Santa Clause is Coming to Town!

Christmas morning is always an exciting time and this year was no exception! Santa brought lots of presents.
And a very large present for little Violet! Her very own kitchen!

The stockings funny enough were filled with socks and a few other treats.

Wes laughed when he got the Lord of the Rings Pez, especially when he saw the "short" hobbits.

We couldn't open presents right away. The girls and I got ready for church. They had to wait until we got home to see all the fun things they got.

Christmas Pajamas

Grandma Oates gave the girls a wonderful early Christmas gift. Dresses! Unfortunately none of them fit quite right, so instead she exchanged them for Christmas pajamas! The girls all looks so cute in their footie pajamas! It was fun to capture them in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve!

Christmas Visits

We always make it a priority around Christmas time to visit our extended family. It is very difficult for us to all get together on Christmas Day. A few days before Christmas we made four different visits: Sarah and Matt, Great Grandma Walter, Great Grandma Christensen and Lyndi, and Great Grandma Oates.

Our first stop was Sarah and Matt's house. It was fun to give Cedric some Knex.

Philip was living at my sisters at the time and he gave us a wonderful Tetris game that even Wes likes to play. Violet got some wonderful wooden blocks for her birthday from Sarah, Matt and Cedric. For Christmas they gave us a Cinemark gift card which is great for our family!

Our next stop was Great Grandma Walter. She always appreciates or visits, especially because she lives on our own. She was so very generous and gave each of the girls beautiful dresses!

Then we went over to Great Grandma Christensen's and Lyndi's. She gave us a Cinemark Move gift card as well! She also gave the girls a CD and book.

Violet liked Lyndi's Snoopy shirt!

We were afraid of Violet completely melting down at this point because we had been out so long. We decided to make a stop at McDonald's for lunch, which seemed to help immensely. Our last stop for the day was Great Grandma Oates's house. We gave her a temple calendar which she seemed to really enjoy. We worry about her getting sad now that the love of her life is gone, but we are grateful that one of her daughters is living with her.

We enjoyed all of our visits so much. It was so great to see everyone and to share together in Christmas Spirit.

On Christmas Eve Morning we made our way over to Grandma Julie's house! She is always so generous and sweet to the girls, and Wes and I. It feels so comfortable to sit in Julie's beautiful living room and watch the little town around the tree. It reminds me of my father.

The girls had a wonderful time opening presents, well most of the time. Violet had a few moments. Lydia has gotten so much older all of the sudden. She loves getting clothes!

Violet by this point was really getting pretty good at opening presents.

We had to watch her closely so she wouldn't break the village.

Lydia got boots that were pretty close to the pair that she was wearing that day. Wonderful Julie took time to exchange them a few months later for some beautiful, brown leather boots that are absolutely amazing!

Adelle really loved the Peanuts nativity. She is a big Charlie Brown fan. Violet is fast becoming one as well.

Violet got some amazing, new light up shoes. She loves them. She loves stomping around seeing the lights blink.

Violet also got a wonderful musical instrument set. Everyone likes playing with the instruments and as time goes by Violet is getting better.

Lydia got a beautiful ornament and it quickly became her favorite. It is a ballerina ornament that plays music.

I snapped a quick picture of Julie and Allie, our wonderful hosts!

As things calmed down Lydia took some time to gaze at all the ornaments on Julie's tree. It was magical to see my grown up girl taking it all in.

Adelle's Christmas Program

Adelle's Christmas program was held right before Christmas break. I love Adelle's school and am always amazed at the huge amount of parent support, BUT it can be really difficult to attend programs where the kids are performaning. This year was no exception. It was so crowded that Violet really struggled to be there. Since Adelle's class was later in the program I wandered the halls with Violet to try and keep hear happy. She had several melt downs, but when it was time for Adelle to perform, we were able to snag a front row seat. They asked that parents sit in the front few rows when their child was performing and then move to other seats when they were done. Luckily Violet was good for the actual performance. I was even able to get some small videos. Adelle did wonderfully. She knew every word of each song and smiled. She was so happy to have Violet and I there!


