Our Christmas, part 1

We're back from traveling for Christmas.  We had a wonderful time seeing our families, but it's also good to be home!  I'll have to break our trip up into 2 or 3 posts since there are so many pictures I want to share.  First we met up with three of my siblings at Louisa's house in Salt Lake City.  We ate our traditional Austin Christmas Eve dinner a couple nights early, then we headed to Temple Square to check out the lights. 

It was Katie's first time getting all bundled up for the cold.  I love the purple hat (under her hood) and mittens that my sister-in-law Heather crocheted for Katie.  I need to take a picture of just the hat on her.  It's adorable.  Plus it made me want to start crocheting. :) 

Jana, Katie, Louisa

At Temple Square we ran into Jacob's Uncle Theo, Aunt Pat, and his cousin T.R., T.R.'s wife Ashley and their little boy.  It was so fun seeing them there!  I had just told Jacob on our drive there that we'd probably see someone we knew because it's happened to us every time we've gone. 

The lights are so pretty there.  Sometimes I wish we lived closer so it could be an annual tradition. 

  It was very cold, and we were surprised Katie didn't cry.  Instead she fell asleep!

Will, Jana, me, Louisa

We stayed that first night in Orem at Will and Heather's apt.

Liam, 9 months old

Liam mostly wants to be held by his mom now, so he cried when Jacob or I tried to hold him.

Liam is one month younger than Katie, but about 3 pounds heavier.  It was cute to see them together.

We wish my parents and sister Anna could have been with us too!  I'm happy my siblings and I all get along so well.  They are some of my best friends.

Merry Christmas...

from our family to yours!

this is one of my new favorites of Katie and me

We are so thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the opportunity to celebrate his birth.  We wish you the love and joy of Christmas all year long!

Merry Christmas!

10 months old!

Wow, this year has flown by!  I'm trying to soak in every minute, especially since Katie is changing so quickly.  She is doing so many new things lately, including walking!!  She took 5 steps on her 10 month birthday!  She had been close for a while, standing up by herself for a couple of weeks.

She is looking so big next to the lamb now!

She has been waving like crazy lately and on Sunday she finally started clapping!  She clapped pretty much all through church.  I'm glad church makes her happy. :)

She also started clicking her tongue a few weeks ago.  I don't know where she learned this cause we didn't teach her.  It's so cute!  (That's what she's doing in this picture.)  She can also play peek-a-boo with us now.  It seems like she's doing all this new stuff all at once!

Her hair is getting long!  But she doesn't like to wear headbands or bows anymore.  If she was a boy, I'm sure we would have cut it by now.  I always get comments from people when we're in town about how much hair she has.

I need to get a video of her walking, but here's a picture.  Sorry it's a little blurry.  It's the best I can do with how much she moves around.  It's so hard to get her pictures lately, especially by myself. 

She brings us so much joy!

Our new niece...

Tylee May Koster

Tylee was born Dec. 10 at 2:42 am, just a few hours after Rachel and Todd left our Christmas party.  She was almost 3 weeks early, but weighed 6 lbs 15 oz.  We watched Teagan and Kaden for two days while Rachel was in the hospital.  Tylee is the first niece or nephew we've met this early!  We took the boys Saturday afternoon to meet their sister. 

Katie meeting her cousin.  I hope they'll be best friends. :)

Jacob waited a few days to hold her b/c he was still recovering from a cold. 

Here are a few more pictures I took last week when Tylee was 6 days old. 

Rachel and Todd have waited a long time for their little girl. 

sweetest Christmas present ever!

 

 

Isn't she precious?  We all love her so much already!  Welcome to the world, Tylee!

2nd Annual Christmas Party

Last year our Christmas party was so much fun that we decided to host another one.  It was a lot simpler than our Halloween party though, partly b/c no kids came (except babies). :)  Everyone brought delicious food to share and we played games and just had fun hanging out and talking.  

I'm so excited that it's Katie's first Christmas!  Not that she'll remember anything about it, but I'm still super excited.   

We made everyone kiss under the mistletoe, but I'll just show you our picture.  Aw... Are you singing Justin Bieber's song now? :) 

Lauren and Peter

Ben, Stacie, and Ada

Scott and Amy

Rachel and Todd

(Rachel was having contractions during the party and went to the hospital afterward to have her baby!!  More on that in another post.)

Haley and Matt

Heidi and me (her husband Trever was out of town)

We played a Christmas carol picture game.

a candy kiss game (had to unwrap them with oven mitts on) 

Our team (on the left) won, yay!

We drew a Christmas scene holding the paper on our heads.  It was so funny to see what everyone's pictures looked like. 

The last one was the best.  I had wrapped a gift in multiple boxes.  We took turns rolling the dice and if you rolled doubles you got to start unwrapping the gift.  But first you had to put on the coat, hat, and gloves.  I was surprised at how many people rolled doubles, which made it so sometimes you had barely put the coat on and someone else would be coming up for their turn.  We laughed so much during this game.   

Here's Amy ready to tackle Lauren for her turn, haha! 

Todd won in the end.  (Michael Buble's Christmas CD)

Thanks to everyone who came!  This month has been busy and jam-packed with parties and concerts, but I love it!