Happy New Year!

For New Years Eve we had the Brandon, Mary, Nick and Kim over for fondue. I have to admit that the only fondue I've ever done is dessert fondue. Mary opened my eyes to a whole new world of fondue. She made a cheese fondue for a variety of cheese and meat. It was super tasty.

I made a spinach-artichoke dip to accompany the meal. There was sooooo much food. I don't think anyone went away hungry ... in fact I think we all made ourselves sick (Rog did for sure) by eating too much!

I'm not one to be good about making New Year's resolutions. I do like my sister-in-law's implementation of "Lifestyle Changes." One lifestyle change I would like to incorporate into my life is to STOP EATING WHEN I'M FULL!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Morning

It was fun to be Santa’s helper again this year. The best part was watching Sarah on Christmas morning. Santa had to search high and low to find a “Cheer” bear to place by Sarah’s stocking. Sarah has been all about “Care Bears” ever since Grandma Gubler came to San Francisco after William was born. I think Santa would have done a back flip over Rudolph if he found out what Sarah went for first …



That’s right, JUICE! She went for the Gatorade.


But Cheer Bear did get a hug too ...


Sarah also loved the fruit snacks and mini chocolate bars Santa left her in her stocking. Santa left us all “hoodies” to wear. Sarah’s is pink. Mine is green. William’s is blue and Daddy got a blue San Francisco one (no matching bottoms). You’d think I would have taken a picture … I’ll get on that one.

Sarah had the most fun playing with all her cousins’ toys. (Another great reason to visit family on Christmas morning.) Sarah LOVED the NASCAR Little People toy her cousin Sam got. That may be due to her having mostly boys in Nursery with her, but I think it stems from her LOVE for the Disney movie Cars.



William was super chill during the whole "unwrapping Christmas" thing.


Maybe that's because he was prancing around as a reindeer the night before ...


Rog and I don't really do gifts for each other. Well, not surprise gifts. We typically decide what we want together and then purchase it. However, I was able to surprise him with a book on his Amazon wish list. I'm excited to read it too! (Isn't that what makes a good spouse gift ... something that you'll use too?)


We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas filled with love and good cheer!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve's Eve

Since my family is getting older - along with the nieces and nephews - we don't have the opportunity to do Christmas Eve as a family. However, this year it worked out that we could do a Christmas Eve on the eve of Christmas Eve. (Without Alli and Tony who are in Hawaii on their Honeymoon.)

One tradition we have as a family is to do the Nativity. My dad narrated from Luke 2.


William got to star as Baby Jesus yet again. Kathryn was Mary,


Annie was a "wise man"

and the rest of the girls were Angels.



George was Joseph


and Nathan, Henry and Sam were shepherds.



My brother James starred as the donkey (of which, Sarah was terrified!)


After the nativity, grandma gave us all a special gift. She made a family history collage for each of my siblings and gave us all a miniature chair. The chair symbolizes our goal as a family to have "no empty seats" in heaven. The collage shows both sets of grandparents along with a sibling picture and a picture of each child's individual families. (My mom used this as her final project in her photoshop class - she got an "A".) I have the best mom!


The grandkids then opened their Christmas PJs. I picked them out this year - Yes, I LOVE Children's Place! We meant to get a picture with all the kids in their PJs, but it didn't happen. This is as close as we got:


And a new tradition for us ... Christmas Wrapping Contest. James, Kim and Peter were the first participants. Aren't their entries incredible?


Here's Sarah by Peter's "Robot" entry.


It was a tough contest with Kim coming out on top by one vote. She cut each "shingle" from wrapping paper. I have such creative and dedicated siblings!


Can I just say, I LOVE BEING WITH MY FAMILY! I love it when we can get together. It's the best!

The Elf Cottage

It was super fun to watch Sarah's reaction to the gingerbread candy farm this morning. There were lots of woahs, looooook, wows and such. (Yes, she had her PJs off before we could get her out of her crib to see it ... What am I going to do with that girl?)



Sarah ate a few reindeer droppings and some shingles from the roof. She would pick up, eat the candy and say "gooooood!" I knew I would need to channel her candy-eating or my barn would be undecorated by the time Rog got home from work. Why she didn't eat the "snow" by the side of the barn is beyond me.


Since William was nice and slept so well last night - really - I was feeling ambitious. I invited Jennie & Owen over to make graham cracker candy houses. I wish I would have put up a hidden camera to get Owen and Sarah eating all the candies while Jennie was building Owen's house. Will woke up right as we got everything out and wanted to eat. Sarah was happy to eat the candy while waiting for me to get her infrastructure in place. I think by the time we were finished, both Sarah and Owen had eaten 10 times the amount of candies they put on their houses. Now, that's how you're supposed to make gingerbread houses! (Rog and Cyndi didn't eat ANY last night. Bah Humbug for sure.)

I think the two did a great job with their houses. I may keep up this part of the tradition. It was seriously so cute to see them together. (We did have to bribe them for the picture though.) After we were finished decorating, we watched the old clay-mation DVD of Rudolph. Classic.



Thanks again for coming and indulging my spontaneity Jennie & Owen. We had a great time.

