The Family: A Proclamation to the World

One of our New Year's Resolutions this year is to memorize "The Family: A Proclamation to the World".  If you have not read this important document, I would invite you to click on that link and read it.  It is powerful.  (For more information on what our church thinks about families, click here).

So we started memorizing it 2 weeks ago.  We started with the 1st paragraph in Family Home Evening and then last week we added the 2nd paragraph.  We though Eli would maybe pick up a few lines here or there, but didn't really think he could actually memorize it.

Well, we were very wrong.  Never underestimate your children!  He is only 2 and he knows the 1st two paragraphs now (the 1st better than the 2nd).  It is so sweet and I love that he loves to say it.  We recite it every night after we read scriptures before bed and it is really sticking.  Tonight we'll start on the 3rd paragraph! (They're getting longer...yikes).

Here he is:

I think my favorite is "each has a 'benign' nature" instead of divine nature. :)

Anyway, I'm not trying to boast about my kid or anything, but I just think it's amazing what these little minds can do!  I know he doesn't know what it all means - we're working on that - but he knows it's something good. :)

Post-Christmas

So it took me 5 posts to cover the first 12 days of the trip, but I'll just take one post to talk about the last 10 days.  The day after Christmas we packed up again and headed back over to my parents' house for a couple days.  We exchanged gifts and were able to spend a day and a half with Heidi and Sam who had come back from their honeymoon for Christmas.  My sister Amy and her kids were still there too, so Eli had fun playing with more cousins again.

I hardly took any pictures after Christmas and now I can't hardly remember what we did!  Oh dear.  A few days later though, we packed up again :) and drove with Jeremy's parents and Amy and her kids up to Idaho! I know, we're crazy.  But it was really fun!  We spent a few days at my sister's house - including New Year's - and we were able to watch and participate in the blessing of Jeremy's little brother's baby.  Shannon's parents live about 45 minutes away from my sister, so it worked out really nicely.  We got to visit with most of the Nowlands again that day and hold Boston one more time!

Seth on New Year's Eve.  We had some tasty food!  It was fun hanging out with the Weavers.  We used to see them a lot more when we lived in Utah :( so it was nice to be at their house again and play with them!

After all of that, we drove back to California with Jeremy's parents (which was very fun to do the trip with them!).

(Phone pictures from the drive):

We then we had a few days before we flew home.  Those few days were super relaxed - we were the only ones still around, so we were pretty chill. :)  We watched movies every night and played outside and had a good time.  My mom also babysat for us one day so we could go to the temple, which was wonderful!

The day before we left we also met up with my brother Steve for lunch.  That was really fun.  He lives in Sacramento, so my dad came from work and we all met up about halfway and stayed for a couple hours chatting.  It was really nice. (no pictures)

Then on the 5th we finally came home!  Haha.  It was the longest trip we've ever taken and I don't know if I'd ever go that long again, but it was very fun.  We packed a lot in and tried to make the most of it.

 Whew!  Now that I'm caught up on that, I'm behind on everything else...but I'll get there!  We're back into the swing of things now.

Christmas!

Christmas was really fun this year!  Eli was old enough to appreciate it, so that made it exciting for us.  Before I get to Christmas I have to put up this cute video of Jeremy and Jonathan.  They used to play legos a lot together as kids, and have a large collection, so we decided we wanted to give some of those to Eli for Christmas this year.  So Jonathan spent hours going through them and organizing them so they could divide them between themselves.  Here they are looking at them together and splitting them up.

It's fun being a parent.  I remember Christmas being fun as a kid, but I think it's even more fun as a parent. (especially once all the shopping is done!)  It was exciting to get everything set up and ready and anticipate Eli's response.  Oh, and if you notice Connor missing from all the Christmas morning pictures, it's because he slept through it.  His sleeping was all over the place (mostly lots of screaming at night while we were at the Nowlands), so we didn't dare wake him.  Poor kid.  He missed his first Christmas!

Eli finding his stocking.  He got a baseball bat and ball!  He's been very cute learning how to hit the ball.

Opening presents - a dinosaur from Grammy and Papa! Don't mind my ugly morning face.

Great face.  Legos!!

He wanted to do nothing else once he opened those:

Everyone:

Jeremy's parents didn't have church until 12:30, so it was nice to be able to do Christmas morning before heading out.  They had a really nice program at church.  I like going to church on Christmas, it helps me remember what it's all about. :)

We had a nice dinner that night and then we acted out the nativity.  Debbie made costumes a couple years ago, so that's really fun.

Oh, here are all the sisters-in-law doing dishes later that day.

Nativity.  Lucy was the angel, Jon and Shannon were Mary and Joseph with sweet baby Boston as Jesus.  I think Ben, Cooper and Catelyn were wisemen and Lydia and Eli were shepherds.  (I had to bribe Eli with M&Ms to get him to participate - but it worked!  Last year he refused).

Cute baby Jesus.

That was our Christmas!  It was great.  It was fun to be there with everyone.  The kids had a great time together and it was sad not knowing when we would see everyone again. :(  It's great to have such wonderful in-laws!

