Christmas Eve

This Christmas we decided that we were going to stay home here in Washington DC for the Christmas season instead of going to our parents houses. This is our first Christmas away from parents in the five years we have been married, so it was a little different. We decided to make a gingerbread house again this year, but we learned from last years mistake, and we bought a kit instead of making it from scratch. It doesn't taste as good, but it is a lot less stressful, and much less clean up afterward.

Aaron and Logans favorite part of making the gingerbread house was eating the components.

Every year from the first of December through the first of January the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints puts on Christmas concerts for the public, and also decorates the temple grounds that you can go walk through just like at Temple Square. We had a nice evening as a family listening to a choir concert and looking at the lights. It is a great missionary tool.

Rebecca has an aunt and uncle who live in Chantille, Virginia, which is about half an hour from where we live, and they invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them.

We had a wonderful night, filled with activities. We made pizzas in the shape of the letter of our first name, then then we read Luke 2 in the Bible, and acted out the Nativity story. Paul was Joseph, Rebecca was Mary, Logan was a shepard, and Aaron was the baby Jesus. It was a lot of fun, mainly because we were spending time with familiy, and Paul's family used to do this same thing by recreating the Nativity.

Happy Holidays!

After three long weeks of being lazy with our blog, here we go with another installment of pics. The unfortunate thing is that we don't have any pictures of the really cool things we have done lately. For example, Paul and I went on a date to see a christmas concert by the army national band. Afterwards we walked around downtown DC and saw the white house all lit up at night. We also saw the national christmas tree and yule log. What a great evening to spend with my best friend. It is too bad that we don't have pictures of any of this. We do have some christmas pics of the boys, though...

Aaron is getting so big, and is still quite the smiler. He is also getting some teeth. You can probably see them on the bottom if you look really close. He is also starting the squirmy stage. It is hard to keep him in my arms as he squiggles (is that a word?) this way and that. No crawling yet, but he is getting closer.

Logan is a hoot to have around. When he wants something but is sure I'll probably say no, he brings it up in a matter-of-fact way. He won't look me in the face, but rather looks off to the corner of his vision, and says something like "let's have chocolate, okay?" And he acts like this is a perfectly reasonable request for 7:00 in the morning. It just makes me laugh the way he does it, and then he laughs too. I can then can easily distract him towards oatmeal instead of chocolate for breakfast.

It took a lot of bribing and a few minor tantrums to get the boys to hold still for this picture. Here is another I took that more closely matches the reality of the experience.

I just thought this was comical. Logan thought it was the coolest thing to put the sticker on his forehead. Little did he know what was written on it. He is sure worth a whole lot more than that to me! Our children are truly a priceless treasure to us.

Thanksgiving Week

Last week we went to California to visit Rebecca's family for Thanksgiving. But before we left we took some family pictures in beautiful DC while the leaves were still changing. This next one is one of my favorites. Everyone is actually smiling! It was cold that day, so it was had to stop your teeth chattering long enough to snap a shot.

Our time in California was wonderful! We spent a few days each with Rebecca's parents, her brother Scottand his family, and her brother Jeff and fam. And for a special treat, her sister Emily and her family flew out from Idaho to see us! We had such a great time visiting family. I love my siblings sooo much and it was really hard to say goodbye not knowing when I would see them again.

We went on a triple date to the temple. Scott and Kim watched everyone's kids while Jeff and Gina, Tony and Emily, and Paul and I went to the Sacramento Temple. What a neat experience to sit in the temple with my sisters, brothers, and husband. I'll treasure those moments.

At Scott and Kim's house we had the chance to decorate gingerbread houses. It was a competition between the girls, boys, and my family. Our house is in the middle. We won the "most unique" prize, the girls won the "most decorated" prize, and the boys won the "most candy eaten" prize.

In case you're wondering what the pictures below are all about, our gingerbread roof has a message for santa on it.

I bin good

Pleez stop heer!

We had so much fun, and hope it doesn't take so long to see everyone next time.