Festivities and whatnot

So now that my house no longer looks like Christmas threw up here, I have a minute to do a little updating. Sometimes I have guilt when I look at peoples blogs and see that they update like every other day and I update like every other month, but whatever. I guess we are just kind of boring like that.

It has been kind of a weird month or two. There was a talk in stake conference in October and one of the guys talked about praying for trials. Now, we have two small children so I rarely hear much of any meeting, but I happened to catch this talk. But for one reason or another it seemed like a good idea. So somewhere in the next few days or weeks I believe I uttered the words in a prayer "please bless us with trials". Stupid. And I will never use that phrase again. Now we have not had anything happen that will change our lives forever. However, it feels like everything has been a bit of a comedy of errors. I won't bore you with the details, but here are some fun pictures that hopefully show the highlights and not so much with the harder stuff. Either way, grudgingly or not, I guess trials help us feel grateful for all the good things in our lives and truly help us count our blessings. Let's hope the new year brings some good things!! Enjoy!!

Here are some random adventures in the snow.
It was really deep. Seriously took Claire like 10 minutes just to get to this point.
I didn't teach her about snow angels. I am thinking maybe it was Caillou...

Steven and Henry were so nice to let Claire help with their snowman!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mac is only smiling because the can of whipped cream is right next to him.

Charlotte didn't think too much of the unbaked pie crust.

Claire, on the other hand, loved it! She was such a good helper!

Climbing up the slide at Classic.

Would only come down with Aunt Emmie

Will and Trevor's bums, they look like pros on that thing!

Nice and bundled for Temple Square

Look at my cute little family!

Mac had to have a white elephant for his work Christmas party. He took it very literally.

This is what Claire did with Daddy while I was dying in bed with a kidney stone.

Charlotte got a little bored.

This is what the living room looked like Christmas Eve

My parents and the dog's stockings.

Ours and my brother and sister-in-laws stockings

Opening the stockings

Charlotte didn't quite get it.

So I helped her...

Claire discovering all the candy

As soon as the candy was revealed, Charlotte got it too.

The dollhouse was a hit!!

Stuff...Everywhere...

She likes to accessorize while she does things.

You may not be able to tell, but that is red glitter on her chin. Don't ask...

Hi Mom and Dad!

I don't know why, but it seemed like it would be funny to put the kids in buckets. Charlotte did not agree.

Hamming it up

Just enough hair for a little ponytail and you can't see it in the picture but she popped her first tooth on Christmas Eve!!