Christmas Eve

Scott and I hosted Christmas Eve at our house. It was so different to be the ones "in charge". Our parents have always been the ones to organize the meal and the program and everything for the night. This time we had both of our parents here and we had to figure out how WE do Christmas Eve at our house. It was a wonderful night. It started snowing just as my family arrived from California. Perfect timing huh? So, it was snowing outside and we had the fire and food going inside. My mom gave us the good idea of having a kind of traditional dinner like what might have been eaten when/where Jesus was born. We laid out grapes, dates, tangerines and almonds on the table. We made tilapia (white fish) in a white wine, caper sauce, green beans, carrots, potatoes, rice, flat bread with hummus and grape juice (wine). It was a good meal. Everyone seemed to love the fish, which was good because it was my first time attempting it. I wanted to keep our family tradition of fondue on Christmas Eve alive, so we had chocolate fondue for dessert. Delicious. We dipped pineapple, banana, pound cake, shortbread (made by Fred), cherries, pretzels and marshmallows.
After dinner we had our "program". We didn't get to dress up and act out the nativity play, but we got to read the story from the Bible and sing the Christmas songs that go along with the story. This is the program that my dad arranged and we have always done at my house growing up. We had Scott's mom bring her chimes. On a couple of the songs we played chimes. Scott, Brielle, Ava and I got to open one present before bed. Scott got each of us new pajamas. Yahoo! That is one of my favorite things to get and they are so nice. He got Brie some Tinkerbell slippers that she fell in love with and slept in that night. We all went to bed and anxiously awaited the next day. I couldn't wait for Brie to wake up on Christmas morning!

A Christmas Story

Yesterday morning Brielle crawled into bed with me when she woke up in the morning. We watched the snow out the window and I told her the story of baby Jesus being born to Mary and that is why we celebrate Christmas. I then told her how a long time after baby Jesus was born, another baby was born on Christmas and her name was Brielle! I told her all about when she was born on Christmas morning two years ago.

On Christmas eve two years ago we were at Scott's parents house. We read the story from the Bible and acted out the nativity play. I, of course, was Mary. Scott read, ". . . the days were accomplished that she should be delivered."

Brielle's due date was January 17. The whole time I was pregnant I kept telling everyone that I just wanted her to be born away from the holidays. On Christmas eve night we went home and I thought it would be so cool for us to sleep under the Christmas tree. Scott convinced me to sleep in bed. A few hours after going to bed I turned over to my other side and . . . my water broke. I was shocked. I didn't know quite what to do. And it was Christmas morning!!!

We opened presents and called family while I was in labor in the hospital. Brielle was born at 12:56pm that day. The day she was born was so amazing and special for us.

Last year we got to celebrate her first birthday with my family in California. This year we will celebrate her second birthday with all of Scott's family on Christmas night. She has chosen a Cinderella birthday and is so excited to have a birthday party with her cousins. There are certainly goods and bads to having your birthday on Christmas. The very best "good" is that she is always with lots of family for her big day. We can't wait!

We certainly love our Christmas miracle.

Locked Out and Freaked Out

Yesterday I had such a scary experience. I must still be feeling it because I cried again telling my mom about it this morning.

Both of the girls had just woken up from naps and I decided to go out and get the mail. I laid Ava on a blanket on the floor and went to the garage door because my shoes were there. I got the mail, but when I tried to open the door going from the garage into the house, it was locked. Every door was locked and every window shut and Brie and Ava were inside. I was calm at first trying to think through ways of getting in. I came up with nothing. I thought to call Scott, but he forgot his cell phone and was already driving home from work. It was exactly 5pm. I thought things would be ok if I just kept watching them through the window to make sure they were alright and I would wait for Scott to get here.

It was already getting dark and then it started to thunder, lightening, rain down frozen sleet and the wind was blowing so hard. It was practically a white out. I got more nervous then because I knew it would take Scott much longer to get home now that snow and ice were coming down so hard. I kept watching Brie through the windows and she was just walking around eating pretzels and thought I was playing with her by looking at her through the back window, then the front window. I was watching through the front window and saw Ava roll herself from her back to her stomach. She lasted like that for a minute, but then was mad. I saw her crying so hard, red face and burying her face in her blanket because she couldn't keep her head up. That is when I freaked out and panicked. I had all kinds of scary, irrational thoughts of her smothering herself in the blanket. I had to get in there!

I ran to the next door neighbor, who is about 85. I started crying when I told him and he almost started crying with me. He called the old owners to see if they had a key. Nope. We were trying to call a lock smith, but I knew that would take forever because of the horrible snow storm. The roads were already really bad. Then I saw my neighbor across the street walking home. I yelled to him to please come help. I told him that I didn't care if he broke the door down, I just wanted to get in. So, he did just that. He took an iron wrench (?) and broke the handle so that it would open and I went running in to a pant less Brie still munching on pretzels and a screaming Ava. I was SO grateful for good neighbors that were home.

It took Scott an hour and a half to get home. I told him everything (in tears again) and he immediately started taking care of things. He changed the door handle and lock on the back door and changed the handle on the garage door. They were dumb locks that stay locked even when you open the door and go outside. He made copies of keys and distributed them. We should be all taken care of now and hopefully that will never happen again. It was way too traumatic for me to be locked outside in a blizzard (in flip flops) and my kids inside. Yikes.

Christmas Visitors

Christmas brings lots of friends back to Utah for the holidays. We love getting to see these Christmas visitors that we don't see the rest of the year.