Here is one of the short videos :)

What Do You Want For Christmas?

Violet likes to be just like us, even when it comes to reading the paper or ads. One evening close to Christmas Violet decided to "read" the Walmart add. She was super excited they had Winnie the Pooh and other fun characters. It was pretty funny to me! It looked like she was making her Christmas List!

My Baby Turned 2!

The Sunday before Violet's birthday we invited everyone over to celebrate. I can't believe she is 2 already. Family gatherings can be hard in the winter time because we are all squished into our little home instead of being able to visit outside. Even when we are in small spaces though we enjoy being together. Violet enjoyed having everyone over so much she had to show off the closet and hide inside. She even convinced grandpa to read to her.

When everyone arrived it was time for presents. With Daddy's help Violet figured out what to do. She really started getting into it.
Everyone was so generous! She got everything from cute clothes, ride on toys, books, play food, and lots more.

She has really been into Cars recently so we got her a Cars book and a Mack track.

I was really excited to give her our big present from us. Her bike!! She absolutely loved it!

She loved it so much in fact she wouldn't get off her bike for cupcakes or even when it was time to blow out the candles. Instead I had to feed her pieces while she sat on her bike and timidly scooted around.

The bike is only occasionaly ridden now, but I think as she gets used to it more it will be used more. We had a wonderful time seeing family and celebrating our baby's birthday, if I can call her my baby anymore. She sure is growing up fast!

The Annual Oates Christmas Party

Oh I am behind on the blogging. Time to catch up. The Saturday before Christmas we gathered for the Annual Oates Christmas Party! First we gathered around the table lined with jars of things, including a jar of quarters, to test our guessing skills. There was also a very large bowl of some sort of trail mix. One of the young children that was running around perched himself on a chair and ate and ate, until he'd find something he didn't like. At that point he would spit out the offending item back into the bowl. I decided to avoid those snacks the rest of the night. Forrest and Sharon were our wonderful hosts again this year and provided a feast! We ate everything from prime rib, meatballs, shrimp, crab, chessy potatos, salads and lots of different desserts. We never go away hungry.

After dinner we tried to gather all of the grankids for a group picture. Violet short for a very small moment.

Then everything went wrong. She absolutely flipped and didn't want to sit on the stairs a moment more. I was quite worried she was going to kick another child in the head. It was somewhat embarrasing, but there wasn't too much I could do about it but remove her from the whole thing.


After the picture fiasco we all gathered in the great room. Great Grandma Oates asked Wes and I to particpate in a reading about Christ. Wes at first had declined seeing as he isn't a big religious fan, but when he realized it was going to disappoint his grandmother he decided to help out after all. We all had to be different characters from the old testament. There were about 5 of us participating. Wes in the end ending up being the most well read and acted his part fervently. It really touched Wes's Grandmother and she really had a hard time keeping herself composed after that. She misses her dear, sweet husband so much. We sang a few hymns and Great Grandma Oates's daughters gathered around her.

We then passed out gifts for the children and the adults played a few games.

Adelle borrowed Erica's camera and took pictures. Wes played along and made funny faces.

Violet played with her new goodies and really enjoyed wandering around. We kept an eye on her so she wouldn't get lost in the HUGE house. Lydia hung out because that is what twelve year olds do.

Forrest in his usual style had us play the cash game.

The counting game results were announced and I ended up winning the quarters again this year. I guess the girls will be getting their allowance in quarters again this year.

We gave kisses and hugs to everyone when the night was wrapping up. We gave extra hugs to Great Grandma Oates.

Violet found the big merry-go-round rocking horse. Wes set her on it for a bit before she got scared and wanted to get down.

It is always great to see the Oates family each year. We really should get together more often.