December 2015

Megan wrote this in chalk for me :)

It looked cute in the middle of our wreath on our front door

Our Christmas tree - in the front room this year since we hosted a BYU
Faculty party at our house and needed more room for seating in our
family room by the kitchen where we normally put the tree -
it added nice lights in our front window

Our Christmas lights - looks better in person :)

Emma and Zachary helped build this gingerbread house - looks like last year's house :)

Fun at the mall - saw Santa, but didn't sit on his lap

We walked to school to pick up Zachary a few times in nice weather,
and Emma loved playing and climbing while we waited

Watching the Christmas Devotional, which was great! 

Going on a fun Provo River Christmas cruise - a mentor activity

We saw beautiful lights along the Provo River from our boat

And a beautiful Nativity by the river 

We had Canyon's headstone ready a little earlier, but had to wait
for a warm spell to be able to have it installed - Dec 8 - almost a
week after Canyon's birthday.  On his birthday I made cookies and
gave some to Joshua's friend who just entered the MTC, and another
friend who just got back from her mission.

I love the back side of it, too, with the view of the canyon behind

Emma and Eddie met me there after it was installed and after I bought poinsettias

Eddie and Megan went skiing a few times in December,
and brought Zachary a couple times

One of Megan's final Personal Progress projects - she made blankets
and 20 gift bags for the homeless 

After she finished reading the Book of Mormon, she got
her Young Women's medallion for finishing all her Personal Progress -
Congratulations Megan!!

Beautiful sunset from Grandview

Beautiful sunset from Orem

Beautiful sunset from our backyard - I just love sunsets, if you can't tell! :)

I made Provo City Center Temple magnets for gifts with Hershey hugs and kisses
for the Stake leaders at our Stake leader Christmas dinner - in the packages below...
Eddie and I got to tour the inside of this temple in preparation to be tour guides on Jan 5th!

Here are the packages in a basket - after we gave out about 20

Christmas double-sided ornaments I made for Eddie's faculty -
they had just taken a department photo with Eddie as the new Director

I made 36 at first and then made a couple more for new faculty,
since one of those walked into Eddie's office while we were attaching tags
to the bags (with Hershey's hugs and kisses inside like the Stake gifts)

Some neighbor cookie gift plates I made - I also made some homemade salsa
and chips for visiting teachees, and some sugar cookies with the kids and made
more neighbor cookie gift plates later

We went to a nice wedding reception for a friend in our ward - I loved
the chandeliers and lighting.

We had a nice ward dinner and then Primary Nativity afterwards

Cute decorations at the ward party :)

Family party at Jen's new house - we had a great dinner and then Nativity and games

Zachary won the Reindeer challenge - blowing up and stuffing balloons into
nylons and then wearing all that on his head :)

Megan's friend's birthday Dec 23rd - they watched a movie from a projector in our basement.
We decided last minute to get a projector for ourselves for Christmas after that. :)

Sledding on Christmas Eve - the snow wasn't the best, but we wanted
to go with our friends.  It snowed more that night and gave us a nice
white Christmas - we had to sled more after we talked with Joshua

Christmas Eve dinner

Merry Christmas!

After 8 a.m. we allowed the kids to see what Santa had brought on
Christmas morning. We had to wake up Megan. :)
Megan loves her rug and pillows, Zachary loves the Wii U, and
Emma loves her Doc McStuffins Vet Center!

Fun stuff in the Santa bag, too :)

Emma loves her Frozen hut and Vet Center put together now :)

Skyping Joshua - the best part of Christmas!  His girlfriend was with us :)

Cutie in the snow - lots of fresh snow on Christmas - yay - perfect for sledding!

Christmas babe :)

Awesome sledding day!

Emma was tired out after a full day of Christmas -
she loves her new dolls and sleeping bag. :)

On the day after Christmas, we celebrated an early birthday to Grayson -
it was fun to see Cordell and Laura, too!

Cute cousins :)

We hosted Cameo and family at our house for a couple days - we enjoyed visiting
Canyon's grave with them and with Cordell and Laura, and then going out to Cafe Rio after :)

Happy New Year!

Watching New Year's Eve fireworks from Zachary and Emma's bedroom window -
they were coming from the Provo Rec Center this year so we had a great view - nice
of them to show them at 9:00 p.m. as well as midnight (we watched at 9 p.m.) :)