Sunday, December 29, 2013

Christmas!!


It was our first real Christmas at home this year.  We've been here once before, but that was unexpected so we didn't have any plans or anything.  This year, we really wanted to make it special and establish the traditions that we'll do forever.  I made an Advent calendar and each night we did a fun activity.  Ruby loved it, and it ensured that we felt the Christmas spirit all month long!  I wondered if we would feel bereft without family but we had a really good Christmas by ourselves.  It helped that our Christmas tree was brimming with gifts from our families.  I was so excited about presents!  I made Ruby rearrange them with me every couple days because it made me so happy.  I wanted to buy everything in the world for Ruby but I managed to keep it to an almost reasonable level--to Kyle at least. I thought it was VERY reasonable :)  I had so much fun wrapping presents for her and for Kyle.  Jane kind of got gypped this year but we'll make up for it when she's old enough to appreciate presents :)  Ruby loved shaking her gifts--she guessed that everything was either a toy or a shirt.  She was mostly right!

On Christmas Eve, we went to my Aunt Diana's house in Salt Lake for a party.  It was very festive and it was fun to be with family.  We played, and ate, and visited, and sang, and played bells--and then SANTA CAME!  When he came in through the door, all the kids sat stunned except Ruby, who ran up to him for a big hug.  All the kids sat on his knee and talked to him and received a present from him--jammies!  It was super exciting.



We got home pretty late, so we had to skip the leaving cookies out for Santa tradition.  Ruby was already asleep in the car on the way home.  Kyle and I stayed up late getting everything ready. I was SO HAPPY. Christmas Eve night is probably the best few hours of the whole year.  All the anticipation and excitement and love and joy!  Ahhhh I miss it.


None of us slept very well that night--Ruby was up a ton with bad dreams, and I couldn't sleep because I was so excited for Christmas.  Luckily we were all happy in the morning.  We wanted to spread out the present opening so we took some breaks.  First we saw what Santa brought for Ruby and Jane, which was thrilling.  Then we emptied our stockings, which was super exciting for me because Kyle had done mine so it was a surprise.  We took a break to make breakfast (monkey bread), and started opening presents while it baked. We took another break to eat and then finished off the presents.  All in all, it took us like 3 hours or so.  Things moved slow because Ruby wanted to play with every toy as she opened it--we had to keep telling her to wait and open the next gift! I only got pictures of a few of her presents-- I wanted to just enjoy the morning, not have my phone camera ready at every moment.










We had to figure out a whole new organization system for her toys to fit them all neatly in her room. I love it.  I am having a blast playing with her new toys with her!  And I love my presents too! I got way more than I anticipated.  It was such an awesome Christmas. I miss it already :(  We took down the tree and decorations the next day because it is always so depressing and I wanted to get it over with.  Ruby says she misses Santa and wants to see him again.  Oh well, just another year til we get to see him again!

Festival of Lights

New tradition: Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork!  I thought it was magical.  If you go on a not so busy day, that is.  Poor Celia went with her fam and they had to wait an hour to even get in.  Without that wait, it was awesome! I think I liked it as much as Ruby did.








Next time, we'll hit Starbucks on our way there so I can enjoy it while sipping some Caramel Apple Cider, making it the ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCEEEEEEE.  

Christmas Tree

I can't BELIEVE I didn't take pictures of our amazing ornaments that we made.  Almost every fandom was represented: Avengers, Superman, Batman, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Disney, Muppets...I'm just now realizing how ridiculous it is that we didn't attempt Jurassic Park or Supernatural. COME ON GUYS, GET IT TOGETHER.







 This was the first year we had our own Christmas tree, so it was a big deal. I really wish I had more pictures of it when it was finished.  We got a cute tree skirt, and a big tree topper, and accumulated a ton of ornaments throughout the month of December. I love our tree and the personality it has :)

Jane at 5 months

5 months!  Finally current. Jane is amazing and adorable and happy. She is so interactive and starting to like toys. I just love the heck out of her.  She is finally eating less than every 2-3 hours.  Now it's 3-4 hours! She is an infrequent pooper, I'm sure everyone would love to know.  She still manages to poop when it's most inconvenient though. Punk.  She blows raspberries and does cute little squeals all the time.  She also loves to pull hair, to my and Ruby's chagrin. She just had rice cereal for the first time and did pretty well.  She has the gummiest grin.













