Christmas Festivities Part I

This year we had a few big events to celebrate: Mabel's 1st Christmas and our 1st Christmas in our new house! Nate hung some lights outside, we got a skinny tree off KSL ($25 yay!), and I put up our decorations.

After some begging and pleading my mother-in-law let me have (for the time being) her cherished aluminum tree that belonged to her grandparents. As a girl she would go over to their house each year and set it up for them. Isn't it darling? I put some of my vintage ornaments on it, several of which belonged to my Great Grandma Eula.



We started the month by having Nate's combined company party at our house. We had almost 40 people in the basement! It was cozy but fun. I was super busy and didn't even get out my camera once that night. Sad. But we had a tasty catered dinner, lots of fun games, and I think everyone had a good time.

Then on the 23rd we had our Christmas celebration with the Tew family...



Mabel and Myah were both pretty mesmerized by the ceiling fan:

Group shot of all the grandkids:

My poor baby! She was DONE with picture time.

Georgia and Rick always have a fun evening planned complete with lots of food, treats and all sorts of games. We played all our annual favorites - picture matching, bingo, candy bar circle, and our white elephant gift exchange.

Nate and I were very pleased with the white elephant gifts we received!

awesome creepy maid thing

and who doesn't want a hamburger pillow?

sweet cousin Myah just chillin'


We had a great time, as usual! We decided to spend the night and in the morning Mabel got to open her present from Rick & Georgia.



But mid present she had to take a break to poo:


Grandma also had a fun new toy for Mabel - a saucer!


Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Tew!

Go BANANAS!

somebody thoroughly enjoys eating
bananas out of their mesh feeder...

check out the slime on those hands!

A New Neighborhood Tradition

At the beginning of this month we received an invite to forgo traditional neighbor gifts and instead donate gift cards to Primary Children's Hospital:



So we bundled up and headed over to drop off our gift card and sip some hot chocolate...





Thanks Dabo Family for the awesome idea, warm fire, cocoa, and a new tradition!

(ps: Jamie, I copied this picture from off your blog:)

when the brain isn't working at 100%

so remember how we celebrated nate's 30th birthday a few weeks ago? yeah, well here are the cute party favors i made and totally forgot about. didn't even cross my mind before, during, or after the party!
i made them about a month ago and hid them in my closet. i was so proud of myself for getting them done early! then the party came and went and they stayed sad and lonely in my sock drawer until earlier this week when I pulled out the drawer and saw them staring back at me! I got a good laugh out of that, except i was mad too because no one got to enjoy my clever party favor. i'm going to pass them out to the family at our christmas party.

Making a Baby....

...a baby's food that is! (GOTCHA!)

we got a cool baby food maker from Grandma Sherrill and I tested it out last week:

sweet potatoes steaming


it purees nice and smooth


here is Mabel waiting for her food...
she had a mild fever (teething) and didn't feel great
but still managed to smile for the camera.
i love her hair in this picture.



ready for applesauce


why haven't I ever made my own applesauce before?
it's so easy and tasty.
i like to keep some in the fridge and freeze some too.
i had to make another batch a few days later because
when I would feed it to Mabel I would end up eating it too.

yum!


mabel's first food was a banana, then avocado, then sweet potato.
she has now had butternut squash, peas, broccoli, pears, brown rice cereal, prunes, applesauce, carrots and apricots.

trying sweet potato


avocado


licking her plate clean!

30 is the new 20 right?

happy 30th birthday Nate!

We had a family birthday party for Nate at our house last weekend and it was so fun! About a month ago I asked Nate's parents, and his siblings, if they would each write a poem about Nate, their memories/stories etc and read it to him at the party. Everyone agreed and just as I suspected we have some awesome poets in the family! Plus, Kristy's poem was a song on the guitar that was absolutely hilarious. (complete with her husband Dave as prop guy!) Thanks everyone for making it such a great night!

We ate homemade soup in bread bowls and had cheesecake and banana splits for dessert. Mabel and I had fun decorating the basement with a big 30 in pictures and 30 balloons.













Nate blew out his 30 candles and it scared Mabel so bad!
She started bawling.
Old age really is frightening isn't it? ;)