What a Wonderful Time of Year!!

Well, this week flew by. I am the Enrichment Leader in our ward and we had our Christmas Enrichment Dinner & Program this week. Thanks to a great committee we pulled it off and it went great. (thanks, Lacey, for hanging out with me in the kitchen the whole time) It certainly wasn't a social event for us!

Now that our Enrichment night is over I've been busy getting things ready for Christmas. We are going to Portland for Christmas & my parents are coming next weekend for a family Christmas party and to help celebrate Sophie's 2nd B-day. Each year, I've been making my parents a calendar with family pictures so I've been getting that ready this week. I'll post pics for that- it's kind of like a year in review for the whole family!

January

Febuary

March

April

May

June

July- Tribute to Grandma J. We love and miss you! You were even more beautiful on the inside!

August

September

October

November

December

I also had a fun get together earlier this week. A great idea for those of you reading this that like to get away for a girls night out. A lady in our neighborhood, Leah, had a gift wrapping getting together. We all brought the presents that we wanted to wrap and our own supplies and visited and had treats. It's going to be a yearly tradition.

Last night was the ward Christmas party. It was a lot of fun! We had dinner and then a talent show. At the end of the talent show was a neat 10 minute program. Conner & Jimmy were Shepards & Kali an Angel. Each group sang a song and then all sang together kind of like a round. It was beautiful and brought such a sweet spirit in.

This evening, an older couple in the ward, the Stones, are having an open house. All these get togethers are so fun! They are like the parents in the ward to all us with young families. He teaches Gospel Doctrine and she teaches RS. They have been fun getting to know.

The kids are getting really excited for Christmas. Kali has been wrapping things around the house to give to her Webkinz (stuffed animals) for Christmas. She wrapped a little chest I had in one of the bathrooms. I've been noticing little things missing around the house and when the Webkinz open their presents, I think we'll find them.

Sophie has learned to climb this last month. I thought maybe we'd skip this phase since we have a tall table and chairs. Instead, it has just happened a little later and is more dangerous now. Last Sunday she started pushing the chairs around the kitchen to get right where she wants. She also loves the water & icemaker on the outside of the fridge. Thank goodness it has a lock mode but that doesn't mean I always remember to lock it. We have a little tree on the table with some small ornaments. She likes to climb on top of the table and take them off. Sometimes she'll knock the tree over, I'll hear these little tinkering all over the tile and then a little "ut-ohhh".

Conner wanted a new suit for Christmas and I found a great deal this week on a suit. So I bought it and then thought I'd give it to him early to wear to church and take to Portland. I thought that would be one less thing that Santa would have to get him. Instead, I found his letter to Santa and the suit was crossed off and then at the bottom he wrote he wanted a sled.