Holidaze

Just catching up a little from the holidays! After our triip to Utah, we got to have Thanksgiving weekend with Devan's parents. Nicole had a lot of fun playing blocks, rocking and playing peek-a-boo with Grandma Baker!

The day after Thanksgiving, rather than shopping we got to go for a little walk around Ft. Lewis. It was really cold, but nice to be outside in the sunshine!

The next day we went for a hike with our anniversary buddies, Sarah and Ty! We hiked up to Little Si, and Nicole did pretty well for the most part.

Of course, after Thanksgiving is when you start celebrating the Christmas season. It was kind of a busy and stressful time for us, as Devan was in charge of the ward Christmas Party. It was fun, but so nice when it was all over! Devan did a great job of putting it on and getting everything to go off without a hitch! We still managed to get some good holiday traditions kept, though. First up, we went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens with our friends the Hartmans, Sanders, and Crooks. Again, it was pretty chilly, but Nicole enjoyed seeing the lights.

We went to the Bellevue Festival of Nativities, which was beautiful as always. Paul and RaeAnn, with Brynley, got to portray Mary and Joseph in a live nativity there. And then we dressed up their other daughters and cousins and we got a nice big live nativity going :)

Of course, I had to have Nicole visit Santa at the mall. I'm pretty proud of myself for getting her to smile for this picture!

Our Christmas tree had a little bit of a rough start, as the trunk was too narrow for our tree stand! After 3 attempts, Paul gave us a tree stand that would work! Not gonna lie, I was pretty proud of myself for getting the tree up and decorated all by myself! And all during Nicole's nap!

Nicole visited Santa at the ward party, too!

 The Arnesen family get together is always a good time, and always lasts well into the night. I didn't get too many pictures, but we of course had our annual family band, Nicole danced for the family for her talent, and we read the Christmas story from the Bible, opened presents, ate great food and had a really great time. My sister made jammies for all the cousins, which I'm always so impressed with! She also finished all the family pictures from our family growing up, which took so many hours to get them all scanned, tagged and put together. Someday I hope to be like my sister. I look up to her so much!

Christmas day was really nice and low key. We opened presents with Nicole, ate some delicious stuffed French toast with our neighbors, visited some family, and relaxed with the fire in the fireplace. Loved it after all the craziness of the season!

One final picture, Nicole's first time in the snow on New Year's Day! Nicole liked walking around in the snow, but wasn't a fan of being restricted in the backpack while we snowshoed. Plus, it was pretty darn cold. But, we learned some things, and consider it a relatively successful first snowshoe outing with our daughter!

We had a great holiday season, and are having a great 2016 so far!