The Baylor Family Blog

There were lots of posed shots taken that I wanted to include from our time in Wisconsin, too.

Here are my parents with all five of their grandkids:
Andrew (11 months), Grandma, Tycen (1.5 years), Callie (3.5 years), Grandpa, Abi (11 months), Eli (2.5 years)

We took a few pictures of Abi in her Christmas dress, which she wore to the Christmas Eve service. I bought her this dress while I was still pregnant with her, and she finally got to wear it. She looked so pretty Eli had a Christmas suit on, but he wasn’t up for picture since he just busted his lip open.

Here is Abi and her cousin, Andrew, both born on the same day. It was hard getting both of them to sit still long enough for a picture!

Eli with his cousin, Andrew:

Me with my nephews, Andrew and Tycen. Eli popped in the second shot!

On December 22, we loaded up and flew to Wisconsin to spend a week with my family to celebrate Christmas. Since my siblings, parents, and I all live in different states, it is always precious when we can all get together. We all arrived within a day and a half of each other. My parents got to enjoy the busyness of five mobile grandchildren ages three and under. It was fun watching the cousins play together and entertain each other. We had lots of cold weather, but that also included plenty of snow for the kids to enjoy, as well. It was fun watching the personalities of my niece and nephews come out more and more, too.

The first evening with all of us together, we had little birthday celebration for Kevin (whose birthday was in December), Andrew and Abi (whose birthdays are both January 22). I’m not sure Andrew had much of an opportunity to play with his new toy, but the other kids sure enjoyed it

There was plenty of snow, so many went outside to play and shovel or un-shovel, and sled. My parents have a great, long hill in their backyard for sledding. My brother somehow managed to sled down the hill standing up, but Callie and Eli were very compliant sitting in the sled all the way down! Eli enjoyed showing Callie how to eat the snow, too. The weather was quite cold, so the kids didn’t spend too much time outside before needing to get warmed up inside, too. Andrew braved a sled ride, but we didn’t even try and bring Abi out since she his a good history of throwing tantrums when getting bundled up.

Despite the snow, we managed to make it to the candlelight Christmas Eve service. Just before we left home, Eli fell off a bathroom stool and busted his lip open. It hurt for him to eat and drink, so he was a little out of sorts. Poor kid. Neither of our kids lasted the whole service (we weren’t shocked). I brought Eli back in after the sermon. The church gave glow sticks to the kids instead of candles, which was a special treat that was played with all evening.

Somehow, we all managed to wait until Christmas morning to exchange gifts. We were all spoiled with LOTS of gifts. There were presents stacked half as tall as the Christmas tree, several feet out. The little kids did better than us big kids leaving the presents alone Eli scored some new games, matchbox cars, puzzles, and so much more. Abi is enjoying new dolls, a stroller, shopping cart, vacuum, lots of food for her kitchenette and more. Matt enjoyed some Wii chargers, tools, and lots of athletic clothes. I walked away with a new DVD player, garlic press, silicone whisk, muffin pan (okay, I’m feeling all grown up now!) and more! We packed all our suitcases to the maximum weight limit and still shipped a large box home.

After Christmas, Matt and I got a much needed escape from kids and headed out for a date one afternoon. We haven’t gotten out nearly enough for dates since Abi’s birth. We visited the highlights of Monroe and simply enjoyed the freedom of just being us! We were thankful to my parents and siblings for watching the kids!

My brothers and their families had to maneuver through some very icy and snowy weather on their way home. Despite the fact they went south and we headed north to the airport, we somehow had much better roads. We found out after checking in at our gate that our flight was overbooked by 10 seats. With Matt’s job done at Focus, there was no reason for us to be home that day. So we voluntarily gave up our seats. In return, the airline put us up in a nice hotel, provided us with meals, confirmed us on a flight the next day, and gave us three round-trip airline tickets. Score! It was a bit tricky doing this with small kids, but it was definitely worth it in the long run. It was an adventure, for sure!

(Eli showing Tycen how to drive Grandma’s scooter. I think Eli will have no problem helping Tycen get in trouble during future visits)

(Great Grandma Baylor with four of her five great grandkids)

The weekend before Christmas, we went to Matt’s Aunt Ann’s home to celebrate the Christmas season with the Baylor side of the family. It was great catching up with Matt’s extended family. We enjoyed delicious chili prepared by Aunt Ann and lots of Christmas cookies and goodies!

This year we had a white elephant gift exchange. It was fun seeing the different ideas everyone came up with. We left with some brownies and an electronic 20 questions game…not so bad for a white elephant gift exchange, I’d say!

