FAMILY SHOOT 2010

Krisi took these pictures for us all the way back in October. I have been meaning to post my favorites ever since our Christmas cards went out, and finally have some time today. Hey, at least I got it done before 2011! Thanks Krisi!

THE LOST SAINT

Last night Brent and I headed over to The King's English bookstore to celebrate the release of our friend Bree's book The Lost Saint. It is the sequel to The Dark Divine and is the second in the trilogy. I am so proud of Bree and what she has accomplished this year. I can't wait to read The Lost Saint; however, I have read about 50 other books since I read the first one and I need to re-read it first (not that I mind) to get ready to find out how the story continues.

I took a ton of pictures last night. To see the bulk of them check out the photo blog.

MORE CHRISTMAS

After a successful morning of opening gifts at our house, we headed out to my parents' house for some more fun. The first present that Stella got was a pretend microphone from Ava that lit up and sang "Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo," which we were able to hear over and over again, often in stereo since Ava also had one and loved hers as well. Stella rarely put it down the whole rest of the day, which made it a little bit trickier to open gifts since she only had one hand at her disposal.

Some other Christmas highlights were:

• Grandma bought both girls huge princess blankets, but both my dad and I loved them. We were spotted snuggling with them at various points throughout the rest of the day.
• Me scoring a "slam dunk" (as Ashley called it) by getting my dad a book featuring pictures of Salt Lake City "then and now."
• My dad bought a book for Riley that my mom saw and said she wanted so he wrapped it and gave it to her. Then, unknowingly I bought that same book for Riley so he got it anyway.
• The Tinkerbell umbrellas were a hit...literally. They hit all of us, and Ava even knocked down the tree as she walked by it with her open umbrella.
• The girls loved their big presents from Santa. Ava got a computer, and Stella the cash register that she has wanted forever.

Later that night we had an informal ham dinner, and my grandpa and Brent's family came over as well. Then we were all entertained by the always awesome yo-yo stylings of Riley Booker. Riley is super on the yo-yo and I just barely learned this after knowing him almost eight years now. I can't get enough of his tricks (or their names) and it was a great ending to a very fun day.

PIANO MORNING

This morning when we woke up Stella, Daddy asked her if she knew what today was. She replied: "Piano." Because that is what she has been asking for for Christmas from Santa. She was super excited to open all the gifts, and I was surprised that right as she got them out from under the tree, she knew which ones were Mommy's and which ones were hers.

She only got a few presents, but has already learned to rotate playing with them very nicely. She loves her Pottery Barn diaper bag, and has been using it to change her babies' diapers. Then she vacuums with her play Dyson vacuum. Then she takes some pictures with her new digital camera (thanks Peter, Julayne, Nathan, and Chloe!) Then she plunks down a few notes on her new piano. And then she starts watching one of her new movies.

Stella was very nice this year, and she deserves all the joy the day can bring because she brings so much joy to her mommy and daddy every day the whole year through.