Christmas Present

It's hard to believe that Christmas Day has come and gone, but it was a great day, and we're still enjoying the break time together. Church was canceled today, due to the large amount of snow that has fallen on Central Illinois, so I thought I'd use the "extra" time to jot down some Christmas notes. These are the only two pictures that turned out. Daniel was not disappointed in Santa. He kept telling people that Santa got his note, since he had indeed brought a castle with knights. Here he is, enjoying the castle.
Santa brought Dailie a sewing machine of her very own, and she has already nearly completed a tote bag for all the "smelly things" she got (lotion, shower gel). Do you think maybe my baby girl is growing up? Sewing machine and smelly things for Christmas?

Santa brought Dallin Lego Rock Band for the Wii, which we have all been enjoying. I have to admit it's pretty fun to jam out with the fam. Rick surprised me with a beautiful clarinet!! Wow! I have had a desire to play lately, but my clarinet needs some repair. He looked into getting it fixed, but decided instead to buy me a new one. What a thoughtful surprise for me. It was especially fun to watch the kids give their gifts to each other. Dailie painted a picture for Rick and I that is really good. I'm anxious to get it framed and hang it up.

Later in the day on Christmas, we had 8 missionaries at our house for dinner. It was a lot of fun. We had ham and cheesy potatoes, played some fun games, and ate yummy desserts. I made a White Chocolate Cranberry Cream Cake and a Chocolate Pecan Caramel Truffle Torte. All of this was a little bit of a challenge since my oven decided to start wigging out AGAIN on Christmas Eve. Something is seriously wrong with it, and that will be one of the projects this week- to determine if it can be fixed or if it needs to be replaced. Isn't it interesting that it acted up at Thanksgiving, and now again at Christmas. Hmmmm....

We've enjoyed doing puzzles, hanging out, playing in the snow, spending time with the Jensens (my sis Rachael and fam)and Sarah and Lee, watching BYU clean up in the Bowl Game against Oregon State, and having Rick home!! We look forward to another week of family fun!!

Christmas Past VI

Christmas 2000 was not any baby's first Christmas, and I was not pregnant. Amazing, I know. It was a wonderful, full Christmas. I remember this as a very happy time for our family. Here are the kids with Santa at the Caterpillar Children's Christmas party. It was at the movie theater. We either watched Toy Story 2 or 102 Dalmatians (they did both, but I don't remember which years). Dallin was 5 and in Kindergarten. Dailie was 3, nearly 4, and Audri was 1 1/2, turning 2 the following March.

I included this picture because it portrays the way I remember life. Happy, carefree, having fun with our 3 kids. The Christmas tree was also in a different room this year!!

The big event of Christmas 2000 was Brian and Wendy's wedding!!! We flew to Utah for Christmas and the wedding, but before we went we had some holiday celebrations of our own. Here we are decorating Christmas cookies with Wendy and Brian. I'm not sure why Kelly isn't there. She was in Indiana at this time, but maybe she had already left for Utah, or maybe she had to work.

Here we are at the Ward Christmas party. I was Activities Committee Chair at this time. We went carolling in the neighborhood and then came back to the Church for the Nativity. It did not go over well. There was not a good turnout, and I was a little upset by it. But I remember that Rick was very kind to me and helped me feel better about it all.

Dallin with Aunt Kelly at Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas morning. Wendy and Brian's wedding was a few days later.

The reason for the trip to Utah. Aren't they a cute couple? I did not make the pajamas for the kids this year, instead I made this wedding dress. Sometimes I'm a little crazy.

Christmas Past V

Christmas 1999 was Audri's first Christmas. She was 9 months old. Here's the shot of Christmas morning. Do you see what Santa brought Dallin that year on the far right? Do you remember this post when I shared with you what Daniel asked Santa for this year? Dallin was 4 when he got that castle, and Daniel is 4 now. The truth is I wish we still had that Fisher Price castle. It was great. We'll have to wait and see if Santa brings Daniel a castle this year or not.

Audri's first Christmas, enjoying her Little People Fun Park.

Here are Dallin and Dailie with the gifts they got for each other. Dallin got Dailie this Barbie, and Dailie got Dallin this large stuffed blue frog, which he still has : ).

The best thing about Christmas morning to me is watching the kids get excited about GIVING the gifts they have picked out. Here is Dallin watching Daddy open the Lego he got for him. The kids have continued in this tradition, and I love it. They save their money and carefully select gifts for each other. I'm so glad they can discover the joy in giving.

