Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning in Houston was crazy, but fun. There were a lot of people there, so it wasn't practical to go around and open a gift one at a time. Therefore, we pretty much did it in families even though we were all in the same room together. Zachary thought it was the best thing ever--he had a stocking full of chocolate, got to open as many presents as he wanted, and had all sorts of fun new toys to play with! Neil and I enjoyed relaxing and watching Zachary, since we didn't really bring many presents for ourselves. I did get a new computer, though, and Neil got an electronics kit, so we were both happy. :)

Zachary ate 2-3 oranges a day while we were there

A classic stocking picture--chocolate in the mouth and each hand!

Zachary got this from his cousins

Grammy and Grandpa gave each of the little kids a Texas shirt and hat

Zachary LOVES to read books, and it's hilarious to listen to him because I have no idea what he's saying, but he sure does!

These are the instructions to Neil's electronics kit

My old computer bit the dust, so this new one is awesome!!

Neil's mom collects alphabet books from different states, so we got her the one from Utah

This is a really cool book all about the lands of the Book of Mormon and things they have discovered in Mexico

Christmas Eve Nativities

A fun tradition in both my family and Neil's family is to act out the Nativity on Christmas Eve (or whichever day we happen to be celebrating Christmas Eve). Before we headed down to Houston, we had a party with my mom's side of the family. Every year we switch off acting out different parts, and this year we actually had a real baby Jesus! It's always crazy, and this year was no exception, but we have a great time. :)

Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus

The three wise women

This was in the middle, right before the angel left and became the angel of destruction by kicking a few people in the head....

Another picture of Baby Jesus 'cause she was so dang cute

My cute little shepherd who wouldn't stay still and let me take a picture

When we got to Houston, we got to do another nativity! Neil's mom had borrowed some fairly elaborate costumes from a neighbor, and the entire family got a part to play. They have a script that they act out and also sing songs from, which was fun. Again, it was crazy with lots of little kids running around, but we wouldn't have had it any other way :)

Of the three pregnant women there, I was elected to be Mary

Sydney just wanted to play with the wisemen's gold

Such cool costumes!

This was our best attempt at a group shot, which is impressive that we had four kids 2 and under!

Pre-Christmas

Since we went to Houston for Christmas this year, we got to open some of our presents early. My Dad, Karen, and kids came down to our house the Sunday before Christmas and we made a yummy meal of ham, potatoes, jello, and rolls. After that, we opened presents from them, as well as all of the big ones that we didn't want to take with us on the plane. Zachary really got into the whole present-unwrapping thing this year, and I think he ended up unwrapping everybody's presents for them. He had to make sure that every piece of paper was off the box before he was satisfied, but he LOVED all of the presents that he got.

The first and only time presents were actually under the tree....

Wow, is this for me?

Neil got some money to go toward a tool fund

"Wow, now I can be just like Daddy!"

After he opened his tools, he tried to unwrap the presents with the pliers

I got the full set of Harry Potter books (which I am halfway through reading already but yes, I have read them before, multiple times)

Visiting Santa

Christmas has been really fun this year because Zachary is old enough to understand a lot of what is going on. We taught him to recognize Santa, and also that Santa says "Ho, Ho, Ho." (I also tried to teach him Merry Christmas, but that was a little beyond his capabilities this year.) Since he got so excited every time he saw a picture or figurine of Santa, I thought it would be fun to take him to sit on Santa's lap. He was really excited the whole time we were standing in line, but when it came right down to it he wasn't about to let go of me.....until he realized that Santa would give him a sucker, that is! He still wasn't super excited to be sitting in some strange man's lap, but the kid will do almost anything for sugar. Now every time he sees a picture of Santa, he says "ho ho ho" followed by "lap" followed by "sucker." Ah, the simple joys of childhood :)

Bryan's Wedding

My brother Bryan got married on Dec. 12, a beautiful snowy day. We all headed up to Logan for the sealing, which was a beautiful ceremony, and it was so nice to have my family there in the sealing room knowing that we will be together forever. I'm very proud of Bryan for making the decision to be married in the temple, and I hope that he and Bekah have a great life together. After the sealing we were going to do a few pictures, but it was snowing so hard that the photographer only got one group shot before we all took off seeking warmth. We had a nice family luncheon, and then it was time to head back to Bountiful for the reception. Unfortunately, since it was snowing so hard the roads were really bad, and it was a scary drive going down through the canyon and through Brigham City. We all made it safe, though, and had a fun reception that night. I didn't end up taking very many pictures, but here are the ones that I do have:

We tried to take family pictures, but my dad got most of them on his camera and Zachary was being really grumpy, so I guess we'll have to try again later....

Neil and baby Sophie

Matthew and Zachary were buds

They were entirely too nice to each other!!

Congratulations, Bryan and Bekah!

Shelves!!!

While Martin was here for a few days, he and Neil had a whole list of projects to work on together. Neil really misses having Martin around, and we're excited that he and Cami get to come back to Utah next fall!! One of the projects they did was to put up some shelves in our storage room. This is something that I've wanted ever since we moved in, and they turned out awesome! Here's some pictures of the process:

We had to move all our stuff out of the storage room and put it in the playroom for a while

Pulling down the old shelves was probably the hardest part!!

Looking good....

There was so much sawdust in the air that it looks like it's snowing....I'll just not think about what our lungs probably looked like....

All finished!! Don't they look awesome?

And here's how they look with all our stuff on them. We pretty much have double the space, everything is nicely organized, and I don't feel like my food storage is going to fall off the shelves!!! Thanks again Neil and Martin, you're the best!!

November Overview

Um, so I can now officially be called a slacker. I have now gone over a month without posting with no explanation. Oh, well, I'm over it! So here is a review of our November, which went by way too fast!

Eating one bite from every apple, just to make sure they're all good!

A 5 generation picture

Zachary fell asleep like this while I was in the shower--at least this time I was able to open the door enough to squeeze in!

Raking up more leaves (and more, and more)

Uncle Martin came for a visit before he went to Basic Training, and it sure was fun to have him around for a few days!!

Dipping chocolates with Grandma--what could be more fun? We always spend 4 or 5 days dipping chocolates, and this year was made especially interesting by having an almost 2-year-old help. :)

Jennifer, Matthew, and Micah came for a visit too. Zachary and Micah did fairly well playing together, considering the fact that toddlers don't play together...

Oh yeah, there was Thanksgiving in there too, but I didn't seem to get any pictures that day. It was a great day filled with family and lots of great food, so what more could you want? We were truly blessed to be able to see so much of our family this month (Shally visited at the beginning of the month but we didn't get any pictures of that either), and we're excited to see the rest of the fam at Christmas!!!