We started out with a few weeks of quiet after the craziness that is Thanksgiving and David finished the semester the second week of December. He only had two finals and did pretty well on them.
We went to see the Zoo Lights at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake on the 18. It was a lot of fun! It was pretty cold, but we had gotten discount admission tickets so it was worth it to us. :) Our friends Jeffery, Sierra, and Michael came with us and we were glad that they were able to make it.
Kollyn LOVED trying to touch all the lights, but especially the blue ones. :)
On the 20, David's parents flew in for the holidays and we went up to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square and met up with Karin, David, and Luke. I love getting together with them because I am excited for Kollyn to develop a relationship with her cousin. I hope she develops good relationships with all her cousins. :) We ate dinner at the City Creek Mall food court and then went across the street to Temple Square. It was a cold night, not as cold as the night at the zoo, but still pretty chilly so we all bundled up and admired the lights. :)
She and Luke had matching blankets. :)
Can't get enough of this cute girl. :)
I love Temple Square in every season, but I really do love going to see the lights in the winter. I especially love the reflecting pool all lite up with candles. :) And seeing the temple rising above it all just reminds me of how I'm so lucky to be with my family forever thanks to that beautiful place. :)
The Sunday before Christmas, the 21, we had the Christianson family Christmas party at my Gramps' house in Riverton. It's a fun time where my mom's side of the family all gets together, eats dinner, and catches up on what happened over the year. We've got several new babies that joined us this year and a few more that will be coming next year. It's fun to watch our family grow. :)
She loves to snuggle with cousin Kayla because she loves her!
We always do a family nativity scene and this year Kollyn got the be the sheep. She wasn't sure about the costume at first, but she definitely was the cutest sheep I've ever seen. :) She got to hang out with her cousin Aleah and was very interested in "baby Jesus" played by my cousin's little boy. It was fun to watch her react to everything since last year she was only 3 weeks old and was a little overwhelmed by everything.
Christmas Eve was spent at Karin and David's house. We love going up there for Christmas Eve because David's family (Karin's in-laws) get together there and they have some really fun traditions that we love being able to be a part of. They do the Journey to Bethlehem where you travel around the house as if you're going to Bethlehem. We eat dinner at "Jerusalem" which is always a great meal, and then reenact the nativity scene once we've made it all the way to the end of the journey. David and I plan on having that be a part of our Christmas Eve traditions as well because it helps us focus on the reason that we celebrate, which is the birth of Christ. And it's so much fun to get together as family on that night and have a good time.
I love watching these two play together. They are only a couple months apart in age and so they're pretty close to the same in play and everything, which is awesome. They share toys, jabber to each other, and just have a blast playing together. Luke is such a camera lover I've noticed. He loves to smile whenever I pull out my camera and it's adorable.
The Journey to Bethlehem. Kollyn was the donkey/cow. :) She was, again, the cutest little farm animal to ever step foot on the Earth. :)
Seriously, how cute are these two!?
Opening her Christmas Eve Box. She got Puffs, the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and a new set of pajamas, BatGirl of course, to match David's, but he wasn't wearing his for the pictures.
David's parents joined us for Christmas Eve as well. :) It was a lot of fun getting together as a family.
Isn't she the cutest little super hero ever? "Mom, no more pictures, I have snacks to save!"
We stayed the night at Karin and David's house (thanks again for letting us!) and opened presents there that morning. Kollyn still didn't really understand the whole, unwrapping presents thing, but she did like getting things out of her stocking!
She got a Frozen plate! It's her favorite movie, though she likes a lot of movies as long as there's catchy music.
I made her a new blanket, it's bigger than most of her current ones and it's softer and warmer, which is perfect for the crazy winter we've been having. She also LOVES that soccer ball. Luke liked it too according to Karin.
She got new Velcro shoes, since those are the kind she likes the most. She has a pair that she wears all the time and will bring them to me whenever she doesn't have them on and not leave until I put them on her, then she goes to the stairs and acts like she wants to go outside. :) This girl loves her shoes, and the outside, but not so much the cold. :)
She also got a bucket and her own tubes of chapstick since she loves carrying her Halloween bucket around with stuff in it. This one is smaller though so she's able to carry it around a lot easier. She also loves trying to steal my chapstick so now that she has her own, hopefully that won't happen as much.
