To prepare for Thanksgiving we decorated our Christmas trees. We were excited this year because Lee flew in to spend Thanksgiving with us!
Then we met up the Landon and Alyse in Philly and stayed the night in a hotel with an awesome.
We toured around Philly. Kids had a great time.
Eva got in trouble for sneaking under the rope to touch the liberty bell.
She was a little embarrassed after she got yelled at by the guard lady.
But Emerson cheered her up.
The whole gang!
Lincoln went on a quest to find the perfect Cheese Steak. I got sick from all the taste testing.
Inside Independence Hall
Lee is such a great and helpful uncle. The kids love him.
Dinner prep time!
We had some of our closest friends over to celebrate (Helgessons, Bachmans, Fischers, Bowans)
Along with the Essig table, we were thrilled that Jack and Jan (our neighbors across the street) were able to join us!
The pies were amazing!!
I am thankful for these two crazies!
And this little one growing inside of me
We were all pretty exhausted after everyone left. This was our first year of marriage not spending Thanksgiving at the Isley's. I missed it. It was the first time I have ever hosted a Thanksgiving dinner. It was so fun and we had a really great time. But I realized how much work it takes. Kimberly (My cousin) always made it seem so effortless. She has a true talent.
The kids snuggling with baby Eliza in my belly.
Christmas Season!
Our ward Christmas party was awesome. The kids got hats and got to decorate cookies and make cards.
The decorations were impressive and the food was amazing.
Back to the grind. Here are a couple of pics from me teaching Eva's preschool class. They were learning about winter. So we went "Ice skating" with wax paper on the carpet.
Then decorated marshmellow snowmen.
These two besties.
Such a boy. Always making a mess.
He sometimes can't keep up with me. Or I can't keep up with him. Too tired to wait for me to put him down for a nap.
We made a huge mess, but we had fun doing some Christmas crafting.
Gettin bigger
Then it was time to fly to Utah to spend Christmas there.
My grandma loves babies and little kids. She loved to snuggle with Emerson when he would let her.
Kids got into my mom's makeup
Emerson ended up getting pink eye from this...
Shopping for presents
Spending time with Nonni
Video games with the boys. Lincoln is trying to teach Emerson the Abegg boy's ways.
We met up with Lindsey at the airport when she came home from her study abroad in Germany. That day I realized it the was the same day I came home from my mission just 8 years ago. (Dec 20th) in that same airport.
More grandma time.
Christmas Eve PJ's
And the annual trip to Temple Square to see the lights
Christmas morning
It snowed, and we had a white Christmas!
We skyped Laura on her mission
And I found all these old pictures when I was looking through my grandma's stuff.
I miss my dad.
That's my grandpa Holder on the left with his brother and sister.
My bro's (minus Landon). I was about 11 years old.
Back in the day my mom used to make us dress up and reinact the nativity on Christmas Eve. This was the year Landon was born.
Easter Egg hunting at my Grandma's house
When I turned 13 I started eating better and I grew a couple of inches. You can see the difference between the Easter before (below) when I was 12.
Back to the present....
We came back to DC after a wonderful Christmas in Utah. And we wanted to do something fun for New Years so we decided to go to the "First Night Alexandria" It was really cold outside, so we dressed up Emerson in his Halloween costume to keep him warm.
They had fireworks at midnight. Although the kids were totally breaking down by that point.
Welcome 2015!
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