Christmas 2014

We were fortunate enough to spend Christmas and Christmas Eve this year with the Wings up in Bountiful. Because it was so close for us, we decided to stay in Provo until the evening of the 23rd and then stayed until the 27th. Nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary happened, but it was such a wonderful holiday.

We all were together, minus the AWings, on Christmas Eve for a beautiful dinner and most of us ended up spending the night at Robert and Dianas. The highlight of the evening was probably singing Christmas carols, or opening crackers. I love that the Wings introduced me to crackers. They are so much fun! I love them. The prizes this year were pretty swank too. We all had to act and told a joke but the best joke teller was probably Holden. "My clue is book. My word is To Kill A Mockingbird" and then he sat down. The best actor was definitely Emily with her impression of Fiddler on the Roof. Good times had by all.  I wish the AWings could have been there too, but we all got some pretty great laughs from cracker opening.

This fruit dish was too gorgeous to not take a picture.

I have officially decided that ham is so much better than turkey. Like so muc

h better

And by some miracle we woke up Christmas morning to snow on the ground. The whole week had been in the 40s and even 50s and then a storm rolled in. It was beautiful.

Ethan's family wakes up very happy. I do not. Ethan was nice enough to prepare me for Christmas morning by waking me up about 30 minutes before Kelsey woke up. He came in our room and said "I know you probably want to keep sleeping, but I thought you'd want to wake up so you can get ready to be around people." It sounds really sharp, but I thought it was one of the sweetest things he has ever done. And yes, his family wakes up every happy. I could learn a thing or two from all of them.

 Kelsey sleeps amazingly well at the Wings house and at 8 am we were all getting really excited and tired of waiting for her, so Ethan and I woke her up.

It took her a minute to realize what we were saying but then when she saw what Santa had brought, she was sold. It was so exciting. I thought Christmas was fun as a kid, but its so much more fun as a parent.

After we looked at Santa stuff, the Mannings came over and we all took turns opening gifts. This is minus the AWings and Robert and Diana, but there's the whole crew.

Everyone was so kind and generous to Kelsey. She had so much fun opening presents and wanted to play with everything immediately. She got a little overwhelmed and tired of waiting so we had to take a break from her gifts. She literally said " No more presents please." I felt really bad because I wanted people to know how touched we were, but she was just so tired and wanted to play. We need to remember that for next year. She was also super cute because she kept wanting to thank Santa Claus. It really concerned her that she couldn't give him a hug.

Kelsey helped Ethan and I wrap our presents and she was so excited to give them to us

On the evening of the 25th, the Smiths and Mannings had to leave, but the Wings got into town. We had a wonderful Christmas day dinner and then went to bed. Everyone was so exhausted. The next morning I got to go day after shopping with Andy and Annie and they helped restrain me from buying too much stuff. It was super fun though to be with Andy and Annie.  We had a whole day with Andy and Annie and decided to do our sibling gift exchange then. We had munchies, Andy and Ethan tackled each other in the snow and we played a game in which I got a little snippy and felt really bad, but the game was fun.

 Holden made everyone gifts. I got a BYU hand warmer, the baby got a soft rattle, and Ethan got a really cool car. Maybe the best gifts of the year right there.

During the gift exchange, Diana prepared a plate of chocolates for everyone and passed them around for all of us to enjoy. A few were taken and then the plate was put on the table. About half way through the gift exchange, I thought I would check on Harper and Kelsey (since we all got distracted and forgot to take notice) and I looked up to find Kelsey grabbing the last chocolate from the plate. The girls ate EVERY SINGLE CHOCOLATE OFF THE PLATE!!! No one actually knows how many they ended up taking but it was at least 6 a piece. They ran away from the table laughing hysterically.  About an hour later, we were all opening some gifts and playing games when Reo was like "where are the girls?" Good question. We were all upstairs and again no one had seen them for about 20 minutes. We heard gleeful screaming coming from Diana's room, headed in there only to find the bathroom completely flooded!! The girls had turned on the tub, would get in the tub "swim around"  jump out and run to look at themselves in the mirror. They were soaked and so was everything else. Both girls spent some time in time-out.
The next day Diana was talking to Kelsey about being naughty and eating the chocolates. Diana asked Kels how many she ate and Kelsey was like "3. 5. um I don't know. I being sneaky. Shhh!!" That little stinker! She is hilarious and she and Harper together are one dynamic duo.
I don't really have a favorite Christmas but 2014 was up there with the rest of them. We had great food, got some snow, played lots of games, finished a puzzle, sang songs, and were all together. I am so grateful to be apart of two really wonderful families who want to be together over the holidays. 

Christmas Eve

Not actually Christmas Eve, but every year around Christmas time Ethan and I try to have a fancy dinner. There is no set menu or anything like that, but we try really hard to pick foods we either haven't tried or have never made.This allows us to always fit in a fancy Ethan Wing dinner no matter what we end up doing for the actual holidays.

