It's the little things, like eating at the kitchen table together, that you realize you love and miss! Grandpa was a good sport to eat dinner and stay at home with the girls while Mom and I went to a movie or to the temple? I can't even remember! It turns out things were a little rough around bedtime, so Grandpa laid on the floor by Cami's bed (and Lexi's crib) and held Cami's hand until they both fell asleep. :) Precious!
Awww.
Some morning snuggles with Lexi Lou
And here are some more adventures that we went on before Christmas! First stop: Gardner Village Elves! The girls had so much fun with Ari and cousins in the snow.
Silly girls!
I love this picture of all of us! Mom looks beautiful. :)
And one more with Bree included. We were glad she joined in the adventure!
One Saturday night, Jake and I took the opportunity to leave the girls with Grandma and Grandpa Yospe, and go on a DATE! Not just any date....a marathon date. We started downtown at Harmon's to eat dinner at their salad bar. After debating where would be a safe place for me to eat, with options for me and my crazy eating restrictions, we figured that would be a good choice. It worked! I made a salad, enjoyed it, and felt perfectly fine afterwards. Success!
From there, we went to the Salt Lake Temple and did a live session. That was so fun...it had been forever since we'd been there, and it was nice to be back where we were married 6 years ago!
After the temple, we went to the Gateway to see "Saving Mr. Banks", which was an awesome movie. Super fun date!
The Sunday before Christmas, we dressed in our reds and enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa Toone at sacrament with us. I love this picture of Jake...handsome man!
Christmas dresses and my little beauties
That evening, we went to the super fun, special, heartwarming and much anticipated Grandma Willes Christmas Cookie Party! What a great tradition. I love that every year, we can gather together at her house before Christmas, expect to see Santa hats, pizza, huge sugar cookies that Grandma slaved for hours over, cookie toppings galore, homemade colorful frosting from Aunt Chris, treats made lovingly by Grandma, and cousins and relatives filling the house to the brim.
Even though I can't partake in the pizza, treats, cookies, frosting, and candy, I didn't want to miss out on the fun! I thought "Hey, I can still decorate a cookie!" So I made my own almond flour sugar cookies at home the day before. They are deeeelicious. The recipe just calls for almond flour, coconut oil, honey, baking soda, vanilla and salt. Easy peasy, and they taste buttery and sweet. I rolled and cut them out into shapes, and brought a couple to decorate at Grandma's house.
Who needs candy when you can use dried fruit, nuts, seeds and coconut! haha.
Lexi, apparently. Lexi needs candy!
We enjoyed visiting in the living room, and singing some Christmas carols to Bree's guitar. I love that Mom is sitting in front of the picture of her when she was young- 20ish. Beautiful! Then and now.
Haha.
Cute little Lexi and Owen! They let me put hats on them.
One of the highlights of the eve was when Grandma got out her book- A Collection of Poems by Barbara Willes, that Brittney put together for her a couple years ago. I love hearing Grandma read her poems! (That's what inspired me to write the poem about Grandma, which I posted previously)
Thanks, Grandma, for another fun year and we look forward to the next!
The next day, we followed tradition and visited The Grand America Hotel to do the scavenger hunt and see the giant Gingerbread house. There was a harpist in the lobby (She reminds me of Elizabeth Smart- who's book I just finished and loved- it was so riveting and captivating!). Anyways, I love this picture of Cami and Ari.
Cousins and gingerbread
Filling out the paper at each window ensured that they would get a treat at the end! I love this pink princess window.
Sweet pink princesses!
Playing in the toy store
From the hotel, we drove over to the Church History Museum, and here's Britt and I hangin out.
I love their childrens area- it's so fun, and you can't beat free! The kids got down to business playing, and Grandpa was an attentive listener.
A little Mexican dancing!
We also got to make pioneer rag dolls before we left. They're so cute!
Ohhh these girls. Gotta love them. We got to spend Christmas Eve together at Brittney and David's house.
Grandpa and Bree went skiing/snowboarding that day, and he took a bad spill on the packed snow and busted his shoulder. Poor guy! Bryan and Matt were introduced to the movie "A Christmas Story".
Why hello!
Britt and Mom
David always does such a great job decorating. He has an eye for interior design! Here he is, folding the napkins into fancy shapes.
Nice, Bryan. :)
We enjoyed a yummy roasted turkey, and Jake had the honor of carving it. Hard at work.
Ahhhh nothin better than family in the kitchen.
At the end of the night, after the nativity, the girls got in their Christmas jammies and we were ready to go home and welcome Christmas!
But first, Grandma came over from Aunt Chris's, so that I could read my poem to her! What an amazing lady, in her Olympic coat from when she was a volunteer in the Salt Lake Olympics. :) Love her.
One last one of the fam, minus Nathan. Dad's in his homemade sling. :) Merry Christmas!!
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2 comments:
Ah sweet memories! It's fun to re-live all the fun things we did during that short 2 wks in Utah. Loved every minute of it- and so did Dad (except for the fall on his shoulder) Fun last picture of us!
You're so good to write so much about everything! I'm so behind on my blog at this point I think I'm just going to have to post pics and that's it. Aaah! Where does the time go?
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