Christmas

Before Christmas, I spent several nights working on sewing projects at my parents' house.  Chloe and I would head over after dinner to work on the projects.  This is how I found her one night when it was time to go home.

I spent a lot of time working on fabric books, that I didn't get to making the stockings that I had planned on.  I got as far as cutting out the fabric and then got too tired and ran out of time.  So this year, Chloe got a blue dog that says "Baby's first Christmas" (Yes the same stocking Connor has been using the past three years.)  Connor used a generic plain stocking my mom had in her stash.  Next year we will have cool stockings (perhaps I should do them now, so they'll be ready for next year).

There were no children at my parents' house, so we invited everyone over to our house in their pajamas to see Connor's excitement.  He was a funny kid...took forever to convince him to come downstairs.

Santa filled the stockings with some yummy treats.  Connor requested bananas for Christmas...Santa was sure to please and left three bunches of bananas.  Connor loved them!  Chloe received baby food and cereals. 

Look what I found!

 

 Connor got this cool truck, but he wouldn't take it for a spin, so Chloe tried it out.

 Connor eventually decided it looked like fun.

 

The big highlight of the morning was the train table for Connor and Chloe to share from Mommy and Daddy.

Our first attempt to get Connor to come down stairs.

He finally comes down stairs and totally bypasses the truck...

Tis the season to bake cookies and play in the garden

Connor enjoyed making sugar cookies today.  He helped make the dough, rolled it out all by himself and then used the cookie cutters.

 While Connor was busy, Chloe was having tummy time.

On Saturday we went to Sea World.  Zoom in on the picture to see Connor's face...so precious

While our friends are experiencing snow and frigid temperatures...Connor enjoyed plucking some tomatoes off a plant he planted by seed.  Yes this is all one plant sprawled everywhere, with a tiny bit of a raspberry bush on the right.

 He also picked a giant carrot

Look at the size of this thing

 

We also planted some pea seeds.  

Connor placed his pea seeds throughout the garden, which will be interesting as they start growing.

A new arrival

After our family dog Gracie died, my mom insisted she did not want another large dog for a long time.  At one point while trying to get Connor to talk, she said if he said dog, then she would consider getting a dog.  Well it took a few months, but he finally said dog, and of course she said she would think about it, but we shouldn't hold our breath.  Well...her co-worker's dog had puppies.  They were super cute Golden Doodle puppies, only problem was they lived in Washington and her co-worker went home every few weeks or so.  Well to make a long story short, the guy said he needed to deliver one of the puppies close to my parents, so it wouldn't be a problem to bring two along.  So with no more excuses, my mom decided she needed a puppy.  Daisy was delivered Thursday night.  We went over Saturday morning and had a great time playing with her.  She's a cute little puppy who likes to puppy bite everything.  Chloe's feet that resembled a chew toy with her sleeper on were a nice snack.  I joked that if Daisy bit hard enough she would make Chloe squeak and then think this really was a chew toy.  So yes I saved my baby.  Connor had a great time running around the back yard with her.

Digging with trucks

 Playing tag

 Chloe meets Daisy

 Daisy cleans Chloe's ears

 A much needed nap

Utah fun

Friday around noon we set off for Utah. It was raining off and on and was extremely cold when we stopped before Vegas for gas. There was also snow flurries falling and we drove by some snow plows getting ready. Though there was no snow on the road. We stopped in Vegas to watch the Bellagio fountains and see the garden. Connor liked the talking tree best. Friday night we stopped in St. George.

Saturday we drove to Zion and took a bus tour. We hiked to a waterfall. It was raining and we were cold and hungry so we didn't stay too long. Then we hopped back in the car and drove to Syracuse, where Emily (Peter's cousin), Drew, Colby-4 and Abby-2 lived. We stayed with them for the week.

Brrr it was cold and rainy!

 Here's the waterfall we hiked to

 "Mommy take a picture of me touching the rock"

"and again"

Sunday we went to church with them, took a much needed nap, and went to dinner at Aunt Janet's house(Peter's aunt-Emily's mom). We had a great turkey dinner. We also visited with more cousins and their kids.

Monday we went to the Carl Bloch painting exhibit at BYU, harassed Laurel at Jamba Juice,and Connor enjoyed playing in the piles of fall leaves. We also went to dinner at Tucanos-yummy! Then we walked around the mall looking at Christmas lights. Connor and Chloe sat on Santa's lap. When Santa asked Connor what he wanted for Christmas, his response was bananas. Santa suggested some oranges too and Connor agreed.

