Christmas in SLC/Steamboat

Eric and I took the kids up to Steamboat a couple days before Christmas to celebrate with my parents and Quentin.  Then we drove over to Salt Lake City to spend Christmas with my extended family.  We had such a great time.  It was fun to take Eric and the kids to Salt Lake and to show them what my family does for Christmas.  It took 6 hours to drive there and the kids did really well.  The weather cooperated and the drive was pretty smooth.  Here are some pictures from the Christmas festivities:

First we celebrated Ashton's Birthday with Grammy and Grandpa Rlowe.  They got him an ice cream cake.  He loved diving in to it!

Aunt Steph gave Cate a hair dryer for Christmas.  She said "I can't believe that I finally have a hair dryer".  I think that she likes it.

Uncle Q gave her Dora's backpack.  It came with a camera, a compass, a spotting scope, and a map.  On our drive to Salt Lake, Cate kept getting her map out to tell us which way to go.

When we were in Salt Lake we went downtown to the temple to see all of the Christmas lights.  At 5:30 they turn on all of the lights at once.  It was so beautiful.

On Christmas eve my Grandparents came to our hotel to have breakfast with us.  It was so great to spend some time with them and for Cate and Ashton to see their great grandparents. 

Here is a picture of us in the the lobby of the hotel.

Later that day we went to Crown Burger (a Lowe family tradition) for lunch with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins on my Dad's side of the family.  Cate and Susanna (my second cousin) were the only girl kids there.  Cate loved playing with susanna's hair.  It was so fun to watch them together.

On Christmas eve we went over to my Aunt Julie and Uncle Bill's house for dinner.  Here is a family picture of us before we went to dinner.

This is a picture of me with some of my cousins and some of our kids.  From left to right:  Missy and her son Will (3 weeks), Emily and Charlie (Lindsay's son), Elizabeth with Cate, Lindsay, Me and Ashton.

We were so lucky because Santa took some time out of his busy schedule to come to our party.  In this picture Santa is singing Rudolph and he had my Aunt Julie, Uncle Bill, and cousin in law Walter dress up with Antlers and noses.  We had so much fun having Santa visit.  We all sang a bunch of Christmas songs with him.

This is my cousin Elizabeth and her friend Todd singing with Santa.

As you can see Ashton wasn't too excited to see Santa...

Santa didn't want to take too much blame for the crying kids :)  He was actually very good with the kids and it was so much fun having him there.

Cate wasn't too excited either.

The next morning (Christmas morning), we took the kids over to my parent's room in the hotel to open the presents that Santa brought.  Here is Cate checking out what Santa brought.

Here is a picture of the kids opening their presents.

Here is Cate checking out her stocking

Ashton with his stocking

Playing with their new toys

Later that evening we went over to my Aunt Coralie and Uncle Bruce's house for dinner.  Here is a picture of all the second cousins together with the cowboy hats that my mom got for them.  It was very difficult to get them all to sit on the couch.  From left to right:
Will (3 weeks), Cate (3), Jack (3), Charlie (9 months), Ashton (1)

Cate and my Mom playing Go Fish with my cousin Eric.  Notice how small the cards are.

It was a very busy Christmas but we had such a great time.  It was so nice that we were able to see everyone in Salt Lake.  I haven't seen my cousins in years and it was great to be able to catch up with them all.

To Elyse from Cate

Dora taught Cate how to do the Mambo and she said that she wanted to teach Elyse how to do it too.  Here is the video:

Ashton's First Birthday

Last night we celebrated Ashton's first birthday.  We had a great time and Ashton really enjoyed himself too.  I can't believe that he is one already.  This year has gone by so fast.  His personality is really starting to show and he is a delightful boy.  He loves to run, climb, play with cars, and put things in buckets.  And of course he loves to do anything that his big sister is doing.

We took him to the doctor today for his one year checkup and he is a big healthy boy.  Here are his stats:
Weight 26.65 lbs (90%)
Height 31.75 in (95%)
Head 48.5 in (95%)

Here are some pictures from his birthday:

Ashton got this car mat from the Harkless Family

Uncle Q got him a car toy

Cate taking Aunt Pat and Ashton for a drive

Here is the cake that I made for Ashton's birthday

It didn't take him long before he dove into his cake...

...eating the cake...

...licking his fingers...

...I think that he likes cake!

Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt gave him a car for his birthday.  He LOVES his new cozy coupe!

We had a great time celebrating his first birthday and here is to another great year!

Officially back in Colorado

Eric arrived in Colorado on Friday so it is official, we have moved back to Colorado!!  It is so nice to have the family all together.

Here is a picture of the family all together

Today we went over to Grandpa and Grandma Schmidt's house to decorate the Christmas tree and to open presents.  It was a wonderful day and we had a great time.  Aunt Pat and Uncle Don also came over to join in the festivities.  Here are some pictures from our day:

Playing in the cupboard

Cate and Ashton figured out that they can fit in the cupboard in the kitchen

Cate in the cupboard

Ashton taking his turn in the cupboard

They even figured out that they can both fit

Here are a couple videos of the kids playing with each other in the cupboards

Cate and I made a gingerbread house today.  Cate had a great time decorating it.

Up to Steamboat

Before we went up to Steamboat I took the kids to Chick Fil A for Princess/Pirate day.  If the kids dressed up they got a free kids meal.  Cate was so excited to dress up as Cinderella.  

On Friday I decided to take the kids up to Steamboat to spend some time with my parents.  We had a great visit with them.

Grammy was very excited to do Cate's hair.  Cate loved having her hair in braids.

Cate got to ride Grammy's new horse Tucker.

Ashton got a turn on the horse too

I took the kids out to play in the snow.  Ashton seemed to really enjoy standing on the ice.  He also wasn't too sure if he liked touching the cold snow.

Grammy and Grandpa Rlowe have a chair lift swing in their yard.  The kids really enjoyed swinging on it.

Cate loved running around with a basket on her head and then Ashton thought it looked fun and tried it too.

Ashton entertaining himself with a basket

How many kids can you fit in a cozy coupe?

Cate enjoying a snack

Ashton's firsts

Ashton loves taking Cate's sippy cups from her and tries to drink out of them.  Last week he got the hang of it and can officially drink out of sippy cups.  He has also learned how to drink out of a straw.  He is getting to be such a big boy.

Yesterday we took Ashton for his first haircut.  His hair was getting so long that it was constantly in his eyes so we figured it would be a great time for a haircut.  Here is the sequence of events:

When we got to the children's salon, they only had a pink car chair and a pink smock for him to get his haircut in.  He started out happy...

Then he realized that he didn't just get to sit in the car and play.  I am holding up a lollipop trying to distract him...

Then I finally let him have the lollipop, and he stopped crying and sat pretty still for the rest of the haircut...

All done and a happy camper.  Over all it wasn't too bad and hopefully we won't have to go back for a while.  But now we know to give him a lollipop right away.

I had to add a picture of Cate.  This is a horse costume that grandma Schmidt has.  Cate loves to put it on and ride around the kitchen.