Ryan learning to use his LeapReader while the girls look on:
Many mornings Cari would get a fire going for us to enjoy. There are some benefits to it being freezing every morning (though thankfully the weather was pretty warm for us by mid-day most days).
Thursday morning Jake stayed with Megan while she napped, and I took the other 3 kids to see Ellie, one of my roommates from college who lives in Orem. Of course I forgot to take a picture with her. But it was fun to visit for a while. One of these days we'll have to plan an apartment reunion for the roomies of Crown 9er.
On our way back we took a small detour to visit the temple. Since we live 2 hours away from the temple we don't get to it as much as I would like, and the kids hardly ever get to see a temple though twice in the last year they got lucky and got to go through two temple open houses, first in Gilbert, then in Phoenix.
While we were in Provo I took advantage of having a temple so close and Jake and I went together once, I took the kids to the temple grounds, and I went by myself once.
The kids sure liked it.
Rachel kept telling me to take more pictures. "Take a picture with the temple water!"
"Take a picture with the temple flowers!"
Meanwhile, back at the house Miri and Megan were getting to be buddies.
Thursday we celebrated Christmas. Annie helped make cookies, and everyone helped cut out some, then decorated them with frosting and LOTS of sprinkles.
Grandma was so good all week at keeping us stocked yummy treats. She made sure to make plenty of gluten-free cookies, too, so Ryan wasn't left out. She's probably made more gluten-free cookies than I ever have even though I'm around the Celiac kids all the time and she only gets a few weeks out of the year. I've never been a big cookie maker, though.
A rare quiet moment brought to us by Cari and lovely books:
Outside Sophie, Lena, and Annie used a board and a big rock to have some teeter-totter fun.
For Christmas the ducks got more popcorn.
Megan was looking super cute.
Aunt Ashley was the family art director. She organized the kids to make stepping stones with plaster on Wednesday, and on Thursday she pulled out bandanas and stuff to tie-dye them.
They were super cool mementos of our reunion.
Ryan was not so interested in the tie-dye. He was happy to run back and forth on the sidewalk in front of the house with Cari chasing him on the scooter, and Sophie running after them.
After dinner we all got together for the Christmas party. We sang Christmas songs and the kids each got to open a present, then the adults had a white elephant gift exchange. I got patterned duct tape which has since been used to make Rachel her very own wallet.
Miri loves shoes. If Annie was looking for her shoes usually the first place to look would be on Miriam's feet. Such a cutie.
No comments:
Post a Comment