A White Chirstmas

Yay snow!! I love snow. I'm so glad I live in a place that actually gets snow in the winter, well except for last year. I love how pretty it is, I love how having snow on the ground makes me think it feels warmer outside. I love that it doesn't rain, it snows! This is my third Christmas living in the west and the first time I've been promised snow. The first year I was living in Idaho I went to Utah with Michael's family and it didn't snow there. Last year I went home for Christmas and of course there wasn't any snow. This year I decided to spend Christmas with Michael's parents in his home town, Aberdeen, ID, instead of home alone since Michael had to work all of Christmas. The weather called for a couple inches of snow in Rexburg and in Aberdeen. Thank goodness, it was finally going to happen for me! Since the weather was calling for a pretty good storm, I left Rexburg a day early to ensure the roads were good. I wanted Ivan to have a good nap before we left and kept debating if I should just have him sleep in the car or take a nap before we go. I compromised and woke him up halfway through his nap thinking he would just sleep again in the car. Nope. No more sleep for him. He was good for the hour and fifteen minute drive though. Now that we only give him one bottle a day, bribing him with a bottle in the middle of the day definitely does the trick to make a happy baby. I'm always really nervous about driving without Michael. He's a really good driver and frankly, I like having a chauffeur. (Man that word is spelled a lot differently than I thought.) Plus, what happens when Ivan gets fussy? I can't reach him to give him anything. So I set the diaper bag in the front seat and practiced my aim a little. I got pretty good at tossing things to him where he could still reach. It was frustrating throwing something towards him and it being just out of reach though. That little boy just grunts and grunts until he can get it and if he can't, the grunting just keeps on! Don't know who he got that from... The drive actually went a lot faster than it normally does. It wouldn't be a bad drive if it was all interstate, but about halfway there you get off the interstate and drive on the highway with a bunch of little towns that slow you down. Plus interstate speeds are 75 out here, not just 65 like back east. I did get to talk to my dad a bunch, that was really nice. There was already a little bit of snow on the ground when I got there. That's enough to count for a white Christmas for me! We had the chance to have the missionaries over for dinner. One of the guys thought that Ivan was only 10 months though. Crazy. I know he looks small, being 20th percentile and all, but he sure gets around well for a 10 month old. That guy doesn't have kids so I'll cut him a break. While we were there I drank a lot of water. There's just something about tap water in Aberdeen that tastes so amazing. Best water I've ever had, and I've been to a lot of places. Now I understand why Michael hates TN water so much, it's really just not the same. We played lots of games and it snowed on Monday! Woo-hoo! I even got Craig, Ivan's grandpa, to play in the snow with Ivan. Ivan was more interested in Princess the cat, but it was still fun.

Trying to get the cat.

Making a snow angel!

Snow angel

Poor kid, he's so bundled he couldn't really walk or crawl without assistance. 

We played with Brenda's wedding dress, which is gorgeous! And had a really tasty Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we sang Christmas hymns with Brenda playing Janet's new piano. Ivan really liked the piano. He started out just playing a few bass notes. Then he had to be on the bench with Brenda. Then it wasn't enough to just be on the bench, he had to be on Brenda's lap, playing the same keys she needed to play. I laughed during the entire song! Then we played lots and lots more games. Pretty sure I stayed up til 1 or 2 that night playing games.

That's Craig (Grandpa) on the floor. From near to far on the couch is Gavin (Brenda's fiance), Janet (Grandma), and Heather (Michael's youngest sister).

The Piano Fiasco of 2012

Ivan's favorite place to be in the living room. On the other side of the railing is the stairs.  He only made one leap from the couch to the other side of the railing. Thank goodness I was there and able to stop him!

My cutie boy. This is his new outfit from Grandma. 

The pig (pink thing) he's holding on to is a slingshot that oinks when it lands. So anytime it hits the ground it oinks and Ivan loves it!

And of course, Ivan decided he didn't want to sleep well when I came to bed. He did fine the first night with just a bottle, but Christmas Eve he needed to be sleeping on me to go back to sleep. It really didn't help that it was pretty cold in there and we normally keep his room toasty at night. And we were up at 5 for Christmas morning. I think he knew he was getting some really good toys. Craig and Michael, with all their technology smarts, did a video chat on the computer so Michael could be there for opening presents. Ivan got pretty good at opening the gifts by himself and even did fairly well at wanting to open all the gifts and not just play with what he had opened. I think his favorite gift so far has been this computer that my sister Heidi got him. He played with all his toys though, nothing got overlooked. It's really exciting getting presents for someone and them being so dang excited to open and play with them. I'm really looking forward to Christmases in the future where the kids get really excited and all hyped up about opening presents and all that. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, yum, and French bread pizzas for dinner, double yum. It was a good day.

That cookbook that Heather is holding has a recipe in it that calls for MSG, for serious!

Talking to his dad. 

Janet got these fake snowballs for Craig. They were pretty fun to play with. Random snowball fights and Ivan really liked putting them all back in the bucket. He also liked playing with the Mr Potato Head stuff. At one point he dumped the whole container out and got all the arms and stacked them on the lid to the container. He would take the arms off the lid and put them all back on and take them all off. Then he took them to the kitchen, brought them all back to the living room, then brought them all back to the kitchen, over and over again. Then he figured he could carry them better if he put them in the snowball bucket. I'm impressed that he sorted through the whole container to get all of the arms, he didn't miss one.

The white things at his feet are the snowballs. That's his "oh" face. The one word he's excellent at saying, oh, like an excited "oh that's cool!" kinda thing. 

Trying to squish all the arms into the bottom of the bucket. 

All the arms!

Merry Christmas!