Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas Day. We spent the morning at our house opening presents and enjoying them. We then went to my parents house and spent the afternoon with them, my siblings, siblings-in-law, nieces, and nephews. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here's our Christmas card in case you didn't get one because I don't have your e-mail address and I'm too tired to find it. I just added the family picture that you see here in the blog at the top of the card. Try to imagine my amazing creativity :).

Merry Christmas! We love this time of year to reflect on the birth of the Savior. He has brought so many blessings to our lives and to our family. We're grateful for the knowledge of the gospel.

Our family is doing well. We love living in Spanish Fork, UT and have wonderful neighbors and beautiful surroundings.

We have had a fun year. We went on a small trip with the family to attractions in SLC. We joined Lucille’s family for fun at her parent’s cabin. Scott and Lucille were able to go to Disney World just the two of them thanks to her mom. Scott also went on a couple of trips to Houston.

Scott continues to be successful as an engineer at Novatek and has received many opportunities for growth and increased responsibility. He now serves as the first counselor in the Young Men's presidency for our ward.

Lucille takes care of the children and the household responsibilities. She works in the ICU at the local hospital once a week. She continues to serve as the secretary in the Primary.

Richard adores preschool and is learning how to read and write. He's doing very well. He's very inquisitive and creative. He is very sweet and loves to be with the family.

Audrey has started dance lessons which is helping her gain confidence around people. She's a bundle of energy and has so much to say when she's at home. You'll be lucky to hear her speak if she's out of her comfort zone.

Marie has said her first word and signs a few things. She loves to be tossed around and play! She is our “tiny one.”

Peter also signs a few things. He loves to open cupboards and drawers so he can close them. If he sees something open he can't help but close it. He loves to laugh, play, and climb.

Christmas Program

Richard had a program for preschool just before the Christmas break. Unlike at the end of preschool last year, he actually sang and did the actions and everything! Yea for confidence!

I"m melting... melting!

We decorated a gingerbread house for family night last night. I always loved doing that when I was growing up. However, I'm lazy and don't make the house like my mom did. I didn't want to buy the house from Costco this year, like I did last year, because I didn't like the candy that came in the kit. I saw a kit at Wal-mart that was cheaper. I figured it was because it had less candy. That was OK, because I was going to supplement with different candy anyway.

Well, apparently, the frosting is sub-par. It would not set and the candy kept sliding off the house! Oh, well. At least we had fun! The kids weren't going for a masterpiece anyway.

Even the roof starting sliding off! So much for their "let it sit for 15 minutes" rule for the stabilization of the house!
By morning, quite a few pieces were sitting on the plastic tray instead of on the house. Lesson: Don't buy the Wal-mart kit!

Disney World pictures

Water baths

Here is the website. Scroll through the recipe to find out the info on water baths

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/11/white-chocolate-pumpkin-cheesecake-with.html

My sweet boy

Richard has his moments of being a 5-year-old boy. All kids do. Then, he comes out and says things that melt my heart. When we got home on Sunday he said, "Tomorrow for family night, we need to draw pictures of why we love each other because now we're back together as a family."

Then, my Mom told me that he noticed Audrey's candy was almost all gone. He gets a lot more these days as he goes to preschool and friend's birthday parties. So, he said, "I can share my candy with Audrey since she doesn't have any." He said this without any prompting! He voluntarily said that! What a sweetie!

He loves to cuddle in bed with me. He often asks for me to stay longer on his bed and gets upset that I wake up earlier than he does in the morning. He'll ask me to "pet" him, which means to stroke his head.

I love my little boy and hope he is always this sweet!

cheesecake

I LOVE cheesecake. I have made several. However, this past week, I had a revelation. I read on a blog that you should cook them in a water bath. What?! Why had I never heard this before?! I tried it and I LOVE the results! No dry, crumbly cheesecake. It's moist, yummy, pretty, and slices beautifully. Yummmm....

Disney World

Yes, I caved in and we went to Disney World over Disneyland. My mom demonstrated her need for sainthood again and VOLUNTEERED to watch our kids. So, off to Florida we went. We had a great time having adult conversation and going on rides that require you to be taller than 42 inches. Of course, by the end, I missed my kids and was tired of walking all day. However, I'm so glad we got to go on this vacation.

I've tried to upload pictures a few times and it's not working. I can't get facebook to upload pictures either. Grumble. I'll figure it out later.