Christmas 2018

Oh man, where to begin???  Christmas 2018 has come and gone and it is all a bit of a blur.  Pretty much everyday since Emily and her family arrived we have spent all day, everyday together and it has all started to blur together.  The celebrations of the big day started on Christmas Eve with a jam-packed family gathering.  We had a Mexican feast, reenacted the Nativity story, opened cousins' presents and had both a kids and adult saran ball.  The saran balls may or may not have gotten a little crazy since more than a few people in the family are a little competitive.

Christmas morning we opened presents just with our family (although Grandpa and Lollie did Facetime in for a while and Nana and Papa came over for a few minutes after).  The biggest highlights were an xbox one s from Santa for Jeremy and Merrick and some games to go with it from mom and dad  (I think you can see how excited Merrick was in the pictures) and, for Carrigan, her very own pink tablet.  Elsie also got a set of real keys that she is very excited about.  Merrick said that this was his best Christmas ever and he wasn't wrong.  The kids got games, toys, and lessons (gymnastics for Carrigan and fencing for Merrick).  There were so many presents, it looked like a Christmas bomb went off.

 

That night we gathered with the whole family again for a traditional Christmas dinner and then drove out to Colton, Oregon to a church with a huge light display.  When we were all gathered in one spot (minus Becca's family who had inexplicable gone missing), Tala surprised everyone by proposing to Emily.  It was very sweet and emotional.

I guess that's it for the "Christmas festivities"  but, as I said, the party is still going.  We have already started wedding dress shopping and the little ladies were rewarded for their efforts with tiaras.  More to come as the party rolls on next week.

10 Months

Yesterday our big Elsie girls hit the 10 month mark.  10 months.  Man, it has seriously flown by.  Maybe that has something to do with the saying "time flies when you're having fun". Maybe it has to do with extreme sleep deprivation.  Maybe both. No matter how we got here, we are here now so here is a quick rundown of our Els at 10 months.

She says two words "mama" and "more".  She also signs "more" and "all done" and waves "hi" and "bye".

She still does her funny sidewinder crawl and I have given up on the idea of her doing a traditional crawl.

She pulls herself up to stand on anything and everything and is very close to just standing up with nothing to hold onto.

While standing, she often will let go and stand there holding on to nothing at all.

She is really good a lowering herself down to the ground rather than just falling.

She has four teeth, two on top and two two on bottom.

She still LOVES food and is really enjoying getting to eat more and more big girl foods.  Actually, at this point, she gets really upset if she doesn't get at least some of whatever the big people are eating.  She also apparently loves ice.

She is also still a terrible sleeper.  One day...

She loves the "cozy coupe".  If you aren't sure what that is, do a quick google search.  She will sit in it forever and just holds the steering wheel while someone pushes her around.  I am pretty sure she would live in there if she could convince someone to push her around all day.

Everyone who sees her comments on what a happy, smiley baby she is.  She really is.  She is very easy going and usually has a smile for those around her.

I am so excited to celebrate her first Christmas in just a few days...that is if she doesn't get all the presents torn open before then.

What a joy she is!  We love her so!

The Crafter

Oh how I love our Carrigan girl.  She is a ball of creativity and always has ideas of things she wants to make and create.  At all times she is working on some kind of project, making cards, cutting, gluing, writing, coloring, baking, mixing....We have lots of storage in our house and there are a few drawers and cupboards that are empty right now...or so I thought until I recently discovered that Carrigan has secretly been filling them all with her creations.  In any case I have been taking pictures lately of some of her crafting, but I have yet to get them on here so today is the day.

I will have to check with my mom, but I don't think I had her passion for crafting when I was little so it sometimes is hard for me to have patience with all the mess.  But I try, because it is clearly so important to her.  I can't wait to see what she does with the creativity as she moves through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.  I am just wondering if I should start taking out stock in a craft store.

Counting Down and Giving Back

This week Christmas activities were in full swing as we continued the countdown to Christmas.  We started the week with our annual trek to zoolights.  It was really cold this year.  While the temp showed that is was in the 40s, the real feel was right around freezing.  Despite the cold, it was a clear night and at least there was not a cloud in sight.

Also this week we got around to decorating the infamous tree.  I have to say that it did turn out beautifully (even if the kids did bunch all the ornaments together).  Not only is it a beautiful tree, now it is covered in our memories and I couldn't be happier.

After all the fun festivities, I was also able to take some time this week to give back this week by donating blood.

So much fun and love this week.  This is shaping up to be a holiday season for the record books. Oh, I almost forgot, Merrick also had a stomach bug this week...that was NOT fun (you can be glad I have no pictures of that)!