Our Iowa Christmas – Part 2

Nathan woke up at 6:40am and Emily was still fast asleep so we thought we might be able to push Christmas back a bit. She was stirring by 7 and asking for breakfast so we alerted the grandparents who woke the aunt and uncles. We met at the top of the stairs and all ran in to see the Christmas tree together.

Emily was VERY excited about the contents of her stockings, specifically her new toothbrush and “toothpaste”.

We all took turns opening gifts. Emily switched between finding gifts to open and running to the person opening the gift saying, “Let’s see! Let’s see!”. This lasted only a short time however, and soon she had discovered a tiny book and was off playing. Nathan hung out for a bit but soon decided to take a nap.

We had pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs for breakfast. We played games and enjoyed hanging out together. We had homemade pizza for dinner and then got ready to head to Nauvoo in the morning.

Saturday we drove down to Nauvoo and took turns going to the temple to do work for our family. Brian helped me with Nathan and Emily first outside the temple – he is seriously the best. We spent a lot of time playing with the blocks and dolls and enjoyed a little homemade bread. Brian, my mom and I went in next while everyone else hung out at the welcome center.

A sibling shot in which both Derick and I tickled Brian at the same time.

I love these guys. The highlight of the trip was all being together again.

Andrew, Emily, Nathan, and I headed out a little more quickly than we were planning on Sunday to beat the winter storm that was supposed to start during the night.  We have two fantastic little travelers right now that made the trip very smooth with only a few stops for feedings.