Christmas 2013

Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year.  I love listening to Christmas music.  I love how everyone's thoughts turn away from themselves and focus on others.  I don't even mind the cold and snow this time of year.

We went and picked out our Christmas tree early this year because I was anxious to feel that holiday cheer.  Eventually we even got around to decorating it.

And yet, I still struggled to really get into the joyous Christmas spirit.  And that's because so much of what I associate with Christmas are the family traditions.  Traditions that were, in large part, established because of my dad.  And that meant that, this year, there were a lot of bittersweet memories.

We made some good new memories too though.  Leila absolutely loved seeing all of the Christmas lights (or "slights" in Leila-speak).  She would get so excited and point out all of the different colors as we were driving around.  So, one night when we needed an out, we just loaded up in the car and drove around looking at lights.

Christmas Eve, we made our way up to Bountiful to spend the evening with my dad's family.  We had our traditional meal of soup and then the "kids" all acted out the Nativity for us.  Leila was an angel and boy, did she give quite the performance!  In addition to wearing a Christmas Light necklace as a belt, she attacked the cast and audience alike with the star stick, tried to bring a Santa statue into the manger, and eventually stole one of the wise men's gifts, called it a banana a tried to eat it.  Crazy goober!

 

Unfortunately, once we got home that night, Leila started to have a really rough night.  We hardly slept at all.  Turns out she had come down with some bug that left her with a low grade fever and just not feeling well at all.  We finally got our Christmas morning going and opened presents with Aunt Jessica.  Leila got a little play kitchen and she loves getting dressed up in her apron and chef's hat!

Then, we got ready to go spend the rest of the day with at my mom's so that we could be there when our favorite missionary called!  We were able to have a WONDERFUL talk with Jared!  He has matured so much and I am just so proud of him!

Since Leila was feeling under the weather, Jason stayed home with her and I went back up to Bountiful with my family for Christmas dinner.  I am so grateful for the strong family bonds I have to rely on when I'm feeling weak on my own!

Who Do You Think I Am?--Ancestry Christmas Party

Last night, Jason and I went to the Ancestry.com Christmas party.  The theme this year was Who Do You Think I Am? (a play off of the TV show Who Do You Think You Are?), which meant masks were recommended.  Meet our version of Batman and Catwoman!

The food was New Orleans inspired, as was the entertainment with a jazz band, fortune tellers, caricature artists, and carnival performers.  Not a bad way to spend an evening out!

Thanksgiving in California

Our last vacation for 2013 was visiting with Jason's family in California for Thanksgiving.  We drove to Anaheim Sunday, miraculously missing the infamous Vegas-California Sunday traffic.  We were staying in a hotel for 2 nights and Jason was able to talk the hotel into upgrading us to a really nice suite for free!  It made breaks/sleeping with baby SO much nicer!

Monday and Tuesday were spent at Disneyland, of course.  Why else would we be staying in Anaheim? :) Jason's parents were able to come with us on Monday, making it their first experience with Leila in the park.  At the end of the night, we sent Leila home with them and Jason and I stayed to play in the parks another day.  It was Jason's first trip back since Cars Land opened, so we made sure to spend plenty of time in DCA.  It was great that we were able to see all of the Christmas decorations and shows but didn't have to deal with the crazy crowds that were sure to be there later of the week.

Yes, Leila's riding with them and she handled it better than either of them!

Tuckered out! She actually fell asleep in my arms as I was walking with her to our hotel shuttle.

The rest of our trip was spent chilling in Oceanside with the family, including Thanksgiving dinner.  We watched the sunset at the beach one night (and left with a screaming 2-year old who just wanted to swim and definitely didn't want to leave), went to a couple movies, and took some family pictures.  Such a nice, relaxing vacation!

My Little Christmas Elf!

In order to do some promoting for my Etsy shop, I decided to do a holiday dress giveaway.  That meant, I needed to make a sample dress so that people knew what they could win.  And since I have a handy (although mostly uncooperative) model on had all the time, Leila got a new dress.  I took some pictures with her in it today and have to say that I really do love this little elf of mine!

