5th week of December

On the Sunday that Brody left to go back to Seattle, I made a Thanksgiving dinner since I hadn't done so for Thanksgiving, and because Brody said he was craving my sauerkraut. How could I resist that? The Bundy's and Mom joined us and we had a lovely meal and fun games after.

I can't stop taking pictures of Evan! I think everything he does is so cute and picture worthy!

In these next two pictures, he looks uncharacteristically sullen and sad. This is not typical of him, so when he did it for the camera it was very amusing to me.

Evan LOVES looking at pictures and videos of himself on my ipad.

Cam is doing so great. I love hearing from him every week and seeing pictures of his week.

He made this tie!

This is his district. They all bought ugly sweaters at Goodwill.

4th week of December

Santa stopped by for a visit and Evan was not a fan. But do you really blame him? He would be so scary looking to a one-year-old!

A few days later Ky and Brody took him to the mall to try again but without much more luck...

He did love riding on the cars though...

That face!!!

Evan found Jake's old Build-a-bear Rocky complete with love seat and had fun playing with him.

I told him to smile for the camera. haha

We love it when Jake works the late shift at Movies 5 and brings home leftover popcorn. It's addicting.

Evan loves to get a hold of anyone's phone. He knows how to swipe the screen and change what's on the screen---we try and limit it but it's hard when there are phones out everywhere he turns!

Christmas Eve was so great. We invited Tom and Freda over and the missionaries. I was worried that it would be kinda weird and awkward, and it was for about a half hour, then we all warmed up to each other and had a great evening. I made Cafe Rio sweet pork burritos, we played our new favorite card game called Fruit Salad, then Like Minds. After dessert, we all went downstairs and Mike, Jake, Jess, Brad and I all shared a video that makes us feel the Christmas spirit. It was wonderful. I'm so happy we had the missionaries over since this will be the last Christmas we'll have our own missionary out and we hoped that he would be treated to a nice family evening just like these two were.

On Christmas morning we had a big breakfast, then spent awhile opening presents. Evan slept through all of it so had to wait until later in the day to open his. I think he was OK with it... Ky had this pillowcase made for Mike.

Jake modeling his new ski helmet and goggles.

Ky is in love with the denim quilt I made for them.

The best part of the day came when it was time to Skype with Cam. It was so awesome to talk to him for an hour and a half and just hear his voice and look at him and just try and soak it in.

(the way Cam's dressed, you'd think he was talking to us from outside, but no, he was inside the church!)

We spent from 1-5:30 at the Weyerts eating a delicious dinner, opening presents and playing the present game. It one of my favorite things about Christmas and it wouldn't be the same without going there. We finally got around to opening presents for Evan when we got home during our half hour window before heading over to Trace's church for more fun, games and food.

(these next few are out of order, but I can't be bothered to move them around-) We had the Lakes and Skeens over for lunch one day before Christmas. It was so great having them in town for a week. I'm so happy we could do so many fun things together.

The Sunday before Christmas we had a fun progressive dinner at our house, Carols and the Skeens. At each house we ate and played a game. This is the best way to party in the winter with that many people- then you only have them at your house for an hour!

The next day our stake put on a celebration of Christ with over 500 nativity displays, a live nativity complete with donkeys, sheep and a camel, and different choirs (and one orchestra) performing every 30 minutes during the 3 hour evening. It was quite impressive. One woman from another stake had 100 of her 1000 nativity's on display! That's crazy.

The day after Christmas the Skeens threw their second "Totally tasteless" party and it was just as fun as the first one 5 years ago. We all dressed tacky, made tacky presentations, the house was messy, the food was a weird assortment (breakfast casserole, pizza and cold cereal- haha) and we all tried to act classless. Some of my favorite presentations were Jake telling what an awesome, successful missionary he was, Ky bragging about Evan and showing pictures, Jamie showing us how she flushes out her sinus's and showing a video of her having a procedure done at the doctor and throwing up after it, Brad telling how successful he was selling this summer and how he's looking to hang out only with family members who make a lot of money- and he kept getting phone calls during his presentation that he would take and make us wait (it was just Jess) , and the Skeens power point presentation of how to revitalize your sex life.   It was quite the night.  (Ky and I wore one of our prom dresses from high school and boasted that we look as good in them now as we did then---I'm wearing a shade shirt because I can't get mine zipped in the back and Ky's is not exactly made for wearing garments...)

 

 Ky and Brody put this announcement on the back of their Christmas card. I think it's so darling and creative.

3rd week of December

This was my last week of work before a lovely 16 day break. Oh how I love my job and the awesome time off I get. I really am blessed with the perfect part-time job. Jake was busy all week with finals. He was probably more happy than I was to have a break from school. Here's Evan helping him all he can to study for a test...

 Evan is also really good at doing laundry...

 Ky and Evan had to entertain themselves every afternoon. They ran errands almost every day.

And they played in the snow...

Sal is a big fan of the snow.

This is what happens when you take your snow mittens off...

We were all so excited to see the new Star Wars movie. We got to see it the night before it was released and it was everything I hoped it would be. I loved it so much and can't wait to go again.