Jon's friends Cameron and Jaclyn were in town for their daughters' baptisms, and we met up with them this afternoon for some sledding!  It was the perfect opportunity for Zada to try on her Christmas snow suit, but it was SO windy she was only outside for a couple minutes and Jon and I took turns staying with her in the car.

Once in the warm car out of the wind, she was much happier.

The girls were thrilled with this prospect!

I even took a turn down the hill!

The best part is no one got hurt, and they had a great time.

Leiden also got a celestial lamp, and we checked it out tonight in the dark bathroom while we were waiting for some of Jon's family to arrive. 

Mac and Mimi went to a New Year's party with their grandma on Annie's side, but Leiden chose to stay home and play games with the adults.  It was a super low key New Year's for sure.  And no, I did not stay up until midnight!

2018 has drawn to a close.  Happy New Year's!

Birthdays and Blessings

This morning I was up early figuring out how to best place the flowers.

I had the idea to cover the stems in white chocolate so they didn't get any chemicals or plant juices in or on the cake.  It worked pretty well, but it made the stems huge, which concerned me.  Luckily the flowers are only going on the flat top part of the cake.

Little Miss and I in the mother's room directly after her blessing.  Jon did a wonderful job blessing her.  He had given it a lot of thought and careful consideration.  He wanted it to be truly from her Heavenly Father with him as her earthly father being the mouthpiece stating the blessings.  He absolutely did it, and she is a very loved little girl on both sides of the veil.

Right after sacrament meeting we went up to my mom's house to celebrate with a party!  Before food, everyone indulged me in pictures to commemorate the day.  One with Jon's family.

One with my family.

One with our little family.

And one with just Zada, Mom, and Dad.  By this time she wasn't too happy, but we persevered.

After squaring her away, I got to eat and enjoy the company of our families.  Her cake turned out PERFECTLY.  One of those times it just works!

Once in a more comfortable outfit and with some milk in her, Miss Zada was happy and calm.

Today is also Jon's birthday, as well as Grandpa G's, with some remembrances of Jon's brother Justin thrown in in honor of HIS birthday also being the same day!

Later after everyone had left but us and our parents, Jon opened his birthday gift from my parents.  More of our grey-green dishes to complete setting for 16!

Zada enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa G, and they enjoyed her!

Later this evening after we got home, Jon had MORE presents!  His parents gave him this, which was hilarious.

The girls gave him reusable snow cone cups and holders to go with his awesome shaved ice maker.  Next summer will be full of delicious frozen treats!

And I gave him an unfinished depth map of Lake Michigan, done in embroidery.  I simply couldn't get it done in time for his birthday, but I gave it to him anyway.

Happy Birthday, my love!  I hope your day was amazing and fulfilling!

Because last night there were also gifts for the girls, everyone came to our house tonight for another get together.  Mac was the proud recipient of her very own tiny claw machine, full of candy to try and get out.  It plays THE most annoying music!  Grandma G said she fully expected it to break this very night so we wouldn't be left with it's sound, but so far it's working!  Mac just has to use it in her room.

Mimi received more unicorn things, which pleased her immensely.

Leiden got a most coveted Target gift card.  It was very kind and generous of Grandma and Grandpa G to bring these things for the girls.  I think this is the last of Merry Christmas!

Zada's blessing is tomorrow, and for many months I have had the idea to do a letter cake for the occasion.  I had seen them on Pinterest, and had initially wanted to do frosting flowers.  I decided WHY would I do that, I have a newborn, so I got fresh flowers to put on the cake tomorrow morning.  Tonight was shaping the huge cake layers I ordered from Target into the letter Z.  It worked out actually even better than I had hoped.

Gravenstreter Christmas

The girls all agree on this one!  Cutest little sister ever!

This evening a couple of the girls were feeling poorly, so I stayed home while Jon went to the Gravenstreter family Christmas party.  We had gifts for all of them that we were excited to see them open.  Tara has been doing a lot of hiking lately, so we got her some hiking sticks, despite her teasing Jon for using them.  Maybe BECAUSE she teases him!

We got Jordan and Alicia a game he has been wanting.

We got Faith and Clayton a cute little coat for Sal.

And the one Jon has been really excited about!  We got his parents a digital photo frame and loaded up all the pictures of Zada and quite a few of the other girls on it.  They are sad they will be leaving us and going back home, and we thought this would be a good way to keep them up to date.  The photo album runs off the internet, so we can continue to upload new pictures all the time.  They were thrilled and so excited to get home and hook it up!

Here at home, I was able to finish Zada's blessing gown!  And it's not even the day of!

We thought it would be fun to put it on her and see what it looked like.  She is a darling angel!

But much more comfortable for the night in her little polka dot sleeper!

Sweet little babe loves her daddy!

Leiden is growing all the time, and this was the official comparison between our heights.  I've only got a couple inches on her anymore!  And I swear she gets taller every time she comes back from her dad's.

Dinosuars

Part of Jon's secret gifts to me and the girls were authentic Korean soup bowls, chopsticks, and soup spoons.  Combined with the Korean recipe book he got me, we are in business!  It will be fun to attempt to recreate the delicious dishes he longs for.

Later this morning we went with Grandma and Grandpa G to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point.  Zada actually had a good time, with lots of smiles.  Here she had caught herself in the mirror, and it's the cutest thing ever when she smiles at herself!

Little Zada amongst the huge bones!

She was enthralled with this tiny dinosaur skeleton.  Jordan was with us, and he joked that she knew him before she came and was aghast to see him in such a state here!

It was fun to get out and do a fun activity with Jon's family.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!  And no photographic proof, but it snowed!!  We headed up to Grandmere and Bapa's house where the girls met us there for our Christmas morning.  We also invited Jon's parents for the gift opening melee.  They haven't had a Christmas morning with children in many years, and we thought it would be a fun way to include them.  Little Zada's first Christmas morning was mostly spent sleeping, although she had many presents for us to help her open!

All the grandkids gathered before the craziness began!  There was SO MUCH stuff under the tree which happens when the girls meet us there on Christmas.

Mimi was thrilled with all things unicorn.

All Leiden wanted was money to buy clothes, so we got a huge box, and filled it with newspaper wads and wadded up fake $100 bills.  One of them was real.  She had to search through the whole box to find the real one!  She was only kind of amused!

Real footage:

I took very few pictures today, opting to mostly be in the moment with the girls and family.  Jon's parents had fun watching the chaos, and later this evening we all convened at my mom's again for Christmas Dinner.  It was a wonderful holiday spent with family and remembering the birth of our Savior.  Merry Christmas!