Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!

Well, we had a fantastic Christmas. We were absolutely spoiled by eachother and all our parents/grandparents. However, the best part about it was that not only did we get to spend it together, we also got to share it with my mom and stepdad and younger brother. They came up on Christmas Eve (and beat the bad weather and road closures) and stayed until Saturday. We never get visitors and so we thoroughly enjoyed having them in our home and had such a good time with them! We played games (Farkle being our favorite), watched movies, went on rides, ate until we thought we'd pop and just visited and enjoyed one another. It was great!

Here we are all watching a movie and relaxing. My parents think it's funny that Cash's most famous sentences are "Let go of me" and "I want to watch a movie".

This is my younger brother, Josh. If you have any lovely available relatives, send them his way. He's still single (but only 23, we just give him a hard time:)).

It was fun to actually be able to see our family members open their gifts from us and even funner to have them be able to see Cash and Vanna (with Cash's help of course) open their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. We had most of the presents wrapped in advance but late Christmas Eve "Santa" set up and put out a few more for the kids. Cash was thrilled when he saw his new tent and nerf baseball and bat (and if you can believe it, Ty only had to throw him the ball three times before Cash picked up on it and could hit the ball with his bat). He was also excited to actually get to open all those presents sitting under the tree. Here's a little record of the things we got for Christmas this year:

Cash - "Cars" tent & sleeping bag, nerf baseball & bat, Winnie the Pooh potty training toilet (yeah!), more mini cars, puzzle, John Deere tractor, socks, clothes, electric toothbrush, gum (that he won't stay out of), Peter Pan DVD, Sword in the Stone DVD, a life jacket, books and toys, and a remote control car (that he just has to got to sleep with every night now)...

Vanna - Winnie the Pooh spinning toy, counting toy, p.j.s, onesies, hairbows, clothes, a swimming suit for next summer, Sleeping Beauty DVD, her first doll, and I think her favorite was simply her new sippy cup...

Ty & Erica - barstools for the house, a huge wall clock and large decorative shelf for family pictures from my mom and stepdad, an under the cupboard CD player for the kitchen and family wall hanging from Ty's parents, shoes, clothes, a large plastic folding table and chairs (for my scrapbooking), more DVDs and more (that I just can't put my finger on at the moment).

My stocking stuffers from my thoughtful husband - you'll see that he always gets me my favorite - "Almond Roca".

We didn't think we were doing that much for Christmas this year but our bundle always ends up being amazing when we receive so much from loving friends and family - we are so spoiled - we thank you and we love you. We hope your Christmas treated you well too!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

To: Your Family
From: The Bazils

We wish you a Merry Christmas,
we wish you a Merry Christmas,
we wish you a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!!!

First Snow & Christmas Presents

We got our first snow this past weekend which also meant we had a couple other "firsts". We bundled up and took Vanna out on a walk to see the grand spectacle. It was her first sight of snow.

We also had to shovel our driveway and sidewalk for the first time - not quite as exciting. I hope the snow stays for Christmas. It helps me get in the spirit of things. But after Christmas, it can go away - slick roads are not my favorite. Speaking of Christmas...Ty and I got our Christmas presents a little early this year. We decided to buy eachother one small gift and then purchase ourselves things for the house so this is what we came up with...

We had Ty's sister make us this wall hanging. It says Home...where the heart is. She did a great job. We have it on one of our entrance way walls.

We painted! I've waited so long to paint and it finally happened. This is the view from our front door and we painted just the one wall in the family room to bring out our fireplace and just bring some color into the room. We are so pleased. We also bought a new 9 ft. pre-lit Christmas tree. Our new ceilings are so tall that our old tree seemed too small - and we had to go with the pre-lit tree. It makes things so much easier.

Finally, we got some bar stools to help fill our bare kitchen. A couple of the bar stools came with cracks in the wood so we had to send them back (which was of course disappointing) but eventually, when we get the replacements, our bar will be filled. It will be so nice just to serve food at the bar rather than walk around it to the dining room table. Cash can also now sit by us on the bar stools rather than sit in his high chair alone in the tiled kitchen (he's back to a phase where he throws his food on the floor so we didn't want him sitting with us at the table to ruin our carpet in the dining room-probably cruel, I know).

The house is coming piece by piece, which we actually enjoy because then we get all excited about each and every little thing. It's becoming more and more like the way we want it and more and more cozy-like home.

Church

Cash loves to go to church. In fact, just a couple Sundays ago he cried because he couldn't go to church with Grandma and Grandpa Bazil (we had to leave for our trip home after our Thanksgiving getaway). Our church schedule is 11:30 to 2:30 however, which is right in the middle of lunch and nap time. As you can imagine, Cash is very tuckered out by the time we get home from church (especially after playing so hard in nursery). This was a snapshot of him a couple weeks ago.

Cash was even more tired than usual because we had tithing settlement after church. By the time we got home and got him in his chair to eat he took a couple bites and was out (and yes, Vanna's bibs were the only clean ones so he got to wear pink). Needless to say, he ate after he woke up from his late nap. We are looking forward to next year's schedule of 9:30 to 12:30. It will work out much better for the kids' routines.

Thanksgiving Trip

Well, we've completely lucked out this year because Ty had a four day weekend for Thanksgiving (and he also had the four day weekend for Christmas too!) so we were able to spend it with family. Just another thing to be grateful for!

We went to Rigby to spend the holiday with Ty's parents and got there just in time for dinner on Thursday. We were able to spend time with most all his siblings, Chase, Nick & Hailey, Zak and Marcy and their girls. Cash had so much fun playing with his cousins. Ty's Aunt Cindy and her family also joined us for dinner - which was scrumptous! There's nothing better than turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. That night the girls had a "girls night out". Orillia (Ty's mom), Marcy (Ty's sister) and I went to the theater to see Twilight - can you believe it - I actually got to sit through an entire movie - in the theater - without any interruptions because my angel of a husband watched the kids! It was a pretty good movie and got me excited to read the last book of the series.

Friday, we went bowling and just had a relaxing day with Ty's family. Saturday was a full day because we drove from Rigby to McCammon to my nephew's baptism. I can't believe my nieces and nephews are that grown up. It was a very nice baptism and we enjoyed being there to support him and see so many of my family members. After dinner at my sister's house, we headed back to Rigby but not before stopping in Pocatello to get a couple Christmas gifts for my mom and Ty. When we got back to Rigby we went to see Great Grandma Bazil and spend more time down at the barn with all the cows (which Cash loves!). We took our time Sunday morning before packing up, saying our goodbyes and coming back home. We always hate to leave. All night and all day today Cash keeps saying Gama (he thinks we're going to see Grandma again today). We always wish we could spend more time with all our family but I guess it makes us more grateful for the time we DO get to spend with them.

What a wonderful Thanksgiving!