Just a few photos

Here are a few photos to keep all of you happy!!! I know I don't post that often but life is busy and it is a pain to download the pictures!!! But I do try to keep current photos of Elsie up so you can all see how she is growing.

Decorating Cookies for the first time

Here is a shot of Elsie decorating cookies for the first time. It was also my fist attempt at making sugar cookies from scratch. Over all I think it turned out really great! We got a huge thing of cookie cutters for Christmas. So we spelled out Happy Birthday Grandma with cookies. Then Elsie's aunt, uncles and grandma came to decorate with us. Luckily we were able to send some of the cookies home with people...there were a ton of cookies even with I cutting the recipe in half!!! The only thing I will change for next time is to try to take the cookies out before they brown so they are softer.

Not up to too much

I am writing to say we are still alive. We have not been up to very much so that is why we have not posted anything for awhile. Elsie and I have been having lots of fun having play dates and getting to know more people out here. Will has been working hard at the resort and increasing his eBay sales on the side. I will have to look though my current photos to try to post some of Elsie soon. She is growing bigger and learning more and more. She knows most of her letters and is not working on her numbers. We try to have lessons on these things during the week and are liking it a lot. We still go to play group each week and might start going to a second play group soon. That is all for now. We hope all of you are doing well.

Dress up clothes

Elsie got a lot of dress up clothes for Christmas and it has taken her a little bit to get interested in using them. But they are definitely becoming a fun thing to play around with. I found her all dressed up in her cape (on backwards of course) and a hat I got at The Children's Place Outlet for a dollar, I love that place.

A visit from Aunt Charity and Greg

We are always excited to see people that don't come around that often. So we were happy to have Charity come out for new years. She brought Greg which was super fun too. They got a little skiing in while there was still some snow left...we have not had new snow for quite some time now.

Visits from friends

Because of the holidays we had several friends from our Boston days who where coming out to visit family. So we managed to steal them away for a minute to see us too. I only took pictures of one such encounter but to the rest of you know that we loved seeing you too!!!

Christmas 2009

Well Christmas came and went but I have to blog about it a little bit. We had a great Christmas season here with Will's family. I made a big dinner Christmas Eve with ham, potatoes, veggies, sweet potatoes and rolls. All of Will's siblings came over and his mom and grandfather too. We had a fun time eating and chatting. After Grandpa went home and Elsie was in bed we sat down to play some games. We ended up stying up until 2 am and all crashing in various places in our house after the game was finally done. We came up with the idea just that day that Will's mom and siblings should sleep over and have Christmas morning with us. So that is what we did.

Elsie woke us up far too early in the morning and we all dragged ourselves out of bed. It was fun to have everyone there. We began with using our nativity set to act out the birth of Christ. We then moved right onto the presents. Elsie got to hand out the presents after I told who to give them to. When she got to open one herself she liked it. The only problem was she was not that surprised since I had bought all her presents for her with her in the cart with me...maybe next year we will go on a few solo shopping trips. Her favorite present was the stickers that her Grammy got for her. She looked at them and excitedly exclaimed "STICKERS". Will, Elsie and I also had stockings but we broke tradition by accident and opened them after all the presents. After the presents where opened we made a big pancake breakfast for everyone.

Later we went to Will's moms for a little bit to see her there and to eat some more food. We ended our day at Will's dad's house with more presents and a big turkey dinner. We spent the night there with Will's siblings and had fun playing games and hanging out for the next day or so.

Christmas Eve after dinner.



Christmas morning

I made this cape and apron for Elsie and so far she seems to like the cape better.


Will wrapped some of our presents in fabric and used ribbon to tie them up. He used something like a 100 yards of ribbon on this one.





At Will's dad's house.

Swimming at the rec center

Since Will and Elsie like to swim so much we decided to go to the local rec center to go swimming. The most fun thing about this pool is all the play things and the big slide. It also has a lazy river and a zero entry area too. Elsie loves to go down the big slide with mom or dad holding her up at the end so she will not go under the water. We have been back a few times and each time it has been a lot of fun...I consider it a wholesome recreational activity.

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.