Winter Cuteness

Lots of cute little moments happened this month in-between our preparations for Christmas, closing on our house, and trying to heal from a couple different kinds of sickness. These kids make me smile.

Zeke loves all things winter (except maybe the cold....). He loves snowmen, Christmas lights, pinecones, snow on the ground, presents, and the list could go on. But one of his favorites is wreaths. He has been pointing out wreaths on doors all year long, and when probably 90% of our community had Christmas wreaths this month, he insisted we needed one for our door. We looked but couldn't find one we liked. Then Aaron's mom offered us her old wreath, and it's perfect! Aaron added a string of battery-operated Christmas lights, and Zeke is soooo happy. 

Another winter item Zeke loves is scarves. He can zip up his coat and put on his boots by himself, but he can't tie his scarf. So he drapes it around his neck and says 'Mommy, I want to be a present'.

Nora's vocabulary is growing and growing. She's picked up lots of new food words, especially with all the holiday treats we have received and made. She added marshmallow, pretzel, cookie, and M&Ms to her list in the past month. She's an M&M addict. A neighbor left a plate of chocolate chip cookies and Christmas M&Ms on our doorstep, and I couldn't get her to eat the cookie; all she wanted was the M&Ms!

Nora's latest trick is taking her socks off, and when I get her dressed in the morning she checks to make sure I didn't try to put socks on her (I don't - I've learned they'll just come right off!). So when we go out we have to put on both socks and shoes. At least she leaves her socks alone when her shoes are on! She's got to have cold feet, but as long as she doesn't complain about it....

Christmas Scenes

We went to Temple Square with the Carliles on the 23rd. We went early (around 5pm) and it wasn't nearly as cold or crowded as I had imagined. Plus the parking was free! 

Christmas Eve we celebrated with the Loertschers. Quinn and Dawnie and Grandpa and Grandma did a great job at getting the perfect presents for all of us. For the first time we gave to one of the out-of-state siblings and had fun packing and mailing our gifts to Skye and Jon and their girls and then watching them open them via webcam.

Christmas morning we had our Christmas at home. Nora loves her pop-up bugs, and Zeke really liked both his sea-rescue track and his Cars 2 cars.

And Christmas night we celebrated with the Carliles. Grandma Carlile had lots of fun stocking stuffers for all, and Zeke helped everyone open their presents. 

It was a wonderful weekend and we feel so blessed by family that gives us so much. We stayed out of the hustle and bustle and stress this year and had a very magical and peaceful season (keeping things as simple as possible really does make us happy!).

Home for Christmas

Honestly, we're home for Christmas every year. We're blessed to live close to to a lot of family, so we can celebrate at our house and see parents and siblings all in one crazy day if we want to. But this year is just a little more special, because we just bought our first home! Buying from your landlord has its own set of  issues -- we found out after we made a purchase offer that you have to live in the home 6 months before you put it under contract -- but it's pretty awesome to sign all of those closing papers and be done. No moving required. 

Way back in May I promised pictures after we got things unpacked. I took some in July but they never got posted (no one ever complained either!), so here's your tour. Of our cute little townhome. 

UTE-RC Christmas Party

Aaron's flying club's Christmas party is something I look forward to every year. It's a super casual, family-friendly event that's always a fun night out. They reserve a party room at a buffet-style restaurant, introduce next year's club officers, and draw door prizes for the club members. I also love that they give a small gift to all of the women who don't fly but support their husbands. I decided this year that probably my favorite aspect is that I get to enjoy a night out with my family and some friends without being stuck at a big table making awkward small talk over a formal dinner. :)

Zeke has lately decided he loves eating out (something we don't do often) and he had a great time choosing his meal from the many options. He eventually chose an Italian sausage, plain spaghetti noodles, mac n cheese, and a piece of pizza (plus the rolls that were on the table). The mac n cheese was pretty disappointing, so that got ignored by everyone, and the pizza of course Zeke only nibbled at (we were surprised  he chose it in the first place). He ate pretty well for being so distracted by everything going on. Our table was near the dessert bar, and from the moment we walked in the door Zeke was enamored with the frosting carrots on the carrot cake. Even the chocolate fountain, although super cool, wasn't going to deter him from his carrot cake and ice cream.

Nora was a bit harder because she'll eat almost anything but can't really evaluate all the options and tell us what she wants. Nora started dinner in a delicious way by sharing rolls with Aaron while Zeke and I were off getting him started, and that kept her perfectly happy for quite a while. I got her some Asian chicken and rice and after that we just shared with her from our plates. She really liked the popcorn shrimp. As she began to refuse more offerings of dinner food, I brought a Nora-size dessert buffet to the table for her with a marshmallow, chocolate chip cookie, and rice krispie treat. She quickly pushed away her dinner plate and thoroughly enjoyed all of her dessert. She sat on a booster seat up to the table for the first time and I just can't believe how fast she's growing up.

Aaron and I had a great dinner too, although I don't think we were both at the table together for much total time. It seemed like one of us just got back from the buffet when the other had to get up to get more food for someone, which made it a little crazy but still enjoyable. We ate a little bit of a lot of different things and it was a tasty meal. I tried out the chocolate fountain and that was probably some of the best dessert I've had at this type of place. Plus the skewers did a pretty good job of keeping Zeke entertained while we finished up the program portion of the evening. There were several cameras out during the program, and Nora said 'cheeeese' every time she saw a camera flash (so cute!).

The kids didn't get restless until the very end, as we were trying to get ready to go home, which I really appreciate. It was a great night out!

Gingerbread Neighborhood

Yesterday we stopped by the gingerbread house display and silent auction in Heber. We wandered through in kind of a random fashion (Nora was leading, and she wasn't interested in the gingerbread) but after a while we saw most of it. 

There were some amazing creations, 

some familiar sights, 

one house done by some family  members, 

and a cool train (plus a lot of others I didn't take pictures of).

It was fun to go and see, even if we didn't bid on any of them. We're thinking maybe next year we will build our own gingerbread building. Aaron already has had some good creative ideas!