Christmas Sledding

The rest of Christmas Day was nice and relaxing, just like it should be! We stayed in pj's for a long time, made some Christmas phone calls, ate a yummy (mostly prepared ahead of time) Italian Christmas dinner, watched Brave (Cora's Christmas present), and took a snowy walk around the neighborhood. Which lead to a lovely bit of sledding time! Evelyn was cold and Luke didn't last long, so we headed home, but Cora, Violet, Grandma, and Grandpa had a great time! 

 They were pretty cold when they came in! 

While they were gone, I realized it had been pretty quiet for a while , and found Luke asleep. It was a big day! 

Merry Christmas Morning!

The goodies from Santa pre-wakening. 

 

The kiddos pre-presenting. 

 I'm so happy we got this great shot of all of us! 

And then it begins! 

  Luke got a lot of 'boy toys'-- figures from shows he likes and dress-ups, so he doesn't always have to play with polly pockets and princess attire!

 

 

 Santa went all practical for Evelyn-- baby treats, sippees, baby lotion and shampoo. She got a few fun toys from him too!

 

 

 Evelyn had lots of help opening up her presents and playing with her toys!

 Cora with her Merida wig and Spider girl dress, on Luke's new scooter. Wow! 

Violet has been waiting for this movie for forever! It's been one of her favorites to repeatedly check out from the library.

Daddy got more BYU gear

 Kevin and I put pretty much all of our Christmas money together to gift ourselves with a bedset and nightstands. After 8 years it was finally time!  

Merry Christmas from the Andersons!

Christmas Eve!

 We had more family from Kevin's side of the family join us for Christmas Eve; Megan and Chris and their girls, Anna and Barry, and Gail and Jerry. It was fun and low-key-- perfect! We had dinner, watched Santa's progress on NORAD, and did a little Christmas singing/dress-up program.

 These Christmas picture props were a lot of fun too-- and made for a cute decoration when we weren't using them!

Evelyn, all tuckered out at the end of the party.

 

Sprinkling reindeer food right before bed! 

Luckily for Santa's helpers there weren't any big projects for after bed on Christmas Eve night!

It's always fun when grandparents come!

We were lucky to have Kevin's parents come visit us for Christmas! They came on the 20th, and stayed until the 26th. It was so fun to have family here at our house for the holidays! 

The day before they came I told Luke he gets to sleep in Cora and Violet's room while Grandma and Grandpa are here. His response--But why? There are three pillows on this bed! Grandma here, Grandpa here, and me here. (Keep in mind this is a full size bed!). He's pretty excited to sleep in the girls' room too, just really really excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and spend lots of time together!

On Friday everyone except Evelyn and I went tubing at Gorgoza Park, by Jeremy Ranch (tubing and babies aren't a great mix!). I think the consensus was that tubing at Soldier Hollow is set up a bit better, but it was still lots of fun! They picked Cora up a little early from school--she didn't want to miss her class Christmas party--and drove up. 

Here's a picture of Evelyn all bundled up before we headed out for some errands during tubing time.

They had a great time! 

 

 

When they got back we had a candlelight dinner celebrating Brad's birthday and observing the longest night of the year.

Grandma also brought lots of fun crafts for the kids--dipped Oreos and jingle bracelets to name a few. 

We also visited Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.

Here's cute Cora the reindeer.

And all the kids getting ready for Christmas Eve!

 

 We also went to our ward Christmas breakfast party all together. The kids had fun singing a couple of Christmas songs with the Primary. It was fun that Grandma and Grandpa could be there for that!

Evelyn at 8 months

A few notes about Evelyn now.... 

She looks around for her siblings, she loves to watch them! 

She recognizes her name and looks to me if I call her. 

She's using a sippee well. 

She likes eating big people food, like lasagna ground up in the baby food grinder.

She found the Christmas tree! Good thing the bottom branches have soft ornaments! 

She started crawling at 7 1/2 months.

She can clap!

Evelyn loves balloons. 

She plays fetch with herself-- throws a toy and then crawls for it. 

Doorstops are fascinating.