December in the Carolinas

The month of December was an eventful one for me.  I packed up a month's worth of clothes for me and the little one, and bravely set off to get on a plane to fly across the country and spend the holidays with my family.  My biggest worry was the flight over.  Sam did well for the most part.  He screamed his face off the first leg of the flight and then slept the entire second leg.  The little guy was exhausted and so was I.  But we made it!  The following post is far too long, and I apologize in advance.  Most of it is pictures though, so that should make you happy.  It makes me happy.

Sam is giving me this very look as I type.  He's not so overjoyed being ignored at the moment.

 I was really excited for Sam to meet his Cheney cousins.  They loved him, wanted to hold him, and made him laugh.  Of all his Cheney cousins, we decided Emmett was the one who looked most like him.  What a cute kid.

Andey, was by FAR the biggest helper when it came to Sam.  Whenever he would cry, she would be right there to pick him up and make him smile.  Thanks Andey!

 My sister-in-law, Michelle, had a baby while I was there.  Emmeline Lucy. Or Emmy Lu as we like to call her.  I didn't get to snap any pictures of the little angel, but I was able to make a car seat canopy for her.

 The day after Mike got in, we rented a car and drove to Atlanta to see his good friends, the Challis' and to visit the Coca Cola factory.  We had such a blast!

 We have a Christmas Eve tradition to act out the Nativity.  Joleigh Mae was really excited because this was the first year that she got to be Mary!

 Christmas morning was nice and layed back.  Sam got some really cute Christmas jammies from Nana and Papa Cheney and some fun toys and books from Grandma and Papa Sorenson.  Mike and I decided to do only stocking stuffers in NC, and to do our other presents when we got back.  More on that on a later post :)

 It doesn't usually snow in NC, but it snowed Christmas night and this is what we woke up to Sunday morning. On a side note, church was delayed and some wards canceled because of the 3-4 inches.  Gotta love it.

 Nellie let us borrow her excer-saucer for Sam to use.  It was covered in spit up by the time we left, but he sure loved it!  I'm so glad we got him one of these for Christmas.

 Mike solidified his position as favorite uncle while there.  My nieces and nephews couldn't get enough of him.

This was COMPLETELY not planned - but awesome nonetheless.

 We took some family pictures.  Here are Nana and Papa with all 16 of their grandchildren.

Thank you for sticking with me!  We got back to some awesome surprises here in Vernal.  I'll blog about that later :-)