Post-Christmas

The week after Christmas Jake had off work, so we enjoyed a nice vacation at home that involved a lot of sitting around and relaxing, reading, and playing on our iPad, mostly Ticket to Ride (new-and fun!-for Christmas) and Angry Birds. Oh, and we got to leave the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and head up to the temple. We also took advantage of our 70+ degree days and went to the zoo and the Children's museum, and played around outside a bit, too (including on Grandma and Grandpa's trampoline, of course).

At the Children's Museum they had a new display of different body parts. The nose had boogers in the nostril for Rachel to pick:

The eyeball had different colored irises you could put on. And you could make the eye blink.

When you touched the mouth's toungue or uvula it would laugh or cough. Rachel enjoyed brushing his teeth a lot more than she likes brushing her own teeth.

Annie liked pushing around the grocery cart. (She likes pushing anything and everything.)

Rachel enjoyed climbing the trees and picking the magnetic fruit.

But most of all Rachel enjoyed playing in the submarine, just like when we went back in January with her cousin Jared.

Annie got in on some of the submarine action, too.

Rachel did the rope maze this time--the first time she's been interested in it at all in all our visits.

We wear Grandma out:

Also, note Annies favorite blanket of all time above. Grandma Campbell made it for Rachel when she was born and Annie just loves the croched edges that she can stick her fingers into. She carries it around like Linus often. And it is her sleep staple--give her a binkie and her blanket and she can sleep anywhere. Ok, not exactly anywhere, but at least any crib or pack 'n play if it's reasonably free of distractions.

Playing with the super-sticky-ooey-gooey bubbles outside. Such fun.

Annie playing fetch with Dad:

Annie's love of hats extends to Rachel's bike helmet.

She rather enjoys playing peek-a-boo with it.

Rachel was our photographer at the zoo, snapping some pictures of the jaguar and the otters playing. She also insisted on a family portrait (minus her). It's a good picture if you've been wondering exactly how round I am these days.

We're sad to have Jake heading back to work on Monday, but in some ways it'll be nice to get back into the regular routine. It sure was nice to have a week of vacation to sit around at home and do nothing. It's been a great year. We hope this coming year is just as good. Happy New Year!!!

Christmas celebrations

Our Christmas festivities began on Christmas Eve. We spent the afternoon and evening at Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house. The girls had a good time reading and playing in the big sheet tent they built.

That night Rachel was excited to be Mary in the nativity.

Annie thought it was fun for about 3 seconds to have a headdress on.

Jake was a shepherd and we all enjoyed the wonderful acting with Mary (Rachel) and Joseph (Annie) fighting over a naked baby Jesus. Rachel also doubled as the angel.

Christmas morning Rachel made it almost to 7:00 before waking up and coming to get us. Rachel and Annie were both very excited to check out what was in their stockings. Annie, of course was obsessed with the candy. Throughout the unwrapping of presents she kept on trying to steal Rachel's candy, since I had put hers back in her stocking after letting her have a few M&Ms to placate her.

Rachel and Annie both got their pillow pets from Santa--Rachel got a unicorn and Annie a ladybug that happens to have antennae that are perfect for her to chew on.

Annie was super excited about Jake's new remote control trick car (the girl loves cars!) and wouldn't let him just put it down after he unwrapped it--she wanted him to get it out and play NOW!

Rachel made us a special ornament in her preschool class for a Christmas present.

The girls got some super-sticky bubbles in their stockings that don't pop very easily. They had a blast chasing them around and catching them in their hair and clothes.

The bubbles were so strong that 15 minutes later I saw one hovering under the air intake for our heater. They stick to everything. They quickly became an outside toy.

Dad helping Annie open a present (she had a fun time ripping lots of paper).

The Christmas chaos:

Rachel got a new doll she named Lucy, and some dress-ups and decided that she and Lucy needed to try on the dress ups together.

She also got Annie dressed up, but Annie wasn't much of a fan and only lasted a few seconds before wanting it off.

We are lucky enough to have 10am church, so we had enough time to do presents, and get ready for church without to much fuss. I loved having the Christmas choir program actually on Christmas day. It was nice to sing along to a bunch of Christmas songs and have a whole hour devoted 100% to the true meaning of Christmas. It definitely helped this Christmas to be a more spiritual Christmas than most Christmases that don't fall on Sunday.
After church we went in to my parents' for more presents and Christmas dinner.

Rachel was more than happy to help Annie unwrap her presents. Annie was less than happy to have help sometimes.

Rachel didn't mind jumping in to help Grandpa unwrap his presents either.

After opening presents we went outside to see about setting up a play tent Rachel and Annie got and discovered the best present of all: a trampoline.

Of course it's for all the grandkids, but seeing as how we are the only ones that live within 2 days drive, I have a feeling we'll be benefiting most from it.

