Christmas

 The build up to Christmas was fun this year. Every time a package would come in the mail Sadie squealed with excitement. Here are the girls with the box from Mimi and Paco. 

*If you open the picture in a separate window you will also see all the eye boogers coating Elise's lashes. A couple days after the ear infection trip to the doctor, Lou got conjunctivitis. She didn't act like it hurt much, only cried when we wiped the crusties out of her lashes. I waited it out over the weekend, thinking it would get better. But when her eyes were stuck shut on Monday morning and she was feeling her way around like a blind child I called the doctor and somehow convinced them to send a prescription in without us coming in on Christmas Eve. Yay for reasonable doctor's offices! 

Because of Elise's pink eye we just had a quiet Christmas Eve at home. Sadie would jump around with her hands up every few hours and yell about Christmas. It snowed off and on most of the day. 

 We ate a delicious dinner and put the kids to bed early. Apparently Sadie hasn't hit the age yet where she has trouble falling asleep on Christmas Eve. 

Daniel and I got everything put together relatively easily, thanks to Whitney wrapping the presents weeks before. Shout out to my little girls who did not rip one present open in the 2 1/2 weeks they were under the tree before Christmas.

 The loot from Santa took up a lot of room this year.

Sadie came in our room at 5:30 AM on Christmas. She kept opening our blinds and trying to convince us it was light outside, since that was the threshold we set for going downstairs to see what Santa brought. At one point she told us that we got a new car from Santa because our neighbors had parked in front of our house where Daniel normally leaves his car. Around 7:15 we went downstairs to check it out.

 This is what the house looked like 3 hours later. 

Sadie's favorite present, and the thing she asked Santa for, is this princess castle. Her second favorite is probably the 2-seater cozy coupe that Elise got. 

It has been snowing on and off for a few days now.

Sadie ran around yelling "I love Christmas!" all day yesterday. Sadie makes Christmas so fun. Hopefully Elise will grasp the concept a bit more next year. It will be that much more fun with 2 kids loving it. 

While I think I bought the girls way too many presents, Christmas 2012 was a success for sure.

A Good Week

It's been a fun week leading up to Christmas. We all love it when Daniel is home more than an hour a day no matter the season. 

We spent a lot of time making and delivering treats to neighbors.

Sadie had a play date with Claire. 

They dressed in costume and danced to Christmas songs on Pandora 

I got the rest of our Christmas cards sent out. That's always a relief.

Daniel brought the girls outside to build a snowman. Sadie has been begging him to make a snowman with her for the past month. He was finally home during some daylight hours to do it. The best part was that she didn't help at all. Elise spent the entire time laying face down in the snow, licking it. Sadie went over to her every once in a while and smashed her face in it more. 

And on Thursday I left work early to get the girls because Sadie was crying, saying she wasn't feeling good. As we were waiting to see the doctor Elise started to feel warm to me. I asked them to take her temperature after they took Sadie's. It turned out both of my girls were running fevers (Elise's was actually higher at 102) and both had ear infections in both ears. I thought Sadie had been waking up 10 times a night all week because she was just being a jerk.

Yep, there's another notch on my mother of the year belt.

I got all the presents wrapped and under the tree. I think I am almost as excited about Christmas as Sadie is. Christmas is so fun with kids who understand what is happening. The anticipation is so fun.

Can't wait for Daniel to get home again tomorrow so we can start our 3 whole days off.

First Born

Not to be outdone by her sister, here is my Sadie Lady. My silly girl.

On Saturday we played at the mall play place with the Faucettes. Hunter and Sadie thought sticking their heads under the bathroom hand dryers was hilarious.

PS- Sadie is absolutely convinced she is going to marry Hunter one day. As long as he becomes a prince. She talks about it frequently. She says they will get married and she will go to work and he will go to church. Apparently that is a marriage in Sadie's mind.

In the Spirit

Hillary and I got to do several Christmas things together this year. First, we went to The Forgotten Carols. We grew up listening to that music and it was great to hear it performed by talented singers.

Those trees behind us were part of the set.

We also attended the MoTab Choir's Christmas concert. I have never heard the Tabernacle choir live and of course they are amazing. My favorite parts of the concert included the performance of Somewhere in My Memory (from Home Alone- of course it was a favorite) and Tom Brokaw's tribute to Gail Halvorsen, the WWII pilot who dropped candy to children in Berlin.

*The man in the black blazer and gray pants facing the choir is Tom Brokaw.

We also had an early Christmas dinner since the Salazars headed to Boston for Christmas. We had them in the present rotation so they opened their gifts from us while Sadie and Elise wreaked havoc in their apartment.

Thanks for celebrating Christmas with me Hillary! It worked out perfectly. Daniel didn't get dragged to performances he wasn't very interested in and I got to enjoy the concerts with someone who would analyze them with me in depth.

