2009 Holidays Part 2

Here is the onslaught of pictures you've been waiting for! These are in such random order, but I enjoyed them none the less. Hope you do too.

Let's start off with a shot of Clayton's study beard. He let it grow out during finals. I liked the indie-rocker look for a while, but...
Hooray for razors!

We had a fairly uneventful flight to Utah. We started super early, took the Michigan Flier to the airport and it leaves East Lansing at 3;30 AM. Poor Eleanor had a cold (us too) so no one really slept much. My parents picked us up and took us to breakfast. Eleanor really perked up when we stopped by Clayton's folks. She got to meet their new dog, Sunny.

Sadly, poor Sunny got ran over by a car just a few weeks after these pictures were taken! We are so sad for Rex and Kathy.

Eleanor loved playing with all her cousins. Especially Jack. Here she is showing him her
favorite thing. Cupboards.

And making his brother Calvin laugh...

And Megan too! It's pretty hard to look cuter than Eleanor in a picture,
but could Megan be more adorable?

Eleanor met her friend Millie. She is my brother's second cousin's daughter or something. But we are much tighter than that. I love how they are both fascinated by Tom in this shot.

I included this shot because it looks like they are showing off their best assets. Millie's insanely lovely, blue eyes and Eleanor's long lashes. Pretty babies!

Allie and Megan waiting in line to see Santa.

Daddy was a good sport to venture into the mall a few days before Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we went with a huge group of family to Red Robins. Even Great Grandma Marguerite came. Unlimited fries and root beer? We honestly could barely get her to leave. "But there is still food on the table!" (Reminder, alzheimers and lived through the depression.)
Here she is with my dad (her son) and Eleanor.

Karen and Steffi Smart were happy to see me. The feeling is mutual. And I really loved Steffi's headband. So freaking cute!

Eleanor has a new love of phones. Here she is finishing mine off.
(We got new phones for Christmas.)

We celebrated Grandma Marguerite's 90th birthday. She loved everyone singing to her. She sat there and looked so pleased. It was the cutest thing. That is her sister Kathleen, my great aunt sitting next to her. She is Eleanor's great, great aunt. (She is also a great, great, great aunt to my nephew and nieces kids. Dang!)

At the Firth family party Clayton played some Axis and Allies type of game with little airplanes with all of the boy cousins. Jeff, as usual always has some awesome-fun thing to do.

Christmas morning and all the fun.
Can you find Eleanor among the paper?

Allie got a suh-weet dress up box. Here she is rocking the tiara.

Spending a moment with cousin Kir. (Her hair is always glorious, btw.)

Eleanor just crawled around and around enjoying all the hoopla.
Allie decided on a late night snack a few days before new years. She wasn't very inconspicuous, so I snapped a quick shot of her. Her pigtails are so cute!

Allie got a hot new ride. Eleanor took it for a quick spin.

Still needs her license though.

All that fun, but we still got a few pouts.

We had a great time in Utah and are already missing family like crazy. Especially all the grandparents. Eleanor got spoiled silly and is adjusting to life with only two people to fawn over her. She came back with quite a few new tricks. She learned to clap, she honed her "Patty Cake" skills. (Before she could only roll, and roll, and roll...) She learned to take a bottle and can hold it herself. She learned to click her tongue and also learned to go down one step. She will be one in under two months and I can't keep up with her milestones. Where does the time go?! By the way, everyone is invited out to Michigan for her party.
Thanks to everyone for all of the Holiday fun!