Audrey's first Christmas

We left for Utah on December 12, so first we had a couple weeks of celebrating the holiday season in Eugene. Brent took his girls to the little Nutcracker performance at our library. 

 Ava earned her suitcase she's been working on from her sticker chart. She was so excited! (Thanks mom for finding it for us).

 Ava gave a cute talk in Primary and then wanted to hold Audrey afterward.

 Brent's friend from his mission sent us this beautiful baby blanket. She has done one for each child with their name and birth date.

 We went to a holiday party at Brent's school and the kids decorated Christmas cookies.

 We went to a gender reveal party for Coen's preschool teacher, Mrs. Heather. It's a girl!

 Brent's birthday- we went to the creche exhibit that we go to every year. And we took our annual nativity picture with the Wilsons.

 Zoom in on Coen's face.

 Brent the cow is cracking me up.

While at the Creche we listened to some fun dueling pianos playing Manheim Steamroller. 

 We got Brent pizza for dinner and it was a pretty chill evening. The night before we had gone to his institute teacher's house for pizza and Disney +, which was a fun celebration too.

 Audrey's 4 month check up. She was a little over 13 lbs and was about 40% on weight and 50% on height.

 We went to see Coen practice his Christmas program at school since we weren't there for the real thing. He gets pretty shy when he sees us at school. When we're not there, he's pretty outgoing and has lots of friends.

 Our flight to Utah- Audrey's first time on a plane! She did great and didn't cry the whole time.

 Meeting Grandma Dot.

 We went to the Cowley's Christmas party and met Santa. Coen was super nervous to sit on Santa's lap. He did tell him that he wanted a puzzle with his own face on it. Haha. Ava wanted a lap desk for her coloring and crafts.

We went on errands and Brent ran into a former mission companion at Deseret Book. Brent hadn't seen this companion since his mission. As they were talking he found out that the companion's older brother is our stake president in Eugene!

 We met the Grobergs at Deseret Book too, and Brent got their autographs on the Other Side of Heaven movie.

 Brent and my dad went to the Tabernacle choir concert.

We went to the Cowley's ward at Carrington Court and saw got released. 

 I went to work at my new office in West Valley on Monday. (They moved from the nice downtown location sadly!) After the training all day, I had coordinated with Laura to pick her up at the airport and bring her to dinner with me to surprise my mom for her birthday. Our plan worked and my mom was very surprised! Emma decided right off that she liked me and wanted me to hold her.

 Brent took the kids to the new Star Wars. I didn't want to go and stayed home to work.

 Audrey's first time sitting in a high chair!

Avan and I went to get our hair cut together.

 Cute little girl cousins!

 Audrey meets Laura:

 Ava can give Audrey a bottle:

 I went to hear Laura sing at a rest home where our great uncle is staying.

 Sweet baby girl in the morning. She was doing so great with her sleeping- going anywhere from 6 to 9 hours in a row!

 My parents took Coen out for his birthday lunch to Red Robin.

 Lucky boy!

 This kid is getting so much more character and less mellow as he gets older.

 He was a good boy for his date with Grama and Grandpa!

We met Em and Tim at a restaurant to talk. 

Between us we have 5 girls and 1 boy.

We went to see my friend Erin from BYU. Her mom has dozens of advent calendars and the kids got to help update each one throughout the house.

 My mom put on the Hansen Christmas party at a church. The kids did the nativity and my mom and Cher played Sleigh Bells on the piano.

 It was a fun party!

 We had cookie decorating day with the Cowleys- it is still fun, even if I can't eat them!

 Brent and I went on a fancy date downtown for my work since I couldn't make it to the work Christmas party. We got deeeeeelicious steaks.

 The Dahn Christmas Eve party was Feliz Navidad theme complete with a taco/nacho bar and a piñata.

 Brent's cousin's baby is 5 weeks older than Audrey.

 We moved over to my parent's house on Christmas Eve and enjoyed Christmas morning with Laura & Jordan.

 She enjoyed her first Christmas, even though Santa didn't bring her anything!

 Sisters, oldest to youngest.

 We went over to the Cowleys to have more Christmas! I ate so much yummy food this day. We did the dart gun game with the gift card exchange.

 The day after Christmas we had a Braithwaite party. Laura and I and these two cousins used to play all the time when we were kids. It's so fun that we all had baby girls within about a year of each other!

 Nana and some of her grandkids.

 Audrey and Nana meet:

We went to Tucanos and ate so much yummy meat.

 Me and my babies:

 We went to the Leonardo and the planetarium to use our museum pass.

 Cute Emma!

 We babysat Emma while Laura & Jordan were on a date. It was a fun night with the cute baby girls.

 Brent and the kids went to see the lights at Temple Square and donate at the Giving Machine with the Cowleys. I sat out a lot of things this year with baby Audrey, which is ok with me since I'm a homebody!

The Cowley party was our fourth family party- that made one for each of the kids' grandparent's side of the family. We are so lucky to be able to see so much family when we come into town! The kids enjoyed making necklaces:

 The hungry hippo game was funny to watch- here's Bob and three of his brothers playing together!

 Action shot:

 Marcie and Natalie played Bratz dolls for a long time with the kids. They had vacations and a wedding and the kids were in heaven!

 Cher came with her kids and Ava got to cook brownies with Lucy.

 They went to zoo lights together! Again- I stayed home with the baby!

 New Years Eve- we had Chinese food with my parents and watched a movie. We packed and cleaned in the morning because we went home right on New Years Day this year.

I was so nervous that we were going to be sick this year and luckily we had pretty good health, except for coughs at the beginning of the trip. I ended up getting a yucky cold/flu on the day we went home. I always wonder if it's worth the effort of packing up everything for Christmas and going to cold Utah for so long, but the kids absolutely love spending time with their grandparents and cousins. Being in Utah made it so magical for them. Thanks to the grandparents for all of the Christmas presents, babysitting, food, and fun times this break!