Now that it's February, how about some Christmas Pictures?

Yes, I know that Christmas is long gone but I still wanted to share pictures of all the fun we had! It's kind of fun reliving all the good memories and making it feel like we just saw everyone.

This year we were lucky enough to see everyone on each side of the family, except one brother on each side. My younger brother is on his mission and Scott's older brother is in New York doing his medical internship and did not have more than one day off for Christmas. We hopped on a plane on Dec. 16th and headed for New Mexico. After a very long day we made it to Scott's parents home at about 11PM. Which was 1AM New York time. The girls did very well for having traveled since 9AM that morning. They were happy to see Grandpa Asay waiting to greet them at the airport. After driving to their house, the girls were very happy to find nice warm beds and settle for the night. Allison took a good week and a half, before she wanted to sleep past 5:30, so we had earlier mornings than we were used to at home. We got to enjoy a few days in New Mexico with just Grandma and Grandpa Asay, and Great-Grandma Evelyn Asay, before anyone else arrived. The girls loved spending time with their grandparents and doing fun new things. Christmas Eve morning, Michelle, Andrew and their baby (who we had only seen pictures of) Amelia had a really rough-long day and 1/2 of travel, but arrived safely. The girls were very excited to meet one of the newest cousins. Let's just say that they were maybe a little too interested in Amelia, so she was held the majority of the time. On Christmas morning, Matt and Lisa flew in and we were finally all together to start celebrating Christmas. After a few days with everyone together and lots of fun, and not enough sleep, we all headed back to the airport.

Our longest travel day started on Jan. 7th. We left for the airport at 8:30 that morning. Upon arriving at the airport, we discovered that our second flight had already been canceled, because of weather related issues. We still flew into Chicago and were surprisingly able to land, with all the snow coming down. The snow was really coming down and we were able to get on an earlier flight to DC. We had a few hours before our flight to Albany, so we got something to eat before heading to our next gate. We were waiting at our gate, and were supposed to be boarding our plane, when they announced that the plane had not yet arrived from it's previous destination. The estimated a wait of about 30 minutes. Well, it ended up being more like an extra hour and a half. So, we didn't even board until 11PM. Yeah, the girls were done and tired. We would have let them take naps if we knew that we were not leaving until 11, but since we were supposed to leave at 9, we'd kept them awake. Once we finally boarded the plane, Allison (thankfully) fell asleep quickly and Evelyn just sat on my lap and snuggled me, but the crazy girl never fell asleep. Once we landed in Albany, we got off the plane, went to get our luggage and realized that our two big bags had not made it. While I sat with the girls and the carry-on luggage that had made it, Scott tried to figure out where our luggage was. He filed the claim and they said that it had not made it out of Chicago on time, because it had waited for the flight that we were supposed to have taken and it was cancelled. Luckily we took the earlier one and didn't end up stuck in Chicago. We finally made it to the van and left the airport at 1:30AM. Had one of our original flights not been cancelled, we would have been pulling up at our house at 1:30, but instead we were just leaving Albany. The girls fell asleep quickly and the 3 hour drive turned into a 3 hour and 45 minuted drive. The weather the last hour and a half was snowy and there were no plows out in the middle of the night. We got home at 5am and put the girls to bed and went to bed ourselves, for a few hours. The next morning, Scott was able to sleep until about 11. We both had colds and it took a good few days of going to bed early and sleeping in as long as possible, for us to stop feeling like zombies. Well, we're back to normal and now Scott's just busy in his next semester of School and we are waiting for the end of March to add a new daughter to our family.

We celebrated Christmas morning at home a couple days before we left New York. The girls of course loved opening up presents. They enjoyed getting a new toy kitchen and toy food, that was set up in their toy room. The got some fun gifts from my parents and really loved opening presents before church this Sunday morning. They love having a little table that is just their size in their toy room. They've started playing doctor with their dolls and they'll lay them on the table and give them shots and listen to their hearts and things. It's pretty cute!

Grandpa's yard has some pretty amazing soil that I think we need to get her in New York. Once this summer, after returning from working in our garden, we were on Skype with Grandpa. He asked Evelyn what she grew in her garden. When she told him the about the boring lettuce, beans, squash... that we were growing, he told her about his special garden that grows ice cream. She etched that little bit of info in her stone memory and was very excited to visit Grandpa and see the ice cream growing in his garden.

