Great Nephew

This is Eli---Ryan's niece's baby---he officially makes us Great Aunt Amy and Great Uncle Ryan---aren't great aunts supposed to be old and smell funny??? I made this blanket for him---it took me so long, but I was happy to do it as a surprise for Heather. Eli is such a cute little guy.

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was great fun. Ryan and I got a new camcorder. Ryan's big surprise from Santa was a new saw that he'd had his eye on. Good thing Santa understands tools, because Amy thinks one saw is as good as another and they are all the same. Amy's big surprise was a new refrigerator! WOW! Santa must have thought she'd been extra good.
We had dinner at my parent's house on Christmas Eve and Santa even paid us a visit and gave all the kids new pajamas (Ours were waiting for us under the tree when we got home).
We went to my parents again on Christmas Day for more food and presents. We ended up getting a really big snow storm and since we'd rather sacrifice a little sleep and comfort than our lives so we ended up staying the night on couches and an air mattress. My mom found toothbrushes for us and since we'd worn our pajamas all day, I guess we were set to spend the night.
Luckily the storm let up mid-morning and we were able to get home---of course Ryan did drag me for some after-Christmas shopping in my pajamas before going home. Luckily we only ran into one person I knew.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Tanner

Tanner's 3rd Birthday. What a cute little boy. He got lots of new toys, including a Spiderman costume. He loved wearing the costume, but hated the mask. Cannon on the other hand LOVED wearing the mask and kept it on most of the night. Such cute, funny boys. We love having Tanner in our family.

 

Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra Christmas Concert

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of this wonderful event, but wanted to mention it anyway. Since we've been married, Ryan and I have been lucky enough to attend the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert. Tickets for this event are a hot item and hard to get. Luckily, my dad has some connections and usually is given tickets to the event. I love going and listening to the choir ---especially at Christmastime. Each year, the Choir invites a guest artist to perform with them, this year's guest was Brian Mitchell Stokes. He was amazing!! I think my favorite song was "The Friendly Beasts" (which coincidentally was a favorite of mine to sing in Primary). Ryan and I got to the Conference Center early and were able to secure seats on the 3rd row!!! We were so close! Tickets are assigned a section and not an actual seat or row. We were also fortunate enough to be close to the prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and Elder M. Russell Ballard. Hopefully our Christmas tradition will live on for many years to come.

Christmas Dinner

This year my mom got all the adults in the family tickets to see "The Savior of the World" production at the Conference Center. It's a musical that talks about the birth of Christ and the events leading up to it and then skips forward to Christ's Resurrection and the events that followed. It was our first time seeing it and was really good. We liked it a lot. It really helped us focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Before the play, my dad treated us all to dinner at the Alta Club, a swanky member's only club in downtown Salt Lake. It was pretty warm for December and so we didn't freeze while walking through main street plaza and looking at the lights. It was a great evening that really helped get Ryan and I into the Christmas spirit.

 

Molly Mouse

Lindsay is our little ballerina girl. Tonight we went and saw her ballet studio's production of Molly Mouse's Sugar Plum Dream. It's a take on the story of the Nutcracker only everyone is a mouse---meaning they all wear mouse heads and you can't see their faces. Lindsay was pretty identifiable because she was Molly Mouse's little sister.