There are so many things I love about this picture I don't know where to start.
The one boot? (characteristic – she is always walking around with one foot bare and one foot in something interesting…)
The baby tucked under her arm that she is "reading" to? (constantly found doing this as well, I love it!)
The book of choice? (The tale of Sixty Fathers, that she chose because of the "piggy" on the cover)
And the fact that it is all such serious business just tops it off. love this girl!
(A snapshot of 3:00 on this day where Emma was the only kid healthy enough to have gone to Church)
Emma playing me in Monopoly Jr. (although if I was a second too slow she'd take my turn for me…:)
Zach finishes his last requirements for his Bear
Meg wreaks havoc in her "corner"
And poor, sick Carter has fallen asleep on the rug in front of the sink, despite the fact that I offered him many comfier options. (I had to sneak in the pillow and blanket after he fell asleep… all he wanted was the floor and the rug! And his suitcase, of course - it was a gift from Santa a few Christmases ago, and lately he can't live without it. He insists on it being ON his bed when he goes to sleep… nevermind that he is almost falling off since there is no more room…)
For Christmas my dad had given the kids their choice of bowling or skating with Grandpa… so we spent New Year's Day with skating, hot chocolate, and the grandparents. Grandma graciously offered to watch (super tired!!) Meg so I could skate with Carter, Emma got to take her new doll with her old skates, and we all had such a great time. It was the perfect start to the new year! (Except for poor Nate still sick at home.)
To welcome in the year of the snake:
Nate got the flu, in spite of his flu shot, and spent the entire 4 day weekend completely miserable in bed and missing out on all the fun. ( I kept telling him 2013 has nowhere to go but up…)
We had dinner New Year's Eve at the Adams' to send off David and Jessica and their family who are off on a new (and tropical!) adventure… we will miss them! Especially Meg – she has quite the affinity for Uncle David (and baby Jane, of course.)
The kids had fun playing games with Grandma and doing a CTR push-pin art project.
We left early enough to take Nate home a late dinner and play a few games of Candyland before *midnight* – we toasted the new year with Martinellis (and chocolate milk), and wrote a resolution on our snake sign (love that someone who will remain nameless wants to stop picking their nose) on our way up to bed.
I do realize none of these pictures are of a baseball camp. However, we signed Zach up for a 2 day (all-day) baseball camp over the holiday in a town that was about 45 minutes away… and those two days were the bulk of a huge, multi-day snowstorm, so instead of driving home the second day we went a few extra miles south and visited the BYU Museum of Art.
They had a fun hands-on exhibit about heroes and villians, and the kids had a great time dressing up as superheroes:
They tried their best to appreciate the rest of the museum, as well as my tour of my old stomping grounds (which was only in the car, because it was snowing so hard), and they were well-rewarded by a ridiculously long stay at the McDonald's play place.
And Zach had so much fun at the baseball camp that he came home with spring fever and convinced Nate to concoct a batting cage in the basement.
My absolute favorite Christmas event all growing up (and the one I missed most when we lived out of state) is the Christmas Eve Sing at my grandma's corner – for 50+ years they have been gathering for an hour early on Christmas eve to sing carols around a fire, with cookies and hot chocolate. I love it. It was especially magical this year to have snow falling around us as we sang. (In fact, after the snow started, I don't have a picture without Carter's tongue out trying to catch snowflakes.) This is my first time being there in many years, and although I really missed my grandpa (who never sang but just walked around talking to everyone 🙂 it was so great to make that a part of our family's Christmas!
After the sing, we headed over to Nate's parents house to join the Adams family for their traditional Christmas Eve dinner/FHE/Bingo/present opening. I have an uncharacteristic lack of photos since I was trying to keep Meg out of trouble/interested in whatever was going on, (most of these are from Aunt Amber!) but we had a great time. It was wild and crazy with all the excitement of Christmas Eve until right before everyone was leaving and we put on a Christmas special for the kids to watch while we gathered everything up – it was amazing to see them all sit so still and quiet on the couch instantly. :)
Carter got to help with the Nativity story this year!
Then it was home to open and enjoy "the first gift of Christmas!" – jammies – and to set out cookies for Santa and reindeer food!
It was a wonderful Christmas Eve!
The Christmas event we'd been looking forward to as a family the whole season was the night we went Temple Square! We made a whole evening out of it – dropped a last-minute note in the mailbox to Santa, ate dinner at City Creek, and went for a carriage ride downtown before wandering around Temple Square to see the lights up close.
If you can't tell from the pictures, we all loved the carriage ride! It was cozy and warm and Meg honestly had that smile on her face the whole time. (She has been in a pretty serious "horsie" phase, and this was right up her alley!)
It was a busy night downtown, and the wait for the elevators to the parking garage was much longer than Meg's attention span at bedtime, so I tried to amuse her by having her stand at the window and make funny faces at the people passing by. Zach was so embarrassed but Meg loved giving people cheezy grins and I laughed so hard watching her do it that it was impossible for me to take a non-blurry picture.
Such a great night that we are sure to make a tradition in years to come!
We sure have lived it up being near family this year! This was the second cousin party, and so much fun. The kids had a great time at Jungle Jims riding the rides, playing the games, and cashing in their hard-earned tickets for some very carefully chosen prizes. (I absolutely love to watch Emma cash in tickets. One of my favorite things ever.)
Meg could not get enough of the carousel. "Ride horsie! Ride horsie! Ride BIG horsie!!" I rode the "horsie" with her till I felt like I'd spent the day on the tilt-o-whirl at Lagoon, then thankfully Grandpa Adams came to the rescue and rode with her for a while!
We rounded out the afternoon with pizza and the gift exchange – it was fun to be able to give our gifts this year in person!
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