Thankful

Monday morning while I was trying to distract myself from the contractions I was having, I decided I needed to "decorate" my apartment for Thanksgiving. It wasn't much, but I used orange, purple and yellow cardstock to spell out the word "THANKFUL" and hung it up in my family room. (Rog took this picture with his camera phone so I could show everyone how talented I am ... HAHAHAHAHA. But it does serve its purpose. Maybe someday I will work on becoming more "crafty.")


Thanksgiving is one of my all-time-favorite holidays. I love that the purpose of Thanksgiving is to give thanks and to surround yourself with family, good friends and yummy food. What's not to love? Today, as I have been enjoying some one-on-one time with William while Roger entertains Sarah at home, I have had time to contemplate my many blessings. I feel so blessed to have two beautiful, sweet children and an absolutely amazing husband. Our extended family has been so great and I couldn't ask for better friends. I haven't had to worry about Sarah getting bored or not getting enough attention. Mary, Jenna, Jen, Joe, Jennie and Owen have been FANTASTIC in taking care of Sarah. I think Sarah wouldn't mind living at Joe's house. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We definitely are blessed!

Halloween Wrapup

I realize Halloween is over, but I couldn't help but post these photos from last night's ward Halloween party.




Roger and I were super creative with our last-minute costumes. Can you guess who we are?


Here's a clue ...



Hope you had a Happy Halloween. Bring on the HOLIDAY SEASON!

Happy Halloween!

Sarah loved getting dressed up in her mouse costume yesterday (still can't convince her that the tu-tu is a good idea). As soon as it was on, she raced over to the mirror to see herself in it. Whoever made the mouse costume is a genius. It feels like a puffy sleeping bag on the inside and is covered in soft "fur" on the outside. What's not to love? She loves to wear the "ears" as well. (That was a surprise.) And Sarah even let me put makeup on her nose (lipstick) and give her whiskers (eyeliner). I have since bought the Halloween makeup - we'll see how that goes today. Sarah made all kinds of people happy as we walked down to "Joe's" apartment. She is the cutest mouse in the world.


We got together with some of her friends for a pre-Halloween Party. Jen made the best treats - definitely worth taking out the invisilign trays to eat them. The kids were all so cute dressed up! We just HAD to take a picture.

Halloween Preview

Neither Rog nor I actually wanted to carve the pumpkins. So for a compromise - and to make a memory with Sarah - we decided to use markers. Sarah used her washable markers. I think she did great :)


Sarah has been obsessed with Angelina Ballerina. We rented a couple Angelina DVDs from the library and she's been hooked ever since. In fact, when I tried to do her letter movies, she said "All Done, All Done!" When Rog and I saw this mouse costume, we figured we definitely needed to get it. And doesn't Sarah look fabulous in it?!

Happy Independence Day!

I realize this is a little late, but better late than never ... right?


Rog, Sarah and I had a great 4th in San Francisco. Steve, Jen & Joe hosted a fantastic barbecue. Mary brought the best bratwurst sausages, Stephanie made a perfect potato salad, Heather whipped up a fabulous fruit salad, the grill team made the most incredible hamburgers and Jen baked the most scrumptious cookies and cake! Needless to say, I ate WAY too much.


That night we tried to watch the fireworks from our roof (which we have done on several occasions - I'm not much for crowds). But alas, the weather did not cooperate. The thick fog engulfed each spark. All we got to experience were the cannon like booms. Oh well, there is always next year.


On Saturday morning Sarah and I headed to Utah. Sarah LOVED Southwest's patriotism (or at least the balloons!) I wish I could have gotten her on video. Just imagine Sarah saying Wow!Wow!Wow!Wow! over and over again. She was in heaven.

What are your Easter Traditions?

Now that Sarah is a year old Roger and I are thinking more about traditions we would like to keep as a family. My sister Emily called the other day asking what our Easter Traditions were. hmmm... well... not quite sure.



Here's what we ended up doing: We filled a few plastic eggs with animal cookies, fruit snacks and goldfish crackers from the Easter Bunny for Sarah. (I really like Heidi's idea of having Easter Bunny Day on Saturday. My older sister does it this way with her kiddies as well. I like the idea of separating the bunny from Easter. Sarah LOVED finding the eggs and I LOVED watching her face as she discovered they had treats inside! Today, I opened one for her and inside were fruit snacks. Her face lit up as she said Wwwwooooooowwww! So cute.

We recently received a really neat Easter Book - Jesus Christ and the World of the New Testament - from its author Richard Holzapfel. I love Valinda's FHE idea as well - we'll shoot for doing that one next year. We also had a few friends over to dinner for Easter Sunday and that was super nice.







Egg decorating is a typical tradition that I've done in a variety of ways - my grandmother would dye the eggs wrapped in leaves (making a yellow/green unique pattern effect). A couple of years ago the Fisher Family introduced us to the tie-dye version Natalie had seen from Martha Stewart. This year brought another unique experience. We decorated Easter Eggs this year with Mary and Brandon. They bought this super crazy kit from Wal-greens. Not sure of the designers name, but crazy all the same. I thought egg dying would be a 15-20 minute activity TOPS. I mean - how long does it take to decorate 11 eggs? Who knew it would take four people 3 HOURS! Check out these super intense Easter Eggs.





And on my walk this week, I talked with Lisa P. about her traditions. She said witnessed her first Peep-jousting contest this weekend. I found similar ones on YouTube. Check this out!

Well, that's all for traditions this year. Let me know if you have any others that we can try out.