Christmas

On Christmas Eve we had the Nielson family over for dinner and some activities. In true Doug John style I made entirely too much food. I made ham for the first time ever, which shouldn't really be worthy of mentioning, except for the fact that it took over an hour longer to cook than the directions said and it made me mad.

After dinner we made graham cracker structures. Sadie downed half a box of Dots in about 2 minutes so Daniel pretty much spent the whole time keeping her from eating all the candy. 

Here you have the Utah landscape, Buckingham Palace (with the royal wedding going on inside), a gummy bear shack (complete with outhouse), the UT tower, and Cinderella's castle (Sadie's choice). 

I didn't do a great job, but it stayed up. I got tired of gluing down the coconut snow, so it was winter in the front and summer in the back. 

We definitely did not do a good job of making Christmas day about Christ. Sadie told us it was Jesus' birthday, but once she saw the presents that's all she cared about. I definitely need to improve on that next year. Any suggestions?

On Christmas morning the girls actually slept in a bit so we didn't start opening presents until 8:30 AM. You can see they were very anxious to get down the stairs and open presents. 

When Sadie got to the bottom of the stairs she was confused and excited. She ran to her new dress-up clothes and insisted on trying them all on. I showed her that there were more presents in her stocking and she literally started shaking. 

Our house became a pigpen in a matter of minutes. Sadie wanted to take everything out of the package immediately. She rotated dress-up outfits every 5 minutes.

This is before we even started opening any wrapped presents. Sadie hadn't found out that there were more toys inside the presents under the tree. 

We opened a few presents before church, but we had to stop and get ready. Sadie told everyone she saw at church that it was Christmas. After church all the Nielsons came back over and we had a delicious brunch (at 2 PM). Then we finished opening presents. Our girls got spoiled. We really didn't need to buy them anything because they got plenty from our families. 

Sadie got a new stroller and baby (complete with a car seat) from Tyler. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to convince her that she doesn't need her old broken toy stroller or filthy baby doll. Doesn't she look like such a big girl in this outfit? 

Later on we headed up to Alpine for a big Blood (my MIL's family) get-together. I realized I hadn't taken a single picture of the girls with Courtney so we snapped this on our way out. By the end of her trip here, Sadie had finally gotten "Coco" and "Whitty" straight. 

We have spent this week playing with the new toys like crazy. Our house is a mess 100% of the time, but I think that's allowed for the week after Christmas. Sadie even occasionally lets Elise play with some of the Little People she got from Nana and Papa. 

On this day in 1993: Christmas Presents

Santa was really good to me in 1993

"Dec 28, 1993- Sorry I haven't written yet. I got  for Christmas, a black belmont jacket, a dolphins hat of the NFL, white underwear, socks, glass beads, braiding thread, a treasure chest, backpack, maroon gloves, clothes, books, pants, stationary, bows. It seems like I got tons more stuff than I got last year. Oh! I forgot to tell you an important ones. I have to go. Sorry I didn't tell you the important ones. I'll tell you next letter! Love, Carly"

"January 2nd, 1994- The important one is, Chinese Checkers. It has a wooden bottom and plastic peas. Anthony got a ping-pong table. It's already set up. Anthony got a moutain bike too! It's Sunday today and we have church at 1:00 p.m.! It's fast Sunday and I'm dying of thirst and hunger. Love, Carly or Carly John"

The Biggest Eve of the Year

Happy Christmas Eve! We have been keeping busy this week.

A visit to the lights at Temple Square with the whole Nielson clan 

(first time all together since Christmas 2009)

A play date at the mall with Ella. Sadie insisted on climbing into her chair and helping Ella finish off her food.

Practicing standing. You can see how thrilled she is with herself.

Sadie got her first black eye, which is fairly surprising because she falls a lot. This was the first time she has hit her eye.

A visit to Mater at the Christmas tree lot by our house. 

You can see they were breaking down the lot as we got there.

Louie continued to chew on everything in sight. Check out our completely droopy Christmas tree in the background. Sad. 

Other things not pictured including, but not limited to, Nielson family pictures, another trip to the Riverwoods to ride on the merry-go-round, many last-minute trips to all kinds of stores, and the purchase of the start of our food storage. 

Feline Elise

We are pretty sure this is the cat version of Leesie. 

If you ever want an excited/shocked reaction to anything, go to Elise. Anyone who has spent much time around her knows Louie seems to be in a constant state of amazement. Her eyes get huge and bug out of her face. Random strangers in stores will comment on how they just surprised her. A few weeks ago at church someone watched her for a couple minutes for us. When Daniel went to take her back he told Daniel , "You gotta see this. I am jumping out at her and she makes the funniest face." Daniel didn't tell him that's how she reacts to a bump on a log too.

Examples below in age order- just scroll quickly through them all. 

And no, I didn't use every picture I could have.

From 2 weeks old...

...to 7 months old (taken yesterday)

Some people tell me they think it's cute. I don't know about that, but I do think it's hilarious.
Elise is awesome.

Our First Christmas

The other night Daniel told me he thought we were doing a pretty good job on our first Christmas. I made fun of him and reminded him we got married 6 1/2 years ago, but I knew what he meant. This is the first year we are at our home for the whole Christmas season. Combine that with the fact that Sadie partially understands and is excited about Christmas and any associated activities and we have full-on holiday mania going on. 

First up, making and decorating sugar cookies. 

This is Sadie's "say cheese" smile. It's amazing. 

Cropped version. I, for one, cannot wait for Nielson family photos next week. 

Too bad we didn't get a shot of me with an apron on, covered in flour. Daniel told me I looked like a real mom but I told him it was just the result of rolling out cookie dough with a 2 year old.

Elise drinks her bottles by the glow of the tree lights.

Yes, I think we have a ridiculous amount of gifts under our tree. Especially considering you can't see them all and there are only like 5 that are NOT for Sadie

Finally got our outside lights up. Just some advice- if you need cheap white mini lights buy them at the beginning of holiday shopping season. After trying 7 different stores, we bit the bullet and purchased some higher quality white lights that were 70% off (but at 70% off were still double the cost of our other crappy white lights).

Sadie reads our "12 Days of Christmas" book and insists I sing the song at least once per day. Again, the awesome smile. (Different day, same pajamas)

Visited the Riverwoods lights again

Made neighbor gifts- fudge. Meredith tried to recipe sabotage me by changing one little thing in the fudge directions. 

Fudge fail. 

When Meredith realized I wasn't going to give up after 2 failed batches she gave me the right recipe

Fudge triumph.

Got some adorable matching Christmas tree shirts made by Carrie. Sadie insisted on Elise sitting in her lap so you can't see the matching shirts.

Another great smile, with red, dry cheeks.  

Oh, and in case you didn't get our Christmas card in the mail, here it is. Of course, this doesn't include the hilarious insert about our family in 2011. 

(If you still want one mailed to you it's not too late to send me your address- carlynielson@gmail.com)