Christmas in Driggs!

So I started working on this post last Sunday hoping to get all caught up on the blog before the baby was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday the 29th but I started not feeling well so I stopped halfway through. That night my water broke before I could finish it so here it is now a week later. Crazy to think when I started this Ryan was in my tummy and now he is sleeping next to me! We love him so much but here is the blog from Christmas. We had too much fun not to document!

We were so excited for Christmas this year because all of the cousins would be together! When one sister lives in Singapore (but just moved to South Africa) and the other one lives in Chicago (but just moved to Florida) it is rare when we all get together. Here are all the cousins after church. It was hard to get a good picture of all of them but this is the best I could do: This is Abigale's cousin Ben and she loves him and misses him a lot. They are only two months apart and have soo much fun together. They are so sweet!This is Lydia trying to get a picture with the two cousins closest to her in age but they weren't really interestedBen's birthday was at the beginning of December but since my sister was in the middle of packing to move to Africa and Ben wanted to wait and have cake with Abigale, we celebrated with a fun Batman cake. Unfortunately, my sister Caitlin had to leave us the day before Chirstmas Eve to spend time with her in-laws but before she left we had a fun cousin Christmas party! The kids decorated cookies, played fun Christmas games, and had a gift exchange. It was a great way to start Christmas! After Caitlin left, we all headed up to my sister's house in Driggs on Chirstmas Eve to have a winter wonderland Christmas. This is the traditional Christmas Eve dinner (shrimp, salad, raspberry jello salad, potatoes, and rolls) After dinner we did our first annual cousin nativity. It was so cute. Abigale was Mary and took the part very seriously. She wore her costume and took care of baby Jesus all night. Of course Ben was Joseph and they made quite the pair. My niece Claire did a great job of writing and narrating the play and being an angel! Christmas morning! The kids were so excited to come downstairs: Abigale was at such a fun age. She did not care what she got she was just so excited about everything! Lydia the monkey, showing off her monkey, Boots:Opening Presents Daddy picked out something extra special for Abigale that we knew she would love. We were so excited to see her open it: She loved it!

She got all of the princess dolls! She still loves them, in fact, as I write this she is playing on the floor behind me with them!Lydia got a little computer and a pillow pet from her uncle Jeff. She loves that pillow pet and still sleeps with it every night!

After we opened presents and had breakfast we headed outside to enjoy the beautiful snow and get some sledding in

My nieces got some fun spa items for Christmas so they had a fun bubble bath in the big tub

They even got lotion on their feet

This is normally how we would find Abigale and Ben 90% of the day.

In Jackson they have a really cool Elk Refuge where you can take a sleigh ride out into the middle of all the Elk while a guide tells you everything you ever wanted to know about them. It was freezing but the girls loved it. Everytime Lydia sees a horse she still talks about riding them out to see the elk. It was a really cool experience even though it was sooo cold!

We said goodbye to our family in Driggs on New Years Eve and headed to our new house. Isn't it pretty. We love it and are so blessed to have found it!

Life in the Hotel

There are a lot of things about the hotel that I will always remember- the same breakfast every morning, watching Abigale learn to swim with her floaties in the pool, the smell in the room that lasted for days when I attempted to cook something in the very small kitchen, all of the eating out we did so that I wouldnt have to cook, spending hours on the internet looking for a house in Utah, trying to remind myself that it is Christmas time by having the girls color Christmas pictures and putting them around the room, etc. I did an awful job of capturing these moments with pictures but here are some that we took when our friends spent the day with us. Best Buds!

This was right after swimming so everyone was still wet and cold

Love her!

Hanging out in our small room

Watching funny you tube clips

Wanted to include this because this is one of the only pics I have of me pregnant. The black does a good job of hiding the belly but its there. I think I was 6 months pregnant.

Abigale had a little Christmas Dance recital at a nursing home and well it didnt go quite as planned or as I had hoped. For days leading up to it she would cry everytime we would mention it and say that she didnt want to go. As a parent, I didnt know what to do- Should I just make her do it and tell her to get over it or let her stay home? Well, we decided to take her and see if she would get over her fear. I am not sure if it was the best choice because she started bawling when we got there. I tried sitting with her before the performance and I even was able to sit right next to where she would be dancing but she just sat on my lap and refused to dance. It was so sad because she looked so cute and her teacher told me she knew the dance better then anyone but I guess she just wasnt ready for it. I got her to do that dance that night for me and it is about the cutest thing ever. She really loves to dance so hopefully next time she will be ready to perform!

Isn't she so cute!This was on her last day of dance class. She loved her teacher Miss Kim! We were finally able to move back into our house in the middle of December but it wasnt really our house since everything was just in boxes. We were all just sleeping on the mattresses on the floor but we tried to make the best of it- we watched a movie on the computer and had a pizza party!

I still miss our old house!

Thanksgiving and what we came home to find~

For some reason all my pictures have a weird glare but I wanted to share the few that I took at Thanksgiving. The girls were so spoiled. Here they are getting pedicures and manicures by Grandma and Aunt Laurie. Lydia was in HEAVEN!

Abigale and Uncle Aaron

Daddy and Lydia

There was a lot of snow but not the good kind for building a snowman so the girls and Daddy did the best they could but they did find a can of silly string so that made the snowman awesome!

We took the girls to a fun Aquarium in Sandy and they loved it.

Ignore the glare on the glass but this was a huge octopus

Cute Girls

This is what we came home to after a great Thanksgiving break. You can tell by the footprints that the floor is soaking wet. Yes, we did put up all our Christmas before we left only to put it all away the next day :( Garage floor

Obviously the heat had gone out and it was soo cold in the house especially with the water everywhere.

Our poor house. The legs on the tables were ruined and had to be replaced. The water came in through the wall behind that couch and filled the room and then traveled a few feet into the other rooms. We know that it could have been a lot worse. Usually when we go out of town things are so frantic that the house gets left in a mess but this time the girls were playing at a friends house until we left so I was able to deep clean the whole house which meant there was hardly anything on the floor. Such a blessing!