Christmas with the Glovers

For some reason that I'm too tired to figure out, these pictures won't be moved around. So, they are all backwards, sorry.


We spent Christmas Eve with Aaron's family (pictures to come, my camera died and the charger is at my mom-in-law's house), and all day on Christmas with my family. We started off with a big breakfast, then opened our gifts, had the Grandstaff's over, and finished off with a big dinner, games, and more presents. After the Grandstaff's left we watched The Nativity Story (which we LOVED) and finally went to bed at about 12:30. Wht a lovely perfect day... Praise God for the comforts of family and friends in the celebration of the greatest gift ever given, Jesus Christ, our Lord.



Esther wearing Kaden's Columbia hat, and playing with her new bath toys and mirror from the Grandstaff's.

Darling girl in her new Christmas red outfit from Grandma Book.

Playing with daddy after a long day of eating wrapping paper. :)

Essie's new gardening tools from Great-Grandpa John and Great-Grandma Juanita.

Mom made Vanessa and I each two aprons, one reversable, and one waist apron. Love 'em!

Esther loved opening gifts. She's a paper monster so she's had lots of practice ripping stuff. :)

Essie loved Grandma's new umbrella almost as much as she did herself.

Daddy helping Esther open new books from Grandma and Grandpa.

Essie helping Grandma open her umbrella.

"Oh Christmas Tree"

Here's some recent photos from Thanksgiving Day (we're at the school by our house):

Essie swinging with Grandma Book

Tristan and Andrew

Susan and Aaron

Grandma Book reading to Esther

***

We decided to start a new Christmas tradition this year: cut down our own Christmas tree. There were multiple reasons, including my NEED to have a real tree, Aaron's frugality (it only costs $10, as opposed to $60 or $70 from a tree lot), and we both thought it'd be a fun memory for our kids . We went with my parents, who also cut down their own (for Vanessa's sake). It was lots of fun and Esther LOVED tromping through the woods. We packed a picnic and spent the whole day together. It was a challenge to find the kind of tree we wanted (fir) since there were mostly ponderosas, and of the few firs we did find not many were under 12', which is the height limit. But, we did find some. (Note for next year: Take measuring tape. A tree in the forest looks MUCH smaller than the same tree in your living room!) I think we had to cut 3' off of ours because it was too big around at the bottom, it took up nearly half of our living room.

Our tree, probably just about 12' from the ground.

Aaron dragging our tree to the truck.

Esther, looking darling in her *very* pink (and very large) snowsuit.

Daddy adoring his little girl.

Mom and Dad with their tree. Yeah, hello! The top was like 3' out of the picture! What were we thinking?!?

***

And just for fun:

Esther LOVES her daddy! He plays with her and reads to her when mommy's too tired. :)

My darling little family. I love them both so much!

I love the look on Esther's face in this one, my face, not so much. :)

Esther's favorite thing to do is take toys out of something, or the DVDs out of the basket, or really take anything out of it's container and sprawl it's contents on the floor.

Essie holding her bottle with her hands and feet. :)

More videos for you Vanessa!

a couple of cute videos, in which my voice sounds horribly high pitched...

Thoughts of today...

...I hate voting. But I do the research and go because it matters. If someone like me, who really cares what happens in our local and federal government, hates voting, then why does it always surprise me that voting rates are so low?

...It's Aaron's birthday this weekend, and I'm making raspberry cheesecake. We're going to his Mom's house for lasagne even though he really wanted corned beef and cabbage. Oh well, it's gonna be a blast. I love my mother-in-law. :)

...I'm finally back to pre-prego size, but 7 pounds heavier still. Does that matter, or does size count more? I can't find time to buy more clothes, even though Aaron gave me permission to do it. Grrr...

...I can't fight the urge to decorate for Christmas, and ever since I learned that you can go cut down any tree in the nat'l forest that you want for $10 I have wanted to go get one. I don't think I can make it last for two months though.

...Must start on Christmas gifts. I have the best intentions every year of getting on top of this, but I still have no idea what to get for about half of my family. It helps that I've decided to only gift family members though. It takes a lot of stress off. I know that I don't expect anything from friends, so why do I feel like they do from me? They probably don't, so I'm going to assume that. Whew...

Esther Update!

So first, some pictures that my "grandpa" John took for me:

So, in the past two months my little one has gone from lying on her back most of the time, depending on me to feed her, and being pretty much content to be silent... to a sitting, climbing, crawling, bottle-holding, self-feeding, noisy bearer of two sharp teeth. Wow... babies are amazing. They change so much, so fast. It's so exciting to see her discovering new things seemingly everyday. Here's some new pics and videos:

Esther, feeding herself.

Goblin noises

Bed-head!

Esther hanging out with friends, Danya and Shea

Esther's first trip up little cottonwood canyon.

My favorite series:

Esther crawling and climbing steps! :)

That's all for now!

Summer Goals

Well, I did it. I set goals for myself this summer, and I accomplished them! What a great feeling. I read both A Tale of Two Cities, and Anna Karenina. I painted my kitchen cupboards white, and my main living area off-white. I found new curtains for the back door, and now like my curtains for the front windows (thanks to the wall color), thereby saving me the chore of having to sew some new ones. And, I ran my half-marathon. Whew!

So, the only thing I didn't accomplish was the weight-loss I had anticipated during my half marathon training. I was aiming for 15 lbs. and I lost 8 lbs. But still, I lost 8 pounds! I'm still 5-10 away from my prepregnancy weight, but I've learned a few things. First of all, that I didn't know how to lose weight. Well, actually, I think everyone KNOWS how to lose weight. You have to take in fewer calories than you use up. I had always thought, well, you eat healthy food and you exercise, right? WRONG. I've done that my whole adult life. That's how you MAINTAIN your weight. LOSING is different. Losing means measuring out everything you eat so you know exactly how many calories you're eating, and then exercising to come out at the end of the day with a calorie deficit. NOT FUN. I realized that up until now I had been exercising to EARN my extra calories (like, butter, and lattes, and french fries, for example). I'm a master at weight maintenance, I know exactly what I have to do at the gym to pay for what I eat, and that's why I exercise... so I can EAT. :)

Needless to say, that's been difficult for me to learn. But, hey, if I can be back down in my comfort zone (3-5 lbs away) by Esther's 9 month mark (Halloween) I will consider my efforts a success. 9 months up, 9 months down. And then I can go back to the GLORIOUS world of maintenance. :)

Before the race, cold but dry.

Coming up on mile 10, warmed up but soaking wet. :)

The kitchen, I love it!

My new paint and decor. I'm thrilled with the plant shelves, they have been such a pain try to figure out. If we ever have a different house, no plant shelves!

And, a preview of what is to come: an update on my favorite little person!