2011 was the year that...

Corbyn learned to eat SOLID food...

CRAWL...

and WALK.

Corbyn also got his first TEETH...

Visited DISNEYLAND for the first time...

and learned to SLEEP through the night.

We said goodbye to Cliff and Fred...

And welcomed Daisy to the family.

Rog ran his 4TH marathon.

We found out Corbyn was going to become a BIG BROTHER.

And mom was going to get her little DANCER!

2011 wasn't quite as eventful as 2010, but it was a year to remember nonetheless!

New Years

We celebrated New Years Eve by going to Kneaders for breakfast with Bill and Mariah in the morning. Then we did some errands and returned/exchanged a few Christmas gifts... Nothing too exciting.

That night we had kind of an impromptu party with Bill and Mariah and another couple they know from Bill's work. They brought a chip dip and a pie from the Lion House bakery in Deseret Book. And I made twice baked potatoes (kind of doing a mixture of this recipe and this recipe), cinnamon bun popcorn, and sparkling celebration punch (from Our Best Bites' calendar that I got for Christmas). Everything was delicious (except the punch - it was only so, so). We had a great time eating, talking, and playing Ticket to Ride Europe. We decided we would celebrate the New Year at 10:00 when the ball was dropping in New York City because we are old married people!

It wasn't anything fancy, but we had fun. Happy 2012!

Christmas

Short version:

We got to spend some time with the Hobbs in Salt Lake before they went up to Idaho to spend Christmas with Jason's family. Then we went down to St. George for Christmas. I took over the cooking for Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas breakfast, and Christmas dinner including my very first ham. Corby was totally spoiled with way too many presents. We also celebrated 4 birthdays and got to see Zack and Emily.

Long version (and we're talking LONG, this is more for me than for you):

Because we switched up our Thanksgiving/Christmas schedule to get all the Phillips on the same schedule, we are now off schedule with Jason and Diana. They stay in Texas for Thanksgiving and usually spend some time with both families for Christmas, so it isn't the hugest deal. So while they were in Salt Lake, we drove up pretty much every night after Rog got off work to spend time with them.

Tuesday, December 20

Jason, Diana, and Blake flew into SLC and my parents came up from St. George.

We had dinner at IKEA for Cailey's (Jared's girlfriend) birthday. (IKEA because IKEA originated in Sweden where Jared is serving.)

As we were leaving, Corby spotted a tv with old Mickey Christmas specials playing on it, so we had to stop for a few minutes and let him watch a few. (I'm pretty sure this is the same thing Jared talks about watching on Christmas in Sweden.) Corby thought it was hilarious and he loved this little chair so much that my dad was tempted to buy it for him.

Wednesday, December 21

Took family photos. (Corby had just woken up from a car nap on the way up and was definitely not in the mood for pictures. These are the best we got.)

Our little family

Whole Ririe clan minus Jared

Cousins

Celebrated Diana's birthday with an early dinner at Pizza Factory.

Thursday, December 22

Cookie party! I told everyone they couldn't stop until all the cookies were decorated.

Corby did his part by eating decorated cookies.

Opened presents from our virtual name draw. (We couldn't do a name draw in person because we weren't together for Thanksgiving.)

My dad got Corby a laptop. My real laptop thanks him! :)

My mom got me a CrockPot. I already have one, but wanted an extra for times when I have people over and need a second.

And Jason/Diana got Rog a chopper. We didn't take a picture, but he was very excited because now he will be relieved from onion chopping duty at our house.

Friday, December 23

My mom, Diana, Jason, and I saw Ballet West's production of the Nutcracker while my dad and Roger watched the little boys.

We all had dinner at Mimi's Cafe to celebrate my Grandpa Ririe's 80th birthday.

And then Roger and Jason put the little boys to bed while the rest of us attended the Ririe Christmas Eve party (a day early). It wasn't exactly our traditional Christmas Eve party as it was combined with my grandpa's birthday, but it was still nice.

Saturday, December 24

Drove down to St. George.

I volunteered to take over our Christmas Eve dinner and the Christmas day meals as my Grandma Ford is getting a little old for it and cooking really isn't my mom's thing. So we stopped at Albertson's and bought a ton of food. Then I frantically went to work making fried rice and Dixie's egg rolls/sweet and sour sauce for dinner.

Sunday, December 25

We talked to Elder Ririe at the early hour of 1:00 am. It was fun to hear his voice. He is doing GREAT!

Corby woke us up at 6:00 am, so we took him out to the tree to see what Santa had brought him. We had set up a few of the larger presents - a car mat with cars, a lawn mower, and a shopping cart.

My mom and dad got him the mat and we got him the cars for the mat.

He loves pushing things around hence the lawn mower and shopping cart.

Then we made breakfast - puffed french toast, Mexican eggs, and my grandma made her famous frozen fruit salad. (No pictures because we were also frantically trying to get ready for church.)

We enjoyed church at my parent's ward. They had combined with another ward and it was packed! We were on the very back row of the overflow which was probably a good thing because Corby wasn't exactly on his best behavior. (We're working on teaching him that we stay in sacrament meeting the whole time.)

