Cory's Family Visits

Right after all the Christmas Festivities, my family all came into town to spend New Years with us here in Dallas.  It was so awesome to have all the sisters, husbands, nieces, nephews and my mom together.  It has been so long since we have all been in one place.  My mom rented out a house nearby for everyone to use as a gathering place. It was a blast spending all day together, hanging out, relaxing and playing with the babies.  It was the first time for everyone (besides Grandma) to meet Calvin so that made it super special.

 

Emmy took a while to warm up to her Uncle Darron.  It was her first time meeting him and she tends to be a little shy around strange men she doesn't know.  By the end of the week she was very much a fan of him.  She still likes to make jokes though about how she is, "scared of Darron." 

Emmy and her Uncle Jake hanging out playing play doh at the house we rented.  

We took everyone on a trip to the zoo during the visit and we all had a great time.  Cohen had the best view in the house during the Lion show.  

Emmy spent a lot of the day on Grandma's hip.  She loved learning about the elephants from Grandma.

This Giraffe was trying to sneak a little lick of Emmy, but couldn't quite reach.

Sean hoisted Emmy up on his shoulders, just like Cohen, at Emmy's request.

No zoo day would be complete without a Gorilla sighting.

Calvin was a trooper the whole day, as he usually is.  Many people kept peeking into the carseat to see what little baby was inside.

We had a great time at the zoo.  It was definitely a good bonding time for Emmy and Darron.  During the reptile house Uncle Darron carried Emmy and showed her all the snakes.  She still asks about Darron and Sarah every time we got to the zoo.

While in the reptile house there was a huge albino python.  It was all curled up where you could just see a little bit of it, but you could tell the thing was huge.  While we were all standing there feeling a little creeped out at the huge guy, a door opened up and a man crawled into the exhibit to clean out some debris.  I was freaking out and couldn't believe he would go in there.  It was so insane to me.  Also strange to see a human walking around in an exhibit.

On New Years Eve night we took everyone over to Vitruvian Park to see the lights and get out of the house before we hunkered down for the New Years festivities at home.  It was a beautiful night, and surprisingly cold.  So glad we could get a picture of all of us together.

This trip was also when we all got to meet Dave in person.  It was great that we could all be together for that and it was great of him to come down and spend time with us.  He will very soon be a permanent part of the family so we hope he doesn't mind all of our craziness!

Because we were all together for the first time...ever!  We organized some simple family photos.  I thought they turned out great, especially with three slightly uncooperative babies!

Merry Christmas, 2016!

Merry Christmas!!!

This year was the first Christmas that Santa made an official visit to our home and left presents out for Emmy and Calvin.  We enjoyed a Christmas church service in the morning before we opened our gifts.  It was exciting to watch Emmy's progression from giddy anticipation in her room, to all out jubilant excitement when we set her loose into the living room.  She got a table and chair for our balcony, and a bubble machine!  Calvin got an activity mat with some dangling toys for him to reach for.  They both seemed content with their gifts.

Emmy immediately wanted to test out her bubble machine.  She was not disappointed.

Emmy has become a pro at unwrapping gifts.  Each time she unwrapped something she immediately wanted to play with it.  It was almost a chore to convince her to open the rest of her presents.  One of her favorites was a new pizza set to go with her play kitchen.  She spent a lot of the morning making the family some yummy pizza.

She also received some special jewelry from Grandma Buzz.  She wanted to wear it the rest of the day and kept repeating how "beautiful" it was.

Calvin broke in his new activity mat, but mostly just napped the day away.

If he wasn't sleeping on the mat, he was sleeping in Dad's arms.

If he wasn't sleeping on the mat or in Dad's arms, he was sleeping on Mom and Dad's bed.

If he wasn't sleeping on the mat, in Dad's arms, or on Mom and Dad's bed, he was snuggled up with Emmy in her bed!

All in all it was a fun day.  I had to sneak in a picture of my gift for Cory.  She loves all the pet names I have for her...maybe...I haven't actually asked her how she feels about them.

A little blurry, but here is a picture of the whole family ready for church.  We are so grateful for our Savior and His life, which makes it possible for us to live as a family for eternity.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2016

We have been trying to do festive Christmas activities all month, and we are finally at the culmination of the season.  Christmas Eve is here and we are ready for morning to come.  Today, Emmy did a craft with Mom that now proudly hangs on the fridge.

We kept with family tradition and opened Christmas jammies before bed.  Calvin absolutely loved finding out about this tradition he will enjoy for the next 18 years.

Emmy has been so sweet with Calvin for these past six weeks and was constantly asking to hold him while in their new pj's.  Maybe one day they will have fun sleepovers together on Christmas Eve!

We also took some time to read the Nativity story from the New Testament.  We loved using our special copy that Grandma Buzz gave us.  It has supplemental artwork on select pages.  Emmy was very reverent during the reading, and has been starting to understand more and more as we teach her about the Savior.

These two sugarplums are ready for Christmas morning!

