Anyway, here I am with the kiddos right before bed on Christmas Eve! Brooke was very excited, and Winry didn't know what was happening! All according to plan.
Christmas morning was a blast! Here's Brooke going through the contents of her stocking wearing her new Doc McStuffins outfit! She was so excited and had a wonderful time opening presents.
Here's Winry with her new baby doll! The pacifier sticks on with a magnet, and she really likes to pull it off and try to put it in her own mouth. Alternatively she will also pull it off and then try to give it back. She really likes that game nowadays. Also, here's Winry carefully examining her stocking contents.
Winry really liked the unwrapping part. Mostly she liked gift bags, and more than that she liked pulling all the sparkly tissue paper out of Monica's present! PARTY!!!
One nice thing about having both of our families live so close together is that we can get to Christmas at both houses! After we wrapped things up (or should I say unwrapped things up!) at my parents house we headed down to Monica's parent's house where things got a little crazy...
We sadly weren't very good picture takers this year so I don't really have much else to show...
While at Monica's parents house we also had a Christmas concert thing. It's a Blood family tradition and many people sang or played songs, did dances, and there was even a nativity enactment. The highlight? Brooke and Audrey sang Jingle Bells together!
That night after bed we introduced Monica's family to the magic of Elf Yourself, and if you don't know what I'm talking about you're in for a real treat! Here's the one we made of our family. Good times.
Also, while at Gram and Pop's house I tried to move Brooke's new shopping cart out of the way while everyone was there, so I tucked it behind the couch. Well, it wasn't hidden from Winry! I love this picture because she looks so guilty and "you caught me!" in it! Good thing those snacks are plastic!
On Thursday night (27th) we had a baby shower for Monica's sister, Melanie. Part of the decorations were balloons of course, we're not heathens. Brooke and Audrey had a lot of fun playing with them, tossing them into the air and trying to catch them, then subsequently trying to pick them up. Balloons can be quite tricky to pick up!
Here is at least the table all ready to go.
On Friday we headed over to Megan and Alan's house to go sledding with them on a hill near their house. Brooke and Winry loved it! They even went together! Everyone had an awesome time, and the hill was perfect size for little kids. Long enough for a good sled ride, but short enough it wasn't daunting to climb to the top. I remember as a kid sledding on the hills next to the golf course, and it was a lot of working hauling a sled back up to the top. The worst part was that you had to climb the hill to get back home, so after putting in all the work to get to the top you'd think "... ah, just one more go"... Anyway...
When we got back to the house we played a little air hockey, and Brooke thought it looked fun and wanted a turn too.
A little later was a BYU basketball game, during which Brooke rode on pop's rocking horse from when he was a kid, and Winry danced to the squeaks.
After a close game where BYU intimidated and severely challenged Miss St (none of that actually happened... :( ) it was waffle block time. Waffle blocks were probably the hero toy of the trip for Brooke. She really loved them, and Winry loved to climb into their bin!
Saturday we headed back up to my parents house for our last night of vacation. It worked out nicely because my parents live just 15 minutes from the airport, so it saved us some trouble on Sunday morning. While we were there Brooke found a dancing cactus that someone got for Christmas and gave it a run for it's money!
Somehow this didn't get mentioned or in a picture, but Winry was sick much of the time we were out in Utah. We're not 100% sure she was really sick, and that it wasn't just teething things, but she threw up 2 different nights 3 total times. No one else ever had or got a stomach thing though... (Note from Monica: THIS IS UNREAL!! I HAVE LITERALLY HAD THE STOMACH FLU ALL WEEK! THE EXACT SAME THING WINRY HAD! AND MY MOM HAS TOO! No idea how he forgot that!!) Anyway, because of this Winry 1) slept terribly, meaning Monica and I slept terribly as well and 2) didn't go to church, so I took Brooke to sacrament meeting. After church we came home and changed and got ready to fly back home. As we were getting into our car to head to the airport Monica saw the view and wanted to take a picture, and I wanted to get in said picture, so I did. You're welcome Monica!!
We ended up at the airport earlier than needed, which really isn't a bad thing. We ended up just going once my parents went to church as there wasn't much else to do. Winry took advantage of our waiting time by falling asleep 5 minutes before we got on the plane. Can you sleep through boarding a plane? Neither can Winry... :)
However, our plane had screens in the back of every seat, so I turned on Goldie and Bear for Winry and watched something else with Monica. Winry sure loved getting to watch a show, and she also loved to play with the TV.
