lily had fun playing in the driver's seat.

It became clear that we were not going to get the car going so this kind man and his wife, with their young child towed us the 5 miles into town and took us to the auto parts store. We tried to give them some money for their troubles, but he wouldn't take it. It was great to be reminded that there are so many good people in the world who are happy to help, even on Christmas Eve.

We had our battery and alternator tested and it turned out that our battery had a short in it and that caused it to kill our alternator. Tyson's brother and his fiancee headed north from Sandy to come and help us out and while we waited for them I took Lily across the street to Burger King to get her a snack and let her play for a bit.

Once Stew got there in only the guys about 20 minutes to change out the alternator, Tyson had already replaced the battery, and then we were on our way again. We made it to Sandy around 7:00 pm and we had a nice relaxing evening with family.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. It is so different with a little child around. Last year we of course had Lily, but she was too young to open gifts herself or understand what was going on. This year she seemed to figure it all out and she had a great time. I was a slacker and forgot to pull out my camera, so I pulled a few pictures off of my sister-in-law Brandi's blog.

Lily figured out how to unwrap her gifts, but she liked to do it a little at a time so it could take a while.

She went from person to person having them help her open her gifts and then she would sit with them and play with her new toys. This is her with her grandpa playing with her new see n' say.

She found some fun things at her grandma and grandpa's house. This lift flap book was her favorite, she must have gone through it 50 time or more.

She also LOVED the slide and spend hours going up and down it. She even helped some of her toys go down the slide. Every time she got to the top of the slide she would say "go" and wait for everyone to watch before she would slide down.

To our surprise Lily really opened up this last week. She had been so quiet and clingy to me and this last week she played with everyone and let all of her aunts and uncles hold her and play with her. She also started talking a lot more. I still don't understand a lot of it, but I am picking out more and more new words all the time.

On Tuesday we headed home, and thankfully made it back home without incident. My entire family was in town so we spent the next several days with them. Mostly we just hung out at my parents house, but on Thursday we all went bowling. Lily got to play for the first time and she had fun. The ball return was her favorite thing though. Tyson go the high score of course, but my brother Jack (2 years-old) managed to score 100 (with bumpers) and came in 4th. We are not bowlers, but we had a good time anyway.

On Friday we headed north about an hour and an half and went snowmobiling and sledding. It was so cold when we got there, around -8 degrees, but it warmed up to about 10 degrees by the afternoon. The area was beautiful and it was great to be with family. The kids loved sledding! All in all we had a great time, but it was cold, so we headed home after a few hours.

It was a great week, but it seriously wore me out. I'm grateful that we have an uneventful week ahead of us so that we can recover a bit and get back into the swing of things.

Winter Wonderland

This evening I went with all of my siblings to the Winter Garden Aglow at the Idaho Botanical Gardens. We took the kids to see Santa Claus. Some were very excited, Lily was not at all interested.Lily loved the lights, when I finally let her out of the stroller she walked along trying to touch them all.

Finishing Touches

This last weekend I finally finished up Lily's stocking. I made one for Charlotte as well because it just made sense and I didn't want to have to make another one next year. I didn't get around to making her one last year and I didn't want another year to go by without one. So finally our last decorations are up.

I love wrapping gifts. I had my supplies out yesterday to finish up and since Lily was napping I decided to go ahead and wrap the hula hoop. I'm not sure that I disguised it very well...

Someone found the candy canes on the tree. She has been playing with them, but until now didn't realize that they were candy.

Random Early December Cuteness

Christmas is near, and one of the great things about Christmas is Christmas candy. This evening I got started and made fudge. The first batch was too runny, but the second was perfect. Lily wanted to help so I let her lick the spoon.

Its a good think that she likes to brush her teeth so much because that was the only way to get her to give back the spoon.

Yesterday I was out running a few errands and Lily was with Tyson and I came home to find this. She never does this for me, ever, but she always crashes after playing with her daddy.
And this was Sunday. She loves her puppy and likes to feed him. I guess that she thought that it would be easier for him to eat if she got it out of the bowl for him.
She is such a sweet girl, and she loves to be helpful. She helps me clean and she "helps" my sisters take care of their babies as much as she can.

On the pregnancy front everything is going along very smoothly so far. I had another doctor appointment today along with my GTT and I am awaiting those results. Mostly I want to know my iron levels because I am feeling overly tired and I was anemic with Lily so I think that might be my problem this time around. Charlotte loves to squirm and kick so I get regular reminders from her that she is there and growing. I have been having a lot of hip, lower back, and sciatic pain (shocking, I know) so this week I visited a chiropractor and I'm going again next week to see if he might be able to help me a bit. But discomfort aside, so far so good. My blood pressure is still good, and with Lily it was getting rather high around this point so that makes me hopeful that this pregnancy will be a little less problematic than my last.

Doing the Dishes

So this morning I was unloading the dishwasher and like she always does, Lily insisted on helping. I got this little clip of her helping me out.

Snow Day!

Today was our first real snow day of the season. Tyson's classes were even cancelled which shocked me. I spent 6 years in college and never had a snow day.

Anyway, this afternoon I decided to take Lily out to play for a little while. She wasn't impressed at first.

But she slowly warmed up to it.

She was very curious about the plants sticking up out of the snow.

And thank you to Grandma Hansen for the very warm and cozy snow suit!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The first day of December certainly hit hard around here. Last night we got about 6" of snow (which is a lot for this area all at once). Also last night I set up the Christmas tree and wrapped gifts so this morning it certainly was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I am so excited for the Christmas season, it is such a wonderful time of year.

Our Christmas tree! Very simple this year. I didn't put our ball ornaments on the tree because Lily liked those too much and was enjoying throwing them around the room while we were setting up the tree.

Tyson put up some of our lights last Friday. We have more, but our ladder was not tall enough to reach so they will have to wait until there isn't snow or ice on the roof .

Last night's snowfall:

The jeep still looks like this because we decided not to venture out today.