Our Merry Christmas

I know I always feel like each Christmas is the best, but this year really was my favorite Christmas to date. The kids were so much fun to watch and we got to have lots of fun with family. And the weather cooperated! Here's a picture re-cap of our wonderful Christmas day:

I got some great shots of Cali's face opening presents. That's what it's all about :).

Isaac opening his Elmo guitar. This is about the only pic of him looking at me. Most of the pictures are of him looking intently at all his toys. He had a blast :).

Cali opening Wall-e. Love that movie! And love the face. Priceless!

Isaac and his Sponge Bob football from dad. He sure does love Sponge Bob, so of course we indulged him :).

Me and my fancy fancy new camera!!! My blog is about to get a picture upgrade!

JR opening his Harry Potter box set. I think he was excited :).

Cali opening Sleeping Beauty. I just can't get enough of her surprise face! Makes me want to go out and buy her more presents! Well, almost. She did get pretty spoiled :).

Isaac with his stocking. He got three Sponge Bob DVDs :). Maybe a little over board, but we all love them. And they keep Isaac entertained. Yeah for Sponge Bob!!!

Cali with her stocking. Fruit snacks are the best!

Isaac and all his toys - referred to as the 'haul' picture :). In my family these pictures have ended fights over who's toy is who's. Here's some proof for later :).

Cali's 'haul' picture. I think she got spoiled, but it was fun :).

JR and I showing off our new Christmas clothes. JR looks H-O-T hot in his new sweater and scarf - if I do say so myself :).

Christmas night with the Petersons. Cali got spoiled again of course :).

JR showing off his very expensive jeans (well, at least according to me :) from his bro Steve. He felt like being overly generous :). Thanks Steve!!!

Isaac in his new Sponge Bob hoodie. It looks super cute on him, don't you think? Thanks Peterson family for the wonderful gifts and for such a fun night!!!

Christmas Eve Lights

Every year JR and the kids and I spend Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with JR's family. It's always so nice to get to spend so much time with each of our families. On Christmas Eve my Dad puts together a yummy dinner, we have the Christmas story, open some presents, and then head off to Temple Square to see the lights. My family has made it a tradition to see the Temple Square lights on Christmas Eve and I love it! Especially now that I have kids of my own to experience them with. It was such a fun night. Thanks Dad for all your hard work! I took a lot of pictures this week, so even though what I posted seems like a lot, it's nothing compared to what's stashed on my computer!

JR and I with Isaac enjoying a yummy Christmas Eve dinner at my parent's home.

My parents and a few of us kids enjoying dinner. This year's dinner was awesome Dad!

My Dad's Christmas sweatshirt. It's weird, but we love him for it :).

Some of the grandkids listening to my Dad read the Christmas story.

Cali was so excited to get Barbie's from her cousins. Her first Barbies. Thanks Gina and the boys! She loves them :).

My sisters Nicky and Annika with my Mom showing off the "Believe" plates I made for them. Yeah for Super Saturdays!

Posing at the reflecting pool on Temple Square. So cold, but totally worth it :).

Here's us all bundled up by the temple.

Cali and Brianne. Cousins and the best of friends :).

Isaac and Beauen. They were being so cute for the camera :).

Enjoying the beautiful lights. Oh, and just FYI - the hat Isaac is wearing is JR's. Yeah, he's got a big head!

It's hard to tell, but this is in front of the manger scene. I always love hearing the Christmas story by the temple. There's such a wonderful spirit there.

***

When we got home we had the kids open up their Christmas PJs. They had crashed in the car, but as soon as they knew there was another present to open they perked right up!

Isaac opened his PJs almost all by himself! I think he was practicing for Christmas morning :).

Cali and Isaac in their new PJs. They were pretty excited for Santa to come :).

Isaac looking at the tree. He actually didn't destroy my tree this year! Here he is being extra soft :). And look at that belly! Man I love this kid :).