The girls love it and every time we go in to their house they love going out to jump. Annie is really robust and doesn't mind getting knocked over by Rachel's jumping. In fact she laughs and laughs as she bounces on her stomach whenever she tips over.

We also managed to snap a few family pictures:

After playing for a while and spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Knight (and my siblings families via a Google+ hangout), we headed home and got to talk to Jake's family, too. It was a fun Christmas. We are blessed with a great family, and it sure is fun to have Christmas with little kids to liven everything up.

Pre-Christmas

December has flown by. Here's what we remember of it up until Christmas time:

My mom finally ran in the Rillito River Run that she was supposed to run last year when she got hit by a truck while training for it two days before the race. So here one year after her accident she's back to running 10Ks. We're glad to have had a MUCH better December than we had last year with no hospital visits, and no unexpected run-ins with any trucks. We're so thankful to have her alive and healthy. We don't know what we'd do without her.

Rachel and I went out to cheer for Grandma. I love how she looks all chipper about 10 seconds after finishing running for an hour straight, and the woman behind her looks like she's about to die.

Rachel stretching with Grandma afterwards:

We've also been enjoying our December weather. It was pretty cold and rainy for a little while, but thankfully the lovely December weather we love returned and we normally go on at least one walk each day and spend a while playing in the back yard. Annie loves walks. We say "walk" and she does her sign for walk, says "aaahh" (walk) and runs to the front door or the garage door, whichever is closer. Thankfully she also still is content in her stroller (as long as it is moving at a decent pace), and when I pull the stroller out she tries to climb in on her own.

Most of the walk this is what we see:

Rachel is getting pretty good on her bike that she got for her birthday. She's not anywhere near getting rid of the training wheels, but she no longer needs boosts to get moving and is getting a lot more confident on her bike. Annie also loves Rachel's bike and is happy with her daily ride from the bottom of the driveway to the top at the end of our walks.

The week before Christmas my mom had vacation, so we spent a good bit of time in at Grandma and Grandpa's place. They even had the girls stay over night one night. It was a much needed full night's sleep for me. (The girls seem to take turns having bad dreams, or teething, or just random wakeups, so it feels like more than half the time I don't get a full night's sleep.)

Annie thinks she's so cool in Grandpa's glasses:

I also managed to make some gluten-free Christmas cookies that we decorated for FHE one night.

Rachel spent a lot of December so excited about Christmas. She really wanted a pillow pet and we took advantage of the fact that she was finally catching on to the "he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good, for goodness sake!" part of Santa. She was excited every day to put a new ornament on our advent calendar and to get a piece of candy from the candy advent calendar after she was dressed and had her hair done. (We had almost a whole month of no fighting over having her hair done!) Annie was oblivious to our Christmas tree advent calendar, but definitely as excited, or maybe even more excited than Rachel about the candy advent calendar. That girl LOVES candy!

Christmas preparations

Christmas season is under way here. It mostly got kicked off the week after Thanksgiving with our ward Christmas party. Annie had a blast hamming it up, winning over hearts with her silliness and happy child show.

Rachel was a part of the angel choir in the nativity play put on by the primary.

And to top the whole night off, the big guy came to visit. Rachel was first in line. Annie was not thrilled to meet jolly old St. Nick. But Rachel had been talking about Santa giving her a candy cane for a couple of weeks and was more than happy to go get one from him. She also told him that she wants a Pillow Pet for Christmas. Much better than the kid ATV she was talking about asking him for a few weeks ago after she saw a little girl riding one at the park.

Annie and Rachel are both obsessed with Christmas music. They love dancing and will dance and dance and dance to Christmas music. At Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house the other day we got some pictures and videos of them rocking out to Feliz Navidad (or Police Mommy-dah according to Rachel).

Annie will often go to the CD player and try to push a few buttons, then come to me and swing her arm either like she's dancing or like she's leading the music (I'm not sure which), which is her sign for music. When I respond "Do you want to listen to some music?" she'll nod her head, then run back over to the CD player to wait for the music to start.

We also got around to putting up the Christmas tree. Rachel helped decorate it, though the bottom foot or two is rather bare, protecting the ornaments from the toddler who loves all the balls ("ba! ba!").

I finally got around to pulling out a bunch of ornaments I got on clearance a few years ago and put together this wreath.

I love it. Unfortunately it's not holding up to the weather all that great. Time to whip out the hot glue gun and re-glue some of the ornaments back on. Then it may become an indoor wreath to keep it pretty. 

I just finished all the treat/goody plates for neighbors and friends yesterday, and almost all the present wrapping so now I feel free. No more "holiday obligations." Now I can just sit back and enjoy the season. It's my favorite time of the year. Hope everyone else is enjoying all the happiness and fun!