A Prize Winning Trip to the Fair

So Evan took a textile screen printing class at the community college this semester. He made several cool shirts, some tote bags and even pillowcases. He entered a couple of them in the fair and he won! He also got an "A" in the class to boot!  

The award ceremony was scheduled for a Saturday morning in June. Evan received tickets for free admission to the fair, but John and I weren't able to go because we were attending a wedding. Evan decided to take his two favorite girls to the fair and they were probably more fun than mom and dad anyway.  

They all wore the awesome shirts that Evan made for our family. Don't they look great?

Here is another shirt that Evan made. He also made tote bags with this design for the girls in my Eternal Warriors class.  Evan is an Eternal Warriors graduate who loves the program.

 This shows the certificates and ribbons he received. He made the white shirt behind him.

He also made the black shirt above him. It is kind of hard to see, but it's a cool design.  He shined a bright light through a glass blown vase and photographed it. Then he edited the photo to create his design.

Wish we could have been there with him on his special day!

Lavender was excited to get to feed the cow . . .

 . . . and the goat!

She had a great time walking hand in hand with her big brother and sissy. They rode down a giant slide, ate corn dogs and fries and had a great time.

So much fun that she and Peter had to take a nap on the way home! A big thanks to Evan for a great trip to the fair!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Christmas Day 2014!

We were all excited for Cary's first Christmas. My best present was a smile from this cute boy!

Lavender got some fun gifts from Santa. 

She loved her giant teddy bear and her gold, fuzzy boots, 

but her favorite present was probably her kitten Marie from the Aristocats.

Leighton loved her Frozen backpack!

Brianne got a baseball mitt from Carolyn

Lavender models her new Marie shirt

Ryan and Molly show some of the books they received.

Lavender got a backpack from Grandpa and Oma too!

Carolyn was sick and couldn't be with us on Christmas, 

but she wanted to see pictures of Aaron opening his gift.

It's a Viking helmet!

We were all pretty worn out by the end of the day.

Even bear baby and Marie were ready for bed!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Christmas is Finally Here!

We were a little worried about Christmas eve because Ryan and Molly were going to her Dad's house. We talked it over with the Bakers and the kids were worried it was going to be boring. Then my brother Scott, his wife Denise and their family decided to come down for the day. My Dad also came over for awhile. Then Ryan and Molly surprised us by showing up that night.  All in all it was Christmas eve.

Ammon and Denise opened presents from Grandpa and Carolyn while Scott took pictures and Evan watched.

Heath, Jenna and Alec check out their gifts.

Scott models one of the girl's scarfs.

Grandpa was especially excited for Heath to open this Robot Raptor.

Everyone had to watch the raptor.

Scott with another great scarf.

Later we went to LaJolla Cove to see the tide pools.

Christmas eve at the beach was wonderful!

December Fun for our Little One!

Lavender loved the excitement of Christmas time, but she carried on with her usual playtime with her babies. She brought them all in to enjoy the magic of the Christmas tree.

She used her sweatshirt to made a carrier for "baby girl Jesus."

Puppy and "Jesus" nap on a Christmas pillow.

Snuggling with Edie and Hop Hop

Edie was my doll that my mom made for me when I was about four years old.

Here she is kneeling down to say her prayers and/or play with the light up reindeer antlers. The Christmas bunny wanted to join her and she has carefully placed him in kneeling position. I always kneel on a pillow to pray and she follows my example.

We also got to babysit our granddog Teddy and his friend Bo. Lavender had a great time with them.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love Christmas time and we all enjoyed getting in the spirit of the season! When we came home after Thanksgiving, John and the boys got to work setting up the tree. I don't know what we will do when they're not around to take care of that job!

All done! Bring on Christmas!

We had our ward Christmas party in early December and we were grateful that my Dad's recovery was going well and he was able to come join us. It was also Lavender's chance to meet Santa!

Carolyn and I rocked the mini Santa hats.

Dad even donned a hat!

Lavender was nervous about meeting Santa, but she didn't cry like last year.  It may have helped that Santa bore a striking resemblance to Dan Warren, long-time friend and home teacher.

We had fun decorating and getting dressed up!

We even used our leftover pumpkins to make this snowman

We spent lots of time by the tree

    

and snuggling in Grandma's Christmas quilts

All was merry and bright!