Christmas in Utah

Our Christmas adventure started off a littly rocky when the stretch of freeway we drive to get to Utah was closed. We wanted to leave on Tuesday, so we didn't want to wait to see if the freeway would open up for Wednesday driving. We decided to head out but had to drive over to Pocatello and then down to Utah. It turned out to be not that big of a deal. It only added an hour to the drive, the roads were pretty much clear, and Elsie was a champ! I think we have trained her for road trips very well. We've done enough, that's for sure!

Christmas was all about Elsie this year and it was a blast. Aaron and I didn't really do a whole lot for each other (I got him a game and an ipod shuffle. He got me photoshop.) Elsie, on the other hand, was spoiled rotten.

Aaron and I ran to the BYU bookstore to look around Christmas Eve day and found this little cheerleader outfit on a major sale. Aaron couldn't even wait to have her open it on Christmas, so this was her early gift. He made the mistake of telling her the gift was hers, and she wanted to open it. She thought she was pretty cool stuff in her new outfit.
Elsie's gift from Santa was a new play kitchen. It was all set up for her when she woke up. The only problem was that she didn't want to open any other presents. We finally had to convince her that she would like the other ones too.

Grandma and Grandpa got her a set of food for her kitchen, some finger paints and a big pad of paper, some puzzles, and some other little fun things...the chapstick was her favorite! She also got some books, a bubblemaker for the bath, some bristle blocks from Jared/Lindsay, and a coloring book and pens from Angie.

There was lots of snow in Orem. Elsie like to look at it, but wasn't very enthusiastic about actually playing in it.

Her face says it all. She couldn't even fake a smile for the camera. She didn't seem to love the sled ride.

She was really annoyed when some snow got on her sled. She's a bit of a neat freak.

Grandma and Grandpa made sure they had a full stock of coloring supplies for Elsie while we were there.

Aaron and I never get any pictures together anymore, so we had Gary take a couple.

What a fun trip! We saw lots of friends and family and ate lots of good food. I missed my family, especially this year, but I'm so grateful that I have another family that I love and enjoy being with. Now, on to another year...we're hoping for a better one!

I thought I'd post some of the pictures from our family picture outing that I blogged about. Like I said, it was not the best experience, but we were able to get a few decent shots.

This was my second favorite because of Elsie's face.

This was how most of them were. Elsie was not in the mood to pose.

Whenever we let her run around on the sidewalk, she was happy as can be. I love some of these pictures. I was tempted to just use one of these for our card, but I've lectured too many other people about only sending pictures of their kids. I like to see the whole family.

happy mommy, happy elsie

Just a picture of a fun night out with Elsie.

coloring

Elsie loves to color! She can't get enough! She wants to color all the time. I even bought special bathtub crayons. She'll sit in the tub forever just coloring away. I had a small pack of 8 big crayons that she liked to use at home and at church. But recently she discovered my big tub of crayons, and just goes crazy with them. She loves it when we sit on the floor by her and watch her color and also when we draw shapes on the paper for her to color.

I love how cute her little hand looks while she holds the crayons. I think this is one of the few things that we both of us really like to do. I could sit there all day and watch her...plus I love to color too!

Elsie at the neighbors

Elsie had so much fun at the with our neighbors while Aaron and I were at a Christmas party. I'm so glad she feels comfortable over there and they are so sweet with her. She just loves Brad and Seth, Stephanie's two boys. They make her laugh.

I think she had more fun than we did! Aaron and I raced each other over to their house when we got home because we both wanted to be the one to pick her up. She was busy sliding down the stairs with the boys and had no interest in leaving. We finally got her home, but it took her a while to wind down for bed. She's a wild and crazy little girl.

family pictures

I finally was able to come up with cute enough and nicely coordinated outfits that Aaron would agree with, so we ventured out yesterday afternoon to have my friend Stephanie take our family pictures. I was already stressed before we even got started because I forgot to check the camera battery, and it was totally dead. So, we were all ready and looking nice and had to wait to get some charge back to the battery. Then Aaron decides that he wants to bring Wrigley and attempt to get him in the picture. (We know from past years, this doesn't work...well, I know.) We went to this little park in Caldwell that has a little stream, rocks, a bridge, and so on. Wrigley was wandering all over the place, Aaron and I were getting frustrated with each other because I couldn't care less if Wrigley was in the picture, Elsie did not want to sit and pose and was fighting us every second, and I knew I looked fat. (Not searching for any compliments here...just keeping it real. As I've said before, food has been my friend this year!!) Oh, it was not the greatest moment for our family. Elsie kept wanting to get down and play and stomp around on the sidewalk. Stephanie's boys were doing all they could to get her to smile and laugh, but she is too stubborn. We caught a couple pictures where she is smiling, but Aaron and I look a little awkward. Needless to say, Wrigley did not end up in any of the pictures. After a few attempts, I finally convinced Aaron to put him back in the van. Anyway, I settled on a picture. I suppose we could go out and try it again another day, but what's the point? Elsie will be Elsie, Aaron HATES getting family pictures taken (I blame this on you, Gary and Sylvia!), and I need to lose 20 pounds and get a boob job. (Yes, I said it!) There's always next year.

they found her

Just before midnight, a couple women from our ward found her in a field not too far from our neighborhood. They heard her crying. A majority of the people looking were looking in the complete opposite direction pretty far from here (sugar beet factory area) because the police dogs led them that way. Thank goodness she was found!