it's too bad that vacations can't last forever.

I have been having too much fun the last few weeks to worry about blogging. Adam was able to take a week and a half off of work (with pay!) and we enjoyed every minute of it. Well... the one possible exception might be the day that we spent doing a deep clean of the apartment. Adam might not have enjoyed that quite as much as I did.
Christmas this year was fantastic.
Anicka was old enough that she remembered last Christmas and was excited for this one, and Ryker was old enough that he knew what to do with the presents that he was handed. The kids had a great time decorating the tree




Anicka was determined to wrap all of her gifts herself, this year. The only thing I was allowed to do was hand her precut strips of tape, since she still has a bit of trouble working the tape dispenser on her own.

As per tradition, we spent the night at my parent's house in Leeds. And by 'we', I mean 'everyone in the family', which is starting to become quite a feat. It's hard to sleep twelve people in a tiny, three bedroom house. But, as the saying goes, love grows best in little houses; and it's wonderful (and worth it) to have everyone together on Christmas morning.




I forgot to take pictures of most of the gifts that I made, but here are the pajamas that I made for Anicka: And the CD holder that I made for Evie's new car:

I used this tutorial from Puking Pastilles to make the CD holder.

And, lastly, here is Ryker devouring the first of about half a dozen of my mom's awesome cinnamon rolls that he ate over the course of the weekend.
Since there are already half a million pictures in this post, I will end it here and share more tomorrow.

Holiday stuffs

We have had an awesome holiday season. So awesome that I forgot to take any pictures. (Actually, we completely forgot to take the camera with us when we went out to my parents' house on Christmas Eve. ) Adam got off of work early on the 23rd and didn't have to go back to work until yesterday. And all but one day of that was paid vacation time. Awesome.

We spent Christmas Eve over at my parents house, (where it snowed! Again!) along with about half the town, who came over to eat my mom's delicious Traditional Cuban Christmas Eve Feast. I wish I had taken my camera so that I could show you how packed their house was.

We stayed the night there, and had a wonderful Christmas day together playing games and watching movies. We got home around 10:30 that night, and Anicka immediately passed out on the couch, snuggling the new puppy that Santa brought her:


We got lots of wonderful gifts from everyone. Anicka made out like a bandit, she's got so many new things to play with, she's been in heaven this last couple of weeks. She loves all of the building blocks and lincoln logs that she got, and has spent countless hours building things with her dad:




We've also played Candyland more times than I care to count.


And Ryker loves his new mobile almost as much as he loves his toes:


My favorite thing that I got was a pile of new books. I got four from Adam, two from my parents, and two from Eric. So great! Adam's favorite thing was the .38 special that my dad gave us. He can't wait to go shooting, and is planning on getting a concealed carry license for it.

The day after Christmas we spent all day at Shane and Dusty's place. We had a Settler's of Catan marathon




While Grammy crocheted

And the kids curled up on the couch and watched a movie.


Sunday we were back out in leeds because my little brother Eric (who is not so little anymore, he's turning twenty this month) was ordained an Elder! He is getting ready to go on a mission, and will be putting his papers in next month. It will be hard not to see him for two years, but I'm very excited for him to go. He will be such a great missionary.



(^those blocks are supposed to spell 'family' but we could not resist the urge to play with them.)

Monday we spent all day cleaning our disaster of an apartment and then went to the coolest park ever, on Tuesday Crystal and Tyler came out and played games with us, and oh yeah! Guess who's engaged?


Wedneday we spent the morning with Adam's parents and his sister Heidi, and the evening back out at Shane and Dusty's, where we ate lots of junk and rang in the new year. It was very exciting, 15 minutes before midnight Ryker had a blowout diaper and I had to bathe him. The rest of the week we just chilled at home. It was great. I'm really lonely now that Adam is back at work. It has been so fun having him home for almost two weeks.

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