Christmas weekend

My cousin sent me this card in the mail:
It gave me a really good laugh. This was Rob's and my very first Christmas not being with any extended family members. It was sort of exciting to be on our own, but I must admit that my thoughts turn to our family members around the holidays and how much I love and miss them.

Rob overheard a couple at church talking about how they would be alone this Christmas and so Rob invited them to join us for Christmas Eve dinner. I am so glad that he did! It was so nice having Char and Fred over (she is my partner in Young Women) and it made cooking a huge feast seem much more worthwhile. I made turkey with all of the fixings and they brought a Honeybaked Ham which the kids were thrilled about (we had so much food that we still have tons leftover and we haven't even touched a cheesecake I made). They brought gifts for the entire family, joined us for acting out the Nativity and sang Christmas carols around the piano. It was a great evening.

I didn't get a lot of photos, but here are some of Mary, Joseph, and the Angel (Gabriel?):

Liv was more interested in holding her bunny than the Baby Jesus.
We ate a nice Christmas breakfast of waffles, sausage, peaches, and hot chocolate with whipped cream before looking in stockings and opening gifts. Liv slept in longer than usual and the kids were very anxious to get going...

The kids all picked out gifts for each other this year and were so excited about giving and watching each other open gifts.

Hewitt has been asking me to print photos of him for a very long time. Santa must have heard the request because he brought a photo book for each of the kids.

Everyone seemed very satisfied with Santa's selections and Tosh said, "Santa knew just what I wanted!" (lots of big cars).

All of the boys received rollerblades, and after a shaky start, Hewitt was already looking pretty good!

Liv was most excited about her new dishes and toy food for her kitchen, and shared a little "tea" and pretzel party with her new Cabbage Patch Kid. Rob was laughing about how the smell of the CPK (baby powder, if you can't remember) brought back the memory of his sisters' dolls. It's true too. They smell just the same and are still super cute in my opinion. Liv with her new baby, Suzanna Nancy:

She hadn't shown much interest in dolls to this point, and so I am happy that she seems to like her and has been carrying her around.

I caught this pic of the boys before church today. Today was Tosh's last day of nursery! Here we come Sunbeams.

I took a three-hour nap yesterday and a 90 minute nap today--NOT normal for me. It's been so nice to relax yesterday and today (and not have to cook). Burke got the entire Harry Potter series for Christmas and is loving them so far. Rob hasn't read them yet and so they are reading them together and I am enjoying the story again too.

I have taken all of our Christmas stuff down already. I have lots to do tomorrow since we leave Tuesday morning for California. We are really excited to visit my brother Todd and his family this week!

I feel grateful for the wonderful holiday season we've had. I love getting Christmas cards and hearing from friends and family. It's a bittersweet thing to feel remembered and loved, but to also feel pangs of homesickness for dear friends and loved ones. I feel beyond blessed for my wonderful family, but especially grateful for the birth and life of our Savior and Redeemer. Rob and I have been talking lately about what really matters in life and how we need and want to be better. I am excited for the coming year and for the opportunity to reflect on the past and set new goals.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

FINALLY!

I have been debating what to do for our stockings for YEARS! I finally decided to go with something classic and simple. I just finished the last stocking, the "M" for Mom, this morning. Right in the nick of time. Now here's hoping that Santa will fill them tomorrow night!

Thanks to my SIL and mom for their ideas and help on this project (that's taken me about nine months to finish!).

for the church historians out there

Rob and I attended a dinner last Thursday at the home of our Stake President. It was a fairly large group (members of the high council, stake presidency and clerks, patriarch, etc.), and after dinner we participated in a white elephant gift exchange. Each couple was instructed to bring "one clunker and one gift of value."

We sat in a large circle and passed gifts to the left and to the right as instructed until the game ended and we opened the gifts. We went around the room and showed each gift to the group and then there was a five minute window where we passed around dice and if you rolled doubles then you could "steal" someone else's gift. There were a wide variety of gifts from grandma-style underwear to a pedicure gift certificate, fruit cakes, kitchen gadgets, candy, etc.

The gift that Rob opened seemed rather unique to the rest. It was a large framed drawing of Joseph Smith.It was stolen from him right away, but with seconds left in the game, he was able to steal it back and end up with it in the end. The couple that brought this drawing came up to us afterward to talk to us and as it turns out, she is the great grand-daughter of Hyrum Smith (Joseph Smith's brother). The story that goes with the drawing is very interesting and I thought I would share it:

"In 2006 David and I traveled to the newly rebuilt Nauvoo Temple. In one of the corridors was a charcoal drawing of the Prophet Joseph Smith. We were so taken back by the family resemblance of our youngest son, that we decided we would try to locate and purchase a copy.

After several phone calls we finally ended up speaking with Dee Jay Bowden, the Church's sculptor. He told us that the original was a painting by Gorka and it was out of print and now only in private collections.

He then offered to redo the drawing making it similar to the original, but adding in more accurate facial features he had taken from the death mask of the Prophet and from the measurements that were taken at the time the Church had the bodies of Joseph and his brother Hyrum exhumed for reburial in the new Smith family Cemetery in Nauvoo.

