Made by Memilyrae

What an eventful Christmas! We had such a wonderful time with our families and enjoying the Christmas holiday together. Here are a few pics from our holiday:

Decorating the Christmas tree – we get a real tree every year…one of our traditions. Spencer picked it out…and he’s very proud of that! 🙂 The kids were much faster than Steve and I were so most of the ornaments ended up on the bottom. I almost fixed it but Steve said we should leave it ’cause the kids did it. I agreed and think it ended up pretty cute!

After the “big one” snow storm, we came home to an awesome snow fort in our front yard. Our neighbors, Spencer and Brent (with the help of a few little ones) made it. It was awesome! I made Steve stand next to the snowman (I think they had help from our other neighbors next door) to show you how big he was. It’s still standing and I’m sure will be there after most everything else melts away…someday…hopefully soon! 😉

We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s on Christmas Eve. Spencer and Evie got new pajamas…and they were actually excited about it!

We made cookies for Santa (although the kids weren’t that interested so someone else ate them!) They also wrote letters to Santa. Here are Jadyn, Spencer and Evie’s letters.

Christmas morning found me staring at 2 crazy men…one being asleep (picture 3). Steve and Rich stayed up all night (Steve fell asleep finally around 7:30…I think) playing Rock Band. Weirdos. Everyone was awake near 8:45 or 9:00…although I can’t really remember. We had our almost traditional (almost because we do it mainly on holidays but it hasn’t been consistant since we spend time at my family’s too) crape breakfast and then got working on presents. Spencer, Jadyn and Evie seemed to enjoy discovering what was behind the wrapping paper and I sure loved watching their faces. I am very excited to try out our deep fryer and see what crazy meals I might ATTEMPT making! Although it was snowing like crazy outside, we left around 10:30 to head to Springville.

As soon as we arrived at my sister’s house, we got the webcam and Skype installed on Steph’s laptop and “called” my mom and dad and brothers (plus family) in Oklahoma. My sisters and nieces came up with a “Deal or No Deal” game for my parent’s 60th birthday presents. They had 3 envelopes and we had the game board. Lauren was “Lauren Mandel” (Howie) and Kayley was “Kayley White” (the “Ladies”). Mom went first, picked a number, answered a question about the grandkids, and if she got it right, picked an envelope. If the board said “Card Swap” behind the number, and the parent got the answer right, they were able to switch envelopes with the banker (Matt) or with the other contestant. In the end, they got all the questions right…even the bonus question (Who’s taller…Spencer or Luke?) …and got to keep all of the envelopes. Lion King tickets in OKC, $50 for dinner, and Celtic Women tickets in Dallas. Happy 60th birthday Mom and Dad!

We then opened presents from the Luke side of the family. Spencer and Evie had lots of fun opening presents and playing with their cousins! Evie hugged her new “Princess dress” as soon as she unwrapped it and Aunt Steph made them their canvas town. (She personalizes them too…Emily Scrapbook Store, Steve’s Computer Store, Evie’s Shoe Boutique, Spencer’s Sports Shop, etc, etc, etc). They both have lots of figures (Ninja Turtles, Princesses, Tinker Bell and Friends, Knights, etc). Steve got a pasta maker (which I used today) and a few other things to help make pasta. I was excited to get 4 more pieces to my WillowTree Nativity set…I’m almost done! One gift we were very excited for and grateful for was money towards our Food Storage…which is pretty much non-existent. (thank you!) We spent a few hours at my sister’s house but left to go back to Steve’s parents for a phone call from Uncle John, Steve’s brother who is serving a mission for our church in Mongolia!

I wanted to include a few pics of my nieces who painted some awesome pics for their mom…and of my sister’s presents to my nieces…personalized necklace hangers which turned out amazing! (If you’re interested in one…she’ll make one for you although I’m not sure what the price is)

Back at the Shaws we made it to talk to John and heard about things that have been happening with him lately. I can’t believe he’s coming home in September…that’s just insane that it’s been a year and a half! WOW! So it’s extremely cold there…so much that his sock froze to the inside of his boot and that the small slit you see in the 1st picture is all they use to see where they’re going. The 2nd picture is John in his Deel…nice and thick looking. It’ll be cool to hear him speak when he gets home. 9 more months!

