Hanging Out in St. George

The day after Christmas, we packed up the car and headed to St. George to spend a week with the Smith family.  My parents rented a big house and we all crammed inside, ate great food, enjoyed fantastic company and conversation and simply had a fun-filled and relaxing week together.  

Warning:  Picture Overload!

 Nothing better than Play-Doh to keep the little ladies entertained.  Plus, matching jammies are always a plus.

 Little Phoebe really loved the princess shoes.  

Girls + Shoes = genetic.

 A classic sight in the Smith family - Mack and my dad snoozing at random times and places.  I love that my dad's hand is still on the computer mouse.

 Hanging out outside in "freezing" weather.  Obviously, Stella is a little more used to the cold than our desert dweller.

 Raleigh hanging out on the awesome rock fountain that flowed into the pool.

 Opening some presents from the Wright's.

 Jason got a great shirt from Jordan in the sibling swap.  

 We went to the park one day.  Just for the record:  Lois LOVES swings.  I, however, don't love to push them for oh, let's say, a half hour or more.

 I love this picture.  She's so pretty.

 The newest addition to the Smith family - James Crandall Smith, born December 3rd!  It will be fun because he and our little man will only be months apart in age.  

 Lois was fascinated by baby James.  I hope it sticks!

 The two rugrats at play - Lois has passed up Stella in height.

 Adoring the baby

 All the siblings chipped in together and bought my dad - AKA the Waffle King - a state-of-the-art All-Clad Belgium waffle maker.  He was in heaven.  That thing is awesome!

 My cute mamma 

 Nice face, Lois!  Again, thank goodness for Play-Doh!

 We saw a herd of elk while driving up Kolob Canyon.  It was so pretty!

 Lois was thrilled about the snow.  When we put her back in the warm car she said, "It's FREEZING!"  

 Our attempt at a self-timed photo.  We're all there except baby James.  And man, was it FREEZING!

 On our way down, we saw these ducks skirting across the frozen pond.  We were cracking up because they were sliding all over the place, but managed to stay in a line.  

 Cousins!

 Love this picture of Phoebe - even if it is blurry.  She's such a doll.

 "WEEEEEEEE!"

 "Whatcha looking at?"

 Sparklers are always more fun when:  you have jammies + boots + three jackets + hat on.  

And over the course of the week, I made this little quilt for Stella.  She was thrilled and it was fun to have her there during the whole "creation" process.  

As you can tell, we had a blast!  We got to meet our new nephew, spend some QT with the fam and laugh a lot.  Thanks, mom and dad for the wonderful week!!  

Merry Christmas - 2010

This year, Jason had to work on Christmas day, so Santa made an early stop at our house on Christmas Eve.  That Santa Claus is pretty smart.  He knows when to come despite work schedules!  :)

We woke Lois up from her late-afternoon nap telling her that Santa had come early and left her a bunch of fun toys.  She was a little disoriented from being woken up, but she quickly got very excited!   

 Look - Santa came!

 She really liked her little buggy car.  And of course, all her princess stuff.

 Beep, beep!

 This year, Lois didn't even show interest in the presents hanging out under the tree, which surprised me.  But on Friday night, we unleashed the unwrapping monster!  She's so polite to wait, isn't she?  But we did have to reign her in when she wanted to open all the other presents that were making their way to St. George when we visited my family.    Man, she's cute.

 Jason LOVES this book.  He read it over his vacation and he said that it has changed his life.  I'm looking forward to reading it!  Thanks mom and dad Wright!

 Lois reading the book that G&G Wright sent to her.  A cute book written by Julie Andrews about a Princess Fairy.  Lois was very pleased.  

 To go along with her art easel, she got a set of princess art supplies, as seen scattered across the floor.  Yep.  The 30 rolls of stickers and other miscellaneous supplies continue to be scattered around our house, despite my best efforts.  Santa was not thinking when purchasing that.

 Her Ariel princess wand from G&G Wright.  She thought it was pretty nifty.

 Eating Christmas Eve dinner

 Jason's grandpa made this darling little cradle for Lois and she LOVES it.   The past few days, I've made a little mattress and pillow for it and will be making a little doll quilt, too!

 Look at that cute bug.