Christmas Past IV

I have pictures from 1998!! Christmas '98 Wendy lived with us. The Jeffs family came to OUR house for Christmas. I was so excited and happy to host Christmas for the family. Kevin and Kelly were on their missions, so it was Grandma, Grandpa, Brett, Amy and Sarah who drove out from Utah. FYI, I was about 6 months pregnant with Audri this Christmas. This is a theme, so far in the recollections, every Christmas seems to be either a "Baby's First Christmas", or I'm pregnant : ).

Here are Dallin and Dailie with Santa. I'm pretty sure this is at the Ward Christmas party.

The view Christmas morning. This was the year Santa stopped wrapping at our house. We still have that dollhouse, and it is still played with by our girls!!
Dallin with his gift from Mom and Dad. He and Dailie are wearing the pajamas I made them. They opened those on Christmas Eve. Dallin's had frogs wearing Santa hats. They were perfect for our little animal loving boy.

Dailie with her baby and stroller.

Trying out the new bike.

A little after Christmas we got a major snow storm!! Rick's family made it out before it hit, but I can't remember if they got stuck in it on their way home? Anyway, I can't remember exactly how many inches we got. I know that it blew a lot after it snowed, and our house was at the end of a cul-de-sac where the snow gathered. You can see that the drifts were up to our windows. Check out our neighbor sliding down his roof into the drifts.

This is a little past Christmas as well, but I had to include Dad and Dallin with their snowman and snowdog (it's difficult to see since it's all white against a white background, but it's there).

Christmas Past III

Apparently I only took pictures every other Christmas, and I didn't take them when we went to Utah. A few notes about Christmas 1996, although I have no pictures. Just before Christmas that year, we closed on the purchase of our first house at 2734 Portsmouth Ct., Lafayette, IN. Then, we flew to Utah for Christmas. So, because of the move and the trip we didn't put up a tree, but I was so excited that I had a HOUSE to decorate for Christmas. I was pregnant with Dailie, and I just barely squeaked by to travel, being about 6 weeks away from my due date. We had a lot of fun with the Jeffs in Utah. As I recall, they all really enjoyed having Dallin to share Christmas with.



We felt like a real family for Christmas 1997 : ). We had a house, and two children. Here's a picture of Dallin with a real reindeer. This was at Christmas at the Zoo in Indianapolis.

Santa was at the zoo, too. Here's Dailie, staring up in wonder at the white bearded man.

I really liked this close up, too.

Dallin and Dailie got to see Santa again later in the season. If I remember right, this was at the Caterpillar Children's Christmas party. They used to do these in Lafayette every year, and they were always great.

Christmas morning. I made those stockings that year, and we still use them, as well as the ones I've added for the other children : ). I also made the tree skirt, and we still use it, but you can't see it in the photo because of the Christmas morning joy covering it up : ).
Looking at the stuff in the stocking. Dallin was 2 1/2 this year.Dailie with her stocking. She turned one the Feb. after this Christmas.


Dailie unwrapping her toy kitchen. Dallin opening the Little People garage.

Christmas Past II

I have really enjoyed reflecting back on past Christmases. You, my many readers, may tire of these posts, but now that I'm doing it, I'm hoping to keep them up.

I have no pictures of Christmas 1994, but I had some memories that I wanted to jot down. Shortly before Christmas that year, we learned that we were expecting our first baby. At Thanksgiving with Rick's family, we visited the Gardner's Historic Village. It was beautiful, with lots of shops. In one shop, Rick and I saw a beautiful wooden cradle. We knew, but we hadn't told anyone yet, including his family members who were there with us. I remember that we whispered to each other about how nice it would be to have something like this for our baby. We did not have much money at all (we were both students at BYU), and so the price tag was enough to know we would not have it. That year for Christmas, we stayed in Utah, and enjoyed the holiday with Rick's family. We had two special gifts to give out, for each of our moms, both of whom were instructed to open them early. We sent my mom some bibs that said "I Love Grandma", and we found some little knick knack that said "Grandma" on it for Rick's mom. This was our way of making the big announcement, and I remember the moment, sitting in the front room of his parents' house watching his mom open her gift. It was a happy, exciting moment!! Days later, on Christmas morning, I was thrilled to open my gift from Rick, the wooden cradle from Gardner Historic Village. Each of our five babies has slept in the cradle, and I plan to hand it down for their babies to use some day.

