Christmas in Utah, Part III

 Ha, I'm slow at posting. Sorry, y'all! Here's our final Utah vacation post.

Next up in the Christmastime excitement was the big day itself!

 The girls woke up at their normal time around 7 and were so excited to get the opening party started (well, Grace was anyway, I don't think Ruby cared much). Aunt Katie and Uncle Scott spent the night, so it was extra fun having them around for the Christmas morning fun too!

Grace was a helper and found everyone their presents for them. She even got to choose the order of the present opening. She chose for every other person in the room to open a present before she did. Now that's something that makes this little mama's heart go pitter patter! She got a her very own camera so she wouldn't have to keep borrowing mom's iPod all the time and a big girl bike (that was left by the tree at home) and helmet. And Santa brought her the Ariel barbie that she had asked for. She was one happy girl!

Rob tied the ribbons around his head and pretended to be a Lamanite and sang the "Book of Mormon Stories" song. He's pretty much awesome!

 Ruby was pretty happy to be able to tear into some paper and got mad when she'd have to give one toy up to open another. Next year will be a bit more successful on the getting the whole present concept front.

 Annette made this shirt for Jeff, who once upon a time made the mistake of joking and saying that he'd had enough of this family. Too bad for him, no one has forgotten. Now he can wear it emblazoned across his chest, so everyone will know how he feels without him even having to say anything :)

The highlight of the day was getting to talk to Rob's brother, Mikey, who is currently serving a mission in Chile. We got to Skype and it was so fun to get to see him and for everyone to talk at the same time. (Except for having to help the kids keep quiet...)

 This picture is priceless. It is Annette seeing her baby for the first time since he left in August. Can you tell that she was just a teensy bit excited? Here's the set-up.

 Afterwards Grace and Grandpa took a nap. Well, Grace took a fake nap on Grandpa while he legitimately tried to sleep. Try being the operative word here.

The next big event was Monday when the whole Gwilliam/Easton family got together for a family picture. It was pretty amazing that the only people that weren't in the picture were the four missionaries serving far, far away.

After the picture was the White Elephant Party at the Martins. Which was fun and hilarious as usual. 

We started with Kid Bingo. Jackson helped Grandma with her sweet BINGO turner-thingy.

Next up was Teen White Elephant. Those guys are so funny. Sorry no pictures. Then finally was Adult White Elephant

  Grace was right there to help everyone open their gifts, but with all the laughter, it got a little too loud, poor girl! It sure was fun to laugh so hard and have so much fun!

 Our gift to Dave and Annette was a new window seat. Rob cut the foam and entertained the kids while I sewed up a storm to create the seat and pillows.

Another highlight was the VHS player we got Annette from the DI. She got out her gigantic boxes of videos and Grace loved watching all the movies she'd never seen before. Cinderella was her favorite.

 Henry and Grace had so much fun playing. They were hilarious little partners in crime.

We also got to visit with Grandma Millie for a bit.

Finally, New Year's Eve was so fun to hang out and play games with family. Grace got her celebration on before bedtime.

What a great trip we had! I didn't take too many pictures, but we had a great time with all the family we got to spend time with. We were so happy to get to celebrate the holidays with the family we miss most of the year!

Bean Face

 Can you guess who enjoyed her black beans with dinner tonight?

 yup

and yup

Christmas in Utah, Part II

 We were so lucky that, even though we stayed in Utah during this visit, we got to see my parents and brother. They all made the trek to Utah, and we are so glad that we got to spend a few days together!

 

(Here's one of the parts where I was lame and didn't take any pictures, even though I probably had my camera...oops!)  We also got to spend an evening with my Uncle Gordie and his family playing games and generally having a ball. We also got to do a "family dinner" just like old times with my niece Kira and her family, Colleen and her family and my nephew Daniel and my parents and Brian and Eila. We had a delicious dinner and then we got to go see Kira and Stew's awesome new house. It was so much fun to get to visit with the family that we rarely get to see. Spending time with family really made us sad that we don't get to do it as often as we'd like to! I sure don't miss the nasty cold weather, but I do miss all the people we love so much!

Christmas in Utah, Part I

 We were so lucky to get to go to Utah for Christmas break this year. Sadly, it will probably be the last time ever that we'll have three whole weeks for traveling and visiting, so we took advantage and were there for the whole three weeks. It was fun to get to do everything that we wanted to without feeling rushed. I didn't do a very good job of taking photos...we must have been having too much fun!

The first Sunday we were there, was the annual Gweaston Nativity, where all the grandkids get to act out the Nativity story. Grace got to be the angel in her little Joy School nativity, so was pretty excited when she got to play that part again with her favorite cousin, Lucy.

Don't they make the sweetest angels? They both did a fantastic job!

 Here's the whole cast. Ruby wanted to sit on Dad's lap for this go-around, but I'm sure that next time we're there for the Nativity, she'll be excited to participate. The best part of the nativity was when Will, as a shepherd, decided he was tired of standing and sat in the manger for most of it. I love this tradition!

Another fun thing we got to do was take the train downtown to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. We went with all of Rob's siblings (except Mikey in Chile on a mission) and their kids. It was so fun to get to spend that time with everyone!

