Christmas Eve / Christmas Day * Long Post

We started our Christmas Extravaganza off by spending Christmas Eve with Carter's family at his brother Taylor's house. Something to smile at: Savannah playing RockBand with her aunts and uncles.

Aunt Lesli adjusted the straps so this guitar fit her just right. How cute, right?

She got a play microphone from Grandma Barbara, so hopefully now she won't be a "mic hog".

She LOVED the drums! I always have wanted to play the drums, so maybe she gets that from me. She was rocking out pretty good at them.

Carter and I played (because Savannah was completely occupied with RockBand= Mommy & Daddy can actually DO something besides chase her all over Taylor's house) one of our favorite games, Ticket to Ride, with Steven, Shelby and Larissa.



We left the Cherry clan around midnight and had to come home and "help" Santa put a kitchenette together. That was fun, not too terribly difficult. Halfway through putting it together, we decided to put "Elf" in and watch something. We finished our work and finished watching "Elf", had some cocoa and then opened our presents. Carter thought Christmas morning should be all about Savannah. And good thing, because she took forever! We went to bed at 3:30 am and got up at 7:30 am. Nice.

What it looked like Christmas morning.

Savannah playing with her kitchenette and food for the first time. She LOVED that the stove made boiling and frying sounds.

Opening her stocking and realizing there was candy in it, AND that we were going to let her have some right then!

Enjoying some Andes mints, with a sweet grin. Apparently she loves Andes Mints, because I couldn't even tell you how many she has eaten since then.

Most of the pictures are the same. Savannah looking down or away so I'm only posting one of her opening a gift. She was so terribly distracted by all the gifts and new things that it took forever to open them all and we had to beg her to open more! She wasn't all too happy about leaving to go over to my families after this, but eventually we got out of the door.

If you didn't know or don't live in Utah, we got a TON of snow before Christmas and on Christmas Day. So annoying. Anyway, we were a little worried about the "conditions" on Christmas. Getting to my family's house wasn't too bad. A little slow but clear enough. Until....we got to there track of homes. Let's just say that a Mazda 3 is not going to get up a street with a foot or so of snow, when it's not plowed. We got stuck and spent about 20 minutes trying to get up the rest of the street and into there driveway. Dad out there with the snow blower and everyone else with shovels. Lovely!

Eventually we made it inside and started the presents. It took Savannah awhile over there too, because once she opened a few, she wanted to play with them and run around.

After we finished with gifts, we hung out for a little while and tried to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. It was STILL snowing and we were worried about getting stuck again. Carter went out and shoveled for like an hour or so. We had a nice dinner around 3-3:30 and then decided we'd head out to see Marley and Me at 4:30. Well....the street wasn't going to make it that easy for us. We all got stuck that time. Us twice, my parents once. My parents really couldn't even get too far from the driveway, so after trying to get them out, they opted to stay. Eventually we got out and we made it to the movie, just on time. Savannah was OK during the movie, when it was all about the puppy, but other times not so much. We headed home and just hung out for the rest of the evening.

I wanted to take photos of ALL the stuff we got, so the next 3 photos are that.

Carter and I got lots of movies, some clothes, baby clothes (so cute), gift cards and a hutch for the kitchen. I'll have to post a pictures of that when we paint it.

Savannah, of course, got stinking spoiled. Baby stuff galor, a kitchenette and food, coloring books, books, clothes, and much more.

At the end of the day a dirty face and messy hair really doesn't matter when you have a cute outfit on.

We had a very nice Christmas and hope that everyone else did too!

I guess we've been good little boys and girls

Because we got a special visit from Santa the Sunday before Christmas. We went over to my parents house for dinner and right after getting there, we heard a knock on the door and saw some sort of red figure. We opened the door and there was Santa. Bag full of gifts and all. He must have come to see Savannah before Christmas, but unfortunately, he wasn't received too well by Miss Savannah.

She was very scared and didn't even want to look at him or even take a present from him. Poor thing. Someday this will excite her.

I don't think you're supposed to put your kids through traumatic things, but I tell you, this was pretty funny.

Even once Santa left the house, if we mentioned him, she would get this terrified look on her face like, "Is he still here?"