Merry Christmas from the Petersons

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful Christmas season. Our Christmas couldn't have been better :). Here's a little something from our family to yours. Just click on the picture to enlarge it. Enjoy!

Also, for those of you who are really interested in what we've been up to this year, here's our family Christmas newsletter. I know it's a novel, but I tend to be long winded. So, here's my apology in advance :).

Good News!!!

Sorry I haven't posted anything for a little while. Christmas time gets so busy, but it's been full of lots of good things :). I have pictures, I just haven't had a chance to post them yet. I do have something that I wanted to post about really quick. I had a follow-up MRI on Saturday to check and see if any cancer was growing back. I was really hopeful that everything was going to be fine. My last MRI from May was clean and I've felt fine since then. Well, I just got the news that there was "no evidence of recurring growth". YEAH!!! This whole process of finding out that I had a cancerous bump behind my ear and going through all the steps to make sure I'm in the clear has been such a testimony builder. It's been a hard year, but such a blessed year as well. Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts on my behalf. It's paying off :). Love you all!!! Merry Christmas!!!

The Blog Frog

Hey all. I just wanted to let you know about a cool new website that allows you to log in and see all of your blog friends and new updates on their blogs. If any of you are like me, I love reading all my contacts' blogs, but sometimes it gets hard clicking on all of them to check for updates. That's where the Blog Frog has saved me tons of time! I just log in to their website and it shows all the new updates right there! And it's free! So, if there's any of you who haven't tried out this cool new service I highly recommend it. It just makes blogging that much easier for me! Enjoy!

http://www.theblogfrog.com/

Gingerbread House - A Tradition in the Making

I've always wanted to put together a gingerbread house, but haven 't gotten around to it until yesterday. I bought one of the kits for us to do for FHE. I don't know if I'll buy the kit next year, but at least it was good for the first time around. We just can't eat it because I don't think it would taste good :P. But the kit made it really quick and easy, so that was nice :). Cali had a blast helping and JR loved doing it too. He loves anything that you can put together, so this was right up his alley. It made for a great activity and I think we'll make it a tradition every year. I love Christmas traditions! Now that Cali is old enough to really enjoy them I'm trying to make more that we can do as a family every year.

Here's Cali and JR and our kit before we got started. It's nice because it comes with everything you need. It's just not very good if you want to eat it :P.

JR 'gluing' the house together with the icing - which was more like cornstarch with a tinsy bit of sugar thrown in.

JR let me put the roof on. He was really enjoying doing it himself :). "Just like Lego's" he said :). Maybe I should get him some Lego's for Christmas....Hmmmmmm.

Here's Isaac being very sad that he couldn't eat the candy. I think I prefer the crying over him chocking on the extra hard 'candy'.

Here's him after getting some goldfish crackers. Apparently he just wanted to eat. Who knew?!

Cali decorating the windows. I tried really hard not to tell her where to put stuff, but of course I still did. Next year I think we'll each make our own so that Cali can go crazy and do whatever she wants!!! Sorry Cali for cramping your creativity. I'm trying... :).

The finished product. And it only took about an hour!

Cali wondered today why we still had it out and hadn't thrown it away yet. I guess she figures if we can't eat it we should just throw it away. We'll see how long it lasts on our counter - especially if Isaac trys to eat it.

Challenge

I thought this looked like a fun challenge - not only to see what I've already done, but to see things that I might like to do in the future. It's always nice to get ideas of new things to try :). Enjoy!

Rules: Anything you have done has to be in bold and/or underlined. How much have you done? It only takes about 5 minutes… :) Come one.. try it out!

