Landon's tower

(Landon building his tower)

So before Neil's sister left town after Christmas, we had everyone up to our house for some Swiss Raclette. It's an AMAZING meal with cheese and potatoes and it's oh-so-scrumptious! We had these blocks out for the kids to play with and they piqued Landon's interest. He wanted to see how tall of a tower he could build. He got it to be 60" high and stay standing on it's own before it toppled while trying to add one more to it.

(You can see it leaning quite a bit.)

(What a nice little tower builder he is)

(Side note: My dad made these blocks many many years ago and I can remember making many different shapes and sizes of towers and castles for hours on end when I was a kid. I inherited them not to long ago when my dad was cleaning out his shed. There are a few round ones, and my brother and I used to draw faces on them to make them into little people to live in our castles. Ahhh...what fun memories!!)

O Christmas Tree

(Our cute little tree)

So we had a real tree again this year - thanks to my kind brother and sister-in-law! We weren't able to go cut it down with them in Manti this year, so they brought us one home instead! We had fun decorating it and it turned out quite nice. We still don't have a tree topper, so we had to improvise. My real mom made a bunch of little elves (we call 'em pixies) many years ago and they were always one of our favorite things to put on the tree growing up. You can bend their arms and legs and mold them into different poses. A couple of years ago, my parents decided to divvy them up and gave us each a few of them, keeping a few for themselves still. This year one of the pixies helped put up a star ornament as the tree topper. Perhaps we'll finally buy on next year....but probably not until the end of the year when it would be on clearance.

(With the lights on)

(The little pixie, hanging the star.)

Christmas

(Avery with one of her presents)

We had lots of fun over the week of Christmas. On the 23rd, we went to a play called "Scrooge" up in Ogden with Neil's family. We went to dinner at Morelia's first and then packed everyone up in the Suburban and made the long drive. On Christmas Eve we had dinner at my parents' house and opened up some presents there. Avery got spoiled and had lots of fun opening her presents (or at lease we did helping her.) We spent the night at home and were surprised to wake up Christmas morning to a giant snow storm. We were going to Neil's sister Cami's house for lunch, but just as we left our house, Neil's brother Landon called and said they were snowed in. We had taken the Suburban because of the storm, so we came and rescued them. With the snow drifts, they had over 2 feet in places at their house in Herriman! We had a lot of fun at Aaron and Cami's house!! We went back to my parents' house later that evening to wrap up our fun day! It was so fun to spend time with the family - I love the holidays!!

(Avery opening one of Grandma & Grandpa's presents)

(Neil with one of Avery's gifts)

(The giant snow storm!!)

(Neil helping Avery with her presents)

(Avery's first ornament!)

(All of Neil's family on Christmas!)

Ward Christmas Party

(Us posing as Mary & Joseph)

I know it's super late, but I wanted to catch up. So for our Ward Christmas party this year, they did a “Night in Bethlehem.” I’m sure many of you have seen or done something similar before, but our ward made it AWESOME this year! Neil and I always go pick up this life size nativity scenery that my parents ward made many years ago and don’t use anymore. Coupled with the booths that different people did, the night turned out amazing! The YW were in charge of the Nativity, so Avery had her first acting role. She played baby Jesus. She screamed her little heart out the entire time (I think she thought it was a speaking role) but you couldn’t hear her crying unless you were right up at the stage, so people hardly even knew she was crying. I sang “Silent Night” right before the closing prayer. Afterwards, some people that have a farm in our ward (Many of our ward members do actually) brought a big sheep and a donkey and gave the kids donkey rides up and down the sidewalk. I cut in line so Avery didn’t have to be out in the cold for very long. Though I just got a picture, not a ride. It was a very fun evening!!

(The Stable decorations)

(Mary & Joseph during the Nativity)

(The produce shop)

(The toy shop)

(The Bishop's winery ... or rather a "well")

(The bakery)

(Avery & I with a sheep)

(Riding a donkey into Bethlehem)

Photo shoot

(The birth announcement that never got mailed)

So I was trying to take my own "studio style" pictures of Avery to make a birth announcement. Well, like many good intentions, it never got fully followed through with. I even went as far as getting them developed, but they turned out really yellow, and I never ended up having them reprinted so I could mail them out. *sigh* Perhaps someday I will be good at things like that! I suppose I did get some good pictures out of it. Here are a few of my favorites.

(In the basket - without all of the words.)

We ended up hanging a white sheet over the mantle so it hung down, and then we put her soft blanket down to put her on. We brought in our big spotlight that we use for painting and yard work at night. It wasn't then best lighting, but even in the daytime the lighting isn't good enough to not have to use a flash. Someday I would love to get more into photography!!

(The lighting wasn't that great so I had to lighten them up after. Apparently I'm not very good at editing pictures in photoshop. At least when it comes to the brightness/color.)

(Some tummy time photos)

(She would only put one arm over the prop-up we had for her, so she kept rolling off it.)

(You can't see it as well this small, but she kept drooling and she has a drop of shiny, clear drool on her arm in this one.)

(I love her eyelashes in this one)

(What a cute smile, eh??)

(Wardrobe change - or at least the head wear)

(Another adorable grin. I can't just be biased...she's just stinkin' cute!!)

First Date Away

(Us at the show)

We went to Glenn Beck’s Christmas Sweater show and it was the first time we left Avery with someone. Neil’s mom (with the help of his aunts Heidi and Iris) watched her for the 3 hours we were gone. I did pretty well, and so did she! The show was really good!! Definitely reminds you of the true meaning of Christmas!

(Neil making her smile before we left)

(Me saying goodbye)