An Arizona Christmas

Christmas in Arizona! Always busy and filled with lots of people! It was of course a good time filled with lots of time to spend with each other- except not as much time as we would have liked with Grandpa Close who had to work quite a bit...but we're happy he has a job and it's going well!!

We got there Saturday and had fun chasing the toddler and babies around for a couple days before we spent time with the extended family. Monday night, Christmas Eve, we spent with the Jones side. We ate dinner, then enjoyed a nativity scene of the grand babies (which was so dang cute) and opening gifts together. It's never enough time to catch up but at least we can count on seeing each other at least at that time. Christmas Eve I also got to skype with my family for a little bit and made me miss them :). They played a song for us on their chimes and brought a smile on our faces :).

 

Christmas morning always starts early with the Close side! Everyone knows how I am not a morning person! Cade is usually the one to get up first (before 6:00) and start getting other people up...he still gets just as excited as he did when he was 8 years old. So we were all up around 6:00 a.m. and started unwrapping gifts. It is getting more and more exciting the older Emma gets! I love seeing her eyes light up and the excitement she has with each gift. She got a Leappad computer from Grandma and Grandpa Close, some books, puzzles, and Santa brought her a Bell and Sleeping Beauty dress. I wonder if she'll grow out of loving princesses sometime :).

Cade had two surprises for me. The first I opened was a gift from the girls. They painted a plate for me at Color Me Mine. It had a hand print from Emma and foot print from Reese. It was so darling. He went through a lot of work with them at that place!

The next thing I opened was a HUGE surprise. A brand new Cannon Rebel T3i camera. As I opened it, I could not believe what I saw. I immediately started crying. Cade knows that I would love to get more into photography and be able to have fun taking pictures of our family growing up. I already take 1000's of pictures on my phone, but this is a hobby I've wanted to get in to. I love how Cade always encourages me to enjoy life and work on hobbies and talents and I LOVE him for it!

After opening presents and making a big mess...we got ready and headed to the Close family Christmas morning breakfast. I love seeing this family! We drove 2 hours to Phoenix, stayed for 2 hours and drove 2 hours back. Definitely not enough time, but it's all we can do with 4 kiddos who get cranky after a while. We got to catch up a little with family members and see cousin Tamara pregnant :). She is due with her first baby in May. So happy for her and Eric! Emma and Reese especially loved the HUGE dogs they had in the backyard. They love animals in general ;).

We went back to Prescott and ate a Christmas dinner with Great Grandma and Grandpa and it was of course delicious. That was our wonderful, busy Christmas Eve and Day.

The rest of the week was a lot more low-key...mainly chasing the two toddlers around who get into mischief when they are together :). When their quiet, that's the time to be worried! Cade and I got to go on a date to Les Miserables which is always so fun to spend time with just the two of us.

We came back the following Sunday and always love seeing the Close side. It was a wonderful Christmas and Grandma and Grandpa Close are always way too generous in their gifts, time, service and making us feel loved all the time! We love them.

I love this picture. Reese is saying a lot just by her expression. Taft wanted so badly to give Reese hugs the and chase her around but she didn't like it because he weighs a lot more than she does :). 

Reese's Birthday Duck

This is late getting on the blog, but I have lots to catch up on!


On her birthday, we kept it pretty low key.  She opened up a couple gifts from us and we sang to her. But on her birthday, she got to try her first treat (and it just happens to be one of my very favorite treats :). Strawberry Cheescake Ice cream bar). She definitely enjoyed her birthday!

She liked the wrapping paper roll more than the present. They always do...so why do we keep buying gifts at age one?

 

She did, however, LOVE her new wagon! She and Emma got to ride around the neighborhood and Emma loved pulling Reese in it. 

 

Then the following Sunday, we had the family over for dinner and cake and ice cream. For Reese's cake I couldn't think of something that she is really into or something she absolutely LOVES. But then I did think of her binky that is attached to a duck...she definitely LOVES that and is very attached to it. So I made a duck cake with a binky in it's mouth :). It was pretty simple but turned out cute. 

 Reese got her very own little duck...but she wouldn't try it and wouldn't try it. Finally, I put a little piece in her mouth to help her out and she gagged!!!

 So instead of birthday cake, Reese got birthday grapes. She was much happier with that :).

 

I copied Kristen with this idea, but I put the first years pictures in a line with the months indicated so you could see how she's grown over the 12 months. It got me looking through all of her pictures from the last year and brought back lots of memories. Thanks for the idea, Sisten!

 

 

Other fun things about Reese during her first year:

- Smiled in response to people at just a couple weeks old and cooing at 3 weeks. She was so tiny!
- She learned to get up on her hands and knees before 5 months
- Started crawling by 6 months
- Started walking at almost 10 months
- Running by a year
- Since about 6 months, just LOVES dancing anytime she hears music
- Loves chasing Emma around and copying everything she does

Reese first learning to walk

Now these are videos from several months ago, but just for having these for later, I wanted to still post them. she started walking before 10 months old and just loved being able to follow her sister around! I love the video with her blowing into the straw. She looks so cute and funny. Actually, seeing Cade imitate that scene is even better :).

Finally! Updated Bleak Family Pics!

It's been about 8 years since the Bleak side has sat down and got family pictures together. Way too long if you ask me! Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the entire family got together. Since we don't know the next time we will all be able to get together again (Boose potentially leaving on missions by the next holiday season and Jor-Jor the summer after), it was great to be able to set up a time and get some pictures done with everyone there. It was definitely hard to get all the grand kids to cooperate at the exact same time, but for the most part things went really well!

Since it was really cold outside we didn't venture too far. We went to the capitol building in Salt Lake and went inside when the babies needed a break and we could all warm up. I sure love my family! It's amazing to think of how many more family members we'll have next time we do family pictures :).

This is one of my favorite pictures! Grandma and Grandpa with all the grand-babies :)

The six of us siblings- Bryan, Kristen, Katelyn, Kellie, Jordan, Nathan. I love them all.

I love this picture...shows just how easy it is to work with all the grand children :)...