Christmas at Our House

Post 100! AND my last post being employed full time :)

Christmas at our house was wonderful. Here is a run down of Christmas Eve:

We took Millie to Temple Square for the first time. I loved it. Walking around those grounds, looking at pictures of Christ, and being together calmly as a family provided a spiritual Christmas Eve for us.

We went around 4 pm to get a good parking spot, so we had plenty of daylight time there.

Buck and Millie in the Joseph Smith Building:

(We love this building, and have fond memories of attending church with my Grandparents there several times)

The South Visitors Center has this wonderful new exhibit of the Salt Lake Temple. This is a replica of the Temple, open in the front so you can see the rooms inside. I've been inside this Temple and some of the rooms were new to me. They also have a TV touch screen explaining each room and a virtual tour (of even walking down the halls).

As you can tell from this nice arm in the lower right corner, this was a very popular sight. We stood there for quite some time and never had it to ourselves to take a good picture.

In honor of Tutu and Rara, we made a special trip to their beloved Beehive House. They were "over" the Beehive house some during their mission to Temple Square.

I tell you those little legs never stop moving!

After a lot of wandering and freezing cold the lights finally came on! I wish I could say Millie loved them, but I think she was too frozen to think much of it all.

Ahh, Christmas Morning!

Bless this baby's heart. I stayed in bed as long as I could, but by 7 AM I couldn't take it any longer. We went and woke Millie up. She typically gets up at 8 AM (we know, we're lucky) so you can imagine her confusion. I turned on the lights on her little tree in her room to keep her from crying. It worked.

We made it to the living room and showed her her stocking. This is the reaction she gave us:

Not much.

We showed her an awesome toy Santa brought her:

What in the world?

We showed her this cute play house Santa brought her:

Still not much.

Then it happened. She figured it out. These things are for her.

One bottle and a diaper change later there was no stopping her!

She was bouncing off the walls, refusing to nap, calling her own shots. It was really, truly Christmas Morning at our house.

We called our families, and skyped with some of them too! All the while Millie was basking in the glory of her "new" (thank you DI!) keyboard and pink beret. All without pants on of course. They hold her back.

We finished off our Christmas Day by having some friends over for dinner.

Millie is giving Mina a tour of our tree.

It was a wonderful Christmas. We were all spoiled rotten by Santa and our families.

We missed our loved ones and wish we could have been there with them, but we will definitely look back on this Christmas as a very special one for The Bagwell Family.

Snow Fun!

This is our 99th post!

With our hometown experience their first White Christmas in 60 years, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you our nearly white Christmas.

On Tuesday we got a massive amount of snow. So much snow that I had to stay home from work since I couldn't get out of my parking spot.

Darn.

We thought it would be a great chance to let Millie play in the snow for the first time.

We put on two pairs of socks and the best fitting boots (her feet are so small) we could find.

We grabbed her snow suit and headed outside!

The snow was so heavy that she barely made an indention when we put her on it. To give you an idea of how deep it was, buck is leaning on his knee below. The rest of his leg is under the snow...so it was up to his knees in this spot!

She couldn't figure out how to move, bless her heart.

Her Dad tried to temp her to eat the snow, but she wasn't sure about this stuff.

Here's a darling video of the whole ordeal.

(YouTube is behaving better than Blogger still)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did. We took loads of pictures too :)

I think it's safe to say our 100th post will be a recap of our awesome Christmas.

Winter Wonderland

What? This isn't where you keep your Wise Men?

I'm almost scared to admit this, but I think I've finally gotten used to the cold weather. It's only taken me four winters here in Utah. I still have a few it's-too-cold-to-go-out days though.

While we're enjoying our Winter Wonderland Millie enjoys:

Snuggling with her Dad decked out in a beautiful Christmas dress

Sneaking away from us to learn crawling up stairs (she's now a pro)

Being carried around bundled up

(actually she really dislikes this cover thing, she's just that good at posing for pictures)

Learning to ride "horses"...

though she prefers to ride them like a lady.

Seeing animals up close and personal

Isn't this cow beautiful?

You probably think so now

Let's hope we don't meet too many more cows name Millie. I get so tired of hearing of dogs named Niki.

Did we already mention cuddling with Dad? She loves it.

(Not really something Millie likes to do, but I couldn't resists)

Buck milked a cow!

(All of these outdoor farm-ish pictures were from a birthday party we went to at Thanksgiving Point. I was so fun, and the parents commented on how easy it was. They would recommend it if you are in the area.)

We hope you're keeping warm in your Winter Wonderland.

P.S. We had a snow day this week, so expect another Winter Wonderland post here soon. Millie enjoyed playing in the snow for the first time.

Birthday Cake Take Two

Today my sweet husband turned 25. Finally. He's been giving me a dose of my own medicine with the "Are you sure you want to ask me to do that? On my Birthday month?" Hopefully after today he'll give that line up.

On with the party:

We decided to let Millie try eating Buck's "cake" (chocolate cream pie) a la First Birthday Party style. To be honest, she was a tad boring on her birthday.

Touch.

Taste.

Success.

After that last picture she got so into it we had to get video footage. She couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough! I think we've got a chocolate lover on our hands.

By the way, Millie and I both love Buck very much. We are so thankful we got to spend his birthday with him. Millie even started babbling "Dadada" for him.

Don't mention it, but she's been babbling "Mamama" for weeks.

Here Comes Santa Clause

Millie and Santa Christmas 2009

Millie and Santa Christmas 2010

Think we caught Millie and Santa a little off guard?

We're still gearing up for Christmas around here.

Who am I kidding? We're gearing up for Christmas, but we're really gearing up for my retirement.

Only 10 more days of work. I think I can handle that.

Explain Yourself!

For pete's sake! I was trying to add words to that last post but it didn't work out. AND I wanted you to see the inside of the card, but that didn't happen either.

Boo.

My sister was deeply confused by my Shutterfly post, so I thought I better explain myself. Shutterfly has a promotion (you have to pre-sign up, then post before December 15th and order before December 31st) that I posted a link about. Bloggers get 50 free Christmas Cards. I was worried it was going to be the $.30/each glossy photo cards (what I would have ordered if I was paying), but I got the $2/each folding cards! So, I would highly recommend doing it. I did have to pay shipping, but $8 for 50 cards was well worth it.

So there, that should explain my recent excitement for Shutterfly :)

2010 Christmas Card

Color Me Merry Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.