Christmas!

Christmas has been full of fun this year!  Here are some activities that we participated in.  
These pictures are from the Magical Forest in Las Vegas. We went with some friends and had fun, Arvo liked looking around at all of the lights.

Arvo also was able to meet santa for the first time!  He couldn't take his eyes off him!  He just stared and smiled and smiled at him.  Then he giggled a bit.  He loved it!  Ben and I loved it too, it made our day and Santa's as well.

We then headed up to Utah to visit with Ben's family for Christmas!  First we went to Grandma Ruth's Sunday night and had dinner with her and some of Ben's aunt's and uncles and cousins.  They loved meeting Arvo and he gave out a lot of smiles!

Monday night was Brooke's (Ben's mom) family ice skating party at the Galavan Center in Salt Lake City.  It was COLD!   Arvo was soooooo tired, but a good sport, we bundled him up a ton and took him for a spin around the rink in his stroller!  We enjoyed talking with cousins and aunt's and uncles, it was a great night.

Arvo being pushed by Daddy around the rink.  Below Abby was making Arvo laugh really hard, it was an adorable moment.

Ben's parents, and brother!  We love them!  Wednesday we went to Brooke's family dinner at the country club.  It was really nice, the food was great.  The whole evening was a great opportunity just to catch up with each other and enjoy each others company with Ben's grandparents.  It is a fun family tradition and we were glad we were able to go.  Arvo spent his time at his Aunt Sara's it was the first time I left him with anyone outside of our home and Brooke's home.  He apparently did great and was entertained by all of his cousins!
Thursday was Conkey day at Aunt Jini's.  Christine and Josh came down from Vernal and Don and Emily came up from Orem.  It was great to see everyone and catch up a bit.  We played a few games, mainly hearts, in which I had the perfect hand to shoot the moon with (it was awesome)! 

I love this picture because it looks like Arvo is floating off of Don's lap, he is just showing off his super powers! 

Garnet and Arvo, both are so smiley and happy.  They are always excited to see each other!

Christmas eve was spent back in Vegas at Phil and Brooke's home.  Arvo is sporting his Christmas pj's that Grandma Brooke got him.  He is also holding his favorite toy at Grandma and Grandpas house- his silver rattle.  It's either in his mouth or in his hand, if not there it is near by.  He LOVES it, it used to be Ben and Joey's but apparently Arvo loves it the most.

Christmas day was a bit different than normal, after going to church, then getting back and waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to get back from their ward we didn't do presents until late afternoon.  It was still nice.  We went to our ward so I could sing in the choir Christmas program.  Anyway, Arvo wasn't quite sure what was going on, but sure did enjoy playing with his gifts.  He was the center of attention and made things quite fun as he was passed around.  I like this picture of him pointing at Joeys' nose.  He likes to point at things now.  In our stairway we have 2 family trees one for Ben and one for me.  Each has pictures of his ancestors on it.  He often likes to stop and smile and giggle as we pass those pictures everyday.  Then the other day we stopped so he could look and he pointed out mommy and daddy on each tree and giggled.  It was a heart warming moment, to know he recognizes us.

Merry Christmas!  We had a great holiday and hope that yours was great too!