Christmas in Utah

Our first stop on our Christmas trip was to see the Walkenhorsts in snowy Utah. Zara enjoyed being read to by her grandparents and playing with her Aunt Kassie and Uncle Devan. We stopped by and saw Grandma and Grandpa Great and at first Zara was a little upset but then Grandma Great pulled out a dog that barks and walks and Zara loved it! She played with it the whole time and we just sat back and laughed because it was so cute.

 

Grandpa and Grandma Great learning how to use their new kindle fire. It was fun to watch Toni teach them how to use the touch screen.

Zara did really well with all of the Santas she met this year. We thought she might be scared to sit on Santa's lap but it turns out she was mostly just curious and spent the whole time staring at his face trying to figure him out

We went and saw the zoo lights one night and while we were waiting in the car for the zoo to open Zara discovered the cold windows and started giving them lots of kisses, she thought it was pretty cool.

 
On Christmas morning we opened our stockings and got lots of fun little things and fuzzy socks, even Zara got fuzzy baby socks! She loved them. She also received her first doll from Grandma and Grandpa and gave it lots of hugs and kisses right away.

I love how rosy Zara's little cheeks are, I miss them! And it's always funny to look back, I thought Zara had sooo much hair at the time but now that she really does have hair I realize that she didn't really have that much hair at Christmas, haha! Isn't she just so cute!

For fun one day we went to a bowling/putt putt golf place and had a really good time. The putt putt golf was indoor and had tons of cool sea life murals and black lights. It was pretty neat!

 

 We spent some time outside in the snow and Zara loved it! Dusty took her around on an inter tube and at first she looked hesitant but then she realized she liked it once it got going. She also loved riding the four wheeler around. It was so great to be outside in the snow, it was cold but so bright and the backdrop was beautiful, as always.

 

 We had such a wonderful time with everyone in Utah! 

Next up: Christmastime in Mexico. We ran into Collin in the Denver(?)airport while he was on his way to Utah, random!

Christmas in Nashville

 Christmas! We had so much fun this year at Christmastime with Zara!

Every year a cute little town south of us called Franklin has a Christmas Carol festival where they hire people to walk around the streets dressed as characters from the Christmas Carol and it's so fun! People bring their dogs and there are booths of homemade good set up and music, of course. We had a great time cruising around looking at everything. Zara ended up conking out at the end which was nice and so cute, I forget how cute she was when she was sleeping.

We had our own mini Christmas Eve at home before we left to go see our families. Zara was totally into helping open all the boxes and taking out all the packaging. By the time we got around to opening the gifts the sun was long gone so the pictures are sort of dark because we still don't have any lamps in our living room, hahaha! But the tree was pretty bright!

 

 Other December happenings included Zara army crawling everywhere and me finding her in the funniest places, we started to experiment with hair bows....Zara learning how to stand and eating lots more regular foods.

On our way to Utah!

Thanksgiving 2013

Ok, so we are a little behind on blogging over here and haven't really blogged anything since Halloween. Lots of fun things have happened since Halloween! Let's start with Thanksgiving. Kasey and Collin came for Thanksgiving again this year and we were so happy to have them. We went over to some friends house for the actual dinner and it was really yummy. It was Zara's first thanksgiving and we were excited to have her taste stuffing and all that stuff but she mostly just wanted to gnaw on a pickle.
Kasey and Collin also helped us make the wreath, which now I can't seem to find any pictures of so I took one from Collins Instagram. Thanks Collin! We had a great weekend and I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving time again!
Also had lots of fun with the YW collecting cans in our neighborhood the night before Thanksgiving. It was fun watching the girls find the confidence and courage to knock on doors and ask strangers for donations. Our neighborhood was very generous and the girls were able to collect lots of food and even about 6 coats!
Zara and I also had some good times hanging out with Millie, Zara's little friend.

 

 

 

11 Months Old

Your first Valentines Day! You are so much fun and are getting so big! You are still a happy camper but sometimes you get mad and make a really great sad face like in the picture above. We are learning that we have to be careful with our phones and things because you really really like them. Your little personality is getting stronger and stronger each day and you are learning so much!

10 Months Old

In January Zara turned 10 months old! She had a cute Jack-o-Lantern smile for a while with her little teeth on the bottom and a random side tooth up top. It was pretty cute! She also got her first ear infection which took a while for me to figure out but once we went to the doctor and she got some medicine everything was a lot better, we did enjoy the extra snuggles. Some of her favorite things at 10 months were books and lego blocks.

Nine Months Old

Playing catch up, big time! Zara turned 9 months old in December. 

December was a great month, we saw lots of family around Christmas time and had so much fun. Turns out Zara was fascinated by Santa Claus. Zara was a super duper army crawler and she got her two bottom teeth in around Christmas time.