Steed Christmas and New Year! :D

Happy 2016!!! 2015 was wonderful!

We welcomed our new baby Lydia to the world!

I finished my 3rd GREAT year of teaching!

Mitch got a job offer for post-graduation from Microsoft!

Many other blessings came our way for which we are truly thankful to the Lord.

And seriously, just when I think Lydia can't get any cuter, she proves me wrong!!!

So I need to update since Christmas, and sorry to all my friends and family who I hoped to send our Christmas card to...I ended up only getting them out to some of my immediate family...maybe next year I'll do it, but this year I was too busy sewing our family stockings (which I forgot to get a picture of...all well, too late, they're already packed up!) Here's our card though!

This is the picture digest version of Christmas, it was a blast and so much happened! Here is Lydia hanging up her "Baby's First Christmas" ornament that Grandma Steed gave to her! :D

Here she is, cheery in front of the Christmas tree.

And here she and Daddy are on Daddy's birthday! December 11th was a great day. Lydia wore her "Daddy's Sweet Heart" shirt (thank you Islay Brown for giving it to her!).

We went out to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe, and it was quite tasty. I had heard mixed reviews about it, but I liked it a lot, their pepperoni was really my favorite, and I loved the big gingerbread pizza!

Lydia fell asleep in Daddy's arms. :)

We came home and had Mitchy's favorite: German chocolate birthday cake!

26 candles...we are getting old! And I'm turing 28 this year! Crazy!

We went to the Stringtown Polar Express Railroad on the 12th! It was a blast, it was our second time going, once when I was teaching 5th grade, and I got to see one of my 5th graders, Joseph. I can't believe he will be going into 9th grade this year! They grew up fast!

Lydia and I as the little train pulls up.

On the little Polar Express!

We arrived at the North Pole! Here we are in Santa's Workshop:

Lydia's first time meeting Santa!

I love this Polar Express train. After you meet Santa, he tells everyone that Jesus Christ is the reason for the season, and you get back on the train and pass through the life of Jesus Christ from His birth, His ministry and love and service to others, and finally His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, death on the cross, and Resurrection. It is so beautiful, the huge pictures and statues really touched my heart and helped me to remember the Savior, Jesus Christ. I love that they do this each year. It's hard to get a reservation, but if you're early enough, you can get a reservation here: http://www.stringtown.us/ It really makes for a special experience.

Well, here Mitchy is eating a cookie that we frosted! We made tons of sugar cookies to frost for friends, and we ate way too many! :p But they were oh, so good!

With all that sugar, and because we enjoy it anyway, we've been going to the gym to work off our Christmas calories, but we ended up going during December too. Here is Lydia in her jogging stroller as I jog with her in the Smith Field House on the indoor track! She is always so patient when we come to work out. :) Mitch starts with her on the track while I go to the gym upstairs for 30 minutes, then we switch and I come to the track with Lydia and he goes to the gym upstairs. It's great!

This has been a great winter for snow! It snowed like crazy and I was SOOOO glad we had a white Christmas. Here is Wymount, our lovely quad, in the snow. :)

Our deck with lights as snow fell!

Here is the other reason why I didn't get our Christmas cards out: I made 9 of these birthday/anniversary magnetic calendars for the Harper family and the Steed family! I made one for us, all of my "out of the house" siblings, for my parents, Mitch's parents and for Mitch's brother David and his wife Dani. It was so fun to do, but there were 355 names...so I decided not to do the typical calendar with wood cutouts that you paint, I used a cookie sheet and mosaic tiles that I put magnets on. It was fun and is so helpful! :)

My Aunt Lori works at Thanksgiving Point and told us about the lights they have there for Christmas! They were beautiful, and I loved the Nativity!

They had real reindeer, and one of them is pregnant! :) Yay for more reindeer! We got a picture and some amazing hot cocoa on that fun but chilly evening!

On the 19th, Mitch's brother I mentioned earlier got married to Dani. Here are Nathan and Hannah decorating at the reception center early in the morning (I was still fast asleep in bed:)).

Here is the happy couple coming out the doors of the Bountiful Temple! We are so happy for them.

The view from the Bountiful Temple is amazing, you can see part of the Great Salt Lake and much of the Valley.

Lydia learned how to wave over the break (her Aunt Hannah taught her!) it is so cute and I managed to get a picture of her doing it. :)

Mitch, Nathan, Hannah and I decorated David and Dani's car! We chose the theme, "You Light Up My Life!" We used anything that we could find that had to do with light, glow sticks, flashlights, a lamp, battery powered candles, glow-in-the-dark balloons, and light bulbs.