Look what she dug up out of the dirt in Grandpa's special garden while we were there. I'll try to get the video of her actually digging it up, to upload.

After a while and Evelyn had not forgotten about the ice cream, Scott's dad sent the picture below for Evelyn.

Snowman attempt number 2 in New Mexico. This one at least had a body for his head to rest on. Perfect sized little snowman for two cute little girls.

Evelyn really wanted to help Grandpa shovel the snow. Grandpa found an old shovel in the garage and let her help. Surprisingly, it looks like she was actually removing snow from the sidewalk and throwing it off to the side.

The highlight of each morning was going out to the chicken coup and gather the chicken's eggs. Allison had a really hard time waiting until after 10 o'clock, which is when they usually laid. She wanted to go out first thing when she woke up. Grandpa brought the chicken in one morning for the girls to pet. They thought that was pretty cool.

I don't have this picture, but another day when he brought the chicken in, Andrew was holding it and it pooped on his pants and shoe. That was pretty funny.

Evelyn has really come a long ways in her fear of animals. She was nervous at first, but she ended up liking to pet the chicken. Since then she's also pet a dog at the store and a snake at the Science Center. Luckily she was opposed to having the snake around her neck (since that would have grossed her mother out).

We went to a Museum of play and This is a cool building that Scott built.

They had some fun face paints. They looked like crayons, but when you dipped them in water, they'd paint on faces. Evelyn wanted me to paint a flower on her cheek. Of course after I was done, she insisted on her painting a flower on my cheek.

The girls had fun climbing around in this climbing structure.

Of course they found the water and of course, even with the smock, Allison soaked herself.

I got the hula-hoop bubble pretty high before it popped this time.

Fun little triangle-mirror tunnel that Allison was pretty tripped out walking through the first time.

A highlight of New Mexico that Evelyn has been looking forward to for a long time is having grandpa take her flying. She thought it was pretty cool that in Grandpa's little plane, you have to wear head phones and talk into a microphone. She made sure to point out that you only get to do that in grandpa's little plane, not on the other big planes.

She thought it was pretty cool that they got to fly over the car that Grandma, Allison and I were in. They flew low enough that Allison actually spotted the plane before Grandma or I did. Allison was so excited to see a plane and Evelyn was excited to be up in the plane with Grandpa and daddy.

We found a little hill at the park to take the girls sledding at. It was the perfect sized little hill. The sled was light enough to throw up the hill so that they girls could more quickly take turns sledding down. They thought it was pretty great!

I could not keep Evelyn from trying to eat the snow, so I decided to just take pictures of it, instead of trying to stop it.

Allison's first time sledding. She actually really liked it.

Grandpa and Evelyn off gathering greens to take home and decorate the house with.

Allison was all bundled up but she thought the snow was too deep and too hard to walk through. She decided that she'd rather eat chips and drink her milk (which she became obsessed with on vacation) in the back of the car instead of play in the snow.

This is Evelyn's first snowman of the season. She was determined to make a "snowman" even if we could not get the snow to pack, at all. That's when Grandpa Asay helped her make a "snow-mound" Pretty cute, huh?

Allison was not a big fan of snow up past her knees. She got mad every time she fell down and could not get back up.

The girls were not especially interested in getting pictures taken after church, since they were so tired and ready for a nap. Luckily a few Lucky Charms, popped in their mouths, in between pictures got a few smiles out of them. Not a bad family picture, for having taken it ourselves, in front of the fire place.

My cute sister-in-law Michelle and her adorable daughter Amelia. We are so glad that we got to meet her!

As you can see, the Lucky Charms, "charm" had worn off and we were lucky to get a picture with Evelyn looking at the camera. Aren't their beautiful Christmas dresses form Grandma Asay so cute!

My cute in-laws had fun posing for a few pictures. They look so young, don't they? The high school prom pose is probably helping with that.

Andrew and Michelle and their beautiful daughter Amelia.

Matt and Lisa sporting very good colors for a Christmas picture.

