Christmas Eve...

is followed by Christmas morning...

getting right to work with the Legos Santa brought

Jake's favorite part was the CANDY

Eden & Me

our toe-socks from Santa

They were really into the peace sign this morning...

Andrew is SO excited about his present for Dad

...I wonder why?

oh, it's more Legos!

It was a BYU jersey, of course he needed to change his clothes IMMEDIATELY

Jake got some 'tub stickers' in the hopes that we can convince him to have fun at bathtime.... From the look on his face, I don't think he's buying it

Nothing makes this boy happier than Star Wars and Legos!

my Grandmother made this beautiful sewing kit

including items that belonged to her (and my) ancestors

Seriously, I don't know where they got the peace sign from, but I'm glad she's excited about the science kit!

Christmas Day Dinner: cornish game hens, mashed potatoes, and green beans with butter-almonds-bacon, and Sister Schubert's Dinner Yeast Rolls, and of course, sparkling cider

Even with  a runny nose, Jake is one cute little guy!

Apparently our resident photographer was taking it easy over Christmas.  Sorry some of those are sideways.

how Christmas looked at our house

(I am having fun playing with the collage feature on Picassa.)

The Rest of the Trip

We had a great time visiting with Scott's family.  It had been a while since we had seen everyone.   We were able to visit with Scott's grandfather and Aunt Sandra and Uncle Jere.  It was foggy and rainy for most of the trip, but we still got a quick tour of the lights at Temple Square.  I actually ended up with lots of cute pictures from this trip.  So, I made a collage.  You can click on it to make it bigger.

Columbia

We always make a trip to Columbia when we visit Scott's family.  It's a 'living' gold-mine town.  There are sometimes people dressed in period clothes.  It was a little rainy, but we still had fun.

Feeding the chickens.  They LOVE grass ;)

Gotta have a picture in one of the wagons

Nutcracker

We took a trip to California about a week before Christmas.  Eden and I started out with a couple days with the Olson girls.  We were so excited to join them for the Nutcracker in San Francisco.  So, it was It was beautiful, and so much fun!

all dressed up for our big night out!

the cousins were so excited!

Enjoying an intermission snack of juice and cookies.

after the show we took some pictures...

the grand-daughters with Grandma

And this is what they looked at by the time we got back.

Happy January!

I have successfully moved almost all my pictures to an external hard drive.  It's a My Book, I'm told that they're good.  So, I went ahead and got all the pictures off my camera from the last month or so.  Turns out there are a lot.  I lost motivation when I saw the large number of pics being loaded into 'Dec 2010'.  But, here are a couple from 2011:



When she turned 7, we told Eden she could get her ears pierced whenever she was ready.  After seeing quite a few friends survive the ordeal untraumatized, she took the plunge!  She choose her birthstone, sapphire.  I think they look great!

The kids had a snow day, and I decided to make Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls for our snack/FHE treat.  I ended up using mostly whole wheat flour from my grinder (because we were out of regular and I didn't want to go to the store), and I cut back a bit on the butter/sugar/cinnamon filling.  They were still ooey, gooey, and delicious!



10?!? Hmmm... Let's See...

1. Our December was great, I really do have things to blog about.  I even have some pictures to go with them.

2. My computer keeps telling me my disk space is running low.  So, I'm a little worried about loading more pictures on it.

3. We have a 1 TB external hard drive, still in the package since its arrival at the beginning of December.  I am a little afraid of it.

4. I also ordered some beanbag chairs (actually they have a foam filling, but you get the idea) at the same time, both from Costco.  They arrived yesterday.  The foam is vacuum packed and it could be a whole week before they are fully fluffed and ready to use.

5. I also got a right pedal for the exercise bike in the mail yesterday, so now I can start using the bike that came at the beginning of December (I ♥ Costco).  (It came with 2 left pedals and no right pedals originally.  I still ♥ Costco.)

6. With all the boxes and packaging, it was {almost} like Christmas all over again.  Except we took down the tree earlier this week. :(   All our other Christmas decorations are still up though.

7. I have spent too much time on Facebook and other people's blogs the last couple weeks, and have left myself insufficient time for posting on my own blog.

8. I have done all the exercise I have planned for myself so far (since the week after Christmas).

9. Getting away from the 'holiday' indulgences has been a little more challenging.  But, I think I am s l o w l y making progress on that front too.

10. Eden and Andrew went back to school today, so hopefully some semblance of normalcy will return soon.  Hopefully a little inspiration and motivation will tag along too.

Happy New Year!