The joy of being a Costco member. Recently we bought gas around $1.70/gal (maybe less). I never imagined seeing the day of such cheap gas in my adult life.
Christmas morning. Lets be honest--it's nice waking up in our own bed and kind of just lounging around on Christmas. Madison came into our room around 7:30. I went into the kitchen and made an orange cranberry loaf (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cranberry-Orange-Loaf/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=orange%20cranberry%20loaf&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page&soid=sr_results_p1i1) for breakfast. Then we talked about the nativity with Madison using hand puppets I made. She pretty much kept yelling "Santa Santa" the whole time, which was interesting since she never really said Santa unless she saw a book. Then we went into the living room and opened gifts. Madison's favorite of the day was play doh from her stocking. She didn't even think twice about the baby bed Tyler made the day before or really anything else. She even lost interest in opening her gifts and had to resume the job later in the day. She does play with most things she received. Our bread was cooked right upon us finishing with the gifts. After some breakfast we went outside and played in the snow. It was the first real snow of the season. Madison loved making snow angels and riding in our laundry basket...she did face plant it in the snow at one point when Tyler turned too quickly. It was a really nice day. The next morning we left early early to drive to LA. If I can get some pictures, I will post more about the trip.
Tylers creation from old wood pieces in our garage. I painted it around 10/11 pm Christmas Eve. It didn't receive quite the recognition and excitement I was hoping from Madison...next year, less gifts.
Potato soups in bread bowls. I enjoyed it and would do it again.
Madison reading and feeding her baby.
Chicken fajitas for the sister missionaries.
This past Wednesday Madison and I went down to meet up with my family in Provo as Gillian was entering the MTC. Madison was so excited to see grandma. I'm a little surprised at how attached she is to grandma and grammy. She wants to visit them and talk to them on the phone all the time. As a side note, grandma and grammy are often to be blamed for our dirty house and for every "owie" Madison gets. The whole car ride to Provo I had to listen to Madison talk about wanting to see grandma. Naturally my parents hit up the BYU bookstore (Gillian wanted to say goodbye to people there.). I guess it's no surprise that my dad picked up some obscure books from the religion department that can't be found anywhere else. My mom read a bunch of books to Madison.
So long Gillian. Hope your companions don't drive you crazy. I was impressed when Brent showed up from Rexburg to say goodbye. Brent's good about stuff like that. After lunch and saying goodbye, I took everyone to the Bean museum. They redid it while back while we were in Logan, and it is really nice now. Madison actually did a great job at naming the animals--elephants, zebras, giraffes. Her favorite part of the Bean museum is going down the tree slide in the back corner. She liked to sit at the top of the slide and back up the line with impatient little kidos.
My mom bought Madison some Little Critter books for Christmas. I think this book is very appropriate for Madison these days as she wants to do everything herself. It drives me a little crazy sometimes. No, I'm not interested in waiting 20 minutes just so Madison can put her diaper on herself.
She wanted to get the grapefruit out of the peel all by herself.
As Madison would say, "Grammy's boots." Not only are they cute, but super warm. Thanks grammy.
A favorite book (of many might I add) of Madison's.
Last night she was playing with the broom when she decided she wanted to go flying. Getting some practice.
After a night she decided she was proficient enough to take on passengers.
I'm not sure where she picked this up, but she has started playing hide and seek. Still needs to work a bit on the hiding aspect, and not responding when people call out for her. She had lots of fun hiding and finding.
We need to work on the counting a bit. She seems to have something against the number four.