As I sit here and look at this baby ticker, I think, "116 days to go." Roughly. This is crazy to me. I sure am having fun finding cute little boy outfits though, and at great deals. Well...I made it through this hectic week, albeit, today I am pooped. This week I'm only working Monday and Tuesday, and then enjoying the rest of Christmas. I still have stuff to finish, but it should get done. This weeks weather was not fun at all, as on Tuesday it took me 2 hours to get to work! When it should take maybe 35-40. Everywhere was a stinking parking lot. I could have just called it good and turned around and gone home, although that probably would have taken just as long, but I toughed it out and reminded myself of our goals. Work has been sooo busy that it makes the day go by so much faster and I actually feel like I'm doing something. Savannah has been pulling the "Pleeeaaasseee"' lately. It's so funny. Even in the last 5 minutes, she just SENT Carter downstairs, saying, "I want snacks...fruit snacks...Pleeaasee.", then, "I want water...Pleeeaassee." She says goodnight to the baby every night and a lot of the time says, "See you tomorrow/later." Other than that, she really isn't fazed by it yet. I guess my stomach isn't big enough to make her think anything yet. And I am grateful for that. The big stomach part. I still can't believe this year is almost over and that Christmas is this week. I'm so excited for Savannah though and Christmas morning. Fun fun. Well, I must go switch over the laundry and DO some other things. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a really fun week.

Running out of Time

I'm not sure where this month went. There is only 7 days until Christmas, and only 6 of them are available shopping days for me. Even less if you consider all of the things I have to accomplish. I really shouldn't even be taking the time to write this post. I haven't felt this busy in a long time. At least it makes the time go by fast. I'm working; Carter's working. And both our places of work are CRAZY right now. Our car needs a serious oil change, but do I have time to take it down there, no. I still have Christmas shopping to do, presents to make/finish/wrap/put together, etc. I haven't seen Savannah a whole lot lately, which makes me sad, but at least I know she's in good hands with family. Well, I've seen her, but haven't really "been" with her. I can't believe this year is ending and so abruptly I feel like. Where has time gone? Don't get me wrong, if the next 4 months could go this fast, I would be okay with that. It's still surreal to me that I'm 5 1/2 months pregnant already. Crazy. I'm feeling pretty good though so that's a plus right now. Well, as I shouldn't have even taken the time to write all this jumble, I must now go take a shower and get ready for another crazy day tomorrow.

Oh, this picture of Savannah was the other day when I put her hair in sponge rollers. I can't even describe how adorable she looked! I have other pictures, but one will have to do.

My babygirl is not a baby anymore. And this picture is proof.

Santa Is Nice

"Santa Is Nice." This is what we told Savannah as we were prepping her to meet him last Saturday. Carter would lift her up so she could see him with other kids, and she didn't seem afraid. I mean, we're not stupid, we knew it might happen. And it did. The pictures speak for themselves.

So today I was at a different mall and I took Savannah over for a glimpse of Santa. I was totally annoyed as I watched this Santa. He was like waving/ushering the kids in and was so fake. I couldn't really hear him, but his body language was so disturbing to me. It was like, Ok, sit on my lap, take a picture, get off my lap, wave the next ones in. Come on. This is a magical, or supposed to be magical time of the year, and having a crappy Santa is lame.

Cookie Mania

Last Friday we hosted a Cookie Baking/Making party with Carter's Family. It was a lot of fun. We had pizza first and then got busy with the cookies. We had some pre-made cookies to start frosting right away and then I made some sugar cookies and Barbara made some gingerbread cookies. Savannah helped with those, including eating lots of them! Here are a few pics from that fun night.

The apron Savannah is wearing was mine when I was a kid and I had lots of extras, even for Acacia.

Some of the cookies.

Of course there were giggles of laughter too!

My Mom and I had a baking day yesterday too. We made like 5 different cookies/bars. They all looked great and like everything turned out right, until I started to cut some of them. Oh my gosh, some started to just fall apart. Especially the Rocky Road Brownies. We made those and Crispy Smore's Bars, Seven Layer Bars, Toffee and Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. We made them remarkably fast and Savannah was so good. She watched lots of movies and I was just fine with it for a day.