Christmas 1995 was, therefore, Dallin's first Christmas, and we had also moved to West Lafayette, IN. Here's our tree from that year. It's looking better.
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Crawfordsville again. My entire family was together again. I remember that we had Dallin open all his presents at our apartment before we headed down. He had SO MANY presents that year. He was 4 1/2 months old. It cracks me up now to think about it. Here he is, surrounded by presents and wrappings. He's holding his flashlight. He and Rick got a father/son set of flashlights. First time parents are funny (sorry if you are one).
So this is actually Christmas morning at my mom and dad's house. Here's Rick helping Dallin rip into one of his gifts there.

I was really starting to get into sewing as a hobby, and I made outfits for my nieces and nephew as gifts. Here's Tanner sporting his zoo animal outfit. It was too big for him, but it had fun animal buttons : ). Let's just say I've come a long way...

And Kailee in the jumper I made for her.

Shortly after New Year's Day (maybe it WAS New Year's Day??), my "little" brother Cory left for his mission. He went to the Denver South Mission. Here are all the sleepy heads who saw him off at the Indianapolis airport. Here's something funny to point out about this picture. It was early in the morning. Look at myself, in all my fairly new motherhood glory, looking smashing (far left), and then look at my sister, Amy, next to me. Another exciting event of the time together was that she and Dave got engaged New Year's Eve. Her hair is done, she's wearing makeup, and jewelry. Give her a couple of years, right? : ) Anyway, it was a wonderful time to be together.

Christmas Past

We have a lot of pictures from the "olden" days. You know, back before digital cameras. I would like to eventually get them all scanned into the computer. I have scanned some in for the blog in the past, so I thought that would be a good way to continue. I'm hoping to scan several pictures of Christmases past in the next several days. I think it will also be a nice trip down memory lane for me, and help add to the Christmas spirit.

So, the first batch is from Christmas 1993. The first Christmas for Rick and I as a married couple. We had a small two bedrooom apartment on the south end of Provo (right across from the Provo City Cemetery). Rick's parents were very kind and bought us a real Christmas tree for our first Christmas. I remember going with his family to the tree farm and picking it out, and then coming back to our apartment and rigging it up. We had inherited some decorations from his grandparents. I remember thinking our tree looked great. Looking at the picture now, I kind of wonder what I was thinking, but it does still bring back happy memories. A funny story about our tree- we got it on a Saturday. Sunday when we came home from Church, we opened the door to a room full of Christmas tree. It had fallen over and literally filled our front room (the room was that small, and the tree was that big). We laughed then, and it continues to be a memory we enjoy recalling.
We drove to Indiana that Christmas, to spend with my family. I had to include this picture of Rick reading to my nieces Kailee and Brittany, because I remember how much they loved him. And I remember knowing he was going to be a fantastic daddy by the way he interacted with them.

My entire family was together that Christmas in my parents' house. I think it happened again two years later, but since then it hasn't happened. We numbered 14 then. We now number 50.

Music is one of my greatest Christmas memories with my family. Here's a shot of my brothers, dad and Grandpa singing Christmas hymns on Christmas Eve. I remember this really well.

Grandma and Grandpa were there on Christmas Eve. We plan to travel to Crawfordsville again this year, largely to visit these two. Grandpa turned 90 last March, and Grandma will be 90 in Januray.

How Many Calories Does a Snowball Fight Burn?

This morning there was more snow. Not a ton, but enough. Instead of exercising, I played in the snow with Daniel. I don't really care how many calories a snowball fight burns. Pounds will come and go, but a memory can only be made once : ). We attempted building a snowman, only to have fun kicking the attempt over in the end. We threw snowballs at Frodo, and at each other.

We wrote our names in the snow.

And, lastly, Daniel built an arsenal to get those coming home later in the day from school and work. The big one is for Daddy.

Love it!

I love the magical feeling that is brought to our home by having Christmas lights and decorations up!! We got our real tree on Saturday evening and got it decorated. I often hear Christmas tunes coming from the piano, and the CD changer is full of Christmas music (my favorite new one is David Archuleta's). Makes me want to bake sugar cookies and wrap presents : ). The snow this morning added a nice touch.

Baptism

Here are the promised pictures from the baptism. Thanks to Aunt Julia for taking them. I love this one of my sweet little girl.

Daddy and daughter.

Inside.

Outside.

After.

The Parade

Dallin's fan club. See that crazy woman with her hands in the air? That would be his biggest fan.

A closer shot of some of the crew that showed up to support Dallin.

Happy candy grabbers.

Dallin as he started passing his cheering group of fans.

He just couldn't keep the smile from cracking. It was really lots of fun to be at the parade. I think we'll go again : ).