A VERY Merry Christmas!

Christmas was full of lots of fun, laughter, family, food, and enjoyment again this year. This whole Christmas season has been memorable. Emery is starting to understand it a lot better. Every time she sees a Nativity she always points to Jesus and say's "baby Jesus". And even though Christmas is over now, if she spots any decoration, lights, paintings...... anything, she always points to it and says, "Keybus" (Christmas) or "My Keybus" (Merry Christmas). We actually spent a week in Delta this year. It was so nice to get away for awhile and have Tim around every day all day (if he wasn't out hunting with his brothers. :) It was a much needed vacation! This is bike that her grandma and grandpa got for her. She absolutely LOVES it! She also got a doll house from us. She was so cute about it. She opened it then ran over to grandma Paula and said, "THANK YOU GRANDMA!" with a great big hug. We set it up and she ran over to her again and said, "THANK YOU GRANDMA" with a great big hug. And this repeated a few more times as she played with it for awhile. All I have to say is I am so happy she is a grateful girl, even if she is a little confused of where it came from! :) I think that Emery had the most fun playing with her cousin Sadie. They were so cute together and just followed each other everywhere they went. It is so nice when cousins can be best friends too! Just want to say Thank you to everyone for the gifts and making this Christmas a very memorable one!

White Elephant Party

My family has a traditional While Elephant gift exchange each year for Christmas. It can be anything from really nice, to junk, to prank gifts. We usually just end up laughing so hard, and just enjoy the time we spend together. To start it off we usually have a very fancy traditional Christmas dinner. But this year we did something a little different. My parents usually go to Mexico every year but this year they decided to stay home for the holidays. So to give them/us a little taste of what we were missing (we all have gone if not more than once, except Nikki) we decided to make it an authentic Mexican dinner night. Thank goodness we have Brandon who went to Mexico on a mission and is also a fantastic cook, so it was very authentic. We had tacos, escamochos(spelling?), rice, beans, and churos with ice-cream for dessert. Tim said it was the best Christmas meal he has ever had. I wouldn't be surprised if that came the new tradition for our Christmas dinner for now on. Thanks Cami and Brandon for your fantastic cooking skills! Then we move on to the gift exchange. I hope you enjoy the pictures. I was pretty pleased with them.

Meeting Santa Once Again

While we were visiting my family in Logandale we were able to see Santa at my parents ward party once again. This time Emery knew what was coming and was excited. For the first 10 min. she just watched all the other children sit on his lap in awe, and then decided it was her turn, so she marched right to the front of the line and looked up at him. Luckily my sister Leslie was being Santa's helper for the night, because she asked Santa if she could cut in, and he picked her right up. Boy did I have to grab my camera fast. I guess there are times when having a special sister is an advantage. She also got an adorable bag from him full of goodies. She was proud to show it off.

Ward Party

We had an excellent ward party last Thursday as well. Our good friends were part of the planning of it all and I must say it turned out excellent. The food was fantastic and the program was fun. Tim was lucky enough to be a part of it. He was the narrator of the nativity scene. He loves to dress up so it was fun for him. I also think he has the best voice in the world, so that worked out great too. Emery had fun running around the gym with her friends any time she could, and even found a cupboard to hide in at one point. It is so fun doing all these Christmas festivities.

Christmas Around Town

Last week we took our car to get inspected and decided to go for a walk around town while we waited. Tim was able to find some time between his busy schedule of finals, so it was so nice to do something as a family. Christmas break is always the best! It turned out being a pretty fun adventure. We got some cute pictures so I thought I would share.

Picture with Santa

This morning we went and got Emery's picture taken with Santa. She was very excited and kept saying, "Santa lap" and "Ho, Ho, Ho" all the way there. Then once she got on his lap she just sat there like oh, no, what do I do? Then on the drive home she was saying, "Santa lap" and "Ho, Ho, Ho" again. Isn't that so how it is, the moments building up and afterwards to the event are sometimes more exciting than the actual moment itself. I was just glad she didn't flip out and cry when she got on his lap. Though that is sometimes cute too. :)

Decorating the Tree

It seems the older Emery gets the more fun the Holidays are. She has just soaked in all of the holiday festivities and has had a blast. One of the things she loved doing was decorating the tree. It was nice that Tim was able to take a short break between school, work, and applications to help up decorate it (Thank goodness for little breaks every once in awhile). She loved pulling the ornaments out of the box as fast as she could and handing them to Daddy. It was also so cute when she put the star on. I think she felt so big. I love the Christmas season!

I can hardly wait for Tim to finish this semester/have his applications sent in, so we can spend some more time together as a family doing Christmas things. He has been working so hard that he deserves this little Christmas break coming up. I couldn't be more proud of him. I know all this hard work is going to pay off soon. I guess we just need to have patience and a lot of faith. What better time to have some stress in our life than this Christmas season to bring us so much joy and happiness. It helps keep us balanced out! Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you are all enjoying the holidays as much as I am! :)

Thanksgiving Adventures