Pre Christmas

We got to Spokane December 20th  which gave us tons of time to party before Christmas. The best part of the pre Christmas celebrations, was that Kelsey not only had a friend to play with everyday, but had space to play with her in! It was so much fun to watch Norah and Kelsey play together. They are only 2 weeks apart,so obviously Shara and I are doing everything in our power to make them best friends. So far our plans are going well, but occasionally Norah and Kelsey protest in the form of hitting each other and not wanting to share. Shara and I are hoping it is an age thing and not a life thing :)

The favorite toy quickly became the piano. It took them a while to realize that they could both play at the same time, but once they figured it out, one never played without the other. The playing started very clam, but as the days went on, the playing got more and more animated. Of course Kelsey rarely stayed on her feet and always wanted to switch places with Norah, but no one ever fell off the piano so alls well.

There was a lot of coloring,

a lot of great sharing,

 (Norah taught Kelsey how to walk around with a bucket on her head and Kelsey found it hilarious!)

and some sharing that didn't go quiet as planned. 

 (The faces of these girls just says it all. 1)Kelsey was happy to have Norah playing with the little chairs and table with her, 2)she stood up to smile and Norah "shared", 3)Kelsey did not like this idea. Just keep looking down Norah. Maybe she won't notice)

 Kelsey and Norah are called the twins because they are so close in age which is a family joke because they are really so different in every way possible. However despite their differences, Kelsey and Norah are at the exact same spot developmentally and so when they play together it is so cute to watch. My favorite thing about watching them probably is that they both love to read books and want to read books all the time. It is adorable to watch them read together.

Okay, enough with Kelsey and Norah already!!! We had a lot of fun before Christmas too. I went shopping with my mom and Shara while Ethan stayed with Kelsey. We went to Subway a few times, had a few trips to Costco, we went hot tubing a few times, made too many Christmas treats, watched Christmas movies, Ethan and Rich played a LOT of Nintendo, and my personal favorite... played more games than I can count! 

Surprisingly we played Aggravation the most and Ethan won every time! I haven't played Aggravation since I was a kid, but let me tell you! That game is so aggravating!!! As Rich would say though... THAT'S DALLAS!

Game nights growing up always consisted of popcorn and Koolaid... now they consist of popcorn and cold ones. (Bottled root beer folks!)

 

Mom was not ready for this picture but it was the only picture I could find of the game. Sorry mom!

 

We typically would only pull out the treats after Kelsey and Norah went to bed, but one day the treats came out a little bit earlier. Kelsey caught on to what she was missing, climbed up on to the table, and literally begged for ice cream from Shara! The pictures were super blurry, but it was hilarious. 

  

Shara is like one of the craftiest people I know and over break she tried to help me practice my crafting skills. She taught me how to crochet this awesome scarf with only my arms. It was so much fun, and while we were making them we watched White Christmas. I only messed up twice but luckily Shara was able to help me unmess up my problems. My scarf turned out fantastic! Thank you Shara.

My dad is currently serving in the singles ward in our stake and so for church we went to the singles ward. Kelsey has never been better at church EVER!! It was amazing. I was especially nervous because singles wards are typically dead quiet, but she did great. One time she saw dad sleeping up on the stand, tapped my shoulder and goes "Poppa shhhhh!!" and then went "HELLOOOO!" in his direction. It was hilarious. She also got confused by the song director. He was standing right in front of us and while he was leading the songs, Kelsey would wave back and go HELLOOOOO. Well he kept "waving" so she kept waving and after a few minutes she either got tired or confused but looked at me, scrunched up her face, and then stopped. It was awesome. Needless to say, church in the singles ward was awesome and an adventure in itself. 

 Before I close, I can't end without giving a shout out to the Nellys. Every single night they would put Norah to bed in a pack and play, would wake her up at about 10:30/11, put her in the car, drive her home, and then put her back to bed in her crib just to wake up to another early start back to Grandmas house. She missed out on so many naps because of us. They did this the whole time we were there and Norah was a champ. I know what its like to have a cranky baby but I am so grateful that they did this so that we could see them as much as possible. Thank you Rich, Shara, Nors.