Keepers by Kaysie Launches!

After a lot of prompting from friends and family, I have officially started selling my sewing creations!  Before I left for Arizona, I was practically chained to my sewing machine, making some sample dresses to sell at a neighborhood boutique.

The boutique was yesterday, and while I only ended up selling 1 dress and 2 custom orders (which was barely enough to cover my purchases to other vendors), I still had fun with it.  Plus, the weather was GORGEOUS!  Probably one of the last really good days of the year.

I'm officially launching my Etsy shop tomorrow, so wish me luck with this new endeavor!

Halloween in Arizona

I had been wanting to make a trip down to Arizona for a while, and we were finally able to work it out to go down for Halloween.  The logistics ended up being a little crazier than originally anticipated, but it all ended up working out and I had a WONDERFUL vacation!  We drove halfway down on Wednesday after work and then the rest of the way Thursday morning.  Leila has become a great little traveler in the car.  We even switched her seat to be forward facing and she loved being able to see our the windows.

Thursday night we went trick or treating around my aunt's neighborhood with my cousin and her girls.  Sadly, I am a horrible person and didn't take my camera out at all.  But I have pretty much decided that trick or treating in Arizona is SO much better than trick or treating in Utah for several reasons.  First, no one has stairs leading up to their front door so we could just push the little ones around in the stroller and they never had to get out.  This was a huge plus for me with my spirited two year old.  Second, it was WARM!  The weather was absolutely perfect.  You could actually see the kids' costumes because they didn't have to layer up just to try and stay warm.

Unfortunately Jason had to fly out the next morning.  We arranged this little getaway so that he could go do a training course for work for a week in Vegas and I wouldn't be left home alone.  It meant he didn't get much play time with all of us, but other than that, it worked out well.

On Friday, Alicia and I loaded up all of our girls with the intention of spending some time at the Children's Museum in Phoenix.  Alicia had worked hard to get enough culture passes for us to use so that we could get in for free.  The only trouble was that we got all the way down there just to find out that it was closed for renovations!  Hailey and Aubrey were so disappointed and we found ourselves in Phoenix without a plan.  So, we settled for letting the girls play at the park for a while.  It was maybe 80 degrees outside and yet Leila's cheeks still turned bright red within minutes.  That girl does better in cooler temps, that's for sure, and she didn't get that from her mother!

After we were done at the park, we headed back home for Halloween take 2.  Rachel had planned quite the spooky party for that night complete with great food and lots of neat decorations.  Once again, I failed in the picture taking department though so you'll just have to take my word that she did a great job with it!

On Saturday Rachel, Alicia, the girls, and I made our way back into Phoenix.  This time our destination was the Phoenix Zoo.  With how much Leila is loving animals these days, it was the perfect outing for her!  This zoo was a lot bigger that Hogle Zoo and they have a petting zoo.  I think petting the goats was the highlight of Leila's day!

Sunday-Tuesday were pretty chill days filled with relaxation and good company.  And while the native Arizonans were chilled, I was enjoying the warmth knowing full well that I would be heading back to Utah where winter was settling in.  Leila also had a slight bout of something with a low fever on Monday, so it worked well that we had some time to just relax.

On Wednesday, we decided to give the Children's Museum another go and called ahead to make sure that they were open.  Unfortunately Hailey had to go to school so we ended up just taking Aubrey and Leila.  Aubrey was so sweet with Leila the whole time we were down there.  She was always asking to play with Leila and tried really really hard to get her to sit and watch movies with her (she was never successful).  So watching the two of them explore the museum together was really neat.

Thursday was another chill day and was also, sadly, our last day of vacation.  Friday morning we got up and going and I drove to Vegas where we picked up Jason before continuing home.  A huge thank you to the Sorensens and Perkins for putting up with and entertaining us for a whole week!