The little kids got spoiled with gifts and lots of extra attention. Because we celebrated in the evening, our kids were exhausted and fell asleep on the way home!

On December 12, we traveled to Denver to celebrate Christmas with Matt’s parents and brother and his family. Soon after arrival, to our delight, Abi took her morning nap without much fussing. It was her first time sleeping well in a new place! The rest of us enjoyed some delicious breakfast before opening stockings!

I’m not exactly sure what was going on in the picture above, but the Baylor boys were definitely laughing and having some fun. I don’t think anyone got hurt while taking this picture

It wasn’t long after that Abi awoke from her morning nap, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and shared gifts with each other. The kids had fun delivering gifts and helping everyone else open their gifts.

Eli enjoyed spending lots of time with his cousins and Gran-B and Poppy. He especially enjoyed their matchbox cars in the basement. In fact, it was hard to lure him upstairs with everyone else most of the time!

Here are the four Baylor cousins, not quite in age order: Abi (11 months), Katya (1.5 years), Nathan (4.5 years), and Eli (2.5 years)

In the afternoon, we walked over to Than and Michelle’s house (who live nearby) and decorated some gingerbread cookies. I hadn’t braved the task of decorating cookies with Eli this season, so I was thankful he still had the opportunity. Unsurprisingly, he really enjoyed himself. I’m pretty sure we’ll be decorating some cookies at home together next year

December started out very, very cold here in Colorado. In fact, it was so cold that I didn’t venture outside of the house with the kids for days. And they were healthy. That is very unlike me! I was getting quite stir-crazy after weeks of not getting out during sickness, only to have days of its-way-to-cold-to-get-out-of-the-house. Despite new snow, it just seemed too cold for Eli to go out and play in it, too Fortunately, the cold front passed through and more normal weather (including the sunshine) returned!

We managed to decorate for Christmas, though much less than we’ve done in past years. We did most of the decorating while the kids were sleeping. It was fun to their excitement when they woke up to the new decorations. The bottom third of our Christmas tree didn’t have any ornaments. Eli was trustworthy enough this year that we allowed him to touch ornaments, but not take them off the tree. He did very well with that boundary. Eli loved bringing his step stool over to the Christmas tree so he could reach ornaments and talk about them. Abi enjoyed touching the lights she could reach at the bottom of the tree, but she really wasn’t very interested in the tree.

We started a new family Christmas tradition this year of having a few moments of family time every evening. Eli has hit an age were we want to instill more truth and meaning in life. Though there is a lot of gift giving this time of year, we desparately wanted him to grasp that Christmas is Jesus’s birthday. We purchased a new advent calendar with doors. Every evening we opened a door and pulled out one of the 24 pieces that described Jesus’ birth story. We also had a couple other activities that were given to us we did on some nights. Eli really enjoyed this time every night. Abi usually crawled off and played with books or the Fisher Price nativity scene. Eli also mastered singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. I think he’ll remember some of these activities next year, too!

Since we had a zoo membership, we took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy “Winter Wonderland” at the zoo and see lots of pretty Christmas lights at the zoo. The first evening we went, we were able to see many nocturnal animals moving around that are normally sleeping during the day. It was a blast. We returned just after the New Year. We enjoyed taking the Sky Ride up the mountain. Eli did great sitting on the ski-lift. Abi was snug in the Baby Bjorn, as she is quite the squirmy little girl. It was much colder the second time around, so we skipped seeing some of the animals.

We celebrated Jesus’ Birthday together as a family on Monday, December 21 just before leaving to visit my family. We were all in our jammies. Eli already considered himself a pro at opening presents and was super excited. We sang happy birthday to Jesus and opened the last doors of our advent calendar. Matt surprised me with a snuggie to keep me nice and warm as well as a mouse pad with the kids’ picture on it. I love it!  I surprised Matt with a digital photo frame and the newest version of Boggle, which we’ve played 101 times since then!

Our big present this year was a kitchenette. While it was purchased mostly for Abi, Eli is having just as much fun with it. Both kids also got a new Veggie Tales DVD, and Eli enjoyed getting Candyland and some Trio Blocks.

It is really exciting to start our own family traditions, especially as our family is growing and our kids are getting older. I’m learning the importance of being intentional and not filling our days and evenings with so much busyness that we can’t enjoy the season.

(Abi seems as excited about the bubble bath as I was when I received it!)

(Abi enjoying her new doll from Grandad and Grandma Baylor)

(Eli and Abi learning to play together with their brand new kitchenette)