Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!! I am so excited for Christmas this year because Elsie might actually get it. But then again I bought most of her gifts with her there...so maybe next year will be the good year. I have been thinking a lot about the whole Santa thing and trying to figure out a way to make Christmas more about Christ. I am not sure if I have figured it out yet but we do have a nativity that Elsie can play with and a great book about Christ's birth story and I plan on telling her again and again about that story!!! What else can you do right??? I am not sure if acts of service will really make any sense to her yet but I am thinking about what to do on that front too. I just don't want to get all warpped up in the commercializations of Christmas.

Here we are decorating our tree together.

Santa

Santa came to our ward Christmas party and to our amazement Elsie actually sat on his lap. Of course if he had not been giving out candy canes I don't think she would have done it!!!

Snow time Fun

Elsie likes the snow. Here are a few photos to prove it.

A visit from Grammy

We were so happy to have Grammy come out to visit us. We did lots of fun stuff with her but most of all it was great to have her here. She read to Elsie a lot and played with us and had a good time. We went to see the lights on Temple Square, we saw music and the spoken word and went to a few other church sites.

Our trip to Kansas

As I said below we hitched a ride with some of or best friends to Kansas. It was a fun ride with two toddlers but we made it and with only one car sickness episode! It took us from 6 am to midnight but we did it in one shot. After getting there our friend passed us off to our other best friend and we were good to go for about a week of fun. We hung out a lot and went shopping and to appointments. I had my birthday there so we had cake and went to a movie...it was a blast!!! The best part about it was watching the kids play!! They loved being together again!!! Thanks for a great time. We miss you already.

Elsie the model

We had a beautiful tree in our back yard so I took a few pictures of Elsie in front of it. I think they came out great and I am actually going to use one of them to reproduce for family.

Fun with firends

We were so happy to have a few friends come out to visit. They were actually here to see their family but they made some time for us too. That is the one great thing about living here....lots of people have family here so they come and visit and see us too!!!

Naps

Elsie is going through a tough time when it comes to naps. She does not want to take them!!! I used to be able to put her down with no problem but now she just gets right back up again and gets out of her bed. So I have just been putting up the gate and letting her have quiet time while hoping the whole time that she will lie down and fall asleep. But what happens while I am away is far from sleep. This is how I fond her one of the afternoons after her quiet time

Swimming in the bathtub

Elsie has been doing funny stuff in the bathtub for quite a while but this is the latest. She swims in the bath. Will fills the tub really high then lets her have fun. She goes under the water face first then moves her legs and arms all around as if she was swimming.