Christmas in Idaho

After all the festivities with the family on Christmas, Jason, Ollie, and I began our journey to Blackfoot Idaho to spend the next few days with Jason's family. Both sets of his grandparents live there and all his siblings were up there for Christmas. We drove halfway, stayed in Elko, NV and then drove the rest of the way Saturday morning. We had a great time catching up with all of his Idaho family. Side note: I am at a hotel right now in Winnemucca, NV on our way home. We may not have internet for a while so I wanted to get this all posted.

Ollie with his great-grammy Miller

Four generations, and the rest of us :)

Cute matching boys. Aunt Michelle got these outfits for them...so cute.

This picture is kind of dark but so cute of Ollie (Mike looks ok too I guess ;)

While we were there, Jason's entire family got together to do family pictures. It was quite a group of us, but I am glad we did it. Only one person was missing, pretty impressive.

Brothers.

Some of Jason's cousins.

Jen, Jeff, and baby Lee.

Jan and Michelle.

Jeff and Abigail having a staring contest.

Ollie enjoyed looking at himself in this mirror.

"Oh, hello there, aren't you a handsome boy".

"Man, my butt sure looks good in this diaper."

Jen and Michelle, aren't they pretty.

Ollie sharing his cracker with Porter.

We celebrated Jason's grandpa's 84th birthday. He got lots of great stuff, and little Charlie next to him was quite the entertaining narrater.

I can't get over this adorable child.

We visited my friend Tammy in Rexburg. It was so fun to see her and meet little Gabe. Rexburg has changed so much since I lived there.

We also stopped and visited my old roommate in Rigby. Our kids are 3 months apart. It was so fun to see her and her cute family, I'm so glad we keep in touch.

Someone left the vacuum out, and Ollie had a hay day. This kid loves vacuums.

Jason with some of his family.

Ollie assaulting poor Porter.

Bundled up to go see the snow.

He wasn't really a fan, I guess he is a true California boy. I thought he would want to touch it but he didn't, at all.

Poor Ollie was sick the day we left (today). He threw up a couple of times so we brought a barf bucket on the drive, which unfortunately we did end up using. Poor little guy. Here he is playing with his barf bucket BEFORE he actually barfed in it.

What?

We had such a good time in Idaho, and wish we could make it up there more often. We are so lucky to have such great families.

Christmas in CA

We spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family before we left for Idaho. My Mom and I cooked prime rib, fingerling potatoes, fresh green beans and yummy bread. It was delicious. I have never cooked prime rib, so I wanted to get it exactly right, and we did. Normally my Grandparents come over and eat with us, but they have been under the weather, and of course it wasn't the same without Chrissy, Dave, and Alyssa. Every time I would think about them celebrating away from us I would tear up. We really missed them. That night we watched the LDS christmas devotional, played games, and watched "A Christmas Story" (that movie is such a classic). Christmas morning we got up early, opened presents, had a big breakfast, and then headed over to my aunts to celebrate with the whole family. It was good times. We have so much to be thankful for.

Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas morning around 7am

Some of the cousins and their spouses.

More cousins.

Family pic

My cute Grandparents.

The kitchen we got Ollie. We put it together before we left. He loves it.

Christmas Eve Brunch

I have so much to catch up on. The blog has been very neglected with everything going on these days. We are mostly moved into our new place. There are a few boxes left to unpack, and lots of furniture to buy and decorating to do (which I stink at so we'll see how that goes). We had an eventful Christmas season. I decided to just start at the beginning. We headed home to Lincoln/Auburn on Tuesday the 22nd. Wednesday we went to a brunch at our friends the Boatmans, then Letty and I did some last minute shopping. That night I had a small gift exchange with my close girl friends. Thursday morning we had our 3rd annual Christmas Eve Brunch. Usually Jason just invites the friends he grew up with, but this year we invited mine as well. It is so fun to get together and catch up. Here are some pics. For those who couldn't make it this year, we missed you and hope to see you next year.

The Bowdens, Bearry's and Leavitts.

Ollie with his new toy from Grandpa and Grandma Miller.

Letty, Jill and Stacie

The boys fighting over toys

Letty and I. She is leaving for Ecuador tomorrow to work at an orphanage, we are really going to miss her. Why do my sisters (and brother) have to always be so far away?

The whole group

All the boys, this was a difficult picture to take, obviously.

After the brunch Jason went on a bike ride with his favorite biking buddy, Jared, along with Jared's dad and brother.

Moving

As you may or may not know, we are moving. Renting a house. It is very exciting, but also very stressful and busy. Packing and boxes are our lives right now. Luckily we bought a new camera so I have taken some pics and an especially funny video of little Ollie. He is 16 months now and just such a crack up, we love him.

This is pretty much the only face I get out of him lately. Whenever I pull out the camera he says "cheese" and makes this face, it is cute.

He is also really good at telling you where his nose, eyes and mouth are, and recently he discovered that his finger fits perfectly in his nose.

One remote just won't cut it with this kid, he must have all three, at the same time.

Packing is fun!! He loves climbing all over the boxes.

I made some pumpkin chocolate chip bread the other day and Ollie pulled the stool over and stuck his fingers in it. Guess we will be eating that loaf :)

This video is hilarious, seriously. Jason was just taping him and he accidentally fell backward into a basket, it was SO funny.

Thanksgiving in NC

We were lucky enough to visit my sister and her family in North Carolina this Thanksgiving. We have missed them so much since the moved and it was so fun to be back together, even if it was only for a week or so. We survived the 5 hour flight from San Francisco to Washington D.C. just fine, it was the thing I was the most stressed out about with a one year old, but he did great! He always surprises us. Poor Ollie got sick (like throwing up sick) while we were there, it was so sad and he just wasn't himself for a lot of the trip, but he still had a lot of fun with his only cousin.

I've been waiting to post this because I lost my camera and I kept hoping it would turn up, but no such luck :( These pictures are from my sisters camera.

The first morning we were there, cousins getting reunited.

Sarah Palin was on post signing her new book. We found out that morning and headed over, but there was no way we were standing in line for over 2 hours, so we took a picture with her bus.

Cute kids.

Dave made us crab one night, it was delicious!

Lys and I squished in the car.

Ollie before he got sick.

Lys and Chris.

We took the kids to this cool kid museum, here is Dr. Alyssa.

Sisters

The Honorable Judge Miller

At the teeth display

Ollie loved the electricity display, just like his daddy.

Ollie helping Auntie Chrissy cook.

Dave and Lys at the Special Ops musuem.

Lys and the taliban.

This is how poor Ollie looked most the week, sad and pale. Poor kid threw up everything he ate for like 4 days, he is making up for it now though by eating NONSTOP!

Our delicious feast. On my camera I had a picture of our beautiful turkey, it was perfectly browned and delectable looking.

Lys ready to eat.

The whole group.

We love the Whites and were sad to leave (understatement of the year). We can't wait for baby White to join the family in Feb!! If I find my camera I will add more pics.