I also made David a blanket because he wanted another one. This one is a little bit bigger than the Batman one I made him last year, which makes it perfect for cuddling.
Her Aunt Carlee Dynes made these awesome moccs for her! They fit perfectly and are SO cute!!!
More pictures of these cute ones together. They swap toys and like to eat lunch together. In the top picture, he's got her water cup and she has his binky. :) They love to jabber to each other while they eat. It makes me think that they're having very interesting conversations that we will never know about.
She is such a ham! She loves posing and making faces to make people laugh. If you laugh at anything, she starts laughing and keeps doing it to keep you laughing. :) The top picture is her current favorite face to make. She breathes through her nose and scrunches everything up while breathing really hard. It's so cute!
After spending the morning and early afternoon with Karin, David, and Luke, we went over to my sister Melissa's house to spend the rest of the afternoon with my family. My parents, my sister Julena (she flew in from Oklahoma), my sister Erika and my brother-in-law Steve (they flew in from California), and us met at Melissa's house, ate dinner, opened some presents, and had a really fun time. Melissa gave us the game Dominion, which we are really excited to try, and a book of date ideas, since we aren't the best at coming up with date ideas. :) I love it!
Cousin Kayla got a bunny and Kollyn was interested, but was happy to be interested from the safety provided by Aunt Erika.
Chilling with Aunt Beany (Julena) while we all kind of gather for presents.
Aunt Erika knows exactly how to spoil this girl. She has a love of stuffed animals that I've never seen before so this stuffed dog from Erika has become one of the new favorite toys around this house. She loves it and wants to take it with her everywhere. :)
We left Melissa's house earlier than we had planned because the snow was really coming down and they weren't plowing the roads in Orem very well. We had gotten one or two tiny little snows all winter and on Christmas Day it decides to snow about 3 inches. :) At least we got a white Christmas. Didn't feel like the Christmas season with no snow. My car didn't have snow tires on it, but it's the one we drive because Kollyn's car seat doesn't fit in David's coup very well. So we were afraid we wouldn't make it home. Thanks to David's good driving and I'm pretty sure some help from the other side, we made it up the hill at 800 North in Orem, almost didn't because the guy in front of us kept going slower and slower and slower so we almost didn't make it to the top, without sliding much at all. We made it home and decided it was time for snow tires on my car. :)
Friday, the 26, we drove up to Midway to my parent's house for the Bonner family party. There had been some confusion as to what was going on, but it was all sorted out and we had a lot of fun. Kollyn loved playing with her cousins and eating good food. She got some new bath toys from Santa's elf that knocked on the door giving everyone presents, and has loved them very well since then. :) I'm sad I didn't get any pictures on my camera, but it was a fun day and I was glad to spend it with my family since Laura and her family drove up from Cedar to be there. :)
On New Year's Eve we went up to my parent's house to spend the night. We played some games, watched Netflix, and ate junk food, which tasted amazing. David drove back down to our house on New Year's Day in the morning because he was getting a bunch of his friends together for a big day of video games since he starts school tomorrow for his last big and intense semester. He had a lot of fun and I had fun with my parents, watching Netflix, and helping my mom set up a blog (you should definitely check it out. It's Gramee's Natural Health and Living Hints on Blogger). I'll link it later. :)
All in all, this has been a pretty exciting month for us. David spent the 22 counting inventory at work and even though he didn't love it, it was still a fun day for him because he got free lunch out of it. I swear he gets free lunch a lot. :) He has been guaranteed a full-time buyer position on this semester is finished, which is a huge weight off our shoulders, and he is starting to get the attention of some of the higher-ups because he's able to fix a lot of the problems that they've been dealing with over there. It's been a good job for him, he's excited to continue in it, and it's giving him great experience; something that is always good to have.
We are loving life, living it, and trying to make the most of every moment. :) Thanks for reading. That was a lot of words right there at the end. :)
Love you all!
