Superman Date

Sam and I had planned to go on a few dates when we were home for Christmas.  Since Marlee got sick that didn't happen.  So I planned a stay at home date once we got back.  Sam got the latest Superman on Blu-ray for Christmas so I took my idea from that.  I made a Superman themed dinner and then we watched the movie.  Some of my food ideas were cheesy, but I think cheesy can be fun too!  

Here is our Superman dinner:  

 

(sour cream and onion so they have green flakes)

These are grilled cheese sandwiches, but this was the one I was most proud of :) 

 

 

In the spirit of the themed date, Sam changed into his Superman shirt! 

Marlee joined us for the dinner part of the date.  She wasn't as impressed with the meal as Sam was.  She also didn't eat the sandwich where it was red... probably because it looked funny.... picky girl!  

Quick disclaimer... I looked up most of these ideas on the internet.  I'm creative when I have the help of other creative people! Thank you Google and Pinterest :) 

Monkey Joe's

Marlee was invited to a birthday party for her friend Addison. The party was at this play place that has blow up bouncy toys.  Marlee absolutely loved it!  We only got her to leave because she was exhausted from bouncing for 2 hour straight!  Thanks Addison for inviting us to your party!

 Marlee had no fear!  This big, fast slide was her favorite.  Sam and I went down it with her the first few times. Then she wanted to go by herself and she loved it!

This is the toddler play area.  We brought Marz here when we needed a breather!

The Alligator Slide was another favorite spot.  

I cannot remember Marlee ever falling asleep in her high chair in her almost 2 years of life.  After Monkey Joe's, she lasted about 10 minutes.  

Christmas Vacation

Our trip back home was definitely adventurous.  Although there were some bumps in the road to get there and back, I'm so glad we were able to go visit family and see everyone again.  We loved spending time with family. 

This was Marlee's first plane ride.  We were worried how she would do, but we shouldn't have.  As the plane was accelerating for take off, Marlee yelled, "Weeeee!"  I knew then she would be alright. 

 Our first stop on the vacation was Aunt Amanda and Uncle Benj's.  Marlee had tons of fun playing with her cousins and her cousins had fun jumping on Uncle Sam!  

We flew into Salt Lake in the middle of a snow storm.   We were actually lucky to get in.  There was a fresh 4 inches on the ground so all the kids went outside to play in it.   Marlee borrowed some snow clothes and they didn't all fit, but that didn't stop her.  She LOVED the snow.   

This one below is my favorite picture of getting ready to play outside!  

She isn't throwing a fit.  She just fell down and couldn't get up!!!

We didn't take too many pictures of our vacation.  I'm kicking myself for not getting some of Marlee with her grandparents and aunts and uncles!  I like to think we didn't take them because we were having too much fun.  That's part of it.  The other part is probably because Marlee got sick and was a grumpy pants for most of the time.  
     Here are a few that we did take:

  Grandma and Grandpa Croft let us use their sled.  We took Marlee over to community park.  She had fun sledding, but mostly she just wanted to swing!

Relaxin in the high chair at Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Rod's.  

Playing with cousin Ellie.  Her Rapunzel hair got so static-y!

Sam was pretty proud of this shot!  

On the return trip, our flight out of SLC was delayed 2hrs.  Thank goodness for Dora on the ipod.  We could only chase Marlee up and down the terminal for so long until we were exhausted!  Pretty soon, though,  Marlee even got tired of waiting for our flight :) 

After we got back to Iowa, my mom asked if I would come again knowing all the crazy stuff that happened.  At the time I told her no, probably because the 13hr drive was still fresh in my mind.  Now, however,  I think I have changed my mind.  I would do the trip all over again, even with a cancelled flight!   It was great to be with family again.  We had so much fun seeing everyone!  

First Christmas

December was a very busy month.   We were all super excited to see our family and have a vacation.  I think that because we were waiting for the 19th to come so we could fly out, the first of the month just flew by.  Though, we did try to do some fun Christmas-y things before we took off.  

Colored ornaments (for a tree someday)

Made Cookies

 Decorated our felt tree

 

Visited Santa (Doesn't Marlee seem so excited with this activity?!)

Wow now that I listed them this way, I realize we did do some fun things before Christmas.  We also had our first of 3 (maybe 4) Christmases.  Marlee got to open her "Santa" present and the presents from Mom and Dad before we left.  

Marlee liked opening her presents.  She looked especially cute sitting at her new table.  

 

Thanksgiving

To kick of the Thanksgiving season, we had an FHE lesson on being thankful.  We then made our thankful tree.  Sam had fun writing things he thought Marlee was thankful for.  He thought of things like crayons, raisins, toys and grandparents!  

We had a super casual Thanksgiving this year.  It was just the three of us for dinner.  Sam and I have never cooked a turkey ourselves and we weren't feeling adventurous this year so we had ham instead.  After dinner we watched Monsters University.  We missed being around our family, but had a nice relaxing day.