Sunday, January 23, 2011

Yay for Utah!

We are lucky that our families live only a few hours apart which means we can see both of them whenever we head north. We spent several days with Fisher's family in West Jordan. We went bowling, played games, ate good food, celebrated New Years and just enjoyed being together.

Lainey's sister Paisley received her mission call, the day of Baby's blessing.
Watch out Rochester New York!

Trying to get all the kids to look up at the bowling ball is a challenge!

Abe with his new sister and newest cousin

Baby was not a big fan of the New Year's festivities

The little girls wanted to have a hair and nail party for New Years... Oh so pretty!

Mock ringing in the New Year at 9:00 p.m. Welcome 2011!

Lou adores Grandma W!

Way-to-go! I-da-ho!

My original post on Christmas in Idaho didn't do justice to the great time we had! So here are a few more pictures. Lainey's whole family came home for Christmas - That meant people traveled from Boston, New Jersey, Washington DC, Arizona, and Utah!

Dad and Nate playing Kinect - that thing is cool!
almost as cool as my parents hot lava carpet

Great Grandpa Lake with baby

Brrr! Do we look cold? We should because it was freezing. I hope all the people that Paisley shows this picture to REALLY appreciate it :)

Dinner - Always delicious at home!

Super Mario Bro party

LLL Ranch on the snow machines

The menfolk gathering wood for the fire, the kids hitchin' a ride

We love snow!

A Snowman and snowdog, Lettie, and Lou with Aunt K-Rae

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

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

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.





Monday, January 10, 2011

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...