1. Started your own blog (Yeah baby! One down, 99 to go :)
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (Heck yes! It was a band of sixth graders and we played home made instruments. Yeah, we totally rocked :P. Remember that Jenny???)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a Praying Mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched an amazing lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (Next year for sure!!!)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (Not overnight, but I did fall asleep when I rode the Chunnel train from France to England. That was a cool experience :)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (Not yet... )
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (For just a moment when I was little and got some inheritance money from my grandma. There were two zero's in that check!)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (Well, on one of those rotating fake rock walls :)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (Well, it was sketched by an artist in Paris. I think that counts :)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (I was in a TV show once, but no movie)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp (Dachau in Germany. Very sad.)
67. Bounced a check (Yeah, won't ever do that again!)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (Does helping to tie a quilt count???)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (Technically they just never called me to work again after my first day or two :)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (College paper :)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Visited Italy

Well, there's a lot I haven't done yet, but I guess that's what the rest of my life is for right :). Except the 'been stung by a bee' one. I'm ok to never experience that :)

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I know this post is a little late in coming, but I had such a busy Thanksgiving weekend I feel like I'm still trying to recover! It was an awesome weekend, though, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it with all of you :). Thanksgiving this year was spent at JR's grandparent's home in Pleasant Grove. All of JR's siblings were there, including his brother Aaron, his wife Angel, and six month old A.J. that drove down from Idaho. It really was a lot of fun spending some quality time with the Peterson/Hutton/Nelson clan and the food was, of course, amazing.

Here's the feast room after the feast. I was too busy enjoying my meal to take a picture of everyone eating :).

Here's the clan relaxing after dinner. Someone put on Baby Einstein for A.J. to watch and somehow everyone ended up watching it with her. It was pretty funny :P.

Here's us with JR holding A.J.. She just keeps getting bigger every time I see her! And by big, I really mean big. She's a little chunk! But that's how we like babies :).

Here's Cali with aunt Rachel, Isaac, and JR's cousin John's little boy Cameron. They had a blast playing together.

Here's A.J. looking cute as ever in her festive Christmas outfit. It was the day after Thanksgiving so I'll allow it :). (Yes I'm a fan of not celebrating Christmas until after Thanksgiving - but after Thanksgiving I'm all about Christmas!!!)

***

Since this year was the 'off' year for my family, meaning it was the year that everyone spends Thanksgiving with their in-laws, my family decided to get together for dinner on Sunday. I have to say that as good as Thanksgiving dinner was, Sunday dinner was pretty dang good too :D. We ate good food, played games, and had a lovely evening together. I took a lot of pictures because usually I forget my camera when I go to my parents house, so I had to make up for it this time. Enjoy!

My niece Erin, brother Mark, bro-in-law Jay, and brother Cory in the love sac.

Everyone enjoying dinner in my parents sun room. Love that room!

Here's my sister Nicky and her hubby Jason. You're lucky I didn't post the other pic that you took of yourself Jason. It was S-E-X-Y! This one is nice too :).

My mom was sweet and fed Isaac for me. He loves his grandma :). And he loves food, so he was happy :).

Here's Isaac's new stinker face. What a cheese head!

Here's my cute mom and dad.

My sis Nicky and I voguing it up for the camera. And, I have to say, looking rather festive in red and green!

Here's my sis Heather, sis Annika and her hubby Jay. Annika and Jay, you look lovely. Heather...not so much :P.

Cali and her cousin Brianne showing off the new princess barbie dolls my mom let them play with. They're about two weeks apart, and inseparable when we get together.

Here are the guys watching funny stuff on YouTube. JR, brother Jeff, brother Cory, bro-in-law Jay, and brother Mark.

Here's Isaac with his cousin Beauen. They're also about two weeks apart and I'm sure will be little terrors as they get older :). At least they're cute :). Oh, JR you're cute too.

Here's Isaac giving loves to his cousin Nathan. He's getting so big!

Right before we left my parents house they gave everyone Advent calendars. I love it and Cali really enjoys putting the charms on it. Now she knows how many days until Christmas! Thanks mom and dad :). We had a really great time with everyone and had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. Nothing like good food and family to enjoy the holidays!