Christmas Break 2014

We made the long trek back west for Christmas this year. Flying with a Eva was crazy. She is just so wiggly now and we were thoroughly exhausted at the end of every flight we took. We spent 10 days in Idaho and 10 days in Colorado Springs this year. We had such a fun time with our families and miss them already!

UTAH
We did get a brief one and a half days in Utah. We didn't get to do much, but we did get to spend some time with my Grandma. She came and picked us up from the airport and let us stay at her house. While there, she gave Eva her first birthday present. She gave me the exact same thing on my first birthday and gave me the pictures to prove it.

The day after we landed, we got to see our friends the Laws and meet their little girl, Harper. She is such a doll and both Morgan and I couldn't get enough of her. Leave it up to McKell to put together a great day of activities even while recovering from labor. She is superwoman. We made gingerbread houses, ate ourselves silly and just talked and talked. It was a perfect day!

IDAHO
The annual Christensen Christmas Ball was a hit this year. We actually had about an even number of boys and girls which rarely happens. Some of my high school cousins put together big group dates for the ball so they could make sure they had dates, which is such a good idea.

Madi and Mom did the decorations and they were amazing. 

We woke up Christmas morning to a white Christmas!

Eva was obviously excited for her first Christmas. Our McConkie friends made Eva this adorable barrette. It matched her PJs and so of course we had to have her wear it Christmas morning!

Eva started off the festivities by opening the first present. She actually did an awesome job with it.

Eva also had her first birthday up in Idaho. We didn't do too much. But of course we gave her a chocolate cupcake to devour and snapped a million pictures of it.

 I love seeing those little teeth!

 They both had beards.

Also, Megan and Sam discovered that Eva has a new trick. She now loves to 'talk on the phone' and it is pretty adorable.

She will sit there with her arm like this and talk into it for a few minutes. Cutest thing ever!

All of my siblings, minus Max, were around for Christmas and it was so fun to see everyone.

COLORADO
For New Years we headed to the Springs to see Morgan's family. Aleisha and James were only overlapping our trip by three and a half days so we packed, Christmas, mine and Eva's birthdays, and a baby shower for Aleisha into that short amount of time.

We are SO excited to meet little baby McKean!

 Lots of people say Steph and Eva look a like. So, I had to snap a picture. 

Other activities in Colorado Springs included going sledding, playing SO many games, painting nails, visiting and doing puzzles. We also went to Into the Woods for my birthday and I LOVED IT! 

Now we are back to Ole Virginny. We are glad to be home, but miss the fun and family that live so far away. :( Thanks for a wonderful break!

Family Pictures 2014

We finally got our family pictures done so we can send out our Christmas cards. I had a fun time editing them!

Don't let that cute little Eva fool you. She was actually making this face for most of the pictures:

Haha…I'm glad a few turned out anyway. I love this little family of mine!

Beautiful, wonderful Virginia

I am in love with this state called Virginia! It is so picturesque with rolling green hills,

forest,

red brick buildings, historic sites,

plantations, blue ridge mountains

and everything in between. Charlottesville has just a hint of southern hospitality, enough to make the people some of the nicest friendliest people I have encountered (granted, some of this probably has to do with darling Eva).

The community here is also very family centered. There are tons of mom play groups and lots of nice parks to have said play groups. There are book clubs, babysitting co-ops and mom work out groups. There also is an entire magazine called "Charlottesville Family" that lists family friendly events each week.

The music scene is also wonderful. I am involved in the Ash Lawn Opera's production of Amahl and the Night Visitors which will be playing downtown in Charlottesville next week. I'm part of the chorus and I was very, VERY impressed with the quality of musicians that are in this community ensemble. I also have the opportunity out here to be in an 18 person religious choir. We meet at the largest Presbyterian church I have ever scene each Tuesday night and sing religious works by Rorem, Mendelssohn and others. It is fantastic and wonderfully challenging.

Let me just talk a minute now about the architecture! The homes out here are marvelous. I'm not just talking about the famous houses either. See the picture below:

This is a house we found on a walk on Sunday. Last night I went to an activity at a house that is as old as Monticello. It even has the original slave quarter stairs. It was a very neat house to explore. Earlier this year we also had dinner at a mansion on a 27 acre plot of land. Case and point, the houses out here are marvelous! 

I am grateful that I have been able to fall in love with Charlottesville so quickly. It is a wonderful place but it would be nothing if it weren't for these two.

Eva is 11 months!

11 months! I can't believe it. It seems like yesterday when we were looking forward to meeting our little lady and now she is almost a year old! New things she learned this month:

- She can stand up entirely on her own without any help
- She loves to climb the stairs
- She loves to pull anything off of bookshelves or tables
- She has learned to give kisses (so sweet)
- She loves to crawl around in circles for fun as fast as she can go
- We have a little game we play where if I get on the ground at her eye level she'll look at me and laugh and giggle as she crawls right up to my face and pushes her nose against mine. I love it.
- She loves to play the piano. When I teach lessons, she cries and cries until I hold her and let her play.
- She is a little climber. We used to put a chair in front of the stairs and in front of our bookcases, but she figured out how to climb over them.
- She absolutely LOVES to dance. She has great rhythm already and can move and clap to the beat
- She jumped from 3 teeth to 6 teeth this month

We love her so, SO much!