This year we decided to spend our evening with the Johnsons so on December 22nd we spent a lot of the day cooking and getting ready for our fancy dinner.

The menu isn't THAT fancy, its just all new to us so it makes it fun.
This year it was twice baked potatoes, a new type of pork, an apple berry salad, and pretzel jello salad. Everyone's favorite was the drink. It was a lime sherbert cherry slush thing. Delicious!

I am so glad the Johnsons could come over. They were so cute and got all dressed up for it too. Even little Edwin had suspenders on! He was adorable.

 

Ethan's really into taking candids which is totally cool, but he decided to take candids while Elisa was away from the table. It totally felt like Ralph and I were having a dinner together. It was so awkward that it got pretty funny. Then we saw this picture and that just summed up all the funniness of the situation. 

 

After dinner we had a Christmas program where we read from the scriptures and the kids got to put the characters in the barn. Once they figured out that it played music, all was lost. They just kept pushing the button and dancing. We tried right?

But look how happy they are together! Kelsey has a few very close friends, but she and Ralphie just have that special bond. We always joke that they will get married, but I would totally be okay with it. We love Ralphie so much. Its going to be really hard to move away from him.

The night was wrapped up with a few hours of games and Little Mermaid for the kids. Man I'm going to miss the Johnsons.

Babysitting

A few weeks before Christmas, Kelsey and I were feeling really caught up on all that we had to do and then we got super bored. I literally sat down and cried one day because I was so bored.  Pathetic, but true. Being  pregnant probably didn't  help, but it still. Its was also  hard because lately I feel like my only hobbies are exercising which I can't really do right now and picture stuff which I couldn't really do when Ethan needed the computer. Regardless its pathetic and it happened.
I said a prayer and my prayers were thankfully answered. The week of finals I had two opportunities to help some very dear friends. On Tuesday I had a friend who needed a babysitter all day while her bother was in the hospital so we got to hang out with baby Alice all day. Talk about perfect baby! She literally made no sound at all. She slept, she ate, she played, and didn't cry once. We had her from 8-6 and it was wonderful.

On Thursday we got to watch Ivy and Calvin Hames while Jench and AJ went to a wedding. I was so excited because I have only met Ivy once and I have never met Calvin. Again perfect children. Kelsey and Ivy just played the whole time, and as long as we kept Calvin standing he was totally happy. Silly baby wants to walk at 9 months and he doesn't even know how to crawl yet. Jench tells me all the time how frustrating it is and I finally got a little taste of that. Ivy was a champion eater which helped Kelsey eat really well that day and was just overall super happy. Those three had such a fun time following each other around that nap time was a cinch. Everyone literally just fell asleep out of pure exhaustion. It was so much fun having these little kiddos around. 

Im so grateful that the Lord answered my prayers and allowed me to help out my friends this week. It was so rewarding to have something positive and helpful to do. I really felt like I was easing their burdens and I can't think of anything more appropriate for Christmas time.  They kept saying thank you for helping them but I really felt like I was the one who should have been saying thank you.

Side note: It was also great to see Jench and AJ. The next day we all got lunch and then later that week went to the BYU basketball game. I really miss the Hames. They are such great friends.

Happy 27th Cami

My birthday was great this year.
The Sunday before my birthday we got together for a Reo/Cami birthday party at the Wings house and I got the most adorable sweatshirt in the whole world. I can't try it on yet, but I'm so excited to wear it this summer.
 My actual birthday was on a Saturday this year so Ethan was home all day. He let me sleep in and then we headed to the ward Christmas party. After the party we cleaned the church (hooray right), spent the afternoon getting ready for our cookie and hot chocolate party in the evening including making dozens of cookies which I kind of hate doing, and then it was time for my birthday celebration! Andrea and Jed came over and babysat Kelsey while Ethan and I went to Tucanos for my birthday lunch!! I love that place so much. It did not disappoint.

I woke up to this sign  hanging in our front room. This is the sweetest present I have ever received I think.

After Tucanos we just hung out and then got ready for our cookie party with some MBA friends. Everyone brought their kids and so our apartment was pretty packed but my goodness it was fun. We moved the tvinto Kelsey's room and had Rudolph playing non-stop, we had oodles of cookies and decorations, and nothing planned but visiting. It was such a fun time for me. So many people were super sweet and remembered that it was my birthday so that made it even more special for me. We really have made some amazing friends that will be greatly missed next year.

The Sunday after my birthday my family got together and had a soup Christmas party, but Rich and I dubbed it as our birthday party. Shara made this awesome cake for us and I totally love it. I think I'm going to copy the sprinkle numbers thing every year.

Sugar Cookies

Hannah joined us for our annual gingerbread making party. A few years ago I saw some people making their "house" out of rice krispies, copied the idea, and never looked back. Not only do they taste like a million times better, but they are easier to mold and you can make so many other fun shapes.

Like snowflakes,

snowmen,

and football stadiums.

Kelsey ate all her Rice Krispies and so she had to make do with grahams which fell instantly due to the weight of the frosting and candy that they had to bear.