Christmas and Other Celebrations

We are back from another fun trip to Oregon. Here is the photo evidence:

The stockings at Grandma and Grandpa Springer's House

We had clear roads and a cooperative little guy, so the drive on Christmas Eve went well. Emmett loved facing forward in the car and it didn't seem to distract him enough to interfere with sleep. We took Emmett to the LaGrande McDonalds to play before it was "bedtime." The play area there must be pretty new and it was so fun! It was the first time he has played at one of those play places. We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Springers house late at night and Emmett was ready to play when we got there. Fortunately I got him back to sleep without too much trouble, and without keeping up a house of sleeping people for too long. Christmas morning began with stockings, one of my favorite things!

The whole gang!

Adorable Cousins

We had a great time opening presents, eating good food, playing with new toys and loving some family time.

The day after Christmas we went to my parents house for some Tevlin time. It is convenient having our parents 20 minutes away from eachother, especially since they are so good about sharing us back and forth during our visits. More stockings, good food, presents and visiting. We also went on a walk to a park. Auntie Mikaylee LOVES her nephew!

A fitting construction present from Grandma and Grandpa Tevlin

Mikaylee was sort of into Zebra stuff this year

So excited about little people stuff!

Cruising the slide

On the 27th we got to celebrate Jim's mom's birthday and Jim's uncle's wedding. It was a fun day of church, playing with cousins, a beautiful wedding with great food, and a small birthday party for Jim's mom.

Sharing the Love...Aunt Beth, Audrey and Emmett at the Wedding

On the 28th we got to visit with my Aunt Rosemary and my Grandma. How do Great Grandmas get such fantastic smiles out of kids?! We also visited with more old friends that we see way too infrequently.

Smiles with Great Grandma

The 29th the snow started to fall. We don't get too excited about snow now that we live in Idaho, but they sure do in Oregon! The snowflakes were huge, and they sure did stop traffic. We still managed to make it up to Salem to get together with a friend from highschool, however the other friend from highschool got stuck in Portland and couldn't make it. Fortunately we got to see that friend the next day. So fun to see so many good friends and hear about their lives.

The lovely snow that fell

The 30th we attempted to do some shopping, playing at an indoor play area, visiting more friends and some general relaxing. Mikaylee and I went out to lunch together too. New Year's Eve I did some shopping with my parents and then we went up to Salem for our niece Audrey's birthday party. It is always crazy for me to think about the fact that Audrey was born 10 days after our wedding. It sure makes me aware of the years that go by. Winn and Audrey are such fun kids and it is fun to see how much they love their cousin Emmett.

Winn and Audrey

Emmett loves balloons


The Birthday Girl

After we left the birthday party we went back to my parents, and got pulled over on the way. It was the first time Jim has ever gotten pulled over! It was for a burnt out license plate light. They were really trying to find drunk drivers that night. So it was a quick stop and we were on our way. My parents had a small party and after Emmett worked the crowd and went to bed we did a crazy hard puzzle and had even more good food.

The 1st was spent getting stuff packed up and enjoying company. We watched the Rose Bowl at Jim's parent's house, sad to see the Ducks lose. The 2nd we finished packing and headed up to Portland to see my Aunt Diane, Uncle Michael, and cousins Sean and MB. Mikaylee and her boyfriend Mark joined us for some yummy lunch and a bit of a dance party with Emmett.

We got on the road that afternoon for our long drive. We stopped at our new favorite McDonalds in LaGrande. Just oustide LaGrande we hit freezing fog and endured it the entire way home. We didn't meet any snow on the road until about a mile before our house. We have about 8 inches of snow here. Emmett had a bit of a rough time on the way home, still tugging at his ears, but did pretty well. We got home at 5:30am and got to sleep for about 3 hours before Emmett was ready to be up.

We love the LaGrande McDonalds!

Almost 500 miles of freezing fog, yuck!

Sunday we unpacked, went sledding and got ready for the week. After watching Emmett continually tug on his ears I took him to the Dr. this morning and unfortunately he still has a double ear infection. So we started a stronger antibiotic. Hopefully this will clear up his ears because the dr. seemed fairly concerned today. Emmett must have a high pain tolerance, because he really hasn't been letting it affect him much at all.