New Years Eve!

For New Year's we went down to Nate and Catharine's house and hung out with them, Grandma and Grandpa Conover, and the whole Smith family.
We spent the evening eating way too much food, playing games and just enjoying each other's company.

The kids spent most of their time down stairs playing with all of the toys.

Alyssa decided she couldn't really celebrate with what she had on so she had to get herself dressed up.

The kids all loved watching Uncle Nate make popcorn in his new popcorn maker.

We all slept over their that night and Alyssa and Claire were so excited about the matching pajamas they got to wear for their sleep over.

Happy New year!

Gillan family Visit

It just doesn't feel right to go through the holiday's with out family. We were so happy that all of Ryan's family were able to fly out Christmas night to stay with us.
Brett and Megan got in right around dinner time, so we all went out to eat at Uno Pizza. We came back home and hung out for a while. Later that evening Mom and Dad G and Shannon arrived.

The next morning we got up and had a big breakfast. Then we opened gifts that we got for each other. Alyssa loved that she got to have Christmas morning 2 days in a row.

Hanging out while we did presents.

Brett and Megan got Alyssa a giant hippo. She LOVED it! She decided to name it Magenta.
The rest of the day we hung out and played with our new toys.
We filled the week up with no problem. Ryan and Alyssa took them into D.C. to show them around, while I stayed home with Sean who was starting to come down with a cold.

Here are some of the pictures they took.

When we were back at the house they spent their time snuggling and playing with the kids. Alyssa loved coloring pictures for everyone.
Sean fell asleep on Shannon, holding his nose. We all thought it was so funny.


We also went to the movies. Alyssa sat with Shannon through the movie. She loves her Aunt Shanny. Sean did really good through the movie too. We were nervous that he was going to start screaming but he just slept on Ryan the whole time.

We also got to take a day trip up to Philly. We went around to see all the sights, had a cheese steak and then came home! It was a quick trip, but Philly is such a great place to visit and it isn't that far, so we are glad we got to go do that with them.

The family in front of the Liberty bell.

All of us in front of Independence Hall.

We went into the visitor's center and got some more photo's where it was a little bit warmer.

You can't go there with out stopping by the Rocky statue!

After the Statue we stopped at Geno's for a Philly Cheese Steak and then headed home.

The Next day was Shannon's Birthday! Alyssa was more than happy to help her open her presents.
We all went to church and then we headed down to Mark and Connie's house for dinner and to celebrate some more.
After dinner Shanny, opened some more presents and then we all had some fun shooting each other with some new dart gun toys they just got.

Alyssa didn't want to miss out on all the fun so she was quick to volunteer herself as the next target.

Happy Birthday Shanny. Hope you had a great day!

Merry Christmas!!

This was our first Christmas Eve spent with just our family. We decided it would be nice to keep the tradition of driving around to see Christmas lights going. Ryan found out about a festival of lights at Watkins regional park in Maryland that we could drive through.

Alyssa loved all the light displays and also loved helping her dad drive through to look at them.

Sean was really good and just stared out the window at them the whole time.
A little treat for the drive home.

When we got home, the kids opened up their Christmas pj's.



We laid out our stockings and cookies for Santa,then put the kids to bed.
Well, Sean got to hang out for a little while longer...

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!!

Alyssa was so excited. She was the most interested in all the fun things that were inside her stocking.

Sean was happy just hanging out in his chair.
Alyssa was just as excited about taking everything out of his stocking to show him.

Now onto the good stuff!
Alyssa playing with her favorite present. She is the only 3 year old who asks for money for Christmas. Every time she sat on santa's lap that is what she would tell him and anyone else who asked. Luckily Santa brought her a new piggy bank with a bag full of money to fill it up.

Alyssa got new dance shoes just in time to start her new dance class!

We all got Spoiled for sure!

And of course we all got some new Laker Gear!


We have had a lot of fun this holiday season. This year we didn't make it back to Utah. We decided that since We just had a baby it would be easier to stay home, and make everyone come to us this year. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with just our family. On Christmas day Ryan's family flew in to be with us and to have the D.C. experience. They were here through the new year and stayed till we blessed Sean, which my parents flew out for. It has been a lot of fun having all of our family out here with us.