Family Christmas pics

Taking pictures before church of our family with the tripod and timer is always exciting. Ruby was being so cute--I can't choose a favorite.





Ok I did choose. This curtsy one is my fave.







Then we raced out the door to church, I fell down in the ice and cut up my leg, and then had to sing in a trio at church. Score!

Various and Sundry

Some other things we've been up to the past 3 months:

I've been really embracing the nerd shirt. It brings me much joy. My collection is skyrocketing, but this was the first:
 Eliza and Ruby are sweet friends.
 Ruby "with a bunny"

We took Eliza with us to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway in Salt Lake. The girls had an amazing time,.



 Waffle Love came to Springville!  I now follow them on Instagram so I can catch them when they come back again. SO GOOD.
 Daddy took a long lunch so he could watch Ruby at ballet class.

 We spend a lot of time with the Robbins family. It's awesome.

 Shopping with Mom is fun when there's a whole side room for kids. (Randomly at Partyland.)

 Jane is not sure about these princesses.
 Swimming class continues to be amazing.  Ruby loves it so much.
 Our YW Evening in Excellence was a HUGE deal this year, and it turned out to be amazing. I did the decorations with Nicole, who is super talented.






 For my birthday and Celia's birthday, Mom gave us tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance tour!  It was such an awesome show!  Getting there was rough but as soon as we sat down the rest of the night was spectacular.  We loved it and had such a good time! Our seats were SO AMAZINGLY GOOD.


 Ruby played Twister for the first time at her friend Lucy's Candyland birthday party.
 We took Trax to Salt Lake for the first time. Ruby loved riding the train!
 Ruby's first time in Primary! For the month of December they have the incoming Sunbeams join Primary for opening exercises before going back to Nursery.  Next week will be her first time as a Sunbeam. She's really excited! But she'll miss Mike and Morgan, her awesome Nursery leaders.
 Eliza and Ruby did a Christmas craft and were silly.


Ruby, uhh, discovered Brad Pitt. Whoops.
 We made these gingerbread cookies that, while ugly, were SO DELICIOUS.
 Everyone got sick with a terrible stomach flu in early December. So miserable.

Ruby is a fan of the Tardis. I'm a fan of hers.
 Ruby freaked out when she saw Olaf and a minion painted on the windows of SOS Pharmacy and insisted on taking a picture with them. (Oh my gosh speaking of Olaf, FROZEN IS SO GOOOOOOOD.)
 I saw The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug with Celia and my girls Julia and Brittany! It was the BEST NIGHT.  They are really mature or I am really immature because I just feel like we're buddies.  We saw the first Hobbit movie together too.  I liked this one WAY more.
Kyle and I have very different tastes in art.  One of the only artists we both admire happens to be my good friend and former roommate Elise.  She's actually a very successful artist--I'm so proud of her!  We have some of her early work from freshman year hanging in our dining room :)  But now we finally have a real Elise Wehle print that we bought from the Beehive Bazaar.  Check her out, she's amazing.
 Ruby has always had a maternal instinct, but she now cares for her baby girl "Joey" (I don't know where that name came from, but I love it) 24/7.  I love Joey.
 All through December, we periodically went through Ruby's toys with her and she picked out things to donate to make room for her Christmas gifts.  She was so good about it!  She still talks about the little girl who is happy because she has new toys that Ruby gave.  We filled up the Santa bag--I was very proud of her, and Kyle was very happy to have more storage space in her closet.

 Ruby's preschool class had a Christmas program for the parents.  Ruby was Mary in the nativity, super cute.  She also memorized a scripture and recited it for us.  It was amazing!  I was so proud of her and amazed that a 3 year old could do that.  It wasn't even a super short one!
 Ruby's presents from Eliza's Grandma Homa--she's so kind to us!
 As my hair gets longer, I am TRYING to learn how to do it.  This was me trying to curl it. I have a long way to go but I was excited it worked at all.
 Christy's surprise from my mom was this Frozen Castle that she REALLY wanted her girls to have for Christmas.  I bought it here and had it waiting for her when she and her girls got here on Friday for her brother-in-law's wedding.  She was super surprised and the girls LOVE it.  I feel bad for Ruby because now it's gone but she still wishes she could play with it!
 Ruby loves her cousins so much.  She has been moping ever since Lucy left for the Leininger reunion. She misses them already!