Christmas

We had a great trip and Christmas in Utah.
Some highlights were:
Shopping at the amazing family friendly outlets with Jake and Tess.
Dan, Jake and Tess spent a day SKIing in REAL MOUNTAINS!
Grandma's cook'n.
Sledding in about 4 inches of snow.
Ice skating
Games with grandma and grandpa...then Kent!
Temple Square LIGHTS and concert to see my cousins Michelin and Allen perform.
Gingerbread Houses
Christmas Eve Dinner and AWESOME night planned by my mom!!!
Christmas Eve Silliness
Christmas Day and seeing so much family!
Abby vomiting...but only Abby hallelujah!

It was a packed week filled with a lot of fun! A trip to always remember. Here are pictures totally out of order.

Clara adores her cousin's Evan and Dean!


Clara writing with her yellow legal pad grandpa gave her. The girl loves to write.


Christmas Eve church goin attire.


Christmas Eve Nativity


Temple Square Concert


Christmas morning breakfast. The best ever!




Sweet Willis with Aubree totally photo-bombing.


Gingerbread Houses. Mom did all the prep, she is amazing!
Loved seeing Grandma Claudia and Dave.




Notice everyone sporting their new aprons from Grandma and Grandpa.


She put her half chewed starburst on her house...she doesn't like be photographed:)


Hannah  and Aubree love each other. Aubree loved repeating her name over and over.


Abby was in baby heaven with Willis. Liz enjoyed the extra help I think.


Aubree finally warmed up to Liz.


On our way to Utah Jake and Clara were airport buddies.


Playing in the airport before boarding.


The day after we got to Utah it snowed...all of about 3-4 inches. We loaded the kids up at 830am and went to sled before it melted. Aubree's not a fan. Clara went down once. Everyone else loved it.


At Walmart Dan and I saw Studio C mustache man... I had to prove it to Jake and Tess.




Aunt Aimee was the hair-doer for my girls!


My talented mother put together a fun and clever treasure hunt. It included drawing on our foreheads, putting together puzzles, becoming rudolph the red nose reindeer and ended with gift cards to "girl heaven" aka Charming Charlies and REI for the boys.


Christmas morning tradition of OJ.

Thanksgiving and December

Thanksgiving we spent at home and I attempted to cook gluten free. Dan wanted a ham instead of a turkey. Since I knew we were spending Christmas with my Mom and Dad I wasn't sad to give up the turkey since we'd have it in Utah. The turkey and potatoes were the only part of the meal that turned out really well. I bought Safeway brand rolls that were as hard as a rock, the gluten free gravy was disgusting and my hours laboring over a gluten free crust for apple pie was a waste. But oh well.  I'm  getting there, Dan is easy to please thankfully! The kids and i had fun putting up Christmas decorations while Dan worked on the basement.

Abby was chosen by her teacher to be spotlighted in front of her school because she demonstrates great listening as part of their LEAD initiative. I picked up Subway for us to enjoy for her special lunch. So proud of our cutie pie.






Jake, Clara, Tess and I braved the cold and went to the Bells concert and lights at the D.C. Visitors Center. We had a great time.






One night we got to talking about Tess's old teacher who gave all the kids their "elf names" to use the month of December. We decided to look up what ours would be and man o man did we laugh hard. Especially at Jakes:
Aubree "Perky Toe Bells"
Clara " Mellow McGeiver"
Abby "Perky Sugar-socks"
Tess "Sugar Plum Surprise-Spoiler"
Jake "Puddin Monkey[Buns"
Becky "Disco Jingle Belly"
Dan "Joe Pitta-Patta"

Thanks to my very kind and generous sister we took the kids out to Utah for Christmas, a once in their lifetime trip. We tried to do as much Christmas prep before our trip but just didn't get it all done...like always. We left for Utah December 19th and came home on 27th. We had a great trip and some time to recoup when we got home before school started back up.

Aubree at 18 months

34 inches, 30lbs and in the 94th% for everything.

Aubree is officially 18months now. She continues to rule this roost and loves all the attention she gets.

Talking: She is picking up so many new words and has more than I can count in her vocabulary. She has gone from calling Clara "Waka" to "Kwawa" getting closer to making the r sound.
Lollipop is ba-pop, blankey is Dakey, elephant is L-da-dent.

Sleeping: She wasn't sleeping well and I'd hear a thud in the middle of the night followed by a cry out for me. I realized she was just too big for the pack'n play. Tara offered to let us use one of her cribs and Aubree is in heaven. She loves her crib. She is officially down to one nap which unfortunately is never long enough!  She hasn’t been that great of a sleeper recently due to huge molars breaking through.

Eating: She loves Mac'n Cheese. Those squeeze baby food pouches are a life saver, she has at least 3 a day. She is a clean eater for the most part. I'm amazed at how well she is doing using a spoon with her cheerios for breakfast. She stays pretty clean.  And oh man does she love lollipops.

On the move: She is the only child of ours that goes flying down the stairs on her belly. It kinda takes my breath away when I hear not realizing she is safely zooming down. She loves to jump on the bed and can run faster than any 18month old should! We still have the gate up on the stairs though she can do them pretty well.


Books and Baby Bum:  Aubree loves watching her siblings the most. I discovered a British nursery rhythm show that Aubree loves watching her siblings the most. She still prefers reading over anything else, she hardly plays with toys at all. Man does she LOVE the moon! Goodnight Moon is a favorite as well as Tickle the Duck, and Peak a Who.

She is the cutest little girl and we all adore her.