Christmas 2011

Christmas was so much fun this year. We were able to be with both our families. We went to Iowa for a week before Christmas and then for a week we went to Wyoming and celebrated Christmas there. Josh especially had so much fun playing with his cousins. It was so wonderful to see Brandon's family who we haven't seen much, if at all, since moving from Utah. It was fun learning the Christmas traditions Brandon grew up doing. We had a lot of fun.

 

                                         

After Christmas in Wyoming we went back to Iowa and celebrated Christmas with my family too. We gave my dad a remote control flying helicopter and Josh was obsessed, he had a love/hate relationship with it. 

                               

 For our sibling gift exchange we had Trevor this year. We got him some clothes and Jelly Bellies. Gwendolyn had us. She made me a bracelet and bought me a cute cardigan and sweatshirt. She MADE Josh a stuffed elephant that is to-die-for cute and I can't believe she made it. She also MADE Brandon a leather ipod touch cover! He'd been wanting one! It was perfect. Gwen is so talented and crafty.                                                

                         

                         

We had surprisingly great weather in Iowa, in the 60s some days! Josh loved playing outside. He followed the dog around, played in the sandbox, ran around, swung on the swing, and went down the slide over and over.

Josh had a lot of treats over the holiday, way more than ever in his whole life :) but it's Christmas for cryin out loud!

 

Sadly we were all sick with bad colds almost the whole time we were there. One cold after another. I think I ended up with 3 different colds. So we spent a lot of time lying around but it was still so wonderful to be together and Josh always had someone to snuggle with.

  We had a big breakfast for Amanda's birthday. Then later we had a present/cake party.

After church one Sunday we were all scrambling around in the kitchen trying to get ourselves lunch and at one point we noticed we were all crammed in one corner together and started laughing. We thought we better take a picture to document that moment. It happens a lot in the kitchen and I love it. I love everyone together, and even better in a small room!

Blair had a gospel choir performance at Barnes and Noble. She was supposed to dress up as her favorite book character, Hermione of course!!

It was such a wonderful holiday vacation. We celebrated Christmas, Amanda's and Blair's birthdays, and had so much fun together. I always leave wishing we all lived closer to each other! It was also really great to spend time with Brandon since he's so busy at work and we don't usually get to see much of him. We got to spend a solid 2 1/2 weeks with him! 

Josh and I flew home on our own since Brandon had to get back to work and we stayed a little longer. Josh was a total champ. With Baby Einstein on the ipad, it was smooth sailing.... until our very last flight that got delayed hours and hours, almost cancelled, but we finally made it home that night and boy was it good to be home! Josh was a trooper. I was the one crying :)