Family Christmas Parties Galore

I am sure that everyone knows that the Christmas season is the time for families to get together and celeberate. For us, it turned into an endless stream of work and family gatherings. For at least 7 days in a row, we had some sort of family or work function to attend every night. It seems as if the parties are crammed into a two week period, which is added on top of all the things you do to get ready for Christmas. It's nice to get together with family, but it can be so overwhelming at times!

COOKE FAMILY PARTY

After scarfing some burgers down at J&W's, we headed to Thanksgiving Point for a sleigh ride to see the lights. Luckily for us, it turned out to be a trolley ride to see the lights. It saved our little booties from freezing! I attempted to take some pictures of the lights, which turned out poorly, due to lack of tripod and camera shake! It was one of the rare moments that all of Kevin's siblings actually came together for a family activity! Marley really liked to trolley ride because she got to stand up and look out the window, instead of staring at the ceiling of the car, like she does in her car seat!

ACKROYD FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

Marley got to open her presents at Grandma Ackroyd's house a little early this year. She still doesn't quite get what all this opening presents business is, but it was cute to watch her try! We played catch phrase with the fam. There were tears shed, cheating accusations made, and laughs to be had by all involved. Tina has got to be one of the greatest people to play catch phrase with.

THE YATES FAMILY PARTY

We all pitched in for Ms. Grandma Violet's new TV
We love her so much! She's so cute!

Marley (who's not cooperating well) with her (I guess it would be her second cousin?) Owen. Marley also loved playing with the Chevron cars with Aric.

Marley with her Auntie Noelle. And cousin Ryan Cooke is so sweet with Marley (who looks really happy!)

Marley's First Christmas Ornament

We were at the store and I saw this cute shoe ornament, and I thought that I should get an ornament for Marley. Maybe it'd be a really cute tradition to give Marley and ornament every year, and when she's actually old enough, she can pick out her own.

Christmas Card

Time to lower the crib!

It seems like I have posted so many times lately! I guess Marley is now actually starting to do things. It's kind of like a cascade effect...once she started crawling, everything has fallen into place pretty rapidly.

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So after Miss Marley took a nap one day, I found her like this. Lately she's become a pro at pulling herself up on things, and the crib is no exception. Luckily she didn't try to climb out or lean over too far!! It's good that she's growing up and becoming mobile, but once she learns how

to walk, it's all over!!

Then today, I caught her by the doggie gate. So now she's able to pull herself up on the doggie gates and I am sure soon she will be able to push this one over.

Thanksgiving

Since we will be out of town for Christmas this year, we decided that we would try and hit both of our families Thanksgiving gigs. Even though we spend more time in the car going to both, it was nice to see both of our families. We even managed to power through two big meals (oink, oink!) My mother-in-law, Ruth, ALWAYS manages to do really cute things. Anyone that has ever had dinner at her house knows how she goes all out and it is always delicious and creative. I really loved her Thanksgiving hats; they looked cute and were so tasty! I also really liked her turkey fruit kabobs...tasty with great presentation. So thanks to both of our families for hooking us up with food and great company!

After enjoying Grandma Ruth's good cooking, Marley went to play with her cousins. Grandma Ruth has a little girl's dream room complete with a life-size play house and a Barbie house. At first things went well...but then the playful mood started to deteriorate and started to slide down hill...

I'm Sari!

My in-laws just got back from a trip in India a couple weeks ago. My mother-in-law gave Marley the CUTEST little Sari and bracelet to match. As I tried to put it on her, I realized that the skirt was a little too small (Ruth said that the sizes were either large or small and nothing in between). I still wanted her picture in it and managed to get the top on. I thought that if I had Marley sitting down, I would be able to kind of cover her legs with the skirt so it would look like she was wearing it. Well, she wasn't having any of it. Every time I tried to put it on her lap, she ripped it off and cried. I am sure she wonders why I torture her so much! The Sari was just so cute...maybe I can have a zipper sewn into it so she can wear it...

Monkey in a one-piece suit

Mandi gave Marley this one-piece suit. I think she just looks so adorable in it. Kevin and I want one, not because we think it will make us look adorable, but of how comfy it would be to wear them around....maybe even get family pictures in them :)

Family

My aunt and uncle came in from Ohio this past week for a few days. They are BYU alum and attended the U of U vs BYU football game in support of their former alma mater. We had a great time eating out on Friday night and got to catch up with them and their busy lives! Marley likes Aunt Susan more than this picture shows. When we are out and about, Marley loves to look at everything, so getting her to give her attention and smile can be rather difficult at times.

We took my Aunt Susan and my Uncle David to Gardner Village while my aunt was in town. My aunt thought Gardner Village was a gardening center, and so my poor Uncle David was duped into coming along (as he likes to garden). I am sure he had a great time looking through all of those girly shops!

And, as you can tell, Marley is thrilled at seeing ducks!

Nothing to do with anything

So this post has nothing to do with anything, but I thought these pictures were kind of cute. For whatever lame reason, it's kind of cute when little kids look like they are doing grown-up tasks. Marley is constantly wanting to play on the laptop...especially when we are trying to use it!

Princess Tutu

So Mandi made Marley the cutest tutu forever ago!! I have been waiting to get Marley's picture in it but every time I was going to make an appointment to get them done, there was either a scratch or a bruise on her face. She has finally learned to scoot/crawl to move around and loves to pull herself up on things and stand up, which inevitably leads to bumps and bruises, even with me watching her. So when her face was finally free of scratches/bruises, I made an appointment. But low-and-behold, the day before the appointment, she has a freaking scratch above her right eyebrow. So I know that I am a horrible mom, but just before we went to get pictures done, I put the tiniest bit of base on her scratch so it wouldn't show up. Yeah, mother of the year strikes again! Then to add to all this crazy nonsense, the person who was taking her picture wasn't nearly as good as the last one, and kept trying to tickle Marley's face (which she didn't like) and was really slow to take pictures. Sometimes Marley makes cute faces, but if you are not super fast, it's gone as quick as it came!! Kellie told me I should try and get the same person every time, especially if it is one that I like. Like a dork, I didn't catch the name of the person who took Marley's photos last time. Now I regret it!! But, with all that said, her pictures didn't turn out too bad, even though I thought that they could've been better!

Halloween Par-tay!

Sometimes I am such a slacker about updating this blog, but we had a Halloween party last week and had a great time!! Marley had a monkey costume (thanks to Grandma Ruth), I don't know what I was, but I spray painted my hair and put on make-up, and Kevin wore a gorilla costume (but only for a short time, since it made him sweaty! He did manage to scare some people with it though) We were sad for those people who couldn't come, and hope that they will be able to make it next year (as we are thinking of hosting another Halloween shindig!) We played a game, LRC, involving one dollar bills (no, it did not involve any removal of clothing!) and dice. Whoever ended up with the last dollar bill got all the money in the middle. Toward the end, it got pretty exciting!! Thanks to all those who came and made it such a wonderful time!!

Halloween Costume

Grandma Ruth gave Marley her monkey costume and even though it seemed to cumbersome for her, I got her to smile anyway.