Christmas!!!

We've had a great Christmas season. We have been so busy visiting family that I haven't had time to post. Here is tons of pictures from our Christmas. I hope you all had a great Christmas season too!!!

On December 23, the Reese girls have a tradition to go to the mall and sit on Santa's lap and then go to Temple Square to see the beautiful lights. Unfortunately it was snowing so bad this year we didn't make it to see the lights and the mall we visited had such a long line we didn't get to see Santa. I was a little disappointed since it would have been Ainsley's first time. Afterwards, we have the annual Winder Family Talent Show at Grandpa and Grandma Winder's house. Unfortunately, the Reese's aren't talented enough to participate but we enjoy hearing everyone else play the piano, sing, and read stories. Grandma Winder reads us a new Christmas book each year. Ainsley got to meet her new second cousin Hannah who is the daughter of my friend and former roommate Melissa who married Tom's cousin James. Hannah was so petite and adorable. Grandpa Winder posed as our Santa since we didn't get to take a picture with Santa this year.

Hannah, Melissa, Me, and Ainsley
James and Hannah, Beav and his dolly, and Tom and Ainsley

On Christmas Eve, we always visit Tom's grandmother's grave and light luminares and sing Christmas carols. Then we drive to Grandpa Reese's house to eat dinner. We enjoyed visiting with the family and playing with Tom's cousins. Then we exchanged gifts before heading back to the Reese's to spend the night. Each year we take pictures with our stockings.

Ainsley and her Great Grandpa Reese
Burglar Aaron in his new ski mask

Ainsley with her Christmas stocking

We spent Christmas morning at Tom's parents house. Ainsley was so spoiled by her wonderful aunts and grandparents. It was a lot of fun to watch Ainsley open her presents. She got three new dresses, a skirt, sweaters, tights, a monkey backpack, an outfit for her Bitty Baby, and books. Tom got a new coat, shoes, and gift cards. I got clothes, Mama Mia and Sleeping Beauty DVDs, and giftcards too. It was a great Christmas. Thank you for all of the wonderful gifts!!! After opening presents, Great Grandpa Reese and Grandma Judy came over for Christmas brunch.

Ainsley's cute monkey backpack from Pottery Barn

All of her loot. She's one spoiled baby!

After spending the morning with the Reese's, we headed up to Bountiful to see the Butler side. It is a Butler tradition to get matching pajamas on Christmas Eve and to take a family picture together. This year only the grandkids received pajamas and so we had to take pictures of them. It was quite a feat to try to get all three kids looking at the same camera, but they looked so adorable together. After taking the snapshots, we headed over to my Uncle Jeff's house for the traditional Butler Brunch of Apples and Sausage-which is made with green apples and sausage covered with a brown sugar struesel. It is kinda like apple pie with sausage in it. It might sound weird, but it is delicious. My dad had this breakfast every Christmas growing up and we have continued the tradition.

Little twin elves
Will (2 1/2) Ainsley (7 months) Caden (7 months)
Cami with the babies at the Butler Brunch

After the brunch, we headed back to my parents house to open presents. Again, we were so spoiled by such wonderful family. Ainsley got a pop-up musical toy, a chest for putting shapes in, Minnie Mouse, finger puppets, stuffed IU frog, velvet overalls, a dress, shoes, sunglasses, and lots of books. Tom and I got more clothes and money to help pay off all of my expensive medical bills from this year. After opening presents we watched The Ultimate Gift which had a great message about how giving is better than receiving. Then we played my brother's new game, "You Might Be a Redneck." We all talked in funny accents and laughed and enjoyed one another's company. We had a lot of fun!!!

Tom, Ainsley, and I opening gifts

Rockstar!

Our little family on Christmas

I can't believe how fast our Christmas break is going. We made a goal to visit as many people as we could. We've been really busy but are having a blast. Some other highlights from our vacation so far include:

On Saturday I went snowboarding at Snowbird with my younger siblings Cami and Jon. We haven't been snowboarding together in years. I didn't get to go last year since I was pregnant and so I was a little out of shape. They worked me good. It was snowing like crazy and during one run, we were nearly blown off the mountain. The snow was blowing so hard it felt like needles on my face and I could not even see where I was going. But despite the weather and my sore muscles, we had a blast. I can't wait to go again next week with Shae who has been my snowboarding buddy since junior high.

Jon, Me, and Cami after a fun day on the mountain

Cami and Me

Saturday night we had our Gallier Christmas party. I haven't seen some of my cousins in almost a year. We enjoyed eating dinner, playing games, and watching old slides and videos of my mom and her siblings growing up. We even saw old pictures of my parents dating. It was pretty hilarious to see all of their funny hairstyles and clothes from back then!!!

On Sunday, we went back to our old branch in Pleasant Grove to visit our friends. It is strange we have only been gone five months and it has changed so much. It was so good to see everyone again. We have missed them! That evening we went to visit Ainsley's oldest living relative, her Great-great Aunt Kathryn which is Tom's Grandma Reese's sister. Tom's Uncle Mark and Aunt Julie and their boys were also there.

On Monday, I got to see all eight of my high school friends and their kids at Paradise Bakery. Seven of us had a baby in 2008 (3 girls and 4 boys) and so it was fun to compare milestones and hear what everyone was up to. I really miss all of them and wish I could see them more.

