After the Haun family Christmas party we went to see the lights at Christmas village. It was stupid cold, but the show must go on. Val, BJ, and my parents joined us for the fun.
Xan was all bundled in his snow suit and Judy chilled out in the stroller. Emmy wanted to walk and was excited to see each new window.
When we were all fully frozen we drove to Virg's fit some warm dinner.
It was a fun night.
Every year my Grandma holds a party for our family at her church. We have a meal, sirens time together and have a visit from Santa.
This year we had brunch. Delicious eggs and all the fixings. Emmy and Xander both chowed down on eggs and fruit. My mom was great and feed Xander while Matt and I enjoyed our food and took care of Emmy.
Just as we finished eating a visitor came. It was Santa! He had a present for each little kid and took time to talk to each of them. Emmy was happy to go up to Santa, but a little too shy to talk. Xander didn't know what he was supposed to do.
Santa have then presents then it was time for the grown ups to do the white elephant exchange.
Then, with some more visiting and cleaning up, the party was over until next year.
We went to see the Christmas lights on Roy. They always have my very favorite trees. So many lights in one place. It was over 40 degrees outside and started sprinkling when we left.
Xander couldn't keep his eyes of the lights, and loved chewing on his coat. Emmy named all the colors and splashed in the puddles of melted snow.
For Christmas Matt got me a Google home. I love it for listening to music. We just say "OK Google, play Christmas music" and it does. Emmy loves it too. Whenever she wants to have music playing she asks us to "GoGo music". Such a cute big girl.
She is also very good at building towers. She did this one all by herself.
Friday night was our first Christmas party in our new ward. We were a little late, so we found a spot to sit just before the primary started the Christmas program. Emmy loved to see the angels and both kids enjoyed the songs. Though most of the time I was trying to keep Xander from having every roll on the table.
After dinner there was a special guest that Emmy was very excited to see. Unfortunately her mom was not on the ball and she ended up in the very back of the line. We waited and waited. While waited Emmy saw the baby Jesus didn't have a blanket on, so she wrapped him up, then played with the sheep, then finally got her turn!
My camera stopped working bake Xander joined the fun. He didn't last too long before he started crying. Poor kid. Maybe next year.
I never got the real Christmas tree up last year, but I was determined to do it this year. I knew we would need help. So we called Grandma and Grandpa Haun and invited them over for some Christmassy fun.
We lucked out and grandma Bev came over and helped us clean up the house earlier in the day so we could put up the tree!
Here it is.
We officially have sold the Riverdale house. We had our closing on Tuesday the 29th. There are a lot less papers to sign when you sell then when you buy. It was a crazy experience (and still is since we are still unpacking), but I am glad it is over.
We are so grateful to all the people who helped us sell it. We had painting help, counter help, tile help, babysitting help. We would never have gotten it done in our own.
Good house, good memories.
We have a cat door in the basement window so our kitties can come and go as they need. We were playing downstairs and Queequeg came through the playroom and out his door. Xander was excited. I guess he had not realized there was a perfect Xander sized door in the window. Before I knew it he climbed the beanbag and was in the window sill trying to open the door.
Xander is almost big enough to start playing with Emmy, when she is willing. The other night we were in the play room and Emmy was building towers. She would get upset when Xan would come around because he loves to knock them down. So we played a new game. Xander would pick up the blocks, or I would hand them to him and he would give them to Emmy. She would politely say "thank you" after each block. This game lasted a surprisingly long time.
In love Thanksgiving! We woke up and watched the parade and some football. After naps we went to the Haun's house. We got there just add dinner was starting. Yummy.
Emmy and Xan had fun playing with their cousins. Cora was playing with a ball with Xander and made him laugh and laugh. Arden helped Emmy to get every toy out of the bedroom and bring it to the living room with everyone.
Of course I didn't take any pictures. Oh well.
We went to the Ogden Christmas parade on Saturday. It was way more crowded than I expected, but not too cold and lots of fun. We met summer friends from our neighborhood (Porters) for the parade, and then actually ran into my friend Emily there too. Emmy loved to see the marching band and Santa. She thought the fireworks were loud. Both kids seemed to have fun. We will have to go back and see Christmas village soon.
We bought a beautiful holiday dress for Emmy. It is white and silver with a glittery design on it. What we didn't know was that the glitter was going to fall off and go everywhere! Out entire house, the church, all of us. I think we will sparkle for a few years to come.
Xander made a new sleep record last night. He went down at 8:00, woke up about 10:00 for a little more food and then didn't get up until after 6:00am. That is the most sleep either of us have had in 10 months.
Both kids wanted to help me empty the dishwasher tonight. Xander took the silverware out and put it on the floor, Emmy picked it up off the floor and put in randomly in the drawer and I then arranged the drawers. Such good helpers.
Emmy was so excited when it started to snow last night she could hardly sleep. When she woke up this morning and saw the grass was white with snow she was ready to go build a snowman!
Xander wasn't too excited to be in his snow suit, until he was outside and playing! Then they both had fun.
Emmy is learning to count. She is getting really good and knows her numbers, but not always the right order. We were at the pond feeding the ducks and I asked her how many ducks there were. She replied "1,2,7,8... All of them!"
I am always curious where the kids fall on the growth charts and how they compare. So, here are the official numbers.
Emmy
Height: 36.5 inches (97th percentile)
Weight: 30lbs 12oz (94th percentile)
Xan
Height: 31 inches (99th percentile)
Weight: 24 lbs 3oz (95th percentile)
Xan is about an inch longer than Emmy was at this age.
Emmy had her two year digit appointment in Friday. We knew she would be getting at least one shot, so we tried to prepare her by talking about it and watching the episode of Daniel tiger where he gets a shot.
We told her over and over that the doctor would look at her and then she would get a shot. After the shot she would get a bandaid and a sucker.
During the appointment she kept asking when she would get her sucker. Finally the nurse came in to do the shot. Emmy exclaimed "I excited!" The nurse chuckled and said she didn't think Emmy really knew what was going to happen. So up on the table she went and got her door without flinching! Then asked if it was time for her sucker! Brave girl.
Come to Sunday night and she is in the bath and realized her bandaid was gone. "Oh no" she said. I asked what was wrong and she pointed to where bandaid was. Then she asked if we could go to " doctor ah-red" and get a shot and sucker. Cute girl.
