Made by Memilyrae

{Daddy} Are you naughty?

{Spencer} No.

{Daddy} Are you sure you’re good?

{Spencer} No. I naughty sometimes.

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Sweet Evie got a bath time Cabbage Patch doll for Christmas. She has a little float ring and shower squirter. Very cute. The kids were in the bath today and Spencer decided to give the doll a little shower. As he was playing with it he ended up twisting it’s head around…he never did it before and he thought it was pretty cool.  Unfortunately, Evie didn’t. She started crying and had a sad, scared look on her face. I told Spencer not to do it anymore because it scares Evie. Later I told Steve and he got the doll out of the tub. Evie was sitting on my lap and as soon as she saw what he was holding she turned around and started climbing up me and hiding against me. Poor Evie…she’ll be scarred for a while! (Funny, but still sad)

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas like we did.  We started off on Christmas Eve at Steve’s parents’ house. We had dinner, played games and just hang out.  Spencer helped me write a letter to Santa telling him he was at his Grammer’s and Grandpa’s, what he wanted (“lots and lots of toys”) and saying he’s been a good boy. I asked him if we should put out milk and cookies for Santa and he said, “No. Hide it.” I asked him where we should hide it. “In fridge.” Easy enough. 🙂 We put the kids to bed upstairs (a toddler bed and crib pushed next to each other…mainly to keep Spencer from falling out of bed) and the kids giggled at each other for a long time.  We played more games until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. We woke up to Spencer crying in the hallway. Our door was cracked open but he walked the other way and saw the dark house. That woke up Evie…so, that meant I was awake.  Pat and Alec said they heard the “pitter, patter of little feet” and were happy to wake up. We talked to Steve’s brother, Michael, the Thompkins and then opened a few presents. Next we had breakfast and got ready to head down to Annette’s house. I called my family in Oklahoma, wished my dad a happy birthday, and chatted a little about their Christmas. At Annette’s house we played, opened presents and played some more. We only spent a few hours at Annette’s before heading back to Alec and Pat’s. John, Steve’s brother, called from Mongolia (he’s on his mission) and we didn’t want to miss it. We chatted with John for a while…boy does he sound mature and a lot like Michael!…and sounded like he really enjoyed being there. Next, we opened presents with Bri and Jadyn, the boys played a ton (Evie was asleep) while Alec started on crapes. YUMMY! we had so many toppings for the crapes…and boy did we get stuffed! We played a little more and then packed up and took the kids home. We had a great Christmas and hope everyone else did too.

Yay! I passed my Geology class. I got a “B” – which is much better than I thought I did (thank goodness for grade curving).  Now I “get” to take another science class on my way to my associates. I can’t wait to get it done so I can start taking courses on what I REALLY want to do!

 Elder “Show” (Shaw is not a nice word in Mongolian) is doing well…he likes the food – even the pizza, he is doing really well with the language, and doesn’t feel the cold too much (-13* anyone?). Here he is with his mission president and his wife, Brother and Sister Andersen. Oh, and he gets asked a lot by the students in his English class for his phone number because they all know he doesn’t have a girlfriend. How funny is that? Please remember to keep John and all the missionaries and soldiers in your prayers.

We realized Christmas is only 1 week away and it blows our mind! We finally got our tree at a great little place run by a family. The guy was really nice and even dropped the price by $10. So, for a 6 ft tree we paid $32. Not bad!

Thanks to Grams and Papa, Evie had this oh so cute outfit to wear for the holidays! Here’s how cute my Santa Baby is:

Okay, so Thursday I had a fairly full day…holiday preparations, shopping, and spinning class. Well, after shopping I came home, took my kids inside and went back out for the groceries. When it was time to leave to go to Annette’s (we were working on scrapbooking) I couldn’t find my keys. I looked everywhere! I knew I had them at the house because I made it home from the store. But where’d they go? Steve came home from school and took me and the kids down about 45 minutes before spinning class. I looked all over the place and I still couldn’t find them! Saturday rolls around and Steve, the kids, and I are in the van looking for a Christmas tree and then we were going over to Mike and Nicole’s. We needed to stop by the house  to pick up a few games and I since I didn’t have my keys, I assumed Steve had his keys. Wrong. He had the van keys. I never gave him back his keys (I took the Maxima to school in the a.m.). So…we were locked out. LUCKILY our bedroom window was unlocked and we knew where a ladder was. 🙂 Steve saved the day! Steve found his keys and I grabbed the big, heavy set of manager keys (our managers are gone for the holiday and left us the set…big mistake!). Heh…I wasn’t able to find the set of keys since then. So, not only can I not find MY keys…I can’t find the managers’ keys!! I am losing it!

Steve and I took an hour and a half looking tonight for the keys. With prayer after prayer after prayer and finally listening to the promptings 🙂 we found my keys…IN THE KITCHEN TRASH!!! I know who to thank for that…do you? 🙂 Steve said if he wasn’t laughing about it he’d strangle Evie. I want to strangle her because I touched something slimy pulling them out! YUCK! Steve also accredited the fact that he procrastinated taking out the trash…Thanks babe…really. 🙂 But only this time! Then, I was heading out to the Maxima while saying a prayer and Steve looks in his backpack. I don’t know when it happened or who did it, but they were in the side pocket which hardly ever gets used. Maybe it got put in there while we were at Mike and Nicole’s…I’m not sure…but we don’t remember doing it.

I am so lucky and blessed and thankful to my Heavenly Father for answering such a simple prayer. I just wish my kids were awake so I could have had them there to experience it and see how our Father in Heaven answers even the simpliest requests and maybe have their little testimonies grow by this moment of craziness. 🙂

Amanda came over today and we made flyers for her for massage. Here it is…thank you, Leona, for letting us use you as our model (and no, she’s not prego again…I don’t think…this was from 2005)

I decided to take Evie to Target to get her 1 year pictures but as soon as I found out there was no sitting fee I decided to do the whole family. Spencer didn’t want to smile most of the time and Evie just wanted to explore all of the props. Here are a few that turned out okay.

Family Pics

Kid Pics

Spencer (with mitt on wrong hand)

Evie (tired and very ready to take a nap) and her Teddy