Cookies for Santa

It's a very big family tradition in my family to make sugar cookies and decorate them all as a family.  We usually turn it into a cookie decorating competition and things can sometimes get a little crazy.  This year was definitely much more calm with the decorating, but I was still able to share the cookie making and decorating tradition with Emmy.

Calvin decided to watch Charlie Brown Christmas instead.

Emmy helping me roll out the dough!

Now it's time to cut it out!  We have lots of Christmassy shapes, but my personal favorite is the mickey ears!

The cookies have been decorated.  Emmy learned many valuable decorating tricks this year.

These three cuties are ready to taste test.

Emmy is all over eating the leftover frosting.

Hope Santa appreciates all of our hard work!

Vitruvian Park

Another Christmas light adventure for the Gilmores and little Miss Emmy.  If we didn't make it obvious already, she loves Christmas lights.

The Vitruvian Park lights were super awesome.  It is so pretty to walk around the water and see all the colorful lights.  There were tons of kids and families around enjoying the cold weather and beautiful evening.

Emmy is always trying to see who she can make friends with.

She ran around this little sitting area around a tree forever.  She loves to see the other kids playing and try to play.  She really has no fear of going up to other kids and talking with them.

Sean and Emmy getting a photo op.

Up past the park was an apartment complex with shops and restaurants on the main floor.  There is this cute little doggy hotel with big windows that you can look and in watch the dogs play.  Emmy loved it, but was nervous to get to close.  She has a curiosity with animals and wants to see them but doesn't like if they get too close to her.  I don't think she knows how windows work yet.

Calvin ended the night by growing a beard and posing as super hip Santa.

Lights at Farmers Branch

We have been wanting to stir up as much Christmas spirit as we can around the Gilmore house.  Emmy loves Christmas time and Santa and baby Jesus.  She is always pointing out the window as we drive saying, "Christmas lights!"  We took her to a nearby little drive through light display to really peak her interest in Christmas lights

Emmy wanted her and I to both put our "hats" on.

Calvin all bundled up and ready for a night out on the town!

Of course the two babies together, as per the request of Big Sister Emmy!

Now we are really feeling the Christmas spirit!  It was just a free little drive through light display up north of us in Farmer's Branch, and it was definitely perfect for our little Emmy.  Sean and I unfortunately were not super impressed...I guess that's what happens when you grow up and have too high of expectations.

Now that we are Texans we get to enjoy western themed Christmas light displays...we LOVE it!

What a night we had!  Calvin and Dad were totally ready to zonk when we got home!

Calvin's Birth Announcement

For our baby boy...

I put up one of Calvin's newborn photos right next to the one I have had up of Emmy.  Love my sweet babes.  Can't believe how much they look alike.

Mr. Mechanic

Sean has always been a self proclaimed not-handy person.  I think it's not that he isn't or can't be handy, he just never learned how to do a lot of stereotypically "handy man" type things.

His car had been having trouble starting up for a few days and finally pooped out on him.  He had driven up to the church on a Sunday afternoon for tithing settlement and couldn't get it started back up to get home.  After talking with our parents and doing some internet diagnostics we determined a new battery was probably all it needed.

Since the car was stuck in the church parking lot we decided to try and look up how to change a car battery yourself.  My mom assured us that it wasn't all that hard and that people did it all the time.  Sean also got some pep talk from his co-worker that he did it for his parents a lot as a teenager.

I bought the battery while Sean was at work and we headed straight over to get it all hooked up.  I think I was more nervous than Sean was and I didn't even touch anything.  I was just on photo duty.

Sean looking very handy and masculine under the hood of the car.

I was very surprised at how confident he was with what he was doing.  I was second guessing everything and at one point something sparked and I was totally sure Sean was going to electrocute himself.

Sean puffing out his chest at a handy job well done!

Very proud of you, and I think you are very handy!

Santa's Workshop Puppet Show

I am all about trying to find free things to do as a family to get out of the house and try things we wouldn't normally do.  With it being Christmas time it seems like there are lots of activities and events going on for free all the time.  This weekend  found us at another North Park Mall Puppet show.  This one was more of a show and not interactive.  I am pretty sure it's been running for like 40 years because the puppets were so old and raggedy and it just was so outdated and cheesy.

  

Emmy as you can see from the picture was captivated!  The little windows and doors on the house open up and it's a show about elves at Santa's workshop.

We also stopped in to check on the ducks and turtles.  One of Emmy's favorite places to stop when we are at the mall.  Now even more fun with all the festive holiday decor. 

Afterward it was home to enjoy some sibling snuggle time.  Emmy asked to lay next time Calvin while she watched a Charlie Brown Christmas.  It has been so happy at our house with the addition of little Calvin and the excitement of the Christmas Season

Two little angels snuggled up under the Christmas tree.

And of course one of our sweet little Calvin! He will be one month old tomorrow, and the first month has flown by.  We are so glad he decided to come down and join our little family.