Christmas, Part 4

Originally we had wanted to take a day to go skiing, as usual when we get to a cold climate that has snow, and we were excited to take Leo for his first skiing experience (hopefully).  We didn't do it the day after we got there like we thought and then it kinda never happened...I don't think Leo was too heart broken about it as he was kinda aprehensive about the idea anyway but I knew Nick felt disappointed to not have some fun in the snow so we settled for sledding instead :) 

June stayed nice and snuggled up in the car...after just a few minutes she fell asleep so we left the heater running and I stepped out of a couple of minutes to grab a few pictures...which I think speak for themselves!  The boys had a blast :)

Christmas, Part 3

Our Christmas adventure began with a trip to the airport to fly to Colorado to meet up with some of the other Vernons.  June did a really great job on the flight and basically slept most of the time.  She never even made a peep going to sleep and the guy across the aisle was genuinely impressed with how awesome she was.  I also learned that if there are two bathrooms in the back of the plane then only one has a fold-down changing table...it was much easier to change her the second time around. Ha!  And although I don't think we took any selfies on the way home to document, she was a champ flying home too.  It was a mess with long delays and we got home super late and still she was great...especially for a 4 month old! In so many ways we are blessed with calm, happy children.

Flying is half of the fun of a vacation for Leo.  We were getting pretty good at playing "airport" so it was great to have the real thing for him to experience.  He did a great job too and loved wearing his headphones, using the airplane bathroom (more than once...), and playing with the shade on the window. 

We are not selfie pros, but here is evidence that we were all there! This occupied some time as well...

Sweet Junie slept most of the flight and even after we landed and headed to baggage claim.  She is just a sweet, sweet baby.  

We landed in snow...which Leo thought was cool and kinda weird.  We were grateful for a warm car to pick us (and our million bags) up!  It was a sight to see us trying to get all of the bags to the car...Nick ended up holding June since the airplane so I lugged all of the bags and carseat and everything off of the carousel and to the door.  Leo was more than happy to help with the suitcases!

June was a little confused when she woke up!

But she was so cute in her winter outfits :)

Standing unassisted on Christmas Eve...

Leo wasn't in his matching jammies yet but we tried to get a picture before bed...this is what June thought of it!

Christmas morning came early, espeically considering we were an hour out of our time zone!  We tried our best to keep the kids quiet in the basement so others could get some sleep...but after a couple of hours Leo just couldn't wait any longer.  We headed upstairs to quietly get some breakfast and wait for others to trickle into the kitchen.  Once everyone was up it was finally time to go see what Santa had brought!

 

 Leo was thrilled with every thing, even his new underwear in his stocking!  The holidays are really fun at this age!

Sweet June had been up so long that it was time for her morning nap by the time we actually were heading in to check out our stockings.  She did ok to stay up a little longer and let us help her through her stocking, but that was about it.  Then we had to excuse ourselves from the fun and lay her down.  Nick and I took turns missing out as we tried to get her to actually rest alone while the other tried to hold off Leo opening more gifts until the other parent returned.  

Santa knew that our suitcases would be overflowing as it was, so he left a picture next to our stockings of what he had left at our home.  Leo was thrilled for a new bigger bike! 

 

 

Our loot...after Mom got her hands on it to organize it :)

We ended the day with lots of playing and checking out our new gifts and then a yummy Christmas dinner.  The kids stayed up later than usual to enjoy as much Christmas fun as they could handle, but as the day was ending with a beautiful Colorado sunset our "early to bed, early to rise" habits as well as the time change ensured they were the first to sleep that night to dream about all of the festivities that had just taken place :) 

Christmas, Part 2

Before we boarded our plane to Colorado, we had a little fun here at home getting ready for the holiday too.  Leo and I got to go on date to see his cousins in the Nutcracker ballet!  It was actually just the dress rehearsal which suited us just fine since that meant we didn't really have to sit all of the way still or be super silent for long.  Leo mostly just loved playing with the theater chairs.

Afterwards we stopped in at Dairy Queen on the way home and got a blizzard.  You can tell that Leo REALLY liked his :)

Another fun thing we did was make gingerbread houses.  It was nothing fancy because I knew he really wouldn't care and it was just for us.  I made some good "glue" icing and pulled the random candy (most left from Halloween!) and graham crackers out of the pantry and let him go wild.  He thought it was super fun to add a chimney that was one of our mini ice cream cones.  It was a hodge podge of decorations but it just goes to show that the fun is in making it and the added stress and running around to get the "right" decorations would have been just for my piece of mind....Leo had a blast and thought it was the most beautiful creation ever :)

There were way too many fun activities to recount this year; the holidays sure seem more fun with some little ones around!

Christmas 2014, Part 1

I haven't figured out a rhythm yet...of how to get all of my pics onto the computer so I can blog...or how to blog (quickly) from my phone...etc etc.  So I am backed up but trying harder.  Here we go on Christmas...what I can remember!

Here are the kids in their Christmas outfits the Sunday before Christmas (which was on a Thursday).  Trying to get a good picture of them together at this stage was not fun, even though they are happy kids.  June wasn't sitting up yet and would only push up with her arms whenever she wanted....and Leo...was just an almost-4 year old boy.  When I asked him to stand nicely for the camera he did this pose on on the top...he claimed he wanted everyone to see his belt. When I said not to smile like that he did the pose on the bottom...

We had plenty of Christmas festivities during the month of December, including a ward party, a date to the Cosby girls' Nutcracker ballet performance, and me leaving Junie for the first time at night to attend a Christmas dinner with Nick's co-workers.  Leo went with Grammie to their ward Christmas party while June stayed at home with a babysitter (!) named Emy for about an hour and then Grammie and Grandpa brought Leo home and took over with June.  We all survived but that first time away from your baby at bedtime is so hard!  (Even though we were a little late to dinner so I could nurse June and do everything but actually rock her to sleep.)

 It was so fun to have Christmas with two little ones this year.  I had fun Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts and doing crafts with Leo...especially when it is still decent weather outside :)  We were all excited for Nick to take some much-needed vacation time so we could head to Colorado to spend the holidays at Nick's parents' home.  Packing for two little ones, including all of our Christmas gifts, was not as fun however...