The question of the night from practically everyone that passed us as we decorated was, "Wow! How did you get the balloons to glow?!" :D We told them we got them at Walmart! They were so cool!

We bought a lamp and a lampshade to put on the top of the car with the little battery-powered candles.

Hannah did the lettering on the banner in the back, she was AMAZING! I did the little lightbulbs on the sides. Lots of Hannah's friends helped too and did a great job on the steamers in the back.

We wrote, "U R My Sunshine" on the other side, and we put post-it notes all over,

including on the hood where Nathan did a great job putting two D's for David and Dani!

The rest of our time in Kaysville was great, Lydia started to slide around for the first time on the ground. She hasn't started crawling yet, but I think it's easier when she's on the hardwood floor because there's much less friction! :)

We also went to see the Christmas lights up in Layton. You can see that Lydia was mesmerized...she loved looking at the lights and Daddy kept her warm in his coat, and she was warm in the new coat she got from our cousin, Alyssa Harper! :D Thanks again for the coat! (Plus it matches mine, has glitter all over it, and it's super warm...seriously, it's the perfect coat!)

Flamingos!!!

And there's even a green one, just like my book that's almost finished, The Green Flamingo!!!

Noah's Ark

Oh how she loves Christmas lights!

Fast forward to Christmas Eve! It's the Robison family Christmas party, and Lydia had the privilege of playing the part of Baby Jesus! She was SOOOO cute!

Here she is surrounded by children, and not even fussing at all. She loved all the kids touching her forehead and smiling at her. Her little second-cousin asked his mom, Islay, if she was the real Baby Jesus. :)

After the Nativity, Grandpa Santa came and Lydia got her present from him. :)

We also made basically the funnest gingerbread house of my life! Well, perhaps it tied with our Hobbit Hole of 2012 and the Gothic Cathedral of 2008 (2009?). Anyway, it was a blast, and we went to this amazingly fun place I'd never been before called Gardener Village, and they had the perfect sized gingerbread men for Luke Skywalker!

Lydia loved her Christmas pajamas from Grandpa and Grandma Steed, and her lovely, "Baby's 1st Christmas," hat from Great Grandma Robison!

We were all snuggly in our pajamas and ready for our Christmas Eve sleep.

Grandma Steed and Baby Lydia on Christmas morning!

For some crazy reason...I kept thinking Mitch, Lydia and the tree were all in the picture...

Here is our Steed Family, waiting to open presents on Christmas morning!

Lydia loved her duplos, warm bear hat, blocks, new clothes and other little gifts!

Great Grandma Robison came over for dinner and to give some presents and got to hold Lydia. :)

As well as Great Grandpa Robison!

I got Mitch a waffle cone maker! We used it that very night to make cones!

It was a wonderful Christmas. We came home on the 26th and took pictures of Lydia for her 7-month birthday (a few days late, but all well!).

She is growing so fast! I wanted ones of her standing too, because she pulls herself to standing now if she has something she can grab onto. She doesn't walk alone yet though, just holds our fingers and walks...

...so we got her a walking harness! It seriously kills our backs if we walk around with her holding our fingers, leaning over for her to practice walking, so we got this on Amazon so we could practice without the pain! :D

Here we are having our traditional floats for new year's eve! I have apple cider in mine (it is SOOOOOO good! It's a Harper family tradition) and Mitchy has root beer in his (he's not a huge fan of the cider, but that's okay) :)

Thumbs up for a great new year! :D

After new year's but before the semester started, we walked around campus to locate all of Mitch's classes. It is a tradition he has always had, and it was his last time doing it! We can hardly believe he is in his last semester! They hadn't taken down the huge Christmas tree in the Tanner Building yet, and it was beautiful!

We also noticed the reflection of Y mount and squaw peak on the Joseph Fielding Smith Building! It was awesome! (And very cold...very motivational to walk fast!)

Lydia and I love playing with her blocks she got for Christmas, and she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her toy Lion (thanks again, Nielson family!). I made a little town for the Lion for Lydia to come knock down!

Here is a picture of us we took to send to Daddy at work to say we miss him. Lydia wanted to take the selfie, well, herself. :)

This is a representation of Sunday school for the fathers in the ward, or, pre-nursery, as they call it. :) I went out in the hallway to check on them (after Lydia had to leave for being grouchy and loud:) and thought it was hilarious to see all the other dads doing the same thing! I had to take a picture!