Wyoming Christmas

Considering the six week vacation I get from school at the University of Memphis, and the realization Cory and I had that I will never again have this much vacation time around the holidays until I retire, we decided to go on a super vacation.  We decided to leave Memphis for three weeks and spend the first half in Wyoming with my family, and the second half with Cory's family in Provo.  Anna is due to have her baby boy on the 26th, so the family is congregating in Utah.  We actually flew to Utah and stayed a day before we headed up to Wyoming.  Seeing Anna at the end of her pregnancy reminded me of Cory right before Emmy was born.  It is such an exciting, though noticeably uncomfortable time.

Anyway, a couple of days before we left the cinematic event of the decade occurred.  Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens came out in theaters.  We waited until we got to Wyoming to see it.  I avoided the internet for the few days to make sure I didn't see any spoilers.  We got off the plane, ate a late lunch, and then I sat with my family without any electronics on until we left for the theater.  It was awesome.  Merry Christmas to me.  

Christmas Eve came and we kept to tradition and ate dinner at the Rib & Chop House in Cody.  It was Emmy's first time and she loved it.

It was a cold night, and I have to say that I had gotten used to the mild Memphis winter weather.  The snow on the ground and bite in the air does make it feel more like Christmas, though.

When we got home we all opened one present.  Our pajamas!  We changed and got a family picture.  Emmy's stocking was also the newest to join the bunch on the mantle, down at the very end.  I think we are a pretty cute family!

Every year my dad also hides a fake pickle somewhere on the tree in the family room for the grandkids to find.  It was Emmy's first year participating, but Rhiannon won.  She clearly was disappointed in the outcome.

I think it is an understatement to say that Cory and I were excited for Christmas morning.  Emmy's first Christmas will always be special, but she is just so much more interactive now.  I suspect that next year will be even more exciting, but this year was so fun because she was walking, and is much more aware of what is happening.  We recorded her coming out on Christmas morning and her reactions to her presents.

So fun!  You might remember our video from last year and me really wanting Emmy to at least grab some wrapping and tear it off her presents, but she couldn't really do it.  This year she had no problem.  It was mainly a challenge to keep her interested in opening all of her presents.  As soon as she opened one, she was content to just read it or play with it, with no care for the rest of the gifts under the tree.

The routine consisted of Emmy sitting in my lap while opening the present.  Then taking the opened gift over to Mommy for approval and further assistance to show her how to use whatever it was she had received.

Later in the afternoon, Grandma Wilma came over to eat dinner and spend the evening with us.  My parents recently moved her up closer to them since my dad has a very close relationship with the care center.  She now is just a two minute drive from them, but because of her limited mobility, and the fact that my parents' house is not wheelchair accessible, she had not been over to the house, yet.  She made it over for Christmas, though, and it was great to spend part of the day with her.

The day after Christmas Anna had her baby boy!  They named him Cohen.  We couldn't wait to meet him and introduce him to Emmy.

On Sunday, Mom, Dad, Lacey, and I sang a special musical number, "Baby, What You Goin' To Be", in Grandma's church service at the care center. Of course Grandma was crying before we even started singing a note.  Then she was was really crying once we were in the middle and near the end.  It must have really been hurting her ears.  We also sang in Sacrament Meeting earlier that morning.

We still had a few days before heading back to Utah, so we spent them playing games, watching movies, visiting Wilma, and keeping warm!  We discovered that Emmy really likes Adele, and loves singing along with Gigi Page.  

One day we loaded up in the car and drove to Red Lodge, Montana.  Emmy's first time in Montana!  It is a little town that has a couple of neat stores to walk through.  The best, though, was the candy emporium.  Barrels and crates filled with every type of candy, modern and retro, you could think of were in this place.  Emmy was so curious and wanted to grab at everything.

All the excitement at the candy emporium really took it out of Emmy.  She was having a hard time sleeping unless she was snuggled up with Mommy.

Uncle Chris had recently started a new job at a restaurant in town that had just opened up.  He created a lot of the menu and manages the kitchen.  He basically runs the whole operation, so we had to go down and try it out.  I was a fan of the pizza.

Before leaving back to Utah, we visited Wilma one more time.  We made sure to get a 4 generations picture, too.  

We loved our time in Wyoming.  I am obviously biased, but I love Christmas at home.  Some may think that my parents can be over the top with the decorating and the festivities, and I would agree.  Also, I love it.  Next stop: Utah! To welcome the New Year!

