Jer and Stef: 2012

This post has been the bane of my existance..(if you haven't notice from the shortage of posts in the last 6 months) but now its done and I'm ready to move on and catch up! In November Jeremy and I both got smart phones, so I had to re-organize the way I organize photo files and post them and save them and blog them etc etc. Once I figured that out and got them all merged so to speak, I completed this post and deleted it all at once. So now, here "again" is the end of the year.

Christmas Morning at Grandma Carol's. We had to do the traditions of waiting at the top of the stairs, going down in age order, and getting pictures all before seeing what Santa left. Zak was a big help holding Quincy!

Since Grandma Carol just got home from rehab for MAJOR back surgery her present was a reach and grab tool.

After some playing we had Christmas morning number two at Gillespie's.

Grandpa Jeff made this bunk bed for the dolls Ellia and Ashlyn got, but when they opened it Ellia said, "A bed for Quincy...TWO beds for Quincy!"

Ashlyn got a doll with eyes that open and close when you tilt her and she called it her rock and roll doll. Later when Ashlyn said she was asleep Ellia said, " She's not asleep Ashlyn (pause) the one eye on my side is open."

Ellia was full of laughs. While Gunner was playing a tabletop pin ball machine he lost the ball and Ellia said, "Sh**" I overheard but wasn't sure if I had heard correctly, then Gunner asked, "What did you say Ellia?"She responded with, "When that happens you say, SH**." Oh what a little talk we had.

I guess Ashlyn had her quotes too. Like when Lia knocked on her chest and she said, "Hey, I'm not a houses." Then when she was mad at Ellia for not playing right she shouted, "I'm not being your daddy!"

The family got a Wii so Jeremy spent a lot of time teaching Ellia to play the princess game on Gunner's "Megabed."

The next day we had the Collings Cousin party. The kids were getting a little worn out at this point...but they lasted longer than last year. On the car ride up the canyon while playing with some toys Ashlyn told Ellia, "That's garbage." Ellia: "No, its not." Ash: "yes it is" and back and forth until finally Ellia said, "It's not garbage its recycling."

Jace loved the action figures gift we chose for him.

but Ellia was more excited about the hug.

Cole was happy with his set of Army men and scenery.

and of course Quincy was speechless after seeing her gifts.

After the party we wanted to take the big girls out to play in the snow, so fortunately grandma Carol was the best napping buddy around...she's pretty imobile at this point.

They played with all the sand toys we could get our hands on and I tried to build a fort with the sand bucket, but Ellia wasn't interested for very long.

Of course Jeremy teaches them to throw snowballs and guess who gets the most thrown at them. Yup, yours truly.

Can't have a Christmas Utah trip without sledding. It was bitterly cold so Ashlyn didn't last long, but Ellia was a champ! She kept going and going and even lasted until cousins arrived about 40 minutes later.

Waiting out the cold.

I am also getting really excited to have the girls old enough to share in some of my favorite snow activities, like Cross Country Skiing and Ice Skating. We tried both in the same day (and then Jeremy even took Ellia sledding again.)

They were good sports but Ashlyn didn't last too long. She was more entertained by the big icicles. Ellia really started getting the hang of it though and kept saying, "one more time, one more time."

Taking a lego break.

Ice Skating was a much harder concept. Ash lasted about 5 minutes and Ellia was less than motivated, but by the time we left she was doing much better.

So beautiful.

Our last stop of the day was for a little self guided tour of the Homestead Crater. The girls were impressed with it but I think they would have been a little nervous swimming...not to mention disliking the required life vests.