Well, Christmas has come and gone and I am so sad. All our decorations and tree are still up, I am just not ready to take them down, althought I will soon. I LOVE Christmas time, it truly is my favorite time of the year. I love the decorations, the music, the food, EVERYTHING! Especially spending time with family, that is the best part. This year we convinced my parents to take the trip to come and stay with us this Christmas. It was our first Christmas tree and first Christmas at home.
It was so nice not to spend the whole time living out of suitcases and worrying about traveling with Gavin. He did pretty well with the presents under the tree and only tried to open two of them. We also left the bottom of the tree free of ornaments so that he wouldn't get to them, which worked out well. Thursday started all the fun and I was able to visit with my best friend from Nursing School, Melanie. Her parents live just north of Denver and she was coming for two days. I am so grateful she took the time to visit with us and meet Gavin. Zac enjoyed meeting your Dad and said that he was cool. :) Hopefully Gavin didn't scare Steven too much. Mel, I love you and miss you and hope that you will move to CO soon so that we can see each other all the time!
A few hours later my family arrived (Mom, Dad, Trevor and Spencer) after a 13 or so hour drive from Nevada. Up to this point we had NO SNOW in Denver, but it seemed to be all over the rest of the world, so driving conditions weren't optimal but they made it safely. On Christmas Eve we did some last minute shopping and then went to Pizza Hut for dinner and drove around Highlands Ranch to see some great Christmas lights. Apparently they do a competition down there and so we saw a few of the participants.
I posted a
video on facebook that shows the #1 house and it was truly a sight to see. People were parked up and down the street and many of us got out of the car to watch. It is kind of long, but the last minute is really good. The song is Amazing Grace and is kind of hard to hear. The video also shakes a lot because I was freezing! Sorry about the comment Russ, I hope you take it as a compliment. :)
Then we went home to bed. The next morning Gavin woke up around 6:20 so that's when we started presents. Sorry, the pictures aren't great, as you can see I was sitting behind Gavin most of the time. And I was more interested in the presents than taking pictures.
1: Our tree with all the presents. 2: Gavin ready to open his present from G&G Barrus
3: Enjoying his movies from Amanda, Tiff and Nic. 4: Looking at his books from Aunt Melanie.
Gavin was definitely spoiled this Christmas, with many, many toys I haven't even taken pictures of them all. But, he plays with them all each day and is loving them. We all had a great Christmas this year as well, and are very grateful for our blessings and all we have been given. Family is definitely our greatest blessing and we are so grateful for all those that we get to share our lives with. After presents we went over to Megan (Zac's cousin) and TJ's house for crepes and omelets. The food was great and we enjoyed seeing you guys on Christmas! It is so nice to know that there is family close by. That afternoon we were able to Skype Alex on his mission in Texas. It was great to see how grown up he looks and here his testimony in Spanish. He is such a great missionary and I am so proud of him!
On Monday we went to Lunch with my cousin who lives just North or Denver as well, that we haven't seen in probably 8 years. On Tuesday we ventured out to the Nature and Science Museum, using some free tickets from Megan & TJ (Thanks!). We made it there about three hours before closing thinking that would be plenty of time, but they were VERY busy and it would have been nice to have just a little more time. Gavin and I will definitely be going back. Gavin loved walking around the exhibits and putting his face up to the glass. I was actually surprised how much he enjoyed it. On Wednesday my family left, and I was really sad to see them go, especially because we probably won't see them for 8 months.
I searched for some Elmo pajamas for Gavin before Christmas, but no where had his size. On Thursday I found these at Wal-mart they had one pair of 24 month and all the rest were 4T or 5T, so I figured I better just get them. I do love the footie pajamas that we gave him for Christmas though too (pictured above). This kid is so funny and he gets bigger everyday. He LOVED having my family around and enjoyed playing with everyone. I wish that we could be closer to family so that Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles to see him grow. But I guess that is why we have a blog!
Gavin is such a talker these days and tries to have conversations with us all the time. He can say: Mom, Dad, Jesus, Juice, Truck, Quack, and Fish. He is a pretty smart little boy. He can even walk up to his basketball hoop and push the ball over to make a basket. (We have been meaning to video this for Zac's parents, so I will try to remember the next time).
And Denver was blessed with our first real snow fall on Thursday and I think it snowed constantly for about 24 hours. It wasn't heavy snow fall so we only ended up with 3-5 inches, but it is beautiful to finally have snow on the ground outside our window. Although the sub-zero temps are taking some getting used to, I do NOT know how we survived so many Rexburg winters, we are freezing here!
We had a very quiet New Year's Eve and we were in bed by 10:30 although Gavin kept me up most of the night and Zac ended up on the couch, it has been nice to have some family time together. We look forward to the adventures of the upcoming year! Just to name a few: Amanda receiving her endowments, Tiffany getting married and endowments, Alex coming home from his mission, and the Reid Family Reunion is a cruise in November! Also Zac will turn 26, I will turn 23, Gavin will turn 2 and we will celebrate our 3rd anniversary! I can't wait!