Came home and everyone took a nice long nap.

Opened more presents. Love this picture of Corby. He's like, "Clothes... oh yay..." Even though he might not have been excited about it, we really appreciated each and every gift he received.

One of his favorite gifts - slinkies from the dollar store! Go figure.

Fed the ducks.

Then Rog and Corby visited Rog's grandparents while I went to work on my very first Christmas dinner.

Appetizers - Bacon-wrapped weiners (my grandma's contribution), spinach dip (Knorr's), and cranberry punch.

Funeral potatoes, homemade rolls, green bean casserole (my mom's contribution), and my very first HAM!

For dessert we were supposed to have Candy Cane Pie, but the stores were all out of peppermint ice cream (of course they were, we did our shopping on Christmas Eve), so we settled with the cookies-n-cream version which was delicious, but less festive.

Played Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries - my gift to my dad. It has Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.

Monday, December 26

Corby opened more presents. He was way too spoiled and was more into playing with them than opening them, so it took a few days to get them all opened.

This tool set was possibly his favorite gift of them all. He also really loves his "doctor's office toy" from his Grandma and Grandpa Phillips, we just didn't happen to take a picture of him playing with it.

Rog and my dad golfed.

Papa John's pizza for dinner.

Played Rummikub.

Tuesday, December 27

My mom and I hit up some after-Christmas sales. I got Corby his Christmas ornament - Mickey and Toodles in space. Can you say, perfect? And it was half off!

Rog, Corby, and I visited Rog's grandparents.

We celebrated Rog's birthday at Texas Roadhouse where Corby ate nothing but rolls (who can blame him, they are delicious) and ice cream.

Watched the Lion King. One of Corby's presents from his mom and dad.

Wednesday, December 28

Rog and I did a session at the St. George temple while my parents watched Corby.

Rog and my dad golfed (again).

We had leftovers for dinner to try to finish off all the food.

And a lemon cheesecake for Rog's birthday cake.

Played Oh Heck.

Thursday, December 29

Drove back up to Spanish Fork. (It was a Christmas miracle that we fit everything in our car.)

I took down our tree because it was a sad sight as it was totally and completely dead and the top 1/3 of the lights had burnt out.

Zack and Emily came to visit us! We didn't do anything special, but it was fun to see them and have our kiddos play together.

Rog and I got Cafe Rio for dinner and ate it while watching Glee's Extraordinary Merry Christmas after putting Corby to bed.

Tay and Martha stayed the night with us on their way back to school in Rexburg.

Friday, December 30

Listened to BYU win the Armed Forces Bowl on the radio. (We didn't have the station it was on and we didn't want to drive all the way up to Salt Lake to watch it there.) Go Cougars!

And there you have it. Christmas and the days before/after Christmas.

Homemade Gifts Part 2

I forgot about these homemade gifts because I made them so long before Christmas. My mom and I got Jared's Christmas package mailed out while she was here with us before Thanksgiving and even then he only got it on December 22nd. We were worried he wouldn't get it at all because he got a different package that my mom mailed a few weeks after Thanksgiving before the package we mailed before Thanksgiving.

I made him this minature stocking.

And we made him some vanilla-dipped oreos.

Homemade Gifts

This year I made Christmas magnets for our family and close friends. Nothing fancy, but I figured they would be good for hanging up Christmas cards on the fridge.

I wrapped them up in little treat bags which made them look pretty small, but I couldn't think of any other way to wrap them up.

The gift that took all my time was a finger puppet set to go along with the Monkey and the Crocodile song/book. I got the idea and template here. The minute I saw it I decided I'd make one for Corby and then one for all our nephews. I figured Aiden and Sam could share, so that meant I made 4 sets. That's 20 monkies and 4 crocodiles! It doesn't sound like that much, but oh my was it time consuming!

I also made a drawstring bag to put them in using this tutorial. That part was easy and quick because I didn't have to handstitch!

Rog says he will never let me do something like this again... He thought I was crazy (which I am), but I really did have fun making them. I'll just have to start a little sooner with my homemade gift making next year!

December Decorations

With all the homemade gift making I did this year (which I will blog about soon), I didn't have much time for other crafting. Not that I didn't have anything I wanted to do because I had a long list. On the top of that list was our stockings. I bought the fabric and even got them cut out, but alas I did not finish them. I am going to make them a priority this month because I know if I wait until next Christmas they won't get done again.

I did get my shadow box done.

And changed up a few things on my table. I found the penguin on the far right at Michaels for half off and I knew he belonged in our home. You can't see it very well, but next to him is a block that has Luke 2: 13-14 in the shape of a Christmas tree. My visiting teaching partner gave it to me last year and I love it in theory, but I can't say I love exactly how she made it. (There's the pesky perfectionist again.) I found the printable here, so one day I will probably print it out and make my own version.

These plates aren't new, but my picture last year was so crappy, I thought I'd post a better one.

Corby loved scattering the pieces of our nativities. He learned who baby Jesus was and loved to pretend to eat him. Yes, you read that correctly. Funniest thing ever and I have no idea where he got it from.

He also loved to point to santa and say, "Ho, Ho, Ho!"