The Girl Who Lived in a Bubble

Catching up on the blog...these pics were from Chicago! We went to the Children's Museum and Lizzie went absolutely nuts over all the cool things to see and do.

She loved the bubble station where she got to play in the suds, pop bubbles, and even stand in the middle of a giant bubble!

She is always a big fan of playing in the water, or "watee"!

Everyone had fun at the shadow making area- adults and children alike!

Oh, the fun you can have with shadows!! Lately, she has been very interested in her shadow at home on the walls. Today, she exclaimed, "Look Mama! A ghost in the wall!" as she pointed to her shadow. I think our excitement from Halloween is still having an effect on her. Hehehe...poor girl

Any Day Now

Lisa is full term now and little Thomas could be arriving any day! This will be kid number 3 for Adam and Lisa. We are so happy for them and Jared is sooo excited to have a brother! Lisa is absolutely the cutest pregnant woman ever! Having her so far along on Christmas day was a great reminder and very reminiscent of the reason we celebrate. All she needed was a cloth draped over her hair and she'd be the perfect Mary!

I was originally hoping she would have the baby while I was in town, but with the stomach flu going around I don't think the kids or I would be well enough to even go visit!

Cousin Party!!...or not

Getting 4 children ages 3 and under to sit still enough for a group picture was quite the feat.

The cousins have been having a great time together! This is the first year they have really been old enough to interact and its been fun to watch them.
Lizzie and Allison were a bit shy at first, but ended up bonding while sitting side by side in their high chairs.

We had planned to have a "cousin party" that entailed games, crafts, and treats all for the kids, but that night Lizzie got sick with the stomach flu and threw up! That pretty much put an end to any fun activities and now we have all been dropping like flies! First Lizzie, then Dave, my Dad, Allison, and now me! We are just hoping and praying that 37 weeks pregnant Lisa and lil Julie will stay healthy!

Winter Wonderland

Snow pants, sledding, mittens, building snowmen, snow angels, and snowball fights are all a part of the white Christmas experience.

My brother, Tyler, is 6ft 2in tall, but this snowman still towered over him! Lizzie was very excited about this giant snowman!

Julie is not a fan of the Chicago weather so besides a quick picture with Great Grandma we have kept her snug inside a warm house!

Brandi and Allison built a mini snowman of their own!

Julie 5 Months

Julie has passed the 5 month old mark just in time for the Christmas season! She is such an interactive little girl now. Lately, she has had some stranger danger issues- crying when people besides mom and dad hold her. However, the continual presence of other people over the holidays has had a positive impact! She is looving her Grandma, Great Grandma, and everyone now! She's a little social butterfly!

She has been loving her new Christmas toys. She seems to be grabbing at everything lately! She is always trying to stuff something in her mouth. Her big achievement this week has been that she rolled over for the first time!! She rolled from her back to her stomach twice in a row!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I am so grateful to have and be able to spend time with family. It is such a treat to be able to fly all the way to Chicago and have the whoole family congregate for the holidays at my parents house. Adam and Lisa from Champagne; Tyler, Brandi, and Grandma from Utah, and us from Seattle!

Lizzie and cousin Allison donned their matching homemade gloves and hats from Grandma to go see the Christmas tree light show. The tree sparkles, glows different colors, and flashes lights all to the tunes of various Christmas songs.

We stopped by "that house" where some random family has decided to entertain the

neighborhood with their elaborate Christmas decorating!

This was a special day for Julie, being her FIRST Christmas! She seems to sense the cheery mood and has been such a good girl. Always happy and smiley!

Santa came early Christmas Eve night due to some jetlag...I mean sleighjag. Lizzie had trouble sleeping that night, though, so Dave brought her downstairs for a little while, carefully covering her eyes as they passed the "Christmas Tree Room" only to have her sneak away a couple minutes later and get a sneak peak of all the presents and balloons. I've never seen her eyes get so wide!

On Christmas Eve we had our annual program where each person participates in some form of entertainment whether it be singing, piano, reading a story, etc. Then, we had the kids act out the nativity story.

All the kids are so little that we had a hard time getting them to participate at all! There was a lot of fussing over having to wear anything on their heads. Lizzie refused to wear any part of her costume and wanted to sit on the couch and she was playing the part of Mary! But the show must go on! Her understudy, Julie, was willing to step in and did a lovely job!

We ate so much good food! Homemade caramel corn, cookies, truffles, cinnamon rolls, and much much more.

We kept the program short due to small attention spans, but Lizzie and Jared both performed by singing a Christmas song!

Then Christmas morning came! It was the usual tornado of presents, kids squealing, fun, chaos, giving, and love.

This was Julie's first Christmas and she's already a pro at tearing open wrapping paper.

Another highlight of Christmas is the tradition of sitting around and staring at the telephone!!

Well, only while Trevor's on his mission in Russia. We called him up, put him on speaker phone and all took turns asking him questions and listening to his stories and adventures about Russian missionary work.

Gingerbread Houses

This year we are spending Christmas in Chicago, but that didn't stop us from celebrating with the Stevens Family too! We had an early Gingerbread House Party!

Kids and adults, alike, constructed delicious candy adorned gingerbread houses!

The cousins had as much fun as they always do, playing together and stuffing themselves with Christmas candy. We joked that it was the adults doing all the building while the kids just took the opportunity to chow down on candy.

After the houses were built we watched Elf! While, Mike and Jessica took the opportnity to deliver some Christmas goodies.

We had a lot of fun. The best part of Christmas is always just being together as a family.