Holidays and 2012 in Reflection

The week before Christmas we celebrated Uncle Drew's Birthday. 

We took Trax down to Temple Square to watch Aunt Meagan sing.

It was Brynlee's first time on Trax and she LOVED it!

She would make everyone hold on tight so we wouldn't fall over when the train was moving.

I think it worried her a little bit at first but she soon got the hang of it and enjoyed it.

She enjoyed it so much that for days after she kept asking when we could go ride the train again.

We walked around and looked at the lights and she couldn't get enough of them. 

Her face would just light up with excitement. 

Little kids are what make the holidays magical.

*Christmas*

Christmas Eve was spent at G & G Browns this year.

 Brynlee got to be Mary in the traditional kids Nativity scene. 

Being the girly girl she is, she loved dressing up and taking care of the baby doll aka Baby Jesus. 

Santa came to visit and she was slightly less hesitant to sit on his knee than she was a couple weeks before at the Dickens Festival when we visited Father Christmas. I guess he's growing on her. :)

The debate this year was eggnog or milk? Which do you leave out for Santa. 

Mom thinks eggnog is disgusting but dad won this argument so Santa was left with eggnog. 

Mama made the yummy cookies though so it was worth it!

Brynlee still doesn't grasp the concept of waking up early because 'Santa came to our house'. 

We will enjoy waking up at 8:30a.m. as long as we can.

This was the year Brynlee wanted a blue dog. She saw it in a Franklin the Turtle book and Santa didn't pull through. However, she didn't care, at least she didn't act like she did.

Notice in the picture below how Brynlee is smiling? Through the whole day, when she was opening gifts and someone wanted to take a picture she would look up and smile but not look at the camera. It is like she was concentrating so hard to do what she was told but just really wanted to open her gifts. 

 She is always spoiled so much but we are so grateful for all people in her life that love her. 

For that matter, we are so grateful for everyone that takes care of our little family. 

This year we had an anonymous box dropped off on our porch for the 12 days of Christmas. 

It made me tear up. For someone to put in the effort and thought to do that for us just made me think of what they had to sacrifice for us. It softened my heart to remember what Christmas is about.

As always, Christmas was busy, festive, and an awesome experience as we try to teach our little girl its' true meaning. Hopefully it will get easier to focus on Jesus' birth as she grows a little older and can understand more. We also did a Sub-4-Santa for 4 kids in the Adoption Exchange with my family and it is always so humbling to remember them as we wake up Christmas morning and remember that we helped to give them gifts on their Christmas morning.

I didn't get a picture of our Sunday outfits. I won't forget that ever again. 

The week following Christmas we dejunked, organized (to find a place to put everything!) and just enjoyed each other and our new toys. Mark came over and put bead board in our kitchen and bathroom and it has made a huge difference and given a little more character to our home. 

We rang in the New Year at home. Brynlee konked out on the couch while Ty and I were watching a movie. We barely lasted 'til 12 and went to bed at like 12:02. 

*~* Highlights of 2012 *~*

We added a member to our family in July. Tobias. He really is part of our family. 

We love this little girl. She brightens every aspect of our lives. 

This really was such a great year. We traveled to Vegas, Monticello/Disappointment Valley CO and we pulled a trailer to a family Reunion in Mt. Pleasant. for family vacations. We ran the Color Me Rad 5k together. I ran my first half marathon and Ragnar in Vegas. Brynlee started Preschool and Ty started working on his Bachelor's in Business Management at University of Phoenix and is 1/4 of the way done. Brynlee's injuries included what we thought was a broken arm (it wasn't), a slightly sprained knee from jumping on the couch and lots of bumps, bruises and scratches. I was called to be the First Counselor in the Young Women's in my ward and got to go to Girls Camp in Mantua. We moved on from the baby stage almost completely. Brynlee is now in a 'big girl bed'. We sold the crib and most of her baby stuff. It's hard to let that stuff go but it helps us (mostly me) to move on and face the reality of our situation. For the rest of our lives we can focus on our precious little girl and look forward to the time in the eternities that we can raise the rest of our family. First time we got pulled over and we were all in the car, the officer let us off with a warning. (Ty was driving :) ) We paid off our truck and 2nd mortgage. I started selling Doterra oils and have made good improvements in my massage business. Brynlee had her first sleepover with her cousins Mc and King while Ty and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary. Our A/C broke. We finished the Book of Mormon together. Went to the Zoo and figured out Brynlee had been harboring a secret obsession for Giraffes. We had our first garden and we are still eating food from it! I learned Ty wants to eventually learn how to play the piano which blew me away. We improved in having regular FHE's and learning new things about each of us as well as ourselves. 

A great year of learning, trying new things, improving ourselves and doing hard things. 

*~*Cheers*~*