Christmas Surprise!

We decided to drive to Utah and surprise our families for Christmas. We split our time between Salt Lake and southern Utah and had a great time. Except for the flu bug, which we aparently brought with us (and passed on - SORRY!), we loved being with family. Thanks to both our sisters for helping orchestrate the surprise - it was perfect!

Here are a few pictures of the kids. All our family pictures ended up on other cameras so we'll have to post some later.

Mom's Little Helper

Paige is really into "helping" lately. She helps put laundry down the chute, puts her trash in the garbage, puts her clothes away and even helps with the dishes. Of course if we're not watching her closely then we find toys at the bottom of the laundry chute, clothes in the kitchen drawers and silverware all over the house but at least she tries!

Christmas At Our House

We've been promising the grandparents we would post pictures of our Christmas decorations. So here are a few pictures of what Christmas looks like at our house this year.

A picture of the tree with all the presents. Yes, we are spoiled!

This is the new nativity the kids gave me for Christmas (I got to open it early so we could add it to the Creche display). It's an African nativity - pretty neat!

The nativity that sits on top of the piano. The stars hanging on the wall are ornaments made out of shells.

The stockings hanging over the fireplace - just waiting for Santa's arrival.

Don't you wish you were our neighbor?

We decided to make treat bags to take to our friends and neighbors. We made chocolate dipped pretzels. Don't they look yummy!

Bet you wish you were our neighbor, huh?! But if you were then this is what you would have woken up to this morning....

10 NEW inches of snow (look at that pile compared to the telephone pole and bush). Today was suppose to be the last day of classes before Winter break but with the snow, school was cancelled today. Dylan was just a little bit excited!

Nativity Display

Bill and I were put in charge of putting together a display of nativities at the church. When we lived in Corvallis the Stake would always do a big Creche display every year, so that was our inspiration for starting one here in Sioux City. It was a small event this year but we hope it will get bigger every year. We had a total of 73 nativities displayed - many of which belonged to my mom. When we only had a few people from the ward sign up to display their nativities I called my mom, who collects nativities, and she shipped us 3 boxes full. Needless to say, most of the nativities were hers. THANKS MOM!!!