Home for the Holiday....

We ended up going to Idaho for Christmas and surprising Jared's family. We really felt we needed to go with Jared's Granma's memory getting worse, and the reality of grandparents aging with my Granma passing in August.

We're so glad we were able to get it worked out so we could go the Friday before and stay through the afternoon on Christmas. My parents went to Chad and Lisa's for Christmas so we were able to see them a bit before they left. We were also able to see Adam, Karissa and Ma-my as Emery calls Emmaline. It was a great break and vacation for Jared. :)

Emery was so fun for Christmas this year! She loved opening presents, she loved the tree, the lights, absolutely everything about the season. 

The next few posts are pictures from our trip, then opening presents when we got back! (make sure you click "older posts" to see them all.)

On the way we stopped at McDonalds for a break from the car and some food. We LOVE a cheap burger every once in a while and so does Emery now!

Enjoy the Journey.

Candy Bar Trains

Every time we talked to Jared's parents we talked about how we made plans the same day they did to do trains! They just didn't realize we were the ones to got Bethany to call and set them up for that day! It's fun to have people help with surprises. Merle and Bethany had us to their new home this year to do them and their home was absolutely beautiful! We told them we'd trade them straight across and they could have our townhome to rent, sadly they didn't take us up on the offer. ;)

I'm not sure who won but it was an interesting game to watch!

Enjoy the Journey.

Visits

We went and visited Granma and Granpa on Saturday night. Emery loves their clock and Granpa always picks her up and lets her go and push the button to make the music go.

Christmas Sunday.

Playing with Kate!

We went and visited Grammy. She was there and doing great. ;) Jared and I were sure she was chastising us for "bringing that baby out in the freezing rain, wind and cold.

After eating a cupcake and FHE/Joseph Smith's Birthday at Lori and Dale's.

Enjoy the Journey.

Christmas Eve

These are the only "pictures" I have from Christmas Eve. I'm working on a special project though, so more will come on Christmas Eve later!

Enjoy the Journey.

Christmas Morning in Idaho

Christmas morning Emery enjoyed helping everyone open presents!

Part of our present for Jared's parents were these pillowcases. Karissa and Adam helped me cut the vinyl for them and I made the pillowcases. Whenever Paul and Julie play games and it ends up being boys agains girls, Julie names the teams "Beauties and Beasts." We purposefully gave them to them wrong, but they loved them and switched. :)

Time for a reading break.

Halfway through opening presents Emmerlie went back to bed so Emery helped Jordan and Cahlin finish opening her's and Linley's presents.

She loved getting to hold Linley several times while we were there.

Before we left when everyone came over for lunch she got Kayden to the piano and got his ear. :)

Enjoy the Journey.

Home Sweet Home

We left Christmas afternoon to drive home so we could have some hours to relax and see what Santa delivered to our house while we were gone! When we got home we put the presents out and Emery started immediately opening! She was so excited. She opened all of the presents, even Jared's and mine. It was so much fun watching her we didn't mind one bit! Jared got a lot of work clothes, and I got new work out clothes. She would open the present, pull the clothes out and stand up holding them against her for size. It was so funny! As pictured below she put on one of Jared's sweaters and turned into zombie girlie. :) 

Unopened presents make lovely seats.

She got a shopping cart from Jared's parents which went perfectly with the purse, phone, and keys from my parents (and new clothes she wore the next day). She won't go anywhere without her purse and keys now! She grabs them several times a day and walks to the front door as she tells us "BYE!"

Enjoy the Journey.