Our Christmas Vacay So Far :)

Look at me, posting about Christmas before March - This is nothing short of a miracle!

Mary Being Cute

Her favorite place to be in the whole house.

The licorice, the upside down glasses, the smile... You can't handle the cute!

Mesa Temple Christmas Lights

Lydia has been loving all of the houses with Christmas lights. Every single one we drove by, it was always, "Mommy, Daddy look! Wow!!" So we were very excited to take her to the temple lights. As we drove up to the temple we told her to look. She looked up and very flatly said "Too many." and looked back down. Apparently she draws the line at 100s of thousands of lights. She got more enthused about them as the night went on, but it definitely took some coaxing. :)

SEESTERS!!

My Loves!!

The reflection pool

I love to see the temple!

I wish we could have been as bundled up and cozy as they were.

Fun with the Johnston Family

Robert's mom's side of the family had some sort of activity going on every day of the week before Christmas. Robert took the girls with his mom to most of the things, but I only was able to go and sit at a couple of them, being on bed rest and all. But it was fun to see some of the cousins we haven't seen in a few years.

A double ringer by Robert's dad. It is possible!

  

5th Annual Nertz Reunion

Christmas PJs with the Richardsons

Robert's Grandma Peggy recently had a stroke and is at the stroke rehab center for the next several weeks. This kind of put a wedge in the Richardson Christmas traditions this year, but we were able to spend a Sunday evening there at the rehab center with the whole family. We performed several songs for all of the patients and then received our Christmas PJs and took pictures

Wilcken Christmas Eve

Lydia's partners in crime, cousins Case and Trew

Christmas Morning

Part 1 - Waking up at 5am to open presents at my parents' house.

Waiting for my dad to come out of the bathroom so we
could open presents. Some things never change :)

The Purple Monkey - Every time we asked Lydia what she wanted for Christmas she would say a purple monkey. Later she added a spotting scope, but the purple monkey was priority. We looked everywhere! We could find every kind of animal in purple except a monkey, and we could find pink or rainbow monkeys but not purple ones. Our friend, Kris Hewitt, heard of our predicament and said, "I could just make you one." She's amazing!! She made it, shipped it, and it got here on Christmas Eve. Her only request was that I take pictures of Lydia opening it on Christmas :)

Unwrapping...

Assessing...

Loving!!!!

Another favorite present of Lydia's from Christmas part 1 was her bike. I couldn't resist posting this picture that we took mid-sneeze. Classic!!

She loves it!

Mary and Lydia's first loot :)

Part 2 - We headed over to Robert's parents' to open presents.

The girls' new push car.

I got some AMAZING presents from Robert's family!! I'm still completely overwhelmed by them. The main 2 being the last 4 seasons of M*A*S*H that I needed to complete my whole set of the series (I know what I'm doing when I'm in the hospital!) and then my new guitar!

Crystal, Robert's 15 year old sister, had picked our name for the sibling exchange this year. When she saw that a guitar was on my wish list she insisted on getting it with all the money she had, working for what ever she didn't. I'm still amazed at her. A name for the guitar is in the works, but I have decided that it is definitely a girl :)

The girls also got a bunch of new bath toys and insisted on taking a bath as soon as we were done opening presents :)

Part 3 - Heading back to my parents' for breakfast and to play with all our new presents.

Every second Lydia was inside she wanted her purple monkey. They are best pals now.

PRESTON'S ENGAGED!!!

The day after Christmas, Preston proposed to Sharon Graham! They'll be getting married May 4th. So EXCITING!!!!!!

Bunco Night!

Grams got the best prize of all! :)

Salsa!!! 

My dad's Christmas salsa is the BEST! We ate
more than 2 gallons of it in this sitting :)

There has also been plenty of visiting with friends and family that was not documented with pictures, but the moments were just as loved :) And that brings us to today. We're currently preparing for a night of snacking and games as we welcome in the New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!