Later that evening I made him a special dinner and topped it off with his favorite: cheesecake, of course! This year he requested the Decadent Chocolate Cheesecake... and it sure was! 
As you can see, our VIP wasn't the only one that loved it... Gabe had to lick his plate clean and Nyah snarfed her own slice then moved around the table begging bites from everyone else! :) Eric even discovered that weekend that cheesecake makes a delicious breakfast too!
The next evening Eric and I were able to go on a birthday date while grandma and grandpa babysat. It was a lot of fun to hang out with my BFF! ;) Thanks Cheryl and Don!To top off a fun weekend, Gabe got to play Cars Monopoly with his grandparents... an exciting new game that we are all getting very good at! You can see by that radiant face, how much fun he is having!
Finally we get some snow! It may not look like it, but we are snowed in! No snowplows means packed snow and ice sheets on the roads... no one is going anywhere. Bundled up here at home, it's been heavenly though. The blinds are all pulled up so we have unobstructed views of the beautiful, white landscape out there. I have been making soups and baking bread (plus a lot of organizing but that's not nearly as romantic!) Nyah points out the window every so often and says "no-ing!!" :) Gabe is spending most of every day outside playing with the neighborhood kids, interspersed with short breaks of us huddled by the fire drinking cups of hot cocoa while his snow clothes spend a minute in the dryer. (It's awfully wet snow!) It is so fun!! School has been canceled all week... even work for Eric has been on hold. (Well, technically he has been working at home but he takes lots of little breaks!) It didn't take long for our fun-loving Daddy to break out the sled and take the kids out... Gabe loves it but Nyah prefers to run (or trundle slowly) along side the sled mostly!
We have a little trail through a green belt in our neighborhood that we love to walk on. The snow has transformed it into our own winter wonderland! I feel like I'm in a fairy tale book in there! :) 
Gabe wanted to go to his pond and see if it had frozen over... well it almost was! He had fun forming snowball "bombs" and chucking them in! 
I think we are at the tail end of this snow break though. The sky is giving us less snow and more "freezing rain". It's wreaking even more havoc with the roads but I am loving the gorgeous ice sculptures forming outside on all the plants. Within a few days all this will be gone (sigh) but I have to say we loved the change and appreciated every minute!
We saved all the yummy fondue makings for our own family fondue party on New Year's Eve! It was a blast and everyone appreciated our delicious contribution to the night! :)
Then on New Year's Day we headed over to the Richardson's for more fondue!! Actually it is their tradition to have fondue to celebrate the new year. It was lots of fun.
Nyah with aunt Caitlynn and grandma R - Gabe with Grandma and Grandpa. Cool new remote dump truck, Gabe!
This was the only picture of the kids opening gifts and my parents! Nyah loved her new book from great grandma and grandpa Rice... so did Gabe!
We had SO much fun in Utah! I had to start with this favorite picture of little Nyah and my mom... love those two girls so much!! Mostly it was a lot of activities at home and that's where I'll start... Mom had so many crafts and games prepared for all the grandkids. (Did I mention that ALL my siblings were in town together?!! It was crazy fun!! :) Lots of people at Grammy and Papa's house, especially when Matt and Mindy's families would stay late, but it felt soooo good to be with all my wonderful siblings again.) Anyway, here are a few cute pictures of all the cousins together! First there was stockings to decorate:
Hey, what does she think she's doing... sneaking up on the table to eat the treats?! That little stinker!! :)
This one was a really fun scripture story game... and check out those awesome prizes! Every kid was frantically racking their brain!! haha! (btw, I love Cannon's face in the foreground... he was not happy about something!!)
This was a night of Christmas bingo - oh ya!!
I had to add a cute picture of Papa cuddled up with his only two grandaughters reading books. 
And of course there was also lots and lots of trampoline time!
