A Beautiful Blessing

While in Utah we had the opportunity of giving the baby a name and a blessing. It was a neat experience to share this special day with Lainey's brother T-man blessing baby Al and Cousin-in-law Rick blessing baby Nels. We all met at Grandma W's home (where we used to live) and had almost everyone from both sides of the family present. We are grateful for our wonderful and supportive families.

Proud parents with Baby

T-man, Shar and baby Al

Rick, Elyse, and Nels

The moms

Cousins Cousins Everywhere

Baby is a lucky girl. She will never lack for cousins to play with and she met most of them for the first time this Christmas. First she met her newest cousin AL, born just 20 days after her. They had a lot of fun together - Here is a sampling of their activities during out time in Idaho...
sleeping (two baby burritos)


working out

wrestling

and playing with big sisters.

Along with 6 first cousins (all girls) born within a year of her, Baby also has two second cousins (both boys) born a week before her. Here are Shar and AL, Baby and me, and my cousin C and baby L. We all enjoyed a day together at LLL Ranch.

Second cousin #2 is Nels. He is my cousin's (and very dear friend) first baby. We are excited that they just moved back to Utah from Virginia so hopefully we will see them more often!

Baby's cousin LE (9 months) thought she was a great toy! We enjoyed spending a few days with her (and her parents) during our time in Utah.

And finally there was cousin Ann, born two months before Baby. She also got to meet cousin Hal, but somehow I didn't get a picture :(... I am sure there will be plenty more opportunities and lots of fun cousin parties in the years to come.

The very beginning, a very good place to start

I feel so behind on everything, including blogging and that is my excuse for this short summary of our wonderful Christmas vacation.

We celebrated Christmas Finnish style with our friends (Fisher served in the Finnish mission with the father). It was my first attempt at Finnish cuisine. I made these traditional prune filled pinwheel cookies and a meat filled scone. We also had Karelian pies, berry soup, and rice pudding. It was a fun and delicious evening.




We exchanged family Christmas gifts for FHE before Christmas. As was tradition in my family, the children have a treasure hunt to find the family gift. The treasure was the newly remodeled and furnished doll house. It was a hit.














On Christmas eve we left our house at 6:45 to travel to Idaho. Four and a half hours later we landed in Idaho Falls. We may have looked like the circus getting on and off the plane with 4 suitcases, 4 backpacks, 4 coats, 2 kids, a baby and a carseat - but it definitely beats driving for 15 hours!

We celebrated Christmas with my family in Rexburg. It was a very low key event. The two newborn babies and snowy roads gave us an easy excuse not to go anywhere. On Christmas Eve we enacted the Nativity. Fisher made a great donkey in his retro 80s snowsuit. On Christmas morning we enjoyed delicious quiche as is tradition and exchanged gifts. The rest of the time we visited, ate, played games, sang, lounged and just enjoyed being together. The Wii "Just Dance" game was a great form of entertainment and exercise. If I didn't think I would lose my inheritance, I would post the movie of my dad "dancing."

I am not sure why this collage is blury, but if you click on it, the pics are clear.
More to come...

Programmed

It has been the week of programs - Three to be exact. We have attended Curly's Kindergarten program, Ballet recital, and Music class recital. The latter two were held at different retirement homes. As Curly put it, "We sang for the Grandmas and Grandpas." After the music recital, the children personally served cookies that they brought to the adoring audience members.

Curly as one of the Mrs. Clauses in the Kindergarten Play

Curly singing with her good friend who lives down the street.

Pretty in Pink ballerinas

In other news, baby girl (any ideas for a blog name?) is more than a month old and growing way too fast!

We visited the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights. A different experience than visiting the Salt Lake Temple lights, a much warmer experience.

A Special Visit

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why...
Aunt Pika came to town!

We had a visit from my Aunt this week. My Uncle Pato was also here for part of the week. Curly and Lou had so much fun playing games and make believe with Pika. I asked Pika to help furnish a dollhouse that we are giving the girls for Christmas and she did not disappoint! It was like Santa's workshop around here with Pika making the most darling furniture. She is amazingly creative and resourceful. I can't post pictures yet at the risk of the girls seeing their Christmas surprise. Pato got to work hanging cabinets in our laundry room. He did a great job. A new dollhouse for the girls, a looks new laundry room for me!

We didn't only do projects, just mostly... we did enjoy a lunch out together on Saturday and a few Christmas parties in the evenings. It was fun to have visitors. Thanks Pika and Pato!