Festivities

Don't you just love this time of year? Everything about Christmastime just cheers me up. Here are a few of the things we've been doing lately.

I finally got a few pictures of John and Mike (his dad) playing accordians. A guy in the ward owns a couple and let their family borrow them because he thought it would be cool if they could learn. John and Mike pull them out every once and a while have picked it up on it pretty well. I think they're having a little bit too much fun though. (btw John's accordian there is over 100 yrs old.) They were playing a duet of "Jingle Bells" but I could get the video to work.

Lana (John's mom) and I made 8 different cookies using the same sugar cookie dough. She got a thing in the mail about the 12 cookies of Christmas. We would have made 9 kinds, but I happened to drop the dough and a bowl that shattered into a million little pieces. Holy cow that glass got everywhere! It was pretty hilarious actually. We had a great time.

Jenny, Amanda (John's sisters) and I then made homemade candy canes. Wow, that was intense let me tell you! The white part ended up kinda yellow, and I don't think any of us really even like candy canes all that much, but we sure had fun! We had to butter up our hands and pull the candy like taffy, while it was still so incredibly hot. We had to eventually have everyone else in the house help at the end when we were still pulling, twisting, and cutting the canes. We got a few really good ones. Sorry, I forgot pictures of the finished product.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Happily Ever After

Four years and we're still jumping for joy!

Over the river and through the woods...

I took Lexi to Nana's house this week to make a gingerbread house. John's mom made Christmas cookies with her last year, so it's become a tradition to work on some kind of treat each December. Lexi thought it was pretty cool to make something pretty out of candy. It's such a blessing to live near family. Lexi's started eating it and I think she will need some help, don't you think? ;o)

Washington Travel bLog

We recently got back from our trip to Washington. It was great to see family and get a break from the rain and gloom of wintertime. James and my parents were at home and Marisha and April and George came for Thanksgiving. April even stayed a few days longer because she loves us so much! :o) We had a great time playing games, jumping on the trampoline, having pillow fights, going to playgrounds, movies - Twilight for the girls (yes, I very much liked the book and movie - never thought I would!) and James Bond for the guys. John and I also spent a night away at Leavenworth, WA and hit the Cheese Factory for a tour on the way home. We also were able to go the temple a couple of times, which was awesome. We got to go through when James went for the first time too. By the way, for those I haven't told, he's going on a mission to South Africa.

Dad and George test drove this smart car and came to show us. Marisha took a little spin too.


Lexi and Grandpa had a lot of pillow fights. Lexi just "pushed" him off the bed here

Playground of dreams

George and April took the girls to McDonalds Playland. Too bad they couldn't play too...

They also took Lexi to see the Temple John and I were married in. She's been into watching our wedding DVD that has us walking out of the temple. She was adamant about getting married right then since they were at the temple, but had to settle for some pictures and a tiny peak inside.


Us at Leavenworth

We helped Marisha make cookie dough, cinnamon rolls, and cheese balls to earn money

Lexi getting James. What a good sport.

Oh, and I almost forgot...she's wearing pull-ups in this picture. April worked with her a lot while we were in Leavenworth to get her potty-trained. She's pretty much there now, which is AWESOME! We're home now, I'm getting over being sick (of course, it's the holidays!), and James just got here to stay for a week and a half. He drove our car up on the ferry which means we now have 2 cars! Wahoo! Happy December!

more pictures

You've seen enough already, but I thought these were cute.

photo shoot

Random pictures...

Lexi spotlight

Lexi is teaching me how to be a girl. We paint our nails and take turns brushing each others hair. Gosh, my hair is turning brown isn't it? A photographer here in town took the girls pictures this morning. She's taking pictures for free and then copying them on cds while she gets experience and builds a portfolio. I'll pick up the cd this afternoon from her. It inspired me to so I took some pictures of Lexi when we got home. These tall weeds are right in front of our car, in the back of our building. This mossy wall is in the front. My goal next summer to to take more pictures outside and of the outdoors. It really is beautiful up here.

We leave tomorrow morning to go to Washington! Wahoo! We'll spend 2 weeks with my parents, and April and George and James and Marisha will be there for Thanksgiving. We are so excited. For the past month Lexi has been talking about going on an airplane ride "someday." She tells us after she gets a snack and lays down, she'll see grandma and grandpa and jump on the trampoline and fall on her bum. She wants all of the family to jump with her.