Whitney: A Holiday Trip

Whitney came back to inhabit her basement space at our house for one whole week. We jam-packed her visit with Christmas cheer. It started the moment we picked her up from the airport with Elf playing in the car. When we got home I put the kids to bed and Whitney got to work wrapping Christmas presents.

The next day we put up the felt tree Whitney made for the girls. It works out perfectly because they can pull them off and replace them by themselves. Later on Sadie took a bunch of close-ups of her felt tree.

That afternoon we dragged Whitney to gymnastics so Sadie could show off all her moves at her last gymnastics class.

Look at that form! She is, indeed, holding herself up with no help. I am very proud of the progress Sadie made in this class and we'll probably return to gymnastics class in the summer. The other milestone recorded in this photo is Sadie's french braids.

Pike jump

Anxiously watching Sadie- wanting to play too

Obediently sitting criss-cross applesauce on her purple square

After gymnastics we put on warmer clothes and rushed over to the Riverwoods to see Santa.

Sadie was very excited and told me many times that she was going to ask him for a princess castle with lots of princesses.

She got a little shy when it came time to tell him, but she actually did it and told him her favorite princess was Cinderella.

Elise's interaction with Santa was not so positive. But that's pretty much her reaction when anyone holds her if her parents are around, never mind the strange clothes and facial hair, so overall, a smashing success.

The Riverwoods does a great job at Christmas time. The lights are beautiful, a visit and photo with Santa is free (take your own photo), heaters are set up outside, and it is close to our house. 

Sadie took photos of everything she could find as I was finishing up dinner preparations. I deleted most of them, but I enjoyed this one of Whit.

 

And this one of Daniel reading one of Elise's favorite books, Charlie the Ranch Dog.

Thursday was another busy day, but with less pictures. I got home from work and we took the girls up to IKEA because I needed to get a Christmas present for Elise and IKEA is always fun with kids. Not. The girls were both fairly well-behaved and we made it out of store alive. Unfortunately, I realized when I got home that I stole a bunch of table legs. I thought I needed 4 boxes to go with the table top. Nope, just one. Oops. My only defense is that an IKEA employee watched me check out and didn't say a word.

The girls both took naps so we went to Daniel's game that night.

The girls lasted about 2/3 of the game until they started playing on the stairs and running around the courts up behind the arena. It confirmed my choice to not attend night games this year as correct. They weren't terrible, but by myself it would have been.

Both girls were rewarded after the game (a tough loss for UVU) with running around on the big court. They could care less who won. Although, for the first time ever Sadie realized that she actually knew the people playing in the game. She shouted, "It's Casey! Hi Casey! Mom! It's Casey!" Funny that it took her 3 years to realize that. I just assumed she recognized the players last year.

On Friday morning we went to open gym at Sadie's gymnastics place. We spent the whole time playing in areas Sadie doesn't get to go to during class: the big foam pit and the trampolines.

Elise was excited to be participating instead of spectating.

*it's really hard to get out of a foam pit while holding a 1 1/2 year old.

We came home and Sadie helped/hindered Whitney in wrapping more presents.

I want to mention how proud of myself I am for taking apart/putting together a new frame on our stroller. I waited 4 months for Daniel to put it together until I got a surge of girl power and realized it really wasn't very tough- just required non-laziness and someone who is actually home more than 2 hours a day.

Whit got roped into making a gingerbread house with Sadie.

Nielson square heads unite.

That night Whitney and I put the girls to bed and had some Cafe Rio as we watched Elf.

Saturday Whitney and I went to the new outlets in Lehi while Hillary watched the girls at home.

I am so happy I can now get to outlets in 15 minutes. 

We also returned the stolen IKEA table legs. We waited at customer service for a while, but the line was very long. So we just walked over to where the table legs were and put them back. We figured no harm done. It had only been a day and a half since I accidentally stole them and they were totally unopened. Maybe I shouldn't be admitting this on my blog. Can I be prosecuted for that?

We also visited Hobby Lobby for some Christmas season needs, namely, wrapping paper. They have the best in-store prices on wrapping paper (non-ugly wrapping paper) I have seen.

Sunday was a generally quiet day with church and dinner at the Blood's.

Sadie had a great time with second-cousin Jack and slept well that night after running, jumping, screaming with him.

The next day it actually snowed a decent amount in the afternoon. Whitney generously played outside with Sadie as I watched from inside.

Whitney made snowballs and Sadie threw them.

That night we went to Temple Square to see the lights.

Sadie was distraught that we couldn't actually go inside the temple. And she didn't believe me that we were in the temple when we went to the visitor's center. Too smart for her own good.

Both girls did enjoy running around in some warmth, even if it wasn't the temple.

Look- a picture of all of us!

In case you couldn't tell, we love Whitney a lot and we want her to come back to Utah and live with us.

Please?