Christmas Drawing

$20 limit.

From NameDrawing.com:

Emily BUYS FOR Danny.

Johnny BUYS FOR Cory.

Brady BUYS FOR Shanna.

Shawnee BUYS FOR Casey.

Cory BUYS FOR Emily.

Tami BUYS FOR Brady.

Nick BUYS FOR Andy.

Natalie BUYS FOR Nick.

Casey BUYS FOR Johnny.

Andy BUYS FOR Tami.

McKenzie BUYS FOR Natalie.

Danny BUYS FOR McKenzie.

Shanna BUYS FOR Shawnee.

We excluded the parents and the kids... No one is expected to get the kids a gift. Everyone is expected to give the parents a gift.

Johnny and Emily will have their gifts sent here by Christmas. If you have Johnny or Emily, you can have your gift shipped there or you can mail it. Cory should be here for Christmas??? if not, then the same thing goes for Cory. Shipping should be included in the $20 limit.

Christmas Pictures (in no particular order)

So I have tons of pictures from this past week with Christmas and all and I thought I would just share them with you all. The first couple are from today but the rest are pretty much from Christmas Day. Enjoy!Benson drumming away. I took this one for Danny (aka Elder Haws).

This is Nick today. Brady gave Nick this suit and I thought it looked fancy on him. He was shoveling the driveway when we got home. Thanks for the suit Brade!

Our "official" 2008 Christmas photo.

Mom's gifts to open Christmas morning. She also got a dishwasher a couple days prior to Christmas. (Santa is very self-less.)

Andy and Cory's piles.

Dad's chair surrounded in gifts.

Nick and Tami's piles. Nick really spoiled me this year, like always.

This is what it looked like after Santa left. Looks nice and clean!

So those of you who live in the area know that we got tons of snow on Christmas night. It was so bad that McKenzie's parents told her not to even try to drive home, and Nat and Casey didn't want to deal with driving in the snow and stuff, so we all had a "sleepover" at Mom and Dad's. Nick and I drove down the street and got our air mattress and then we pulled out some mattresses for Nat & Casey and also for McKenzie. Andy just slept on the couch. It was actually really fun. We watched "Head Over Heels" and then fell asleep!

What would the sleepover be without balloon animals made by Casey? Nick is sporting his super cool crown or hat that Casey made him.

Shanna was talking to Danny. (She doesn't look happy does she?)

Dad sporting his new basketball shoes that Nat & I (and our spouses) got for him.

Shawnee & Brady

Ronola

Shanna and Cory

Nick and Tami

Casey, Nat, & Cory

McKenzie and Andy

Mom went crazy with making quilts for everyone. These are the ones she made for Andy & Cory. Nick says this was a "Quilted Christmas."

Dad with his hot air balloon quilt that Mom made him. (I used this one at our sleepover and it was FABULOUS!!!)

Emily, Nat, and I secretly surprised Mom with making a quilt with some fabric that she used to sew things when we were little. I'm pretty sure she liked it. She started crying when we asked her what the fabric was from. Big hit I think.

Okay this is my favorite picture and this is why I saved it for last. I am posting this mostly for Danny but I thought I would let you all see how much weight Dad has lost. He fits into Danny's leather jacket that Danny wore right before he went on his mission. Dad, that's amazing. We're all proud of you for losing that much weight!

Anyway, we really had a fun Christmas and it was fun to be able to talk to each of you (my family members) on Christmas. I am really grateful for each of you and for all that you've done for Nick and I. We love you all so much!

Gingerbread Houses and Snowshoeing

It's been a while since we've posted, so I thought I'd share some of our recent activities with all of you. For family night a few weeks ago, we made a gingerbread house. I was skeptical at first when Brady brought it home (he did buy it in October, so maybe that's why), but we actually had a lot of fun. Here are some pics:




Brady has decided to take on another sport...snowshoeing. This is a good thing because snow is soft to fall on and I can't think of anything he'd cut himself on, so I think we're pretty safe (as long as we stay away from avalanches!). :) Actually, we've been saying we need a "winter sport" because I don't ski and so winter is cold and long and snowshoeing seems to be pretty fun so far. It was a beautiful (still cold) day on Saturday and we had planned to go "full-moon-shoeing" (where you hike at night under the light of a full moon) but plans changed and we went during the day instead. I was glad for that because it was cold in the day and I can only imagine what it was like at night. It was awesome because we were just walking around in the snow like we were the only people on earth. There was about 2-3 feet of freshly fallen snow which made it nice, not to mention the aerobic workout. We went with our friend Spencer (and his dog, Katie) and Brady's boss, Greg. The one bad thing was seeing how bad the valley air really is when you're up above it...we all really need to take care of our environment! (That's a soapbox for another day!) Here are more pics:




Oh, and just for fun, here's our Christmas tree!
Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas

So, I was just wondering what all of your plans are for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so that I could know when we are going to do our draw name gifts. I know that we talked about doing our draw name gifts on Christmas Day, but what do y'all think about it? Let me know what works well for all of you.
Tami

Poinsettias Galore!

Since it 'tis the season, I thought I would share some memories I have from my mission.

These are fake poinsettias jabbed all over this persons grass!

Of course you have to have Black Santa. (Colored black with a magic marker)

I know this isn't really Christmas, but I saw this picture and thought it was cool. When you drive around the Beltway at night you go around a corner and there is the Temple. It looks like it is floating right over the road.

Kind of a random post, but at least it is a post. Happy Holidays!

Best Christmas Present EVER!!!

Dad called me tonight and told me that for mom's Christmas present he's sending her to visit us!!!

WAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

He says it's not a secret so I decided to make a post. I am so excited to see my mom I can barely even stand it! Man, I miss her. I almost got tears in my eyes thinking about how fun it will be to see her again. I can't wait!!

Thanks Dad!!!

p.s. WAAAAHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!