Open House for Scott and Tesha

It's good to see that these two newlyweds survived their first few weeks of mawwage and are still very much in love.

I love Tesha's ring! Good job you two!

The girls loved getting to finally meet their Aunt Tesha after Christmas and had fun getting to know her. They were shy at first but it didn't take long for them to warm right up to her. She loves everyone, though, so it's not hard to love her back. Plus she was really sweet to Sophie and Avery and they adore her now.

While they were in Utah we threw an open house for them at my parent's church building. I have to say I like winter-themed weddings.

The girls loved helping them open a few of the many presents they received after the open house.

Mom made all the food and it was very tasty.

Here are the happy parents of the groom, greeting their guests.

And here are the guests of honor themselves. Tesha was gorgeous in her purple gown. And if you know Scott well you know he's hard pressed to ever take a serious picture.

Joseph's parents came to give their good wishes to the couple. Now you know where Will gets his good looks from.

Cousin Jessie could've held AJ all night...

...but she had to compete for him with her mama, Stacy.

We had so much family come support us this night, especially my mom's side.

What a good lookin' kid! See, red hair does run in the family! I didn't just make that up!

Grandpa Austin with his three living sons and a few of their kids.

Will was so done by halfway through the night but he was a trooper. The kids mainly just played up on the stage behind the curtain to keep from getting too bored. (sigh) There weren't any other kids there to play with so it was kind of a long night for them.

It was a fun night, though, and we're glad we just happened to be in Utah so we could be there for it.

Sophie and Avery's favorite newest aunt.

And their favorite Uncle Scott.

We love you, Scott and Tesha! Happy Wedding!

More Fun with Cousins at Jungle Jims

We just don't get to see our Jensen cousins often enough, so it was perfect that all of them were in Utah at the same time after Christmas. It was Clarissa's birthday and she wanted to go to Jungle Jim's for it, so most of us met up there for a day of riding little carnival rides and eating pizza. (My girls are especially lucky to have so many girl cousins their same age on this side!)

William liked the little bouncy area, especially when he could be alone in it and not get bounced all over by big kids.

The girls rode ride after ride together, like the planes...

...and the safari Jeep ride,

and the Amazon roller coaster,

and the spinning cups,

and the swings,

and the bumper cars.

I'd say the roller coaster was the favorite of the day though, especially because it went forwards and backwards!

Their favorite part was riding it with their cousins like Jensen and Sadie. They'd finish a ride and all sprint to the back of the line to go again and again.

My favorite part of the day was watching the adults try to squeeze into the little tiny rides with their little kids. Looks comfy, Shelly!

"What do you mean this ride isn't for 6' 5" men?" I love how far Willis's legs stick out!

Will's favorite part of the day was riding the swings. It wasn't a very busy day so the girl let Will stay on the swings over and over. He probably rode them 8 or 9 times in a row.

Eventually, though, skipping his nap caught up with him and I saw his head start to nod and his eyes begin to droop. He was completely out within seconds, and didn't even wake up when the ride started again! It was hilarious! I got a video of it too and I think I'm laughing hysterically throughout the entire 2 minutes of it.

We had so much fun with you all! Thanks for the great time! We love you!

A TRAX Adventure

While we were at the Jensen's we went with Grandma Bob on an adventure on the TRAX train. We left Will asleep at home with Grandpa but the girls had a blast riding the train.

Our destination was the Grand America Hotel and its lavishness. We warmed up from the cold at this large fireplace.

The hotel had a really cool gift shop with a dressing room that had mirrors that Sophie thought were so awesome. Here are the 4 Sophies.

We met up with the Drysdales to do a fun scavenger hunt through the hotel. Each person got an answer card and a map and we had to find these windows all throughout the hotel hallways and find the star in each picture. At the end we got a cookie for completing it.

We passed this real life gingerbread house along the way. Every single thing on it is edible. If only we could've tested that claim for ourselves.

The hunt ended at this beautiful tree in the courtyard.

What a gorgeous hotel, and even prettier at Christmastime.

We had such a fun outing on Christmas Eve and are glad for the time we got to spend with such fun cousins, too.

Christmas 2011 Memories

There's nothing quite like starting off your Christmas with a shot of your 3 1/2 year old sporting a pregnant belly.

She insisted on sticking something up there to look authentic. I'll admit she did make an adorable Mary in the Lamb family version of the Nativity alongside her cousin Austin as Joseph.

And Sophie was a sweet little angel. She was good to allow Avery to finally be Mary for the first time.

And the star of the night, Baby Jesus, was played by the very newest little cousin, Andrew. What a cute baby he was! (I think his parents were only slightly nervous about his surrogate parents' ability to care for him, maybe a little like Heavenly Father felt about Christ's birth.)

On the actual Christmas Eve we moved over to the Jensen's to be with them for the holiday. A lot of cousins came for our kids to play with including these two cuties, Skye and Bennett.

Sophie was all too happy to take back the role of Mary this time, and surprisingly none of the boy cousins wanted to play Joseph, so Avery did it.

Here's her best Marilyn Monroe pose, apparently.

2 of the 3 Wise Men

Shepherd Grandpa reading his part in the play.

Here he is with his cute shepherd sidekick, Skye.

Wise Man Joseph with shepherd Lee

Mary pondering deeply what has happened to her (or more likely just exhausted after her delivery)

In the Jensen family they have a Christmas Eve tradition of setting out a goodie table after the little'uns go to bed. Most of it is homemade chocolates that Sophie and Avery got to help Gramma Bob make this year. We get to enjoy the goodies all throughout Christmas Day and it's one of the best parts of the day.

Another one of their traditions is to wait at the bottom of the stairs until Gramma says it's okay to come up to see the presents. Sophie remembered this from years past and from Joseph telling her about how he'd wait there with his brothers and sisters when he was little. She talked non-stop about it the day before Christmas and then made all of us wait there with her. Avery was really excited about it too. The anticipation is the best part about the holidays for me, too, so I can't blame them.

The girls were so excited to tear into all their gifts and made out pretty well.

These adorable booties were made by Bob and the girls love them.

Will liked his little wind-up dinosaurs and other gifts, too, even if he didn't actually get what was going on.

We enjoyed getting to go to church on Christmas Day and tried to get a picture of the kids in their Christmas outfits after the meeting. You can see from the picture how that went over. This was the best shot we got, believe it or not. Oh well, they were cute in person!

And here's our wall of Christmas cards we received this year. We love getting cards from friends and family and looking them over all month long. We feel so blessed in the friendships we have with all of you. Thank you for sending them and for adding to the joy we feel at Christmas!