Merry Christmas (props to Sarah!)

Sarah goes to the Christmas Dance

Recycled the Christmas sweatshirts from last year. 

Love it when I can do that!

Dylan asked Sarah with a stocking stuffed with many wrapped boxes. 

 Sarah's idea for the answer was to swipe a picture of Dylan off Facebook and Photoshop their faces onto these sweet dancing reindeer. I found it very creative and quite funny.

Aaron & Will

  Having Aaron here has been crazy awesome. Pray that he finds a hot Utah girl to marry who never wants to leave her beloved state.

Christmas minus one

The kids wondered why I put up Nathaniel's stocking. I told them I'd always put up every stocking no matter who was home.

Every year I buy an ornament for the kids to add to their collection that they will hang on their own trees as they get older:

This year I bought these photo ornaments for everyone.

I also got one of these for everyone

 Putting up the all Nathaniel's ornaments was a little hard:(

Baking with my monkey

Sunday after we got back from California Will and I worked on a batch of cookies. As you can see he turned on the machine just after I added flour. I was covered in flour for our tithing settlement appointment but the bishop didn't seem to mind when we presented he and the clerks (one of which is Peter) with warm cookies.

One thing I can do with Will when I cook is pull up the stool--he's always game for that. I hand him all the ingredients and he dumps them in and then cranks on the machine. Saturday I peeled and chopped potatoes for the Ward Christmas Party and he threw worked his over with the butter knife and helped me throw everything in the pot. I know that even though it makes a mess these are the things I know I'll never regret doing with him.

Sometimes I think we were a little nuts to have a baby eight years after our last. It can be a juggling act with teens and a toddler but he reminds us of what is important in our lives and how our other kids were at this age. It keeps us grounded. We are just blessed to have him. Brings the whole family joy to have a little one around.

Thanksgiving in Tehachapi

 

Connor is 12

 Natalie will be three in March

 Andrew will be one in January

 Ultra fun Uncle Paul and the buggy. And Megan wonders why all his kids think dad's the best thing since sliced bread as soon as he walks through the door . . .

 The fam on Thanksgiving

Claire and Megan 

Rebecca and Daniel

Claire Sarah and Hannah

 Poor Daniel and John express the sentiments of everyone waiting for the turkey to be done. With Will keeping me up half the night I didn't get it in until later than I should have and everyone was waiting around ready to eat. 
I felt bad but at least it turned out good. 
(My main concern is always that it gets done enough so that we all don't get sick! I'd feel a lot worse about that then keeping everyone waiting--as I think everyone would concur.)

 

I'm afraid this is once again the only picture of me. Somehow I always forget to get on the other side of the camera when we travel there.

We all had a really nice time. With our trip to Bryce Canyon fresh in my mind I have vowed not to do the motel thing with Will for at least the next few months so we drove straight through there and back. The drive there was a little brutal with the traffic and frequent stops for him, not to mention he had just had four teeth taken out a couple of days before we left. He was on round the clock Motrin for the first three days we were there (and we were only there four days) and was a nightmare to sleep with. I just don't like traveling with him right now. Coming home went better. Bottom line was though we were exhausted it was worth it.