Christmas Dress

We are going to be visiting family for the holidays, so today was our last Sunday in Memphis before Christmas.  Therefore, Emmy wore her Christmas dress, and she is just about the cutest thing ever.  

She is perfecting her walking ability, and kept me moving throughout the building.

It was a little bit harder to walk on the smooth gym floor, so she sat down and played with her best friend Cameron Houston, who was in a Christmas dress of her own.  

We just wanted to share the cuteness with everyone!

Christmas Chocolate

My school semester is officially over, which means I only have one left.  I already have a job when I graduate.  My six-week long vacation just started, and Christmas is in two weeks.  Life is pretty good right now!  At Church we had our Christmas activity.  The theme was "Journey Back to Bethlehem."  The gym was transformed into the Bethlehem Market, and upon entering, we gave some canned food as our tax.  We were given some fake money and could spend it around the market on food.  Then we watched a reenactment of the Nativity.  Emmy loved watching all the kids dressed as angels.  The same night we headed to mid-town to my MHA holiday party.  Emmy was pretty popular there, as well.

The next night we had another party to go to.  It was an ugly Christmas sweater party at our friends', the Houston's house.  We found some pretty good sweaters at Goodwill.  Mine was actually a woman's sweater, but it worked.  We ended up getting a babysitter for Emmy.  She was not happy about it!

She is actually on the floor crying because Mommy was upstairs getting ready, and she wasn't allowed to be up there, too.  At one point, I also needed to finish getting ready, so I ran upstairs and left Emmy to play with her toys.  Literally less than five minutes later, we came down to find this:

Look at the guilt in her eyes.  Emmy somehow found a Hershey's kiss, unwrapped it, and got it all over her face, the couch, and the carpet.  I have no idea how one kiss could produce so much chocolate smear.  We were already late, but we couldn't pass up the photo opportunity.  She keeps us laughing with her antics.  It was her first chocolate of the Christmas season, and was clearly eaten with whimsical child-like abandon.

We had a great time at the party.  We played some fun games, ate some good food, exchanged white elephant gifts (selfie sticks were popular) and Cory even won the ugly sweater contest.  Ironically, you cannot see her sweater in the only picture we took (with the selfie stick).  You can see my woman's sweater, however.  Thanks to the Houstons for hosting all of us!

Mom's New Do

I was at work today when I got a text message from Cory with a picture attached.  She said something to the effect of "This just happened."  What!?!?!?! She chopped off all her hair!  The craziest thing is that she did it herself.  Later, she explained to me that she just was looking in the mirror and decided to do it.  I couldn't believe she did such a great job.  She was always one hot mama, but now she might be promoted to one hott mama.  I added a "t".

All I have to say is "Daddy like!"

St. Jude Marathon

Emmy has been loving her new car seat!  It is super plush and comfy.  This morning we all woke up early to head downtown.  We volunteered with some of Dad's co-workers at the St. Jude Marathon!  It was very cold outside, but we were all bundled up.

One of the water stations along the route was right outside the hospital Dad works at.  Dad and two other students in his MHA program that intern at the hospital handed out as much water as they could.  We ran out of water, so we just held up encouraging signs and cheered the runners on!

We are glad we could volunteer for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!

One Small Step...

Another major milestone has occurred at the Gilmore house!  Emmy has officially taken her first steps, without aid.  She is almost 14 months old, and we have been wondering when she would pop up and start walking.  We know quite a few kids that are younger than Emmy and already walking.  We are convinced that she was so chubby she couldn't figure out her center of gravity until now.  She has been pulling herself up on her feet for months, using the couch, furniture, walls, etc. to help her walk along, but when she runs out of support, she can't keep going.

We were at the mall earlier today, letting Emmy crawl around the play area.  She always likes being there and observing all the kids running around.  The way the play structures are laid out, and depending on where she crawls, we sometimes lose sight of Emmy.  So Cory and I were sitting and watching, when she crawled around the other side of the little house with a slide.  She likes going over there to watch kids slide down.  All of a sudden, I looked over and I could see her head bobbing around.  The only way that would be possible is if she was standing up, but I knew there wasn't anything over there for her to lean against, so my brain connected the dots and I shouted to Cory, "She's walking!"  By the time we shot up and got over there she had already sat back down, so we didn't actually see her taking steps.

When we got home we decided to put her to the test and practice.  We took a little video showing her walking across the room!