Rolling in the leaves with Kirk

 Throwing leaves at everyone was great fun

 Seeing Santa

Tuesday we went to the Childrens Treehouse Museum in Ogden. Connor had a blast! He enjoyed the firetruck, train table, china house with noodles and chopsticks, and milking a cow. It was so much fun we'll make that a must visit place next time we're up there. Connor had so much fun, we had to take him home kicking and screaming. That night we had dinner at Janet's again, and then several of us went out for Farr ice cream. Peter and Connor shared Playdoh ice cream.

Driving the firetruck

 The train tables-a favorite

 

 Riding a bull

 

 Milking a cow-fake cow, real liquid came out-so cool

 

 The music room

 

 House of China-Noodles anyone?

 

 Playdoh ice cream

 

Wednesday we did the Logan run with a few other families. Before heading there though, we stopped at the Hill Naval base museum. I fed Chloe while Connor and Peter walked around looking at the airplanes. Then we headed off to Logan. We met up with family at the Cheese factory, went to A&W for hamburgers and root beer, the pepperidge farm factory, the pajama factory, an ice cream shop, and a house to get 10 pound buckets of pitted tart frozen cherries. We bought two buckets-one for my parents. Then we stored them in one of uncle Brent's freezers. Peter also went out and found a 3 gallon bucket of Playdoh ice cream at the store and stored that in Brent's freezer as well. Wednesday night we went out for Thai food with families that didn't go on the Logan run.

Sharing some yummy root beer

 

 Cookies?

 Connor enjoyed throwing some snow at people...he wasn't terribly thrilled when he got some ice put down his shirt, but everyone else thought it was pretty funny.

 

 more ice cream

 

 

 pretzel rings

Thursday was Turkey Day. We went to Dean and Connie's to see their train set up in their backyard, then went to the Mackley's to meet up with Sean and Amy and to get busy on making turkey legs for the place settings. They were a brown paper bag with popcorn inside and a piece of white cardstock cut to look like a bone. Looked like a turkey leg when it was all done. When done we headed to the church for the feast. They were expecting 65 people for dinner.

Kirk and Connor enjoyed a horse ride at the Mackley home

Chloe had enough partying...

 so she let grandpa know

 

Friday was Oktoberfest. In the morning Laurel, Diana, Chloe and I went to Seagull Book, while Peter and Connor went to Costco to pick up supplies for dinner. They then met us for lunch. We picked up the last ingredients and some Steven's hot cocoa and then headed to Brent and Lisa's to make chicken schnitzel. Peter decided he really needed another tub of playdoh ice cream, so he went out and bought another one. When done we headed over to another church and had a yummy dinner and danced/sang/had a great party. More family showed up and several visitors came. Probably close to 80 people.

Connor fed grape leaves to the goats that lived next door to Lisa and Brent.

Chloe and I took a nap

Then the fun began!  Chloe and Brent with chicken hats on.

Connor and mommy dressed up too

We're bobsledding-Sean is in front

The strength test.  Amy is in the middle and she won.

Chugging root beer from a cow bottle-Heidi and Kirk had fun.  Kirk came in 2nd place.

Sean tried chugging root beer too-he's on the right

Some gnomes I think I know

Saturday morning we packed up, picked up our tubs of ice cream and cherries and loaded them into a cooler with dry ice. We drove to Orem and stopped for a quick visit with Melissa and Vince and their baby Addie. Then we hit the road...it was a loooooong drive. I'd much rather break it up and take two days, but we had ice cream that we were worried about so we made the drive in one day. We arrived home shortly after 1am. Chloe's diaper had leaked all over her car seat. I changed and fed Chloe before bed and then she promptly spit up everything all over me and the bed. I changed clothes and then threw a towel on the bed and went to sleep-It was almost 2. We were all exhausted!

Playing with foam stickers on the way home.

We had a wonderful time visiting all the families and going on new adventures.  Also traveling with two kids wasn't too bad.  Chloe was generally happy or asleep.  A couple times I sat between the car seats to calm her.  Connor was good most of the time too.  He enjoyed opening gifts throughout the drive.  Foam stickers were his favorite.

While we were gone a new cousin was born. Chris and Mary welcomed Oliver into their lives on Thanksgiving!