happy 2014

Winter is here. Happy belated Christmas and New Year. Our little fam is finally coming out of a fog of merry making and sickness. Yay! We had such a wonderful Christmas.  My brother was in town for the whole week and my mom stayed with us too.  We relaxed, had fun, played with the kids and then had a great Christmas dinner with our extended fam and then a Christmas day dinner with Aaron’s family. Julian loved his presents from Santa, and even kissed his little train from his new train set.  He also liked his little note from Santa. Sadly we didn't get any pics of these wonderful events but it was seriously the best Christmas I can remember and passed by like a dream.  Here are some pics of Christmas morning and of us at Temple Square.

 

After Christmas we celebrated Gretchen’s first birthday.  I felt pretty guilty that it was not more grandiose but I was burnt out! I made her a simple cake with a stick figure of an amazon on it (because that is absolutely what Gretch makes me think of) with a spear and my family was here to help celebrate.  She loved her presents and cake anyway. Julian was there to help her blow out her candles and unwrap her presents too:)

After that we celebrated my 32 birthday.  Aaron made the day SOOO special for me and it was really a wonderful birthday.  We got to see the Hobbit and did some fun shopping.  Plus my fam was so thoughtful and did some really sweet things for me.  Apart from mad sicknesses we had a very wonderful holiday.  

 

 Julian and Gretch are getting even bigger.  Before she got sick Gretch took 60 steps the day after her birthday and I thought that it would be all walking from there.  She still takes her steps but is not full on walking yet.  Her top front teeth came in (finally!) two days ago and she looks so cute and is hopefully in less pain.  She likes to say momma, dadda, bye bye, and she said hi and baby once.  She loves to point to get what she wants and does a cute little gimmie gimmie hand expression:) She also loves to throw things and wave at everyone we pass by.  Her scariest accomplishment for me is her affinity for going up and down the stairs in like two minutes.  She is so fast and her and Julian love to take all the cushions off the couch and just jump everywhere. I love my little amazon:) 

Julian is just looking more like a little boy all the time.  He continues to be more and more helpful with Gretch and seems to wrestle with her a lot less and try to make her happy when she is sad more by giving her a hug or getting her a toy or singing to her.  It is pretty sweet to see.

He LOVES his legos and trains, and cars, and playdough, and everything it seems like.  He is also great at coloring in the lines:) With being so sick we have not been able to go outside but I am looking forward to when we can, so that Julian will finally get his daily wish of playing in the snow.

 

Here's to a wonderful 2014.  We are all excited for new goals and plans for a new year and beginning!