Evelyn's version of playing football. For some reason she thought she should carry the ball in her mouth. It was a cold, snowy "snow-bowl" but it's tradition and it was a lot of fun.

Allison was not as much interested in playing football and just wanted to find the park part of the park. She was told that we were going to a park, so she walked along the fence until she found an opening to escape. She enjoyed sliding down the slides. I got a great video of the girls sliding down a slide that had ice at the bottom, so they really flew off the end. I'll see if I can get it to upload.

The "Amazing Lollipop Tree." Evelyn recently learned the song "Lollipop Tree" when Scott's mom sent us the music. Well, once when we were on Skype with Scott's parents, Evelyn was told that Grandpa had a lollipop tree in his back yard. Well, needless to say, it was etched into her memory of stone. She never forgot about it and asked about it often. Christmas morning Grandpa took Evelyn and Allison out to bring in the harvest of lollipops from the lollipop tree. Let's just say that each time Grandpa took them out there, they'd each come in with two lollipops, one in each hand. All Evelyn kept saying is, "This is AMAZING, this is so AMAZING!"(P.S. There are still a few remaining lollipops on their tree, a month later.)

Christmas morning came with the traditional yogurt and "sweet cereal" The girls were very excited to each get their own yogurt and their own bags of Lucky Charms (that, surprisingly became void of the marshmallows pretty quickly.)

On Christmas Eve, the girls had fun helping Grandpa get a fire started with the wet wood from outside. They each took turns wearing the Santa hat and asking people what they wanted for Christmas.

On the 29th we flew to Salt Lake where Evelyn and Allison were very excited to see their Grandma Sjoblom and youngest sweet Aunt Kaylee waiting for them at the airport. After a snowy drive home, we were excited to get the girls down for naps and start enjoying being with my family. Jon and Stacey and their kids came over for dinner and so did Michelle and her daughter Cadence. It was so much fun to let the kids run around with their cousins and reek havoc at my parents' house. Jon and Scott spent most of the time in the basement with my dad and younger brother. They were working on finishing part of the basement into a couple of storage rooms and an entertainment/play room. Jon and Scott made sure to get in a few wrestling matches, which is where Scott got his lovely carpet burn that is on his forehead in many of the pictures. Jon and Stacey were in Utah for a few days after we arrived. We had a delicious and fun dinner of Fondue, put on by Jon and Stacey. It was so yummy! Steve and Alisha and their baby, Eli (who we'd only seen pictures of), arrived to my parents house on New Years Eve morning. It was fun to meet their little guy Eli for the first time. After lunch on New Years Eve we finished the part of Christmas gifting that had not been done on Christmas. New Year's Eve we headed over to my uncle Steve and aunt Jeaneal's home and had the annual New Year's Eve party with a very large crowd of my cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents. It was a fun evening. Luckily we were able to use a bedroom in the basement to put Allison down for the night at 9. Evelyn was lucky enough to stay up until way past her bed time. We had a wonderful time and stayed there until after 1. We woke Allison up and took her home and put both the girls to bed. The next morning Jon and Stacey and their family left and headed back to Colorado, since Jon started teaching again on Monday. Steve and Alisha didn't get to stay very long because Steve was offered a job in Idaho Falls. Yeah! They headed up to Idaho Falls for a few days to find where they'd live after returning to Arizona for about a day and a half to pack and then moving up to Idaho. We were able to spend a few more days with my family before heading back to New York.

Scott, Dad and Mike spent every spare minute working on framing the basement.
Evelyn loved seeing her little cousin Cadence. We were lucky enough to be in Utah this summer when Cadence was born. It was so much fun to see her again and get to play with her and see her cute, happy little personality. She got her daddy's red hair and it's so cute on her!
Evelyn thought that is was the funnest thing ever to roast marshmallows over a fire, out in the snow, in the dark. Luckily this was only two days before we left, because this is all that she wanted to do the rest of the time we were in Utah.

