CHRISTMAS 2011

We spent Christmas at East Canyon in the Utah mountains with my side of the family this year. It was a lot of fun to be away and surrounded by the mountain snow, which was apparently hard to come by this year. We spent a lazy week eating, eating, and more eating, oh and watching movies, doing puzzles, and playing some games.

It was fun to have Finley a little more interested and engaged in Christmas morning. The very first thing she saw when she came down stairs was a doll that Santa had put in her stocking and she flashed a huge grin, exclaimed "baby!", and hugged the doll like it was all she ever wanted (even though she already has about four other babies). It was such a cute moment. With us helping she unwrapped her giant heap of presents - it was a little embarrassing how much she was spoiled this year - and continued to be very possessive of her new toys for the rest of the trip. It was more fun than last Christmas where she was done after 30 minutes. Considering we'll be a family of four next Christmas we are considering doing it on our own. Which seems so strange. We hardly ever traveled for Christmas growing up but it seems too grown up to have my own family for the holiday. We'll probably change our tune once we come to next fall. But who knows, we could be living very far away from any family next year. It may be the only realistic option.

WARNING: The following is what you call "picture overload" of Finley frolicking in the snow. Humor me. We are wired to think she's the cutest little snow bunny ever - even if she is wearing a snow suit to make her look like she should be hitting the slopes circa 1992 with gloves and boots two sizes too big. All we're missing is the huge sweatband and puffy bangs.

Ignore me in this picture - not the best - but Brad and Finley look so cute. This was our Christmas day venture out of the house to wear off the candy for breakfast overload.

We also took two trips to temple square while we were there to see the lights. Which is a miracle considering I think I saw the temple square lights once the entire six years I lived there. It's always nice to see the Salt Lake temple considering Brad and I got married there almost five years ago! Eeek!

And did I mention that it was supposedly "balmy," while we were there. AKA Finley and I were freezing our bums off in many layers while Brad wore one hooded sweatshirt and was fine.

This is random shot of Finley looking at her teeth in the mirror. She loves pointing to her teeth and saying "teeeeee." Yep, she has a dental school dad.

This is Finley doing her new favorite thing - smoosh face. She grabs your face and turns it to the side then smooshes her cheek against yours. Usually she does it right before bed time, I'm sure she's just trying to be extra adorable to delay bedtime by a few minutes. This also shows her Christmas pjs. They made her look like such a toddler. I can't believe she's on her way to being a two year old. Think of this - next Christmas Finley will be 2.5 and we'll have an additional 6 month old crawling around. ACK!

 PS - We took the majority of the pictures with my sister's camera - and go figure I forgot to get a copy before we parted ways. So you may see a follow up post with more pictures. Get excited!