Christmas Break

At Jingle Jam

Playing with Grayson

I like to eat my socks!

Watch out here I come!

She loves her Aunt Michelle!

Babywearing in Boulder.

Playing with Aunt Michelle!

Christmas Eve dinner

On the plane

The stockings are hung

With grandma!

Helena and Luke

All the second cousins: Aidan holding Helena, Riley holding Luke, and Joshua and Katherine.

Small baby little dog.

River of Lights

I've had the last two and half weeks off, and it's been great!  I saw some friends, had some snow days, celebrated Christmas, spent a few days in Albuquerque, and rang in 2015!
It's been so much fun!  My dear friend Michelle came to visit and meet Helena the week before Christmas.  We went to a Jingle Jam and just hung out! I even got a babysitter so we could have some alone time and get a pedicure/manicure!  It was a lot of fun.
Chris had Christmas Eve off, so we just hung out as a family, and went to the 4pm service at church.  It was super crowded, but thankfully we got a sit and at the end even got a Christmas blessing from Pastor Ken.  After service we went to dinner.  It was just ok.  Then we went home and to bed.  We woke up Christmas morning and had pork pie, and we opened up presents!  We didn't get Helena anything, but thankfully she had gifts from grandparents and other family members!  It was so much fun.  After presents Helena took a nap while we got ready to leave town.  Thankfully Helena woke up just in time to head to the airport!  It was nerve-racking preparing for her first plane ride, and everything needed for an out of town trip, but we did pretty good!  She was the perfect combination of tired and hungry as we lifted off, so I was able to nurse her while she took a short 20 minute nap.  She got a little bit fussy on the way down as she was awake and didn't want to be covered up to feed, but overall the first plane ride was a success!
Once we arrived we got the car seat installed into my parents car and went to my parents house.  My parents have a step down into their living room which she mastered RIGHT away!  And she loved the open space and just crawled around and got used to her surroundings.  After dinner we went to visit my friend Michelle and her parents, then Helena got a bath and put to bed.  She definitely knows when she is someplace new.  My parents got her a crib to sleep in, but she just knew it wasn't her crib.  Plus the crib was in the room where we slept, and when we went in to go to bed she immediately woke up. 
On Friday my cousin Nikki and her husband Dan came over with their little boy Luke who is 15 months old.  We were very excited to meet Luke for the first time!  We had lunch and the kiddos had a little play date, it was so much fun.  Later that afternoon we went over to my Aunt Deanna's to meet the whole family!  There were 20+ people there, and I was worried how Helena would handle so many people, but she did great!  Chris and I were able to eat while various family members got to spend some time with Helena. 
Saturday we went to see my cousin Kari and went out to the River of Lights.  It was super cold, but we did the tour and Helena stayed bundled up.  Sunday we just hung out before heading to the airport.  Again on the way up she was the perfect combination of tired and hungry, so I was able to nurse her.  On the way back she slept for about 30 minutes, and she didn't fuss at all on the way down with the help of some chewy little things we gave her to eat.  This week was spent taking down Christmas - all of the decorations and the tree.  New Year's Eve I made a really good chicken dish, and we watched Dallas Buyers Club.  New Year's Day I made a yummy breakfast!  And today as been a snow day, as we haven't even gotten out of our pajamas's!  The break as been super nice.  I'm already dreading Monday.