It was pretty freezing, so poor Ruby here has all of the warm clothes that we brought for her on.

 Before we saw the "do not sit on the bison" sign, Grace got a little ride, thanks to Grandpa and Daddy.

She loved riding the train and did such a great job of holding on tightly.

My camera battery died soon after we got to Temple Square (bummer!), so I'll leave you with Rob showing that it was cold and with a few of the beautiful lights in the background.

Christmas at Opryland

Right before my parents got into town, we met Auntie Doris and her husband Clarke for breakfast at the Opryland Hotel. It was so fun to visit and to walk around for a bit. Here are a couple pictures from that visit.

Ruby loves to climb and sit in chairs, laundry baskets, anything. The other day Rob found her in the play shopping cart. She somehow climbed in and sat herself down without tipping it over. Kudos, Ruby!

Here's a picture of our cute, and independent little dresser, Gracie! I'd like to send a special shout out to her Auntie Emily for the groovy pants...they make for a sweet, bright, floral ensemble, no?

Thanksgiving

We were so lucky to have my parents and brother and girlfriend, Eila, join us for Thanksgiving Break.

We started out eating at the Loveless Cafe. Oh yum. You guys have to come visit us and we'll eat there. Just don't be on a diet :) Out front they had an old tractor. Grandpa showed Grace the tractor-driving ropes from his youth, and she was off.


We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Just one the many wonderful things about having my parents in town was not having to stress over doing a turkey on our own :) We showed the fam our beautiful Warner Parks on a little hike/geocaching adventure after dinner to work off some of that delicousness.


Through school, Rob had heard about a company called Stray Boots that does text message scavenger hunts in different cities. They just started one in Nashville, so we went. They text you clues and where to go and you text in your answers and then get another clue. It was so cool to learn about Nashville history and walk through downtown this way.






Grace doing what Grace does best...taking hundreds of pictures of minutiae with my iPod. Oh how I love sorting through the pictures after she's played with it for a while! :)

Of course we had to get some family pictures in while we were all together.






By the end of the week, we were all tired and happy!


Thanks everyone for making the trek to Nashville! It was so fun to have everyone here!

Nutcracker

Grace and I went to see the mini-Nutcracker put on by the city ballet league. All the performers are under 18, and they did a great job! One of Grace's friends had older sisters performing in it. Grace was great and sat on my lap the whole time, completely enamored with the beautiful ballerinas on stage. She even got her program signed by the Sugar Plum Fairy!

Fall Hiking

While it was warmer, the girls and I would go hiking with our friends the Meeks once a week or so. Katie has two boys whose birthdays are just weeks apart from my girls', so it's really fun for everyone. Luckily, Katie remembered to bring her camera on one of the more spectacular Fall days.

This day was so cute because Eli and Grace were playing Grandpa and Grandma. They'd call each other Grandpa and Grandma. Grace would say "hey Grandpa, can you help me over this log?" and Grandpa would come running to the rescue and help Grace. The whole time they called each other Grandpa and Grandma and Grandma would always be in need of some help and the ever-chivalrous Grandpa would run to poor Grandma's aid. It was so cute. They really get along well with each other!






How cute are Grandma and Grandpa posing together? They were cracking us up the whole time!








Obviously a kid took this one. See Katie's smile? She is one of my favorite friends because we always laugh on our hikes even when the kids are exhausted and we're what seems like miles from the car. I think it was this day that we took a reaaaaaaaly long route and the kids were tired halfway through. We ended up running most of the way to the car (even with kiddos on our backs!). The only way to get the kids moving was to pretend to get on our starting blocks and yell "on your mark, get set, go!" and we'd all run for 100 yards or so, then do it again. Even that was fun with Katie to laugh through it with!

Baby MacGyver

Ruby is so funny these days, she's been having a tough time napping and is often just playing in her crib. We think she throws all her blankets and stuff out of the crib, then tries to escape with them. It's really funny to watch her on the monitor trying to climb out of her crib. Yikes...can't wait for the day she actually can....not.

There's a trash can in her room behind the rocking chair that is often knocked over and the trash is in her crib when we go to get her up. We could not figure out how this was even possible because we would move the trash can way out of arm's reach for every nap. One day Rob happened to be watching Ruby on the monitor and caught her doing it. Baby MacGyver would hold on to one end of her blanket and toss the other end at the trash can until it would catch, then she would pull the blanket so it would knock the trash can towards her crib and she could reach her little arms down and pick stuff up. I was blown away that she figured out how to do it, and only with what she had in the crib!

She is also a dare devil. She is walking a lot now, but isn't too sure on her feet. Often, if Grace runs out of a room, she'll run after her and more often than not end up on her face :( She gets really excited and lunges and things and people with no regard for bodily safety.


Yesterday, she was walking around near the coffee table and ate it on the edge of the table and was bleeding a lot from her nose and mouth, talk about scary! I'm so glad Rob was home, because I freaked out. After a call to the Ped, a little Tylenol, and some cuddling, she was walking around again and everything seemed okay with a minimum of blood on everyone. What a trooper!

Here's my "trying to be not freaked out and smile at the same time" look :)