We can't wait to go "down south" to the "lower 48." John and I are planning on doing most of the cooking, some yardwork (weird, I know, but we love it!), and doing things we can't normally do in this rainy town. We are so excited to spend time with my family. We're just going to miss TC, Ashley and Savanna who will all be in Flordia with family. We'll have to do webcam. I'm hoping to do a lot of the cooking for Thanksgiving. Yum! I can't wait!

Playtime

Here is my first attempt at putting a video on. This was from about a week ago when we were eating lunch. I didn't want Lexi to notice me, so sorry you can't see her face.

Below the girls are playing together. The cute picture, followed by reality. (By the way, Lexi has a habit of taking off all of her clothes whenever she sleeps, which is why she is only in a diaper.) The last picture is of Kaytlin laughing at her sister (of course).

The rest of October

I can't believe November is already here! We had a great October this year. Only the second half of the month was horribly rainy. There was one day where we got 4.5 inches of rain. I don't think I've mentioned before how much it rains here - 13 feet a year on average. I think where I grew up it was like 15 inches a year or something like that.

Lexi got to help carve this pumpkin (hence the 3 eyes). We went kind of cheap for halloween. I don't like spending a lot of money on something that's worn once or twice. We bought some princess jewelry and had her wear stuff she already had. She loves that frilly skirt April bought her for Christmas. We went to the ward trunk or treat (don't worry - it was indoors).

We were lame for Halloween. We had the missionaries over for dinner and decided not to take Lexi trick or treating since the weather was bad and she didn't know what she was missing anyway. But I was festive and made our dinner in a pumpkin. It tasted like pizza (weird huh).

Then to celebrate October birthdays (there were 4) a bunch of us girls went out to dinner. Don't you just love girls night out?

Out of the mouth of Babes

One of the things I love about this time of year is the Primary Program in Sacrament meeting. I just got a copy of this year's program and had to share some of the cute things in it. What they did was use the 12 themes of the year (one for every month), add the scripture that goes with it, ask the kids a question or two and sing a song that correlates with the theme. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, it's so cute because the kids say their answer to the question as their part in the program. Here are some of the answers I liked.

Question (to the sunbeams): What's one gift Heavenly Father has given you to make you special?
-Everything about me is special
-My curly hair makes me special
-My love for soccer makes me special
-I am special because I say my prayers
-My love for singing primary songs makes me special
-I am special because I like to make people smile
-My home and family makes me special
-Knowing my ABCs makes me special

Question: Why do we need to repent?
-We need to repent because if we don't repent we have to live with Satan
-We need to repent because Heavenly Father told us to

Question: What do you do to show your family you love them?
-I love to give my family kisses

Question: How does seeing the temple make you feel?
-I get a happy feeling inside and out
-Seeing the temple makes me feel like Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost and Jesus Christ are with me

Question: How do you prepare for baptism?
-Before I was able to get baptized I had to speak to the Bishop. Then we got our white clothes ready

Question: What can you do on Sunday to serve Heavenly Father?
-By sitting down and being quiet and reverent during sacrament meeting

Question (sunbeams): How does learning about Jesus make you feel?
-I feel better learning about Jesus
-I feel happy learning about Jesus
-I get a warm feeling inside
-It makes me hungry for more
-I am thankful for all He does for me

Don't you just love the innocence of children? Oh, I just love those kids!

Conference Camp-in

It was great to be able to watch conference at home. The girls didn't have to miss snacks, naps, or time to play - and we actually got something out of conference. I got the feeling that there are going to be some tough times ahead, but our leaders gave counsel with how to deal with it all. Sometimes it really feels like it's the last days, but it's all good. "Come what may and love it!"

So all summer I wanted our family to go camping. It was such a wet, cold, and crummy summer that we decided to camp-in instead of go on a campout. We still got to set up John's new tent and had a little adventure - just no dirt! :o) It would have been fun to have a campfire but I don't think our landlord would approve. :o) Lexi thought is was pretty cool, until John and I fell asleep and she realized she had to too. She woke us up and said she wanted to sleep in bed. We couldn't convince her to stay so she slept in her room. In the middle of the night I had to feed Kaytlin and woke up so uncomfortable I decided to go to my bed too. John woke up a few hours later, feeling deserted and came to bed. In the morning conference started (8 am our time) so we turned the tent around and watched Sunday morning session from our tent. We were like King Benjamin's people (Mosiah 2:5-6). It was an adventure!