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!

A Taste of Winter

This is how our winter began in Southern California this year. It wasn't too wintery looking, but the girls donned their Christmas dresses anyway to go to church.

We love Christmas around here!

We had fun setting up our Christmas decorations at home.

I thought for sure Will wouldn't be able to stay away from the tree but he actually did a great job! His favorite thing to do each morning when he woke up was crawl out to the tree and point out the pictures of Sophie and Avery in their ornaments. He rarely pulled them off the tree but he sure stared at them a lot.

We only got to enjoy our Christmas decorations for a little while because we were off to Utah for a few weeks for the holidays.

The girls met up with Austin and Gabe in Utah to play in their first snow of the year. They barely got the chance because it didn't hardly snow at all while we were there, but they made the most of what little they got.

Avery's such a goof, and she doesn't even know it.

This is when they were still being nice to me.

That changed really fast, though. They couldn't wait to make snowballs to pitch at me. I love this wind-up shot.

And then they let it fly! I love this shot of these three with the snow raining down on them.

Seeing D.C.

One of the perks of getting to go to Washington, D.C. for Scott and Tesha's wedding was getting to see some sites in our nation's capitol. I'd been there before but it was a first for Joseph (and William too, of course.)

We only had a few hours to drive to the Mall to see some of the monuments there and it was really cold, but we still had a great time taking it all in.

I am a US history junkie and especially love Abraham Lincoln and Civil War history, so our first stop was the Lincoln Memorial.

I memorized the Gettysburg Address with my 5th graders when I taught school, and though I can't still quote every single word from memory, I loved reciting it there in front of the man himself.

We saw a lot of places from the warmth of our car but we had to get out to see the Capitol Building.

Grandpa Lamb and Maybeth came with us to see the sites and we're so glad we got to spend this time with them.

We also met up with more of my family at the Capitol and were able to take a tour of it! I was sad, though, that Joseph didn't get to go on it since he'd never been here before, but he was a good sport about it and was just glad to get out of the car and crazy traffic he had to navigate all day. We had a great whirlwind sightseeing tour and were glad to get to be there.

Scott and Tesha's Wedding

We were blessed to travel to Washington, D.C. in December for a quick weekend trip to see an amazing couple be married.

Scott and Laitesha met in Salt Lake City last summer and became engaged in the fall. Tesha is from D.C. so we got to go see them get married...

...in this beautiful temple.

It was a lot of fun to meet her family. Here are two of her brothers.

Both sides of the family together.

We are so impressed with Tesha and the kind of woman she is. She's been raised by goodly parents for sure.

Along with all of my siblings and parents, my Grandpa Austin and Grandpa Lamb and his wife Maybeth also crossed the country to be there on their special day.

Tesha is the first of her siblings to be married so it was a fun day for their family for sure.

I love being with my family and am so glad all 8 of us could be together with our spouses there. Scott's the 5th child to get married, so we only have one to go! (ahem)

This is everyone on Scott's side minus Sophie, Avery, Austin, and Gabe who were all staying with their other grandparents for the weekend. (Thanks again, Bob!)

What a lucky boy!

Here was the official wedding party of bridesmaids and groomsmen. It was COLD that day so we all threw off our coats for a second to snap a picture and then quickly put them back on again. I don't know how Tesha stayed warm without ever wearing a coat; she says her love was keeping her warm.

They did a ring ceremony before the reception began for the family and friends who weren't at the temple.

They did so much work to make the reception delightful with beautiful decorations and delicious food and great music. It was a lot of fun. Our favorite part was the dancing down the aisle, especially when Scott pretended to be Latin Buzz Lightyear around his Jessie.

But first was the serious first dance of the wedding couple.

And then they danced with parents...

Let me tell you, Tesha's family and friends know how to cut a rug!

The three grandbabies William, Nona, and AJ.

They had a cool cupcake tower for their cake (and the cupcakes were so delicious!) with a cake on top to cut.

Will they be naughty or nice?

Tesha was naughty...

but Scott the gentleman was nice. Good job, Scott!

Tesha helping Scott clean up after she smashed the cake in his face.

That night we had a wedding dinner at their chapel where we roasted and toasted them while enjoying delicious catered Cafe Rio.

As per family custom Joseph and I were asked to write the couple a song, and since it was December I decided to rewrite Jingle Bells to be Wedding Bells. We had all the rest of my family as back up singers and jinglers.

At the very end of the song we sang "Maybe instead of Jingle Bells there'll be a lullaby next year!" and then we all winked. I love that whoever took this shot got all of us winking. I don't know if Scott and Tesha thought it was funny but we sure did. We love you two! Thanks for getting married and inviting us! We had a blast.