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.

Holiday Celebrations

Christmas time was a lot of fun this year with Kelsey. She really started catching on to a lot of our favorite traditions. I can see how fun it would be to have lots of kids at Christmas time.

Her favorite part was probably the amount of Christmas dresses that she could choose from. I loved this one most only because it is the dress that Whitley wore at our wedding so it was kind of fun to see Kelsey wearing it.

Every year we have a list of movies that are must sees for our family including: Muppets, Elf, White Christmas, Rudolph, Home Alone, Santa Clause, Its a Wonderful Life. My favorite is White Christmas, Ethan busts up at Home Alone every year like he's never seen it, and Kelsey really took to Elf. She was locked on and actually laughed without prompting. It was actually a lot of fun.

She laughed so hard when Buddy gets hit by the taxi and then when he gets stuck on the escalator. It really made it so much more fun for Ethan and I.

This year wrapping took twice as long because I let Kelsey help. She was in charge of the bows and the name stickers and she was so proud. She wanted to give Ethan his presents every single day to show him her work.

I managed a Christmas craft for Kelsey's nursery leaders. This year for neighbor gifts I just gave wrapping paper so I didn't have a need to make many things which was actually totally cool by me. This little diddy took like 10 minutes and I don't think it would have turned out any better if I tired. Note to self: sometimes the more time you spend on crafts the worse they are and ALWAYS give store bought gifts to neighbors. Lets be honest, the cookies end up in the trash anyway.

We played "Don't Eat Pete!" a lot with Kelsey but would use her "special stables" people to hide the marshmallows under. She was a terrible peeker, but she loved the game.

Setting up Grandma Wing's tree and our tree.

Instead of driving to Salt Lake to look at the lights we went to the Riverwoods. It was just as gorgeous in our opinion. While we were there we got to meet Santa and although Kelsey got a little shy she didn't scream like last year. He sang her Jingle Bells and she wouldn't stop talking about it.

Kelsey kept pulling her hat over her eyes and running around. She laughed so hard every time she did it.

Some nice person let Kelsey pet their dog and she would have stayed all night, but he kept drooling on her and I was getting so grossed out that I made her stop

Another nice man saw our camera die before we got a family picture, ran up took this one with his phone and emailed it to Ethan right away. Technology really is super awesome.

Ethan and I have never really done a live nativity, but this year the Palmers invited us over to join theirs. The Morris's, Smiths, and Apkers all came to. This is something that I would actually love to do with other families through out the years. It was really fun. Kelsey was a wise man and actually wore the costume. She didn't make it to baby Jesus though because she thought baby Peter was much cuter.

December Photos

So much has happened lately and in the process of trying to catch up I had a ton of pictures that had no place.

This is way back from October, but we had a sick day from nursery and Ethan prepared the best lesson for Kelsey. It was about how Elijah was able to make fire with the help of God. We had some dry ice so it turned out to be an awesome visual lesson. She was little nervous at first, inhaled some of the smoke which made her sick, but all in all it was awesome.

 Back to December:
Nap times have become rarer and rarer as the month went on. Even quiet time would just turn into 30 minutes of reading. Unfortunately I think we are pass that stage of life. Its funny to me how hard she fights nap time and yet when she's tired she still just crashes anywhere. She still needs naps but hates missing out. Kelsey is just like her mother.
I watched this one happen. She walked into her room and then laid down like this and slept

 

 Outside the Cannon Center  

Don't remember this but obviously it happened

 

She wanted to see the pictures I was working on and then stayed like this for about 2 hours. I'll take that any day!

 

She wanted mommy to hold her and then I found her like this

 

She wanted to say hi to dad because he just got back from a final and I turned around to find them like this.

When nap time isn't happening we manage to fit in a lot of fun. Because December was so warm we were able to do a lot outside including trips to BYU to see the dancers,swimmers, and volleyball players, a trip to ride the ponies at Thanksgiving point which she did for 10 straight minutes because there was no line, and plenty of walks and park time.
When the nights came and it was chilly and thats when we would play with Ralphie. I'm pretty sure they are watching a movie. Regardless, they both need a nap. 

 Kelsey LOVES to peel oranges. She always asks, opens the "bridge" grabs an orange and peels away. She started peeling so many, and not eating them, that we had to hide the oranges. Kelsey loves her orange peeling

Despite all our efforts, one of her many colds turned into a really really bad fever and a few bad days/nights. She slept awful and it just made me nervous for having a new born again actually. During the day she would just sit and stare or watch TV. She didn't eat for days. It was so sad. Luckily medicine would help her get really perky again so sometimes we had this:

 but sometimes we had this:

 It was a rough few days for everyone.

Kelsey and Ethan had a few dates themselves. One of the days that was a tad more chilly they went to the park all bundled up. There she mastered the twisty staircase and was so proud of herself.

 Oh my gosh! So one night at dinner we were eating and Kelsey all of a sudden goes "Oh no! The poor croutons!" We turned around and saw the bag of croutons sticking out of the cupboard like this. We laughed so hard.

 In December we went to a lot of basketball games. Utah was the most crowded and Kelsey and I sat on the floor so we left at halftime, but most games we can sit where ever we want and Kelsey can climb all the bleachers she wants.

 Kelsey found her dream bed at Bed Bath and Beyond

 Kelsey learned how to turn on the lights and now does it all the time. If we do it instead of her she cries.

  I made this for my mom and dad and LOVED how it turned out. I made something similar for Diana and Robert too but forgot a picture.



 Andrea ran at Pre Nationals and got 4th! She did so good. We were so proud of her. She went on to nationals and got 46th. She had such an amazing season. Her last race was really emotional for the whole family because her last race meant the end of running and racing on a team for all of us. We have had someone on a team competing for about 20 years and now its all over. It was so emotional for all of us.

Kelsey LOVES to pick out her own outfits and does every single day. Sometimes I can talk her into things that match, but sometimes I choose to lose the battle. One day I just went with it and we ended with this little number.

 Typically she chooses a dress or a skirt and most of the time wears both. I can get her to wear one pair of pants because I told her they were the pants that James wears on Sofia the first and I can get her to wear three shirts because she thinks they are dresses. Its a headache when it matters what she wears, but most days its just kind of fun to see what she comes up with.


 Hannah won a signed football and was nice enough to give it to Ethan. It was obviously a big enough deal to remember it for the rest of our lives.

 Ethan also won a Dominion game 282 to 12. He was ecstatic.

At some point, Ethan had bro date with his buddies in the program and they all went to a BYU game in the pouring rain. They got to sit really close and got tons of treats thanks to Dallin Salmon, but when Ethan got home he was SOAKED! I was so glad I missed that game.

 Over the holiday season I hit 6 months and 7 months. Typing this I am now 33 weeks and I'm beginning to feel stressed about how little we have prepared for this sweet child to come to our home. We really need to get going! Poor little girl. She's going to end up sleeping in a box with no name.