Brooke watched Doc McStuffins on the flight home, which was heaven! She even sang along to the songs!! Thank you Doc McStuffins for making the flight so easy!!
Winry, however, was not captivated by TV and kept doing this to our headphone cord...
We all made it home safely though, even our ears! So, I don't remember if I talked about this on the flight out, but we had 2 car seats, 2 checked bags, 3 carry on bags, 3 personal items, and 2 kids to carry! And that's not even mentioning blankets and jackets which were too warm to be warn indoors! Needless to say it was tough getting through the airport, at least until we got our bags checked.
Anyway, so after we landed and got all our bags there was no way we were going to take the shuttle all together to get to the car, so I took the checked bags and sped off to the shuttle and the car, and came back to pick everyone else up. This worked pretty well, except that shortly after I left Brooke had to go to the bathroom, and Monica was capable of shuffling stuff to curb side to get in the car, but not deftly navigating the airport with it all. After Brooke assured Monica that she wouldn't be able to make it, Monica laid one of Winry's extra diapers on the ground, walled Brooke into privacy with bags and stuff, and had her go there. It was a raging success! Good quick thinking Monica. We all made it home with dry pants!
And speaking of home, here's Brooke carrying around Princess Bear in her new animal carrier!
When we got back there was snow here, so we took advantage on New Years Eve and Brooke and I went sledding at a nearby park while Monica and Winry went to the grocery store. The park actually had some really good hills for Brooke once we did some hunting around. I got a couple videos, one time Brooke got stuck on the top of the hill for a while, and the other she went head first!
Also, since this is the park, we had to play on the playground and go down the slides a bunch. The slides were super fast due to the snow and slippery clothing, so I had to stop Brooke at the bottom each time so she didn't fall off. We even went down the racing slides together, and I had my arm around Brooke and picked her up off the sled as we got to the bottom. Good thing too, I barely stuck the landing.
As it was nearing time to go, Brooke wanted to have a snowball fight! She had me make her a small pile of snowballs, then I went a little ways off and she'd run over and throw one at me, then go back for another one! We had a great time!
Monica and I "stayed up" on New Years Eve. I think the last time I saw on my watch was 11:10... But before that we had fondue for dinner. It's our tradition!
We also played Stuffed Fables, which is a new game I got for Christmas. It was a lot of fun, and I think it might be Monica's new favorite game....not really.
Our new years started off with our lawn reindeer probably getting a cold. Can you see that icicle hanging off his nose?! Poor guy! Not to worry, it's soon time to come into the stable for most of the year!
Brooke and I started the year off right playing Feed the Kitty! She's grown up so much since last time we played it. We even played the real rules, and she LOVED it soo much!!
With the new year it was time to move the Christmas tree from the garage floor to the garbage can! And yes, they took our garbage like this!
Monica was out with the kids doing some grocery shopping, and Brooke just HAD to go to the bathroom. Luckily the bathrooms in King Soopers have a kids seat, more luckily Winry loves them! P.S. Brooke didn't got to the bathroom.
Winry got a new car seat for her birthday and seems to have liked it to far! Her birthday is actually this Friday, but we gave it to her a little early)
Doc Mc-Brooke-ins got sleepy and needed her unicorn blanket. Ahh! cuddly and warm.
Winry continues to be an excellent dancer! Look at her go! Also, she can climb up the first stair! But just the first stair...
On Saturday Katie and David came over. They brought us lunch and we played games together and just had a great time. While here, David showed Brooke the book he's working on writing. Everyone really liked the book, and I'm excited to see the pictures once he's done illustrating it!
Today was Brooke's first day of Primary! She had a great time and told us all about it after church. She also really likes her new teachers!!
After church, we went on a walk and then to the park. Brooke and Winry had a wonderful time. Here's Brooke climbing through the tunnel.
And Winry following after!!
When we got home we called Gram because she called while we were on our walk to talk to Brooke about her first day in primary. While we were talking, Jelly came by and Winry started meowing at her! She loves to meow at Jelly, and I've never been able to catch her, until today!! The first one is really hard to hear. It's around 3-4 seconds in, and it's really loud then, but she says meow again a little later.
Church today was fantastic, and I really like the new Come Follow Me manual. I feel like scripture study was really great this past week, and I loved having a more involved family study. I also really liked Sunday School and how prepared everyone was! The blessings of this new curriculum are very apparent! I'm so excited to see how things go this next year!
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