January 2015

January was an up and down month for us. Mostly up, but some down. The girls enjoyed the rest of their time off school and we were even able to go to the park.

Sampling the whipping cream

We got to spend a few days with some old friends from Texas which was so great! They had a cabin for the weekend up in North Georgia.

In the middle of January I decided to surprise my sister, Emily, for a visit to Boise, ID. Her husband and I planned it all and when I showed up at her door, she was beyond surprised! It was priceless. Afterwards she said she had the thought, "You look like my sister... you are my sister!!" It was fun to visit and spend a few days together. It was the first time I have been able to visit her since we've been married so way overdue. Christine was still 1 so I was able to bring her for free. It was a great trip.

Buddies

Cousin twins

 Boise Aquarium

A fun sister lunch

Bounce house excitement!

Saying good-bye

The next week, I took Christine to the doctor for her breathing and was sent immediately to the ER. Poor little thing has struggled with this in the past and we've been doing a lot of treatments to hopefully prevent serious illness, but this virus was a bad one. We spent 2 1/2 days in the hospital, including her whole birthday. Glad we could get the help for her, but bummed about when it happened. Mark brought the girls for a little birthday celebration with cake and ice cream and her presents. The hospital staff also helped celebrate by making a poster for her door and giving her a huge My Little Pony. We were happy to have her home and feeling better. We are learning a lot about respiratory illnesses. The doctors tell us that her bronchial tubes are smaller than normal so when they get inflamed she can't get the mucus through her system. In a few years she should outgrow it. 

Our cute Christine is such a happy, loving girl and we love having her in our family. She has quite the vocabulary and loves expressing what she wants, is thinking or just what is going on around her. She is already developing preferences for shoes and clothes. She loves baths and can't get enough Curious George.

The nurses singing Happy Birthday

Loving her pony

The Birthday Party! Our baby is 2!!

We also celebrated the following weekend at home just to spoil her a bit. Pictures of that will be forthcoming.

December

December was a great month! We tried to keep things as less busy as possible and keep our focus on the Savior and family. We didn't do any traveling, which has been fun in the past, but it was great to do our own traditions and have fun with each other. One of the traditions we started was an advent calendar of activities to do together. It was so much more fun than using $1 store items. Some of the things we did include, a carriage ride, homemade gingerbread houses, cocoa by the fire, making snowflakes, Christmas movies, lots of crafting, cookie making, seeing Santa, sleeping under the tree. We also did secret elves (we all picked a name each week and did nice things for that person). The girls loved it and had fun doing things anonymously. Here are some pictures from the month. 

Our own snowman. I just gave them the idea and they did the rest!

COOKIES!!

We got creative with waffles and Mark made the nativity.

Snowman waffle

She loves putting all the jewelry on at the same time.

The gingerbread houses! Mark did this growing up and we are continuing it. My first time making them without Grandma Tanner's help.

Finished!

Visiting Daddy at work for lunch

Elena "decorated" our counter. She also put some on Christine's crib.

Sleeping under the tree

Acting out the nativity. Adriana didn't feel well, but made a great narrator.

Leaving cookies and carrots for Santa and the Reindeer.

CHRISTMAS!!!

New PJs from Grandma Hansen

A book Adriana made for Abigail & Elena

Elena & Abigail picked out my favorite candy.

They also got 2 boxes for Christmas - a big hit! A good reminder to us that simple can be best.

Adriana and her new legos

We gave rice bags to friends this year instead of cookies.

One of the other gifts we gave the girls was a coupon book. They LOVED this! Some of them were, staying up late, getting an extra story, making something of their choice with us (a picture, food, or building something), get out of a job, special date... It was so fun!

Our Read-a-thon over the break

New Year's Eve! I've heard about the idea of making a new year tree before, but never done it. We did it and had so much fun with it! The girls each got to pick something from the Dollar Store to decorate the tree with. Then that night we used the decorations for our celebration. Definitely a new tradition.

Bringing in the new year with sparkling cider (most of the girls preferred regular apple juice) and toast. A few years ago when we did our toast, they asked, "But where's the toast?" So now it's tradition to actually eat toast with our toast.

Happy New Year!