Merry Christmas 2014!

I need to first start with another special birthday....my #1 guy was born on December 23rd. And we had fun with his birthday this year. I think Tess and I got him a present he likes! He got new tennis shoes (for tennis!), socks, and a tennis bag. He got scones for breakfast and went climbing until we left for dinner at Leticia's Mexican. It's our favorite place! We had, at Greg's request, sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream. This might be the most delicious dessert I have ever had! He choose right! It's amazing. I don't have a lot of pictures from his birthday, unfortunately. Actually, it looks like just one. A breakfast picture, at Greg's request!

Christmas Eve

We had bread bowl soup for dinner! We had ice cream and sticky toffee pudding for dessert. It was too good to make another dessert.

It was a little chilly but not bad! We got out and played some tennis! Afterwards, we played at the park for a while. It was lovely. Our house was clean, the WHOLE THING, food was partly prepared, and it was an overall relaxing day. My little family makes me so happy. We missed our families in Ohio, Virginia, and Colorado so very much. But I can't complain about the company I had with these two. You can see Tess wearing her little Christmas necklace! We had a big tree this year and garland all over the downstairs, stockings, and decor on the door! It felt like a real Christmas celebration. A real improvement from the handful of single ornaments I hung from a silly branch in our apartment last year. We had some miniature trees, but I was too tired and too busy with nursing school to get them out and decorate. I loved spending time this year decorating and putting together plans for a celebration.

Greg and Tess reading the nativity! They are reading the part of angels, so of course they had to climb up on the ottoman. We read both from Luke, read the nativity you can download on The Church website, and watched the two nativities on the Mormon Channel. It was lovely! 

We then kept the tradition of giving pajamas! We ALL got them. :) Tess loved opening the presents. She wasn't that interested in what was in them, but she wanted to help rip the paper off on each one. Once we had opened the pajamas, it was really hard to explain to her that we wouldn't be opening any more. She kept trying to pick up other presents and continue to the fun. She hadn't paid any attention to the gifts before the whole pajamas tradition. It clicked, "oh, we can rip these things up!" We eventually got her away from he presents, put on pajamas, and turned on a Christmas video.

Please, DAD! Lets open more. Look at these cuties, they both got sweats and Tess got some slippers too. 

I got a new jacket with my pajama pants, I love it! 

Watching the video, she lasted for about 20 minutes...maybe! We went driving around our neighborhood to check out the lights. She was "ooooh"ing and "aaahhhh"ing with me at all the lights we saw. And below is our Christmas decor! 

It was all raw parts, so I arranged all of it. Took a while but I think it turned out great. It was fun to have some beautiful decorations honoring this great season and the Reason we celebrate! 

Tess's first visit from Santa! I really was excited about it but I struggled to stay away to put it all together. Greg and I gave each other stockings which was a lot of fun. The balance bike was from my parents, in the stocking: bath toys, socks, candy, and play dough. She also got some new Keen sandals for this summer. She was so excited and went through her stocking right away, as she was coming down the stairs she was pointing at the gifts that were left out for her. She was stuffing her face with chocolate and starbursts!

Once we opened gifts, we enjoyed a breakfast casserole! I made several snacking trays like a cheese ball and crackers, 7 layer dip and chips, and candy of course was plenty. We had a terrific dinner planned, but we were lazy all. day. long. We snacked on our cheese and dip, candy, and played or watched TV all day! Tess went crazy when we were opening presents. She took a lot more interest in opening toys and wanted her toys out of the boxes right as she opened them. She tried them out and we had to direct her attention to opening the next! She loved all the new toys! I was so excited that she was so interested in playing and not just opening presents. She was so much fun!!!!!!

Loving on her baby doll, she would be hugging it, kissing it, feeding it, and snuggling with it all day long! She loved it her baby doll the most I think. It was so sweet to see her interact so naturally with this little baby doll. What a loving little mom.

Sharing her M&Ms with her baby! 

Giving her baby kisses. 

The MESS!

She got bathtub crayons in her stocking...BIG hit! A month later, it is still a favorite. It wipes off so easily and it's fun for her to have such a large surface area to color on.

We ate our Christmas dinner a day late, but it was worth the wait! We had a delicious Sirloin stake grilled by Greg, Gorgonzola cream sauce (YUM), perfectly baked potatoes, and sauteed green beans. WOW! Soooo good! We had skillet pan brownies given to us by Ben and Amanda topped with some delicious ice cream. EPIC. We really enjoyed a little extension of Christmas celebration!

Now...on to a few random pictures.......

Doing some serious work. 

30 weeks. I uh, turned and situated myself to get the most flattering picture! Needless to say, I thought this gave a good view of my beautiful pregnant belly without giving away all the excess pounds I have gained in other parts of my body. I will never understand women who are worried about the size of their stomach during pregnancy....the belly is supposed to get big! I think that is beautiful! I am really self conscious about the rest of my body that seems to compete with my belly. The arms, LEGS, BUTT, etc. But, I LOVE the belly. :)

At my doctor's office. I just can't get enough of this little girl. She is so darn cute and gets compliments everywhere she goes. She is friendly and energetic. We have a lot of fun playing at parks, story times, and play dates. Not to mention random fun around the house.

Taking her doll down the slide! 

Getting the mail isn't that simple. It's me getting the mail and Tess spending several minutes trying to figure out how to use that key! I let her go about it for a while, she loves trying. She has yet to get it, we have a stubborn mail key. 

A great surprise gift from Grandma Bluemel! It is a cute mobile chalk board. Tess really likes it! She also still likes to eat the chalk.

So, Greg had some wonderful friends come to visit us for a few days around New Years. They went climbing quit a bit and Tess and I stayed home of course to do some normal activities, cleaning and cooking, etc. I really wanted to go do something fun and different with her. I have found that doing stuff with her is as fun for me as it is for her! I decided on this "Jumping Jungle" place close to the strip. It was cheap and such a cute little place full of these blow up gyms. I had to do a lot more climbing and sliding then I wanted to (so awkward when a prego lady is helping her young one climb up to go down a slide when a stack of kids is starting to pile up behind us...sorry kids!).  I got a good workout taking her on the big slides that she couldn't resist when she saw all the other kids running and enjoying them. But, there were several slides and areas she figured out on her own! I loved it when she gave me a break and played on her own on the smaller slides.

Here she is on the big kid part and a ladder she couldn't climb and I wasn't willing to venture with her. Poor girl wanted to climb it so bad! I was only brave enough to do one with a much smaller incline!

This picture is so fuzzy, but her reaction when she got to the top of this slide on her own was so cute! She got excited each time!

Playing at a different park in our neighborhood. It was high 30's this day and the sun was out and warm. I don't think we saw a soul outside, what a bummer. We put our coats on and Tess had gloves, she loved being outside and it wasn't cold with the warm sun. What a fun time we have had on the playgrounds all around our house all through the year so far! I really enjoy this aspect of Las Vegas. I do love seasons, but I don't love them enough to say I would give up this mild winter for them. 

Just a funny belly comparison. Greg and Tess were going outside to do something, not sure what. Tess wanted to go so bad so Greg stuffed her in his coat really quick and said, "Belly picture, Chels!" So, this is baby brother at 30 weeks comparison to Tess at 17 months! :)

Just some hair fun! I can remember my mom doing this hair do on me and my sister. I had a really hard time getting a good picture but is sure was fun to try this out on my own little girl and looked so cute on her!