She's also pretty convince that when the "baby comes out in March" (Evelyn's words) and Grandma comes to visit that we'll roast marshmallows over a fire. I guess we'll have to figure out somewhere to do a fire, because she's pretty set on roasting marshmallows over a fire when Grandma comes in March.
Evelyn loved sledding down this hill all by herself.
Allison and Aunt Heather ready to sled down the hill.
The girls could not keep their tongues off of the snow. At least I got some pretty cute pictures of them eating it.
Aunt Kaylee was so much fun and played with the girls so much. She was taking them up in the field to see my uncle's cow.
Again, eating some snow and looking like she was deep in thought.
She really wanted to make this little jelly-sandal fit her Great-Grandpa Sjoblom's foot. She tried for a good few minutes.
She loved trying on everyone shoes from the shoe basket. She loves walking around in shoes that are WAY too big for her.
We finally got be meet my oldest brother's baby, Eli. He's such a handsome little dude and a cute chunky little baby.
Mid-air shot of Allison getting a trip to the moon from Grandpa. That's one thing that I'd forgotten about growing up doing, but now the girls love them and ask for them all the time.
Celebrating Christmas gifting, once almost everyone was together.
Evelyn that it was pretty wonderful to dip things into a bowl of chocolate, from the chocolate fountain on Fondue night.
The girls loved playing with their little cousin Cadence.
More loves for Cadence, from Evelyn. It looks like Cadence was having fun eating Brooklyn's robe.
Evelyn, Allison, and cousins Brooklyn, Brad, Tanner, and Emma (Brad's not in this picture) had so much fun playing out in the snow together.
My cute littlest sister Kaylee had fun playing with my aunt's kitty.
As you can see in the picture below. The kids were all very interested in this poor little cat. Allison really wanted to pick it up. If you look closely, you can see the cat that all of the kids were trying to hold at the same time.
Evelyn and cousin Emma were all bundled and having fun playing the snow.
Aunt Holly was so nice to drag them around on the sleds in the snow for a little while.

The snow was really coming down and we were all very wet and covered in snow when we got done playing outside.
Jon and Emma getting ready to go down the hill.

Allison thought this little ski-doo type sled was pretty great to be pulled around on.

We built this snowman the first day that we were in Utah. This picture was taken the day before we left. The snowman melted more and more backwards every day, but it never actually fell over while we were there. It did start out a lot taller though.
Aunt Kaylee really wanted me to bring the girls into her class for Show-and-tell while we were there. She's such a proud aunt. She got up in front of her class and talked about the girls for a minute. Then she gave the microphone to Evelyn. We told Evelyn to sing a song, but she was playing shy. My mom started singing the ABC's and Evelyn joined in. That got her started and she then sang, I am a Child of God and Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes. She probably would have kept singing if we had not taken the microphone back from her.

The girls think that their aunt Kaylee is pretty great! Evelyn loved having a sleep over in aunt Kaylee's room the whole time we were there.
Evelyn is laying on Aunt Kaylee's lap while they all watched a movie, while waiting for dinner one night.
Cadence spit up all over Mike and he'd kill me to know that I'm posting this picture.
Fun Fondue dinner put on by Jon and Stacey. It was so fun and yummy! Thanks!!

Before leaving for Christmas, Evelyn had a Joy School party. Since I had taught that week, I was kind of in charge of the little program that the kids put on. It was kind of interesting, trying to get them to all stand together and sings songs for their parent-audience. They did a really good job at acting out the nativity story as it was read. The two little girls on the left, Allison and Emmy loved getting up with the older kids and "performing" with them.

Singing a song.
Acting out the nativity.

Singing Jingle-bells.

We have not done a whole lot of exciting things since being back in New York the past few weeks. Uncle Dan came up from the city to visit for a couple days and that was a lot of fun. The girls think that their uncle Dan is pretty awesome and he even brought his real stethoscope for them to play with. How cool is that? Scott, Dan, and I enjoyed playing a lot of games while the kids were napping or in bed. We missed uncle Dan at Christmas so we were very glad that he got to come visit us when we got back home.

We've played out in the snow a few times. It's such an ordeal to get all bundled up to go out, but the girls like it so we try to do that when it's not below freezing.

I know that this is a very long post. In fact, I started it a few days ago and have only been able to work on it some each day. I know that I need to get into digital scrap booking so that I can post this many pictures without making an annoyingly mile long post. Maybe I'll get a digital scrapbooking kit for my birthday. (Hint, hint, along with everything else I want) We'll see.