A few months later Dee Jay Bowden traveled to Arizona for a college institute fireside and he presented us with this drawing.

David and Mary Ann Wright."

While we were visiting, Mary Ann said, "Well, we were instructed to bring something of value and we thought that this was something of great value to us. We have given each of our children a copy and had one left over..."

Rob and I feel grateful to have received this special gift (it certainly has more meaning than the gift card we brought for the party). Honestly, we don't own many things of great value to the world, but this is something we will always treasure.

twas the week before Christmas

The last day of school for the kids was on Thursday. Hewitt brought home this great letter from school (by the way, he is always changing his mind about what he wants). I think the last line is so sweet: We have some wrapped gifts from the kids that we haven't opened, but Burke gave us this awesome wreath that he made from a hanger and plastic baggies:

Here are some random pictures from the past week. Liv taking Bear and Bunny for a walk:

I caught Liv's expression when Rob walked in the door from work (don't you love the headband?):

The boys have had so much fun playing Two Square and soccer on our back patio.

This is blurry, but so cute of Liv giving Hewitt kisses:

Liv was putting her bunny and milk in the salad spinner the other day and would spin it, and then take a drink, spin, take a drink etc. She is such a character.

These next photos of Tosh speak for themselves:

I watched a little boy at our house the the other day and Liv was so interested in his binky. I grabbed this old binky of hers (she hasn't used one since she was about 3 months or something) to keep her away from his and was surprised at how much she liked it. She looked so funny with it in her mouth; half of the time it would be upside down or she would hold it in her hands... Rob threw it out the next day.

Liv looked so pretty before church on Sunday. I didn't have much time to get a good photo and Rob asked me why I couldn't just wait until after church to take her photo...

This is what she looked like after picking her up from nursery:

(They had given her a sucker and so she had sticky candy all over her face which you can't really see in the photo).

We went to dinner at some friends on Monday night. This was the first time we have ever decorated gingerbread houses with the kids and it was so much fun!

Everything on Hewitt's house was very symmetrical and organized. He is very particular about most things (except for all of the clothes he leaves on his bedroom floor).

I helped Liv with with her house while she ate candy...

And then today after lunch it was time to let the kids have a go at it:

I have a few projects to finish up before Christmas! It's been a busy month. Only four days left!

week in review

We planted two fruit trees last year and we were so excited to discover our very first fruit (grapefruit) on the tree!


Rob was working from home the other morning before heading off to a meeting. I was upstairs with Liv and came downstairs to discover that Tosh had climbed up on the counter to get a bowl, had pulled ice cream out of the freezer, and had dished himself some ice cream (at 10AM). I had no idea that Rob had left yet (oops). When I asked Tosh what he was doing he said, "I only wanted a little bit." It was true, he had only taken a small amount.

This next photo is blurry, but it's rare to get a toothy smile of Tosh on film these days.

Liv and Tosh have loved having Christmas stuff out. They especially like this Baby Jesus doll. I have found it in several places (besides the manger) including outside in the backyard. Liv is crazy about babies and can spot an infant carrier from miles away (ok, not really), but when she sees one at a store or anywhere else she gets really excited and squeals, "Baba! Baba!"

We are doing a babysitting trade with some friends in the ward (their idea). We went over to their house and played with their kids on Friday night and then at bedtime I stayed and put their kids down while Rob took our kids home to go to bed. It's a great deal for us. They have two darling girls and one is only four months old and I loved feeding and snuggling with a little baby.

This picture is funny of T and Liv. So typical of what they look like when they are resting or getting tired.

Liv is 19 months now. She has started bringing us a diaper and wipes when she is stinky which is something the boys never did. She seems to eat a ton and is talking a little more each week.

She LOVES the bath and is generally on her tummy blowing bubbles. She also loves pouring water over her head. I am excited to put her in swimming lessons this spring! She will be a little fish in no time.

Last night we had the opportunity to go see the ZooLights at the Phoenix Zoo. We attended a dinner before it got dark with the United Way. The kids had fun running around the zoo and they were able to get their faces painted (only H and T were interested). We all got free t-shirts and necklaces that lit up.

This photo is hilarious of Liv.

She looked so cute in her United Way shirt and bling. Some of the United Way employees took several photos of her last night and told Rob they want her to be their poster child (featured on some campaign literature). They also thought it was funny that her name is Liv and her shirt said "Live" on it...

The lights were really impressive and we had a lot of fun. It was an unusually warm weekend, and Rob and I kept commenting on the fact that Rob was comfortably outside at night in short sleeves on December 11th! It was a perfect night and we really enjoyed the event.

I wish I had taken my nice camera with us; Burke was excited to be able to take photos and took this one of Rob and me:

Hewitt wanted a turn with the camera and Tosh stepped in the way just as Hewitt took this shot of Rob, Burke and me. So funny!

Here is a conversation that Rob and Tosh had this week:
Rob: If you could snuggle with anything, what would it be? (expecting him to say bear)
Tosh: Mommy
Rob: Why?
Tosh: Because she is mine!

Aww, what a sweetie.