So, I’m not sure if this will be big enough to read (click on it and it will get a bit bigger) but here it is! if you didn’t get it by email and want it, just let me know!

Steve bought us tickets to go see UVU play the Aggies tonight. At first, it was just alright. I tried showing Spencer what was happening – and then daddy stole him from me, but Evie was more than entertaining the whole game. She loved watching the dancers and when I asked, “Are you going to dance?” or “Will you learn to do that?” she’d say “yep” and shake her head. She’s such a cheeseball and would let me take her picture…Spencer, on the other hand, wouldn’t. But he couldn’t stop me when he passed out on daddy’s lap! Steve’s friend from work (and former boss-man) sat next to us and cheered on the Smaggies while we cheered on the Wolverines! Too bad at the end, Jason did more cheering. Here are some pretty darn cute pictures from our night out:

Okay, so they aren’t so “new” any more. We got birds! We are so excited! A woman on Freecycle was needing to give her birds a new home and she chose us to take them! I was thrilled! We have 2 younger birds and 1 older bird. The bright yellow one is Princess, the darker one is Bumblebee and the lighter one is Goodwin. (I bet you can figure out who named each bird…and even though they are all boys, we still let  Princess slide!) We love having them and we all really like having them fly around our apartment. Here’s a pic:

So, I’m a bit late on this and a little out of order but things have been busy! Kids are just the cutest – especially at Halloween. Here are some so sweet pictures of Spencer, Evie, and their cousins.

I had to steal some pics from Mike and Nicole since I didn’t pull out my camera when I saw them! Oops! (and for some reason the page with mike’s picture won’t load so I can’t steal it!) 🙁

We went with Jed & Leona and Austin & Rosanne to Upalco over Conference weekend. It was a lot of fun! On Friday evening, we headed to Jed’s parents’ house and got settled in. The next two days were spent watching conference, playing with the kids outside and chatting away. Saturday was rainy but that didn’t stop the kids from wanting to play outside. We let them. They all wanted apples and Leona helped the kids pull them off the tree. Those were some tasty apples. They had a few moments on the soap box (I won’t give details Rosanne!), otherwise known as a big rock, and chased around the dogs.

On Sunday the rain had stopped and we went for a hike up the mountain. Grandma Burton, Leona and I took the kiddos up. Spencer usually liked to run ahead and Reid was really good at throwing rocks. We got up pretty high and Steve came out to join us. Evie was little miss independent and at one point, Steve pulled out a cactus needle and showed Evie that it would hurt if she stepped on it. She wanted BOTH fingers poked. Silly girl. Sunday night we had a bonfire. If you see weird pics of Steve and Jed, they’re just trying to strick a match on their zippers. We ate, roasted marshmallows, packed up and headed home. We had a lot of fun and got to spend more time together with our friends.

Today is Steve’s 27th birthday – wow babe, you’re old! 😉  just joking! You are such a wonderful man, and even more, you’re a fantabulous husband and father. Spencer, Evie and I are so blessed to have you in our lives. You do so much to care for us and to keep us healthy and happy and all I can do is say thank you and we love you. Even that doesn’t do justice for all that you do for us. I know there are a lot of these pictures (and believe me – I only chose my favorites!) but I wanted to show what a great, funny, sweet, and all around good guy you are. We’ve had some really great times, haven’t we? I love you babe with all that I am – Happy Birthday!

I just loved this pic of Gavin – had to put it up, especially so Nicole and Mike could get it. 🙂

Hollywood! That’s right – we had make-up, hair do’s, boas, sunglasses, and the red carpet. It was quite fun, even for us adults. At the end, the girls even watched a movie outside in the back yard. Here’s a few pics

How does YOUR garden grow?

Well, our garden grows lots of cucumbers and zucchini. So does our neighbors. That’s why we didn’t realized that one of the zucchinis in the garden was ours – look what happens when you wait for your neighbor to pick your zucchini! 🙂