Happiness and Cheer

Christmas was wonderful. It was so fun to have Joe understand, and be excited for Santa to come. My parents' family is still small enough we can all stay in one house and spend the Christmas Eve and Day together.

Lily, being silly.

Will was most excited about the graham cracker Santa gave him in his stocking.

As long as I can remember we have had special scrambled eggs for breakfast Christmas morning. My dad makes the eggs with onion, chorizo and cheese, and they are yummy. This year my angel mom made some delicious orange bread to go with the eggs.

The grand-babies in their Christmas PJs (thanks Ash!).

After allowing enough time for our breakfast to digest two of my sisters and one of my brothers took a little run. It was so fun. We were blessed to be able to spend this Christmas with family.

The Feast

Oh, Thanksgiving was wonderful. We stayed in our home in Omaha. What a blessing to have wonderful friends to spend the holiday with! We had quite the spread, all the traditional elements plus some.

The Menu

turkey

mashed potatoes

gravy

rolls

stuffing

cranberry relish

homemade mac n' cheese

green salad

yams

sweet potatoes

corn

layered jello

Pies

chocolate cream

apple

pumpkin

Nantucket

pumpkin

topped with homemade vanilla ice cream

Delish! A few things to remember

• Let the turkey rest a little longer before carving to avoiding scorching Zach's hands
• Don't forget any dishes that were prepared the day before (cranberry relish)
• Don't accidentally put double the gelatin in only two of the layers of jello
• Serve the pecan pie cold (helps cut the sweetness)

We finished the night off playing a couple games of Apples to Apples.

Halloween Parade

Every year near Halloween the Creighton Women's Dental Alliance has a parade at the school. Joe loved going to daddy's school and loved trick-or-treating around the parade even more! Each time someone gave Joe a treat he told me he wanted to open it, but we convinced him to put in his treat bag for later.

Us with our dinosaur and little Bob the Builder. The dinosaur was more interested in his spoils than in taking a pictures.

Walking the parade route

Uh-oh, every teenage girl's nightmare, our neighbor is wearing the same outfit as Joe. Thankfully, he doesn't care.

Halloween

I'm a little slow getting our Halloween pics up (some of which I borrowed, thanks Nikki). I think Joe had a lot of fun.

Thursday Joe got to trick or treat at Daddy's school. Whenever he got to pick a candy out of an assortment he picked a sucker.

The Jack-o-lanterns, Zach's is on the right (I was impressed at his creativity)

Working on the pumpkins

Joseph and our neighbor, both happy giraffes

Fourth of July Weekend

Zach had a few days off for the 4th so we went camping with some of our friends from the program. We were able to find a place pretty secluded, that wasn't too far away. There was a big playground at the campground and the grass was mowed that we camped on. A little more plush then we are used to, but it was fun.


Joseph loved the camping. He loved when we were setting up the tents. He had a blast and did so well that night. He's a natural (maybe it's because we went when he was still in the womb).


On the fourth we had a double party for Joe and one of his friend's birthdays.
My first attempt at blueberry pie:


Andrea made these cute cupcakes for the kiddos.


Kelan's not quite ready for the picture...


Okay, now he's ready :)


Daddy helping Joe blow out the candle.


And we did sparklers and watched fireworks that night. It was a blast!

Christmas Festivities!

Joseph opening his first Christmas stocking. We had and awesome Christmas break. We had a blast spending time at Jerry and Ashley, Mom and Dad Tidwell and Mom and Dad Taylor's homes. Thanks so much family! We love you. I have to admit though, it feels good to be home!


Grandpa was worried about Joseph's feet getting cold, so he used some of Babica's (pronounced bobeetza, that's Grandma Tidwell's name) to keep them warm.


The boys jammin' on Rock Band


Sarah, enjoying mashed potatoes from our Chrismas Eve dinner.


Stephanie, some neighbors, and I made this awesome gingerbread house made of a Necco roof, Andes steps, Rips shutters, Apple O wreaths and Christmas tree, Mike and Ike siding, mini m&m path, frosting and gingerbread held together with burnt sugar.

Friends

Last night we got to party with our friends from the IDEP program and then we went to the Ugly Sweater Party with our friends from our time at BYU-Idaho. Zach and I are so lucky to have such wonderful friends. I feel like every phase of our lives we have been blessed with great friends; now, while we lived in Provo and worked at Wilsons, at BYU-Idaho, in highschool and even before that. Anyway, last night we had fun reminiscing about "old" times with good friends. And we're excited that we are making even more fun memories :)

So I made sure we did not forget the camera when we went to Provo for Thanksgiving. Did we use it? Nope. I promise I won't forget to take pictures at Christmas. Thanksgiving break was a blast. We got to hang out with both of our families. Jerry and Ashley hosted Thanksgiving dinner at their new house. While we were away from home Joseph learned to sit without any help, and he had solids for the first time! He loved it. Auntie Steph took some pics of that, so maybe I can steal them from her.


Joseph wearing one of his girlfriends' bows. Still all boy!


Practicing piano with Daddy


Getting out of the Bathtub


Naked Baby!!


Happy to be sitting all by himself!

Halloween

This is a pic of the park where I go on walks with Joseph, or at least used to go on walks, I'm afraid our fall weather is over and it's Pocatello cold from here on out. I enjoyed the fall while it lasted. The cold weather makes me want to decorate for Christmas, and listen to Christmas music (sigh). I don't know if I will make it until after Thanksgiving this year.



Joseph's first hand holding experience



Zach thought up our costumes. I thought we were pretty funny.


Aren't they adorable?!