The Rest of the Year

The rest of 2010 was pretty quiet. Brad went home the day after Christmas while we girls stayed on for a few more days. Here's Miriam 12/26/10: Dinner (Christmas dinner repeat) at Great-Bapa's house. Mimi was enamored of the turkey baster. She carted it around for quite a while, and then was trying to stick her head through the back of this chair.



Miriam 12/28/10: My mom turned on the vacuum, and Mimi just crawled right up to it. She liked the 'exhaust' blowing right in her face. Taken on the lesser camera, you don't get the full effect of the vacuum fanning her hair out from her head. Very funny.



Leiden has wanted to try starfruit for a long time, now. It's a winter fruit, so I was finally able to find some at the store. It is pretty to look at, but not as appealing to eat.



I think she ate two slices and called it a day. I think it was a bit of a letdown.






Sitting at dinner on 12/30/10, Mimi figured out how to pull her shirt off her head.



Miriam 12/30/10: She couldn't figure out how to get it the rest of the way off or on!



This picture is hardly representative of 12/31/10, but it's all I've got. I flew home with all three girls by myself today, and while it was not something I'm eager to repeat every month, it was not any where near as bad as I was fearing. The older girls were SO good on the planes. It was supposed to be just one plane, but it was late for takeoff from SLC due to a seat that needed to be repaired. Still no one could sit in it, but the plane could still fly with that row blocked off. When we got to Denver 30 minutes late, they wanted us to switch planes for the seat to be fixed. So, that delayed things a lot as the crew had to transfer, too. So we hauled our little selves across the Denver airport to the new gate, where we boarded, to then find out that the plane they had put us on to fix a mere broken seat had broken water lines for the lavatories. That means the plane does not leave until it's repaired. Ugh. So we sat there for about 45 minutes after boarding.

We finally arrived in Minnesota 2.5 hours late, but relatively happy. Miraculously, all three girls took a nap on the second flight, and the older two were free of bickering, fighting, and neediness! That left me to only worry about Meems, who did much better than the flight TO SLC. Yay for home! We had a New Year's Eve dinner from Leaann Chin and Brad and I rang in the new year after girls were in bed. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Finally, Christmas Day! The girls were up about 7:00 AM, when it's still dark--really dark because of the mountains in SLC. Stockings first.



The exclamations of joy over just their stockings was something to behold.



Mimi just assumed it was like every other morning. Bottle. Must have bottle.



And then we handed her presents. Not really knowing what to do with them, she just hung out. Miriam 12/25/10:



She liked her furry fuzzy (annoying) squealing pig toy.



But most of all, she loved the paper. Who needs presents when you have paper to play with and eat.



Brad had presents. He was so close to not making the 'nice' list, but Santa relented.



Leiden used her well-developed reading skills to hand out presents to everyone.



I think Mac ate this sucker at about 8:30 AM. I seriously had to keep repeating in my head, "It's Christmas. It's Christmas. It's okay."



We were so happy to have Brad's grandma come and visit us at Grandma's house this morning. She made it in time for some breakfast, and we got to chat.



And love on the little ones.



A little 4 generation picture. Brad is a lone boy in his world. And doesn't Leiden look thrilled to be alive.



Up at Great-Bapa's house Mimi is looking smashing--her nose is still running, and the black eye is turning greenish blue.



Leiden is blurry here, but I love this face. She is so earnest and so cute!



And here I am. I am so rarely in pictures because I'm usually the one taking them. Something to think about next year. My first thought when I saw this? Look at all that grey hair!

I had my f-stop too low, so my dad's out of focus, but we have to snap shots of these two (my mom, really...) when she's not looking, and we have to act fast!

Great-Bapa really takes a shine to Mac. Which is why he pulls this face when she's around. She pulls it first, and he thinks it's pretty funny. But, who doesn't take to Mac when she's happy?

Miss Leiden all wrapped up in a bow.

Mimi's presents came in a Mimi-sized...literally...bag.

Brad and all the girls got University of Utah sweatshirts and my Grandpa was wearing one of his. We meant to get a picture with my mom and me and my Grandpa and the girls for another 4 generation picture, but the day got away from us.

Christmas day was lovely, and we were so happy to be able to spend it with our families. It's difficult to come for holidays, but seeing them is so important, and although hectic and a bit stressful, it was such a wonderful day. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

As it seems like every other day here has been, Christmas Eve is gearing up to be a doozy! Last night in the car, the girls had gum on the way home from the restaurant with Mad. By the time we got home, Mac couldn't find her gum. She has this incredibly...trying habit of taking out whatever is in her mouth, be it gum, candy, or regular food, and looking at it in her hands. Ugh. Well, this morning we found the gum and had to get it out.



Luckily, with a bit of peanut butter, it came right out. Good thing, because there was no way I was cutting her hair for gum.



Mimi was really funny this morning. Grandma has a tool set in the toy box, and for some reason Mimi latched onto the hacksaw. Very funny to look down kind of absently, and see an infant with a hacksaw.



This was my favorite run. This is a devious look if I've ever seen one. And living with the people I do, I've seen one.



She looks like she's going to just start cutting the banister.

She is getting so mobile, up and down, turn around.

Miriam 12/24/10:

And the Mac, clean hair and all. I must remember to put her hair up more often. She looks so much less scraggly when it's styled in some way.

Later this afternoon we met up with Jeremy, Leigh, and Iggy, whom we haven't seen in years, and in Iggy's case, never! I think I've failed to mention that Mimi came down with a cold a couple days ago, and this picture really showcases that. Grumpy face, smacking her neighbor. Although she also missed a nap during this lunch time. It was fun to meet up with old friends.

Later this evening we zoomed off to the traditional lights on Temple Square. We bundled Mimi up like crazy and insulated her stroller with a big coat. Also Miriam 12/24/10:

Here we are!

Opening the traditional Christmas Eve gifts, Mimi had about had it. Sick and tired, literally, of the day.

The girls, though, were thrilled with their new 'cozy' nightgowns. I mean they were THRILLED--jumping and yelling, and wanting to put them on right away.

Just in time for Christmas Eve bedtime.

December 23

Today was super busy. Running around, and generally trying to pack in too much stuff! But that's what we're here for!

In the morning, the girls roped Grandma into putting curlers into their hair.

Hopefully Grandma won't mind that we put this up here! It was such a great picture, I couldn't resist!

We took a trip to the mall, where the kids rode the little train and then the carousel. I've never gotten such good pictures on a carousel! A natural smile for Mac.

A natural smile for Leiden!

And a smile, period, for Mimi! She really liked the carousel. She smiled the whole time. Miriam 12/23/10:

Then, in the afternoon, it was off to watch the Nutcracker with Leiden and Grandmere. I was fit to be tied when we got there, and I realized I had forgotten my good camera--I had forgotten any camera, so we had to use my phone, which takes terrible pictures. But better than NO pictures!

We went up on stage after the performance to the Sugar Plum Party, where we had our picture taken with Clara, the Nutcracker Prince, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her attendant. We also got little Nutcracker ornaments. After cookies and juice we were off.

Then, we met up with the rest of the crew for a carriage ride and dinner in honor of Uncle Mad's birthday. I didn't get any pictures of us in the carriages, but here's Mimi at dinner. She was pretty tired by this point.

The birthday boy himself with Joni. Happy 26, Mad!