Jason feeling pretty excited for his vacation to start in about 24 hours.

And for the record, I got Jason a watch, two belts and the fleece he's wearing in the above picture.  He bought me a TV for the bedroom and some necklaces from Charming Charlie's.  

It was a good year!  We got spoiled from both sets of parents as always.  We're so lucky and blessed.

Up next - the week in St. George with the Smith gang!

A Little Christmas Tree with some CHEEEESE!

Lois was infatuated with everything Christmas related this year.  It has been pretty fantastic.  I have to admit - I do have the cutest kid in the world. 

Here's just a few things that she's been doing this Christmas season.  Everywhere we went, she'd be yelling, "Look momma!  It's a Christmas tree!!"  Or she'd be saying to people, "Merry Christmas Tree!" - which cracked us up because she thinks that is what you say to people.  Or  it's an excited, "Look - it's Santa!!!!!" whenever she'd see him or a decoration of him. 

She also learned very quickly the words to Jingle Bells and still sings it daily.  We'd be listening to the Christmas radio stations and if Jingle Bells came on she'd exclaim,  "Mommy!  It's Santa's song!" 

I know!  You're dying, huh.  It made my heart melt, too.  

 She also became very aware of Christmas lights, snowmen decorations and much more.  We had a chance to go visit a very real looking Santa at the mall (and I didn't get any pictures! AHH!) and she was so sweet to him.  She gave him a hug, asked for princesses and a dog and told him that she had been a very good girl.  Ever since that point, she got very excited to see Santa everywhere she went.  

Folks, the magic is back.  And I love it.    

 She's also loved learning about the birth of Jesus and has played with our nativity set to death - to nearly give mom a heart attack every time.  "Momma, I be gentle!!"  Let me tell you - her idea of gentle and my idea of gentle are not the same.  It's fun to hear her recount the story of the birth of Jesus.  It's amazing how much she knows.  It's really sweet.

And here she is in front of our Christmas tree.  Now, when the camera comes out, she starts yelling "CHHHEEEEEESE!!" - without any regard as to where she should be looking.  Getting a good picture is impossible these days.

We also made our way to the Tucson Zoo Christmas lights with the Steele's for FHE.  We had a great night.

 Like father, like daughter.  This picture makes me laugh out loud.

 Lois chased this Santa across the Zoo.  She was dying to get close to him.  He gave her some crayons and she again asked for a dog.  Hmmm...not sure where this came from.

Here's the Steele girls, Lois and Santa.  

Catching Up

Man, oh man.  What a pathetic little blog this has turned into this past year.  I'm sorry to say that this pregnancy has completely depleted my life of energy and motivation for the good portion of 2010.  But, that's okay.  I'm going to get a really cute, chubby baby out of it.  So not all is lost on 2010.  Growing a cute baby is a pretty fantastic accomplishment, right?!?

So, here's to some catch-up of what we did the last few months of 2010.  

For Thanksgiving, we had the pleasure of hosting the Wright family.  We love visitors!  It was great to have Jason's parents and his brother and wife here to celebrate the wonderful Day of Thanks with us!  The meal was wonderful and we were able to invite a few other friends to enjoy the dinner with us - including my friends Kat and Joanne.  Kat was lucky enough to get a relaxing weekend sans children and husband and we're so glad she joined us!  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the food, the Thanksgiving table OR the company.  I'm such a crappy picture taker!  Fortunately, I did get some pictures from one of our activities we did do that weekend... 

...the Sonoran Desert Museum!

It was a perfect day and it was nice being in the great outdoors.  

 Lois and Grandma in front of the Desert Museum.  I love this picture!  

 Mama and Papa Wright.  And look!  They are even matching!

Lil' Miss sporting her sunglasses AND her awesome outfit.

 Nate and Kristen

 Soaking up the sun!

 A spectacular picture of our Sonoran Desert.  It's so pretty here.

 My handsome hubby - even though he is making weirdness with his lips...

Here's the whole group - except for the fatty pregnant photographer.  I did that on purpose!  :)

We also rode the shuttle up Sabino Canyon, had the Wright family pictures taken, hung out and enjoyed the company.  It was a short, yet wonderful weekend!

Thanks for coming out to visit us, Wright's!  We had a blast!