On Tuesday we went down to Provo to visit our good friends, the Bells. They have been one of our best friends and have loved double dating together over the years. We've enjoyed hiking and camping with them as well. We had lunch and played games together. Their little girl Eliza is only 2 weeks older than Ainsley.

On Tuesday night, Tom, Anne (Tom's sister), and I went down to Los Hermanos in Provo for dinner. Tom's other sister Susan is a waitress there and it was fun to have her serve us. Best service ever!

Christmas Pictures

Our friend Jenner took our Christmas photos and they turned out great. I've been waiting to post them until I mailed them out. Tom and I also took Ainsley to IU to get some pictures of her in the fall leaves. She did not like it one bit. I think the crunching sound scared her and the ground was really cold. We were unable to get a single picture of her smiling. But there is something about crying baby pictures that are still so adorable!

Saturday was our ward Christmas party. Ainsley got to meet Santa for the first time. She seemed a little confused of who he was. She didn't cry though and just tried to grab his glasses. It was cute. Here are the pics from the party.

Ainsley and Santa

My friend Marin and AinsleyExcited for Christmas

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Not Much to Report

I try to post at least once a week, but I haven't had much to post lately. Tom has been so busy studying for finals, that we haven't done much. It was his birthday yesterday and poor guy had to spend the whole day at school cramming for today's first final. I did manage to get him to take an hour break and have lunch with me at Olive Garden. It wasn't much but we are planning on celebrating our b-days together when we get to Utah.

I was looking through my folders of pictures and realized I never posted about my sewing experiment. My mother gave me her old sewing machine when I moved and I've always wanted to make something for Ainsley. My mom made me tons of beautiful dresses growing up, including some of my high school dance dresses and bridesmaids skirts. I aspire to be like her, so one day while I was at Hobby Lobby I bought some fabric and a pattern. But I didn't look at all of the other things I might need (brown thread, snaps, ric-rac, pink thread, etc.) So unfortunately it took me 4 trips to Hobby Lobby to complete the dress, but here how it went:

The fabric and pattern

Sewing on my mom's very old machine

Ainsley trying it on half way through

The finished product

Trying it on, as you can see it's pretty big. She won't be able to wear it until next summer.

Chicago!

Over the Thanksgiving break, Tom and I went to Chicago. It was nice to get away for a few days and to spend time together. Chicago is only about 4 hours away. We left Sunday night and stayed until Wednesday evening. It was a great trip. Here are some of the fun things that we did.

We took Ainsley to the Shedd Aquarium. Besides being packed, it was a lot of fun. There were tons of fish, sharks, and animals from all over the world. We didn't get to see the whales, dolphins, or penquins because their exhibit was closed for the winter. Ainsley enjoyed looking at the fish, and would always stick her hand on the glass trying to touch them. It was cute.

Shedd AquariumGiant Spider Crabs-they were scary looking!The Sears tower is in the background, but it was kinda foggy that day

Next we went to Millenium Park. It has a huge outdoor theater for concerts and plays. We took pictures in front of "The Bean" statue. Then we walked down Michigan Avenue to go shopping. We passed the historic Water Tower which was one of the only buildings to survive the Great Chicago Fire. We ended at the American Girl store, which I had been looking forward to all week. I was a huge American Girl fan as a kid. My friend Steff and I spent hours playing with our twin Samantha dolls. While at the store, I wanted to buy everything for Ainsley because I knew how much fun I had with them as a kid. We got her a few souvenirs:)

The Bean
Our reflection in the Bean

The Water Tower
At the American Girl store, standing in front of the two dolls that I had as a kid-Addy and Samantha

On Tuesday, we drove up to Glenview to go to the Chicago Temple. Since we had Ainsley in the car, we had to take turns. We are actually in the Lousiville, KY temple district but that is still 2 hours away from where we live. We never realized how lucky we were in Utah to be 5 minutes away from a temple. We wish we had gone more when it was so close, because now we really miss it.
After the temple, we went to Navy Pier which stretches out onto Lake Michigan. It was gorgeous. We wish we could have seen it in the summer when all of the shops were open and they shoot fireworks out onto the lake. But it was still fun. Afterwards we went to DUE, the sequel to UNO pizza to have real Chicago deep dish pizza. Then we finished it off with a sundae from Ghiradelli. It was delicious! We did more shopping on Michigan Avenue and then went back to the hotel to take Ainsley swimming. The indoor pool was a little cold but she loved it.

On our last day, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago museum. It was amazing. Growing up, my family always played a game called "Masterpiece" that had been my mom's game as a kid. Anyway, it you buy and sell famous works of art. As we walked through the museum, I realized that every painting in the game came from this musuem. So I had a fun time picking out the works of art that I knew from this silly game. Here were a few:

American Gothic

Night Hawks

This Renoir was always my favorite in the game-my sisters and I would always fight over it.

Mary Cassat's "Mother Bathing Child"
Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"

We came home to celebrate Thanksgiving with all our new friends in Bloomington. We got together at a clubhouse to have dinner. There was tons of food and pies and although we were away from family, we had a great time!