Christmas Eve

We headed over to the Nowlands on the 22nd.  I only got one picture before Christmas Eve, so most of these are just from Christmas Eve.  Anyway it was great to see everyone over there!  Jeremy's little brother and his wife just had the first baby right before Thanksgiving, so it was so fun to see baby Boston for the first time and talk to the new parents.  We also got to meet his sister's husband Tim, who we had never met before!  It was exciting.  (By the way Tim, we think you are fantastic!  So glad to have you in the family).

My one pre-Christmas Eve picture is from the 23rd when we went to the park.  Can I tell you awesome it is to go to the park in December?!?  It was lovely.

Christmas Eve was a fun-packed day.  That morning we took family pictures.  I didn't get any of the whole family, but here are some of the grandparents & grandkids and our family.

For lunch we enjoyed some crudités and then a sampling of root beers and cream sodas.

And the kids decorated sugar cookies:

And I held a very cute baby!!!

And we painted (yes, that's Eli underneath that pink apron)

And sang:

It was a lovely day.  That night we went back to my parents' for dinner and singing.  Since it was the first time in our marriage - for either family - that everyone was together for Christmas, we decided to split up Christmas Eve night and Christmas day.  We went over to the Astles for Christmas Eve evening, came back that night, and then spent Christmas with the Nowlands.

Handsome Jeremy as we drove over to my parents' house:

We enjoyed a delicious dinner at my parents' and then the singing began!  My family always sings a lot on Christmas Eve - and a lot of it is usually the Messiah.  This year, since everyone was going to be there, we all prepared solos and it was a pretty intense program!  We had 10 solos and 5 choruses.  We all took turns playing for each other and it was very fun!  (A little long, but fun!  haha).  We had to leave to get our kids to bed and set up Christmas, but I think they then sang some more non-Messiah Christmas music after we left. 

Kid table.  Goofballs!

Adult table:

 Kids singing a few primary songs.  I didn't get any pictures of the rest of the singing!  Oops.

It was a fun night!

Post-wedding pre-Christmas

So after the wedding we stayed at my parents' house for one more day before heading over to Jeremy's parents' house (so nice they only live 15 minutes apart!) It was great to have a day of relaxation after the wedding.  Here's what we did:

Watched Tangled:

Played outside in my parents' backyard aka park:

Lounged:

Played "Just Dance" on the Wii.  Very entertaining.

And made gingerbread houses!  It was a fun-packed day.  We had some drama with the frosting.  My mom's mixer burned out so Jeremy saved the day by attaching a beater to my dad's power drill.  Way to go, babe.  You make me proud!

There was a WHOLE lot of candy.  Oh my!

Eli loved it.  He was very specific about where he wanted everything.  He just pointed, I frosted, and he stuck on the candy.

Here's his masterpiece.  Not bad!  The pretzels in the gumdrops were all his idea.

Jeremy in front of his masterpiece.

My brother-in-law Rob's.  Amazing!  Rock face and walk, icicles, fishing pond, trees, fence, he's a pro.

And my dad's.  I liked his snowman, or snow duck as he called it. :)  Hard to find a carrot nose.

It was a blast!  The next day we headed over to the Nowlands.  More fun to come!

The Wedding!

The Wedding!  What a fun day.  Heidi and Sam got married in the Sacramento California temple.  It's only about 25 minutes from my parent's house - so it was really nice!  It wasn't built when my sisters or I got married, so it was a new experience!  It is a beautiful temple.

Here are Connor and I at my parents' house before we left that morning.  All the grandkids had matching outfits.  It was very cute!

Jeremy and Connor outside the temple waiting for Heidi and Sam to come out.

The sealing was beautiful!  It was so wonderful and sweet to see them so happy surrounded by loved ones.  I got to go into the bridal room after the sealing and help Heidi get ready which was also very special.

And here they are!

Mid-hug:

Being attacked my nieces and nephews. :)

My immediate family.

Me and my siblings: Wendy, me, Heidi, Amy & Steve

After pictures we headed over to the church for a nice luncheon.  Somehow I managed to escape without pictures, but it was really nice.  They had a little program - my family sang, all the girls in my family sang, Sam's brother and I spoke about Sam and Heidi, etc., etc.

Then we headed back to my parents' for naps (woohoo!) and then we went to the reception that night.  It was beautiful with all the Christmas-y kind of decorations.

Here are the ladies.  My dress wasn't quite that shiny I promise.  The flash made it a little shinier than it was. :)

Posing in front of an awesome flower arrangement.

Our attempt at a family picture - again with the shiny dress - wow.

Amy's family (sorry Wendy! I didn't get one of you!)

Enjoying some punch.

Eli latched himself on to my cousin Kylie.  They were very cute.

Grammy (Jeremy's mom) and Connor

It was a wonderful day!  It was nice to just enjoy it and come home to lots of leftover cake!  Haha.  But seriously, it was so great and I'm so happy for Heidi and Sam!