Jan 29, 2013

Christmas 2012--Better Late than Never

Merry Christmas!!!

We've had a very busy but fun November and December.

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jamie's parents and our dear friends the Bumpus Family.  Thank you Matt, Amy, Jonothan, Scott, and Luke for including us...we had so much fun with good friends and family. 

The rest of November and December were a blur.  This year Jamie's family decided to do all homemade gifts.  This kept Jamie busy most nights after the boys went to bed.

Here are a few things she made:
Magazine Holder
 Gift for mom and dad
Necklace
 bead & fabric necklace.
Treadmill ipod Sling
iPod Sling

Cinnamon Almonds
Crock Pot Cinnamon Almonds. Great holiday gift idea! 1 1/2 C. Sugar 1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar 3 Tbsp. Cinnamon 1/8 tsp. Salt 1 Egg White 2 tsp. vanilla 3 Cups Almonds 1/4 C. Water.
Rice Packs
Heating Pad Tutorial
 Wine Glasses
Anniversary gift for Nani & Grandpa

From Brendan we had him color on some black paper and then we cut them out and made it into checkbook covers.


It was fun to open gifts and really special to see the time and effort people spent to make our gifts.  The only down side was it took away a lot of time from your spouse and kids as we all spent most of our down time working on gifts.  Next year we decided we should not do gifts and go to Hawaii instead :)

Just before Christmas we went to Missoula to celebrate Jenni graduating from college.  We could not be more proud of her.  She was working 35 hours a week, taking 20-21 credits, and is married...that is a lot.  It was a joyfully tearful and special celebration of her accomplishment!!  WAY TO GO JEN!!!

The weekend before Christmas we spent the weekend with Jamie's family and Priest Lake.  The snow was beautiful.  We enjoyed some down time, sledding with Brendan, snow shoeing together, and laughing at the now very humorous Brendan and Evan.

Brendan is just over 2 1/2 and is so much fun.  He is using his words so well.  He sings his ABC's, he also loves to sing Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells.  He continues to live with so much joy.  He loves it when people tease him and loves to make other people laugh. 

Evan is 10 months old (CRAZY).  He is a mover and a shaker.  He loves to climb up on everything, is an explorer.  He loves to play peek-a-boo from behind a door.  He has become a very happy, smiley, content little dude.  He has really great fine motor control, he loves to pick up everything (he is a human vacuum, we have to be careful).  He continues to be a talker.  He just started to say Mama and Dadda (that will melt your heart).


Christmas Morning was really special.  We were able to celebrate in our house and Jamie's parents and Grandma came to join us.  It was fun to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, enjoy cinnamon rolls, and open gifts together.  Santa brought Brendan a new Monster Truck and MiMi and Ba gave Brendan a race car track...what else does a 2 year old need :)  Evan really likes music.  He was excited to get a xylophone some music singing animals.  Later in the day we went over to Jamie's parents house and enjoyed a great lasagna Christmas dinner together.








 

The following morning we headed to Sun Valley to visit Josh's family.  This will be our next post.

Merry Christmas!!