Merry Christmas!

I got in trouble with my dad for not posting today, so here goes.

On Tuesday we headed to Bass Pro Shops to get a free picture with Santa...as you can see, Donovan was not excited about it. He was excited to see "ho ho", but didn't want to go near him.

He shot guns for a while before we came up with an idea.
We had Addi that day, so she let us use her stroller.Here's what we came out with. A nice picture of Donovan and Santa...and a pretty pink stroller.
We let Donovan open one of his presents early because he ripped it. After that, all presents remained in the closet until this morning.

His Grandma Mindy sent him dog puppets. He immediately named two of them Ivory, and Rocky (my parent's dogs) and he even made the hacking noise that Ivory makes. We spent Christmas Eve with the Hiatt's and the kids exchanged presents. Donovan got this awesome game that I'm sure he'll love to play!

After 20 minutes of trying to get up our hill after leaving the Hiatt's and dropping off the missionaries, Donovan and I trudged up the hill in the drifts of snow while Brad parked the car at a gas station close by before walking home. What a great Christmas Eve story. When we finally got inside and Donovan was freezing, we decided to open his nice cozy Christmas jammies from Grandma and Papa G. He actually really liked them! And he looked so adorable! Like his hair? It's from his hat. When you walk through that much snow in windy Iowa, you can judge me for leaving his hair this way.
Christmas morning was awesome! Donovan was so excited about all the presents. I don't think I opened anything without help.

Super hero cape from Granny (Superman on one side, Batman on the other).He got plenty of fun toys! We are going shopping with some of the money we got from both of our parents. I'm sure Donovan will have a blast picking out more toys and clothes!

New couch, etc.

Before Donovan and I headed to Utah for Thanksgiving, we found a new couch! The couches we had before were purchased at an auction when we first moved to Iowa, so you can imagine how awesome they were...we just had to give them up. As you can see, Donovan is doing a very good job breaking it in for us. I know Lenna, I'm sorry Donovan is wearing Addi's hat...he really likes pink.


We had fun with Addi a couple of days this week too. She changed so much in the weeks we were gone! Her personality is really coming through now, she's so much fun. Donovan loves when she comes over and he's very good with her now that she's a little bigger. He kept giving her hugs the other day, it was so cute.
Donovan stayed up and watched part of the Barcelona game last night with Bradley and me. Brad loves to watch Barcelona and Donovan loves watching almost anything with Brad so they get to spend some manly bonding time together.


Merry Christmas on Friday! It will be our first Christmas spent in Iowa, we usually fly to Utah over the holidays but decided to stay here this year. I'm sad that we won't be with all of our family, but I'm excited to have our first Christmas with just the 3 of us.


I know this is shorter than usual, but I'm feeling very domestic today so I'm making rolls for neighbors, stew for dinner, and cookies for later. Merry Christmas, we miss you all!

Utah, Thanksgiving, etc.

Donovan and I took a loooooong trip to Utah and finally got back yesterday afternoon. We were both ready to go home, but we had a lot of fun! The 4 days Brad was out there just wasn't enough. Donovan missed his daddy and I missed my husband!!

Donovan and I were able to go down to Cedar City for a few days and spend Thanksgiving in St. George. It was great, it was warm enough that we didn't have to wear jackets so we spent the majority of the day outside. We were even able to eat Thanksgiving dinner outside! Donovan was in heaven. Gary and Susan have every toy a child wants!
Donovan loved the airplane teeter totter, he spent more time on it than I expected. He usually gets bored, but he spent a pretty good amount of time on everything.

He played so well with Logan. My cousin Annie has 2 little boys and Donovan actually does really well with both of them. He and Logan had a blast on the trampoline.


And so did Damon! He is such a sweet and fun little boy!Grandma Mindy even got in on the action. You can't see Donovan because he fell right before I took this picture. He loved having "Gamma" push him up with her feet.
He didn't eat much of his dinner, but he did eat some ham. He called it bacon. Such handsome boys!
They were in the sandbox through a game of Canasta and had a blast. I think they took breaks to jump on the trampoline, but they got nice and sandy. Donovan had a pile of beach sand in his shoes at the end of the day, so he got stripped before he got to go back into Aunt Susan's house. McRae was good enough to play with them, but he got a lot of sand in the face.


Brad saw this picture and said he was going to burn it. I didn't realize our child was wrapped in a 'Skins blanket. Brad is an avid Colts fan, and my Grandpa Newville has always been a loyal Redskins fan. They aren't rivals or anything, but Brad always makes fun of them because the Redsins haven't been very successful the last few years.
My Grandma Goodman is so good and patient with Donovan. He loved being at her house. She let him get away with all kinds of mischief and noise! I guess she didn't really stand a chance, they are almos the same size.She even tried to teach him how to play the organ.
When we got back from Cedar, Donovan and I spent some time with Brad's fam while he was out there. It wasn't extremely cold yet so we tried out the new swing set. Donovan liked the horse swing that his Papa Sam built.
He also liked going down the extremely fast slide, but wouldn't try it again after he flew down and off.
We spent some time over at Nate and Kirsta's the night before Brad went back home. Donovan and Colin had a lot of fun together, even though Donovan got a little bossy.
We finally got some decent pictures with my family. If you don't know my brothers and father...and husband for that matter, they really don't like getting their pictures taken and it's hard to get them to cooperate. Dustin's wife Erin has a really nice camera so we got some pictures of the siblings and of the whole fam. I don't have them yet, but I hope to get them soon...hint, hint, mother.

Faye is Dustin's little girl and one of the few children that didn't cling to me while I was around. Colin loved me, but Faye wouldn't even give me a smile.

Kate Leone (lee-own) or "Baby Kate" as Donovan calls her. She is such a sweet little girl, I didn't hear her cry much...except when I held her. I've never been great with newborns. I wish I had taken more pictures!

After it snowed, Donovan was really excited to play in it so Tyler was nice and took him out when he got home from school. He was such a good uncle. Donovan loved "Tire" and Brad's little brother, "Cottie".
Not only did ShayLea cut and dye my hair, she also gave Donovan his first real hair cut. No buzzed head!! I wish we had figured out the trick. It took 2 suckers and a few M&M's, but we got it done!My mom took Friday off so she could spend our last day with us. We went to the mall and found gifts and Donovan got a train ride with "Gamma". He cried when he had to get off.
We had been waiting for this news to come for over a week! My little brother Nicholas is a daddy. That's so crazy, but then he really isn't that much younger than me! Ashley gave birth to Lia Jayde Friday afternoon. 8 lbs 5 oz, 19 inches. Heavier, but shorter than Donovan was. She is a good sized baby!! My parents and I were the only ones invited to the hospital because I was leaving the next day. Look how happy they are! I don't think Nicholas has ever smiled that big in a picture before.

Lia with her Papa G (my dad has an issue with the word Grandpa).
I hope my mom doesn't get mad, I think she was in mid sentence when the picture snapped. Lia is making such a funny face, I had to post it!She's so cute! You may have to zoom a little to see her cute chubby face.
And this is what I came home to. Addi doesn't even recognize me. It will be fun to see how she does with us tomorrow...I hope. She's looking more and more like her mommy instead of Mason!I guess it's back to life and freezing cold Iowa.