J turned the big 30 on the 7th. It was fun, but it was a Sun. so we had to keep the Sabbath day holy instead of partying harty!! We had some friends over for pie and ice cream and it was a very nice time. Back in Sept we went home to WA and threw him a HUGE surprise birthday party. It was a "This is Your Life" theme and we were able to have a lot of family and friends there who J hasn't seen in a while. Thank you to all who helped out with that memorable time, it will be a birthday neither J nor I will ever forget!! We love you Jerrod, you are a wonderful husband and father who loves the gospel and his family. We are so thankful for you in our lives!! Happy Birthday!!

Whose kids are these???

When we went to see Santa the kids were running all over the place, Sis was getting hot and progressively taking off her coat, hat, gloves, sweater, etc. etc. until this is how she ended up at the end??!!!??!?!
Here's JJ sitting all cute for a little photo-op next to the snowman.
And here he is trying to drop the hammer on the snowman!!

I love my kids, they make me laugh and sometimes they make me crazy, by the end of this night I think there was a little bit of both going on!!

Seeing Santa!!

Our neighbor asked the kids the other day if they've seen Santa yet and they replied "No." What!!! We've seen him up on campus (which are the above photos), we saw him at the library, and we saw him at the carousel. How can you just forget about all of those magical moments??!!??! All three kids did very well with Santa, they sat on his lap and told him what they want for Christmas. On campus they had hot choc and cookies so we stayed for a little while and the kids kept going over and laying down to try and sneak another peek and the jolly ol' fella!! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Decorating

While Clark W. Griswold was busy decorating the outside of the house, trying to beat out all the neighbors, the kids, Nana, and I were working on the inside. About once a week Jerrod has us all pile in the van to drive around the block and make sure our house is still the most decorated, I think the word you're looking for is, Obsessed!! He does a great job though and we love him for it!! JD found a Santa hat, and two decorative stockings that his Great-Gramma Ardy made and with his snowsuit he became Santa for the day!! I love getting out the decorations and remembering how we got them and what they mean to us, and also to put up whatever I purchased at the after-Christmas sale the year before!!

Our Christmas tree

Here's the tree!! Living happily in the beautiful forest among it's peers,until we came along and cut it down to have a decoration for our home just to discard it at the first of the year. I didn't really think of it that way until now and now I feel kind of bad, oops.
Here's Jerrod cutting it down! What a real man, destroying nature with tools and stuff!!
He had to use the ladder to put our Angel Moroni tree topper on top!



This year we got a permit to go to the forest and cut down our own tree!! Other than our near-death experience in our un-4x4 minivan, sliding down the hill towards the ravine- thanks to the Dunn family and the Jugganiakloo family for all the help!!! We had a great time!! Jerrod was having a snowball fight with Nick, all JJ wanted to do was eat the snow, and after about 5 min the rest of us were frozen!! But we ended up getting a great tree that we had such a fun time decorating together and reminiscing about the beautiful ornaments we've collected and have been given ever since Jerrod and I were little. One of our favorite parts of decorating for Christmas is the tree!!! We love to sit in our living room with only the tree lights on and enjoy the beautiful memories of Christmas!!

The red-headed step-child!!

Not that I don't love red-heads (that's for you Uncle Goods) I just never thought I would have one of my own!!! JJ always gives us something to laugh about!!

Thanksgiving

JJ enjoying the chocolate cream pie!!
Our holiday spread, I tried hard this year to make things from scratch instead of just out of the box, all in all it turned out pretty good!
He's even studly when he's carving a turkey!!
One of my favorite Thanksgiving must-haves, cranberry sauce from the can!! I love it!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Jerrod's Mom came for a week to visit and share the holidays. We had a great time playing games, watching movies, eating, and decorating for Christmas!! We love this time of year that we have to reflect on how grateful we are for all of our many blessings which include our family and friends who give us so much love and support, we love you all and hope you were blessed with a wonderful holiday as well!!