Saturday, January 17, 2009
The New Me
I got my braces off December 23 but the holidays took precedence on my blog so I never posted my new look. Here is me with no braces, new glasses and shorter hair (at least shorter than early December).
Blog update
I finally changed the look of my blog. It has been boring for a long time now but I just haven't made it a priority to fix it. But it's Saturday today and Darren took the two older boys ice skating. I decided to take advantage of the kind of quiet (Jacob's still here telling me that dinosaurs eat trees and that he's hungry) and fix my blog so you all would have something better to look at. Enjoy!
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Our Holidays
Happy Holidays! Following is a long post that covers our last two weeks or so.
First, Christmas Eve. Darren was driving around the outlying areas of Rexburg and came upon a sign for a live nativity that is 20 minutes long and starts at 6 pm for 5 or 6 nights in a row. The last night was Christmas Eve. We decided that would be a fun thing to do as a familly. So we all bundled up and headed out to Burton. It was held in front of a stable with straw bales for seats. We were happy to have the denim quilt in the back of the van to sit on because there was a little snow on the straw. The live nativity went through the whole nativity story and then they served homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate. And all of this was free, too. There were parts of it you couldn't hear or see very well when they took place off to the side of us but overall it was a great Christmas eve activty, one that might become a tradition for us if they keep doing it.
All my boys waiting for the show to begin.
Jacob didn't get into the show too much but he loved the real animals. He got to pet some of them after it was over. You can see all the padding this girl has under her costume. It was a pretty cold night.
After the live nativity we went home and ate our Christmas Eve dinner. Then we read the nativity story from the Bible and retired downstairs to watch the Christmas Story. (not the Bible version, this time) :-) Tracie and Jeff came up part way through the movie. We hung out for a while and then went to bed so Santa could come.
Christmas morning Darren ended up waking the kids somewhere between 6:30 am and 7:00 am. I thought for sure they would be up before us. Then the kids woke up Tracie and Jeff.
Kevin with his rubix cube. They're still around. When I was a teenager I could only get two sides done at one time. We would just give them to our Aunt Sheri to finish them up.
Ethan with his tin of Pokemon cards. He got one tin for his birthday and one tin for Christmas. He was one happy kid.
Jacob with gorilla mountain. He played with that and the other animals he got all day long.
Christmas day was a very snowy day. When we woke up there was lots of snow and it still kept falling most of the day. Tracie and Jeff planned to stay the first part of the morning with us and then go back to Idaho Falls. But traveling around Rexburg was pretty hard since there were no roads plowed. Tracie had made some potatoes to go with the ham I had and we were going to eat them at her house. But since we couldn't get there we ate dinner at my house and just had boring old rice to go with it. AFter lunch Darren decided to be brave and try driving Ethan to the park to go sledding. When he made it, the Spencers decided they could try the drive home. They also made their destination. We had thought about going to Utah Christmas evening but only made it to Idaho Falls. We took our leftover ham and ate Tracie's yummy potatoes for dinner. The next morning we headed down to Utah. The Idaho roads were pretty good but once we crossed the border the roads were snow packed and not very fun to drive on. We saw several slide offs and one roll over on the way down. Thankfully, none of them were us and it didn't look like anyone got hurt in any of the ones we saw. We made it to the Mitchell's house just in time for the annual Bartholomew Christmas party. I always enjoy being with my extended family. I wish we had more time to spend at things like that. Ami brought her nativity costumes so we did out own version of the nativity with the kids. I was very impressed with her costumes. She made them all! Great job, Ami. Thanks for sharing with us.
Here is Jacob in his donkey costume. We really needed a shepherd but he wanted to be a donkey so we went without shepherds. He looked so cute as a donkey I had a hard time being the narrarrator with a straight face.
The audience, some of them.
All of the kids with their costumes. They all look so cute. I ecpecially love Luke's (I mean Joseph's) face.
Many presents are distributed at the party. Ethan got a set of musical instruments and right before this picture was taking there was a band going on with my mom, Tracie, Jeff, Jake, and Ethan. But it was breaking up when I got the picture. Jenna seems pretty interested in joining.
This is special agent Ethan. He also got a spy kit for Christmas. Too bad the mustache only lasts one wearing.
On Saturday my mom's side of the family got together at IHOP to celebrate my Grandma Christiansen's birthday. I counted about 35 people there. Here are Grandma and Grandpa.
New Year's Eve Tracie and Jeff came up again. They are such good sports to keep coming up and keeping us entertained. We made homemade pizza and played games until midnight. Then we made a lot of noise. Ethan tried to make it until the New Year but he fell asleep early and I couldn't wake him up. Maybe next year.
Jeff thought he could make more noise by blowing two horns at once.
Darren forgot he was supposed to blow the horns with only the mouth.
The barbeque chicken pizza.
Everyone celebrating the New Year.
While we were in Utah, we had to visit Cabellas. Curtis and Dexter met up with us. All the boys loved looking at the fish and other animals. My boys also love to help Dexter. It's pretty cute.
First, Christmas Eve. Darren was driving around the outlying areas of Rexburg and came upon a sign for a live nativity that is 20 minutes long and starts at 6 pm for 5 or 6 nights in a row. The last night was Christmas Eve. We decided that would be a fun thing to do as a familly. So we all bundled up and headed out to Burton. It was held in front of a stable with straw bales for seats. We were happy to have the denim quilt in the back of the van to sit on because there was a little snow on the straw. The live nativity went through the whole nativity story and then they served homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate. And all of this was free, too. There were parts of it you couldn't hear or see very well when they took place off to the side of us but overall it was a great Christmas eve activty, one that might become a tradition for us if they keep doing it.
All my boys waiting for the show to begin.
Jacob didn't get into the show too much but he loved the real animals. He got to pet some of them after it was over. You can see all the padding this girl has under her costume. It was a pretty cold night.
After the live nativity we went home and ate our Christmas Eve dinner. Then we read the nativity story from the Bible and retired downstairs to watch the Christmas Story. (not the Bible version, this time) :-) Tracie and Jeff came up part way through the movie. We hung out for a while and then went to bed so Santa could come.
Christmas morning Darren ended up waking the kids somewhere between 6:30 am and 7:00 am. I thought for sure they would be up before us. Then the kids woke up Tracie and Jeff.
Kevin with his rubix cube. They're still around. When I was a teenager I could only get two sides done at one time. We would just give them to our Aunt Sheri to finish them up.
Ethan with his tin of Pokemon cards. He got one tin for his birthday and one tin for Christmas. He was one happy kid.
Jacob with gorilla mountain. He played with that and the other animals he got all day long.
Christmas day was a very snowy day. When we woke up there was lots of snow and it still kept falling most of the day. Tracie and Jeff planned to stay the first part of the morning with us and then go back to Idaho Falls. But traveling around Rexburg was pretty hard since there were no roads plowed. Tracie had made some potatoes to go with the ham I had and we were going to eat them at her house. But since we couldn't get there we ate dinner at my house and just had boring old rice to go with it. AFter lunch Darren decided to be brave and try driving Ethan to the park to go sledding. When he made it, the Spencers decided they could try the drive home. They also made their destination. We had thought about going to Utah Christmas evening but only made it to Idaho Falls. We took our