The Erdmann side doesn't get together for Christmas anymore. (It causes Grandma too much stress, and we are a very large family now, so it's hard lining up places and schedules.) This meant we had to make a separate trip to see Grandma and Grandpa Erdmann to give them their Christmas gift. Lucky for us, Grandma and Grandpa Wilson live practically around the corner now, so we headed to Mapleton early to see the Erdmanns for a bit before heading to the Wilsons.
Andrew with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Erdmann.
Henlie loves to play with the blocks at their house.
We actually arrived at the Wilson party a little late. Typically that side of the family is notorious for late starts, but it seems they started fairly close to on time. I was impressed. We walked in in time for some dinner and to grab a couple pass-along gifts before opening time came.
Henlie's favorite things are all of Steven's musical animals.
Matt had my phone.....
Henlie opening presents.
Andrew's new jammies have penguins, and Koreen and Steven got him a gray penguin. (Henlie got a pink one.)
After dinner and pass-alongs, we had our program. Henlie sang Jingle Bells (with some help from Mom). Then it was Christmas carols before my reading of the Luke 2 story and Silent Night. This year, instead of Grandma's big scriptures and a flashlight, I remembered I had technology and pulled it up on my phone. Backlighting for the win! ;)
It's a Star Wars Christmas!
Also, Bebbis has mad crocheting skills.
Had to take a pic of Uncle Dusty with a bow on his head.
Then Bebbis, Henlie, and Andrew all got bows :)
Andrew and Henlie in their new Christmas jammies.
After presents, it was time to gather our things, change into our Christmas jammies, and head home to bed :)
Christmas Eve morning, we met up with Matt's family and Brian and Melody's family at the zoo to see the animals with their Christmas enrichments. We started the morning off in the parking lot enjoying doughnuts, bagels, milk, and chocolate milk before heading into the zoo.
Group
Jennifer and Braden
Matt
Charlie, Henlie, and Danica
The rest of this post will pretty much be pictures unless I recall something I really want to share. Because, really, the zoo it just looking at all of the animals ;)Jennifer and Braden
Matt
Charlie, Henlie, and Danica
Checking out the lions (We heard them roar on our way out of the zoo!)
Lions eat Christmas trees, who knew?
Smiley Andrew
Girls and monkeys
Henlie and Charlie checking out the giraffe statues and the ice sculpture.
Tormenting a peacock
Checkin gout the elephants.
Andrew with his #elfie
Baby orangutan loves to play!
Henlie with the otter statue
Rizzo the polar bear playing with her ball
Grizzly bears
Andrew and Mommy with Rizzo in the background
Henlie, Charlie, and Matt found a cave to sit in.
Andrew and I got separated from the group a bit because he was hungry, so I opted to nurse him while watching the seals and sea lions swim past since it was indoor. We had been near the head of our large group. The middle section past us. Finally, Dad came wandering through. He took the stroller while I carried Andrew after he was finished. We caught up with everyone at the polar bear statues :)
I love Henlie and Charlie's friendship. Henlie is thankful for Charlie every night in her prayers.
Playing on the polar bear statues.
Charlie and Henlie with a snow leopard
Henlie and Charlie checking out an informational screen inside "Grandma's house" to get warm.
Snow leopard with panda friend.
Henlie and Charlie playing on the tiger statues.
Up close and personal inside "Grandma's house."
Grandma took a picture of us from the other side of the enclosure :)
Grandpa and Henlie being eaten by the lion drinking fountain :)
Zoos are tiring for little baby Andrews.
Fun goat relative standing on a log.
I love going to the zoo! Next it was home for a few hours before we headed to Mapleton for a family party!
December 23rd, our advent calendar sent us to Sip-N for some hot cocoa (and fries lol) and then down to the Payson temple to see the nativity. We didn't get out til late (for us, like 6:45pm or so) and the weather was bitter cold. We parked at the temple and quickly made our way to the nativity, snapped a few pictures, and headed home. I hope next year we can go earlier in the day because the nativity was backlit and hard to take pictures of. Also, I could go for it being warmer, too :)
Here are a few of the pictures we took :)
The nativity "in the dark water" :)
Henlie and Daddy
Mom, Andrew, and Henlie
After playing at the Museum of Natural Curiosity, we headed over to Brian and Melody's new house for the Hadfield Christmas party. We ate yummy dinner and had a wonderful lesson by Grandpa Hadfield. There was music and chit-chatting and general hanging out with family fun times. Matt met up with us there after work. Henlie was gone most of the evening playing with the kids downstairs in Munchkin Land (the basement is a glorified craw space. Perfect for little bodies. Great for storage. Not so great for grown people to stand up in haha. I asked Mel for a tour since we weren't around for the Halloween party they hosted. Their new house is so fun :)
Andrew loved the Christmas tree.
Family!
Kayla, Jennifer, and me.
He always pulls such funny faces :)
Danica, Henlie, Tanner, and Charlie playing.
Reading something with Grandma.
Andrew getting a ride!
Brian and Melody's family sang a song for us :)
Arguably one of the cutest pictures taken that night ;)
Pretty much since we moved home, Henlie has wanted to build a snowman. Every time it would snow, she would ask if there was enough snow to build a snowman. Finally, we got a storm that left enough snow to actually play in, so we had a snow day on December 15th :)
First we have to bundle everybody up and test Henlie's old toboggan to see if Andrew can handle it since he doesn't actually sit on his own yet :)
We started with some light Andrew sledding, then we tried to make a snowman, but the snow was too powdery. We managed a tiny ... mound? haha It was good enough for Henlie, though. Then we wandered around our buidling and the next playing make-believe things. We went to Bear Island and visited the bears. We also had to stay away from the germs (read: bushes; Yeah, I don't know either. Kids. :))
Andrew checking out the snow.
Henlie showing off our "snowman."
This little story amuses me. I let Henlie pull Andrew for a minute. (She did really well!)
Andrew's all content, but then she turns and drops the rope to cheese for the camera, and he starts wailing.
I would have taught Henlie about snow angels, but she didn't have any snow pants. Fortunately, she had a lot of fun wandering around playing pretend in the snow. Henlie also tried to make snowballs. Fortunately, being so powdery, the snow just fluffed in my general direction when she tried to throw it ;)
Snow Selfies
Finally wearing his little booties we got him in Peru!
Henlie trying to make a snowball from the snow on the bush.
Andrew standing next to our snowman.
After some "skating" and icicle observing, I managed to get Henlie back upstairs where we warmed up with some hot cocoa. I don't really love the snow, and bundling everyone up is kind of a pain, but I love it when my kids are so happy. (Okay, kid. Andrew didn't love it or hate it, but he did get over being in the sled, so I had to pull him out and pull the sled behind me still :)) Next, Momma needs some snow pants!
Henlie "skating" on the sidewalk.
Icicle Bush 1
Icicle Bush 2
Icicle Bush 3
In my Christmas decor, I had some cookie cutters/stamps. Henlie found them and thought we should make cookies, so we did on Sunday, December 13th. Church was a 1pm, so we made them before church. We used Pillsbury dough...and I had to add SO much flour in order to actually roll it out and cut it. Also, because the stamp cutters were so shallow, they got a little overbaked, but they were still yummy. Besides, the important part was making the cookies and decorating them with Henlie, which we totally did :)
Cooling Cookies
Henlie with our frosting.
Adding sprinkles.
Fun story about the bottom middle picture and the bottom right cookie....Henlie decided to try to do the sprinkles herself. And they didn't have a shaker. And she's three.... Most of the rest of the cookies got decorated with rainbows after that.
Trying the fruits of our labors.
When we got home from church, we discovered we'd lost a plate to (most likely) the dog. Stinker. The rest we took to Grandma's house to share. They went pretty quickly after that :)
Bonus - we also had popcorn at Grandma's house :)