We had Todd, Anna, Jayda and Addison over for dinner. They live in Michigan while Todd goes to dental school. It was so fun to have Jayda and Brie play together. Their girls are GORGEOUS! We were so glad they visited.
Anna made Ava a new blanket. It is so cute with great colors. Brie and Jayda pretended it was a pool and would stand on the edge and "jump in and swim".
As the Allens were leaving, the Rojas family arrived. They brought us the best gift! We switched from two extra little girls to two CUTE little boys. The Rojas' live up the street and we are happy to live so close to them. Oliver was born 1 1/2 months before Ava. Does he look it? I think he is 18 lbs! This is right before he rolled toward her and grabbed her and tried to eat her :) Isn't he so handsome?

Scottish Shortbread with Papa

My sister-in-law Laura is here from New York with her three kids. She had a great idea to have a day for Papa Fred to teach the grandkids how to make his Scottish shortbread. We all gathered at Fred and Rama's house yesterday and had a very good time. The cousins are all close enough in age that they LOVED playing together. Brielle really had the best time playing. Ava got to meet her new cousin, Andrew, that was born just two weeks after her. And the adults chatted, took care of kids and eventually got to eat shortbread.

The kids lasted in their cooking class with Papa Fred for just about long enough to take a picture and then they were gooooooone.

Ava looking up at her cousin, Annabelle, who adores her.Clara and Connor trying to see who is "longer".Measuring all of the cousins up.The mayhem - they ran in circles, they danced, they cried, they screamed, they shared, they fought, they laughed.The girl cousins.The moms - Alicia, Laura and Rachel. Each of us had a baby in arms and other children to take care of. Not easy. Here all the babies are quite content and Grandma Rama is entertaining downstairs.

Ava Potata

Ava Potata has been showing us some new tricks in the past couple days.

1. She started laughing on Sunday! With two days practice, she now can get a really good belly laugh out. I came in the door last night from shopping and heard her laughing at Scott. There is honestly not a better sound in this world. I love it.

2. She rolled herself over. She went from her back to her stomach and then her arm was pinned and she couldn't get it out. But, she's now attempting the roll over. No more leaving her on the couch or bed.

3. She is stays asleep all through the night. She does get up to eat twice (only once last night), but goes right back to sleep and sleeps in her own bed until 8am!!! Yahoo.

We love, love, love this beautiful and happy girl.

Lights on Temple Square

Scott, Brie and I went to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square for FHE last night. We dropped part of our family (Ava) off in a nice warm house with Grandma and Papa. The three of us went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building for dinner and then out into the cold to see all the lights.

Here is Brie meeting Joseph for the first time. She now refers to Joseph Smith as "Big White Joseph".
And here she is with the Christmas tree. Gorgeous!
The lights were spectacular as always. We walked through all of the lights, stomped on snow, watched the nativity, listened to the songs and went to see the Christus.
I love this picture of Scott explaining to Brielle about the statue of Christ. I don't know what he said, but today when she saw the picture she was saying, "Jesus eyes. Arms. Hold me.".All the kids immediately took a seat right up front and stared up at Jesus. Brie joined them.After a good dinner and seeing all the lights, this was actually Brie's favorite part of the night - over and over again.

Mary Did You Know?

that your baby boy had Cinderella as his dental hygienist?


Brielle has a new Cinderella toothbrush. She loves it and plays with it as much as Scott will let her. She spent some time brushing baby Jesus teeth in her nativity the other morning. I heard her saying, "Say ahhhhhhh. Open up. Get the back ones. All Clean." Then Cinderella was displayed as one of admirers who came to see the new baby Jesus, right along with the wisemen and shepherds. Who knew?

Santa

We went to visit Santa at the mall for the first (and probably the last) time. Brielle has been soooooooo excited about Santa. She is well aware of the fact that he will be bringing new toys and new baby dolls. We had our ward Christmas breakfast on Saturday and Santa was coming to it. She was all excited to sit in his lap and tell him what she wanted him to bring. Well, they announced at the end of the party that Santa never showed! Just great!

So, we went to the mall to see Santa. Who knew when we got in line that the low quality pictures with Santa were so stinkin pricey! We got the cheapest, smallest picture and Brielle was happy that she got to sit on Santa's lap and have a good chat with him. They said that most kids her age are too scared to sit with Santa, but we could hardly tear her away. It was fun to see both the girls with Santa. What made the trip to the mall even better was that Scott found a 20 dollar bill that no one claimed! Yahoo! Our pictures with Santa were paid for!

Double Date

This weekend Scott and I had date night - TWICE! Yep. We went out both Friday and Saturday night. What fun.

The story goes - I planned a date night for us. I bought tickets to a Christmas concert, got a babysitter, planned dinner, etc. Five minutes before the babysitter was going to show up at our door I checked the tickets and said, "Today is December 8, right?". Nope. It was the 7th. So the babysitter came and played with Brie and put her to bed and we took Ava out Christmas shopping for our date.

The next night a different babysitter came, played with Brie and put her to bed while we went out to dinner and the concert (with Ava). It was such a fun time to just be with Scooter Pie. We had a delicious dinner at a cool Australian restaurant. (It wasn't exactly like old dating times because I did have to nurse Ava in a bathroom stall. That didn't used to happen on dates.) Then we went to an AWESOME concert. I loved it!! It was Christmas music by some of my favorite local artists. There were guitars, fiddles, banjos, pianos, bass and good male voices. The performers were:

Peter Breinholt (Of course.)

Ryan Shupe & The Rubber Band
Sam Payne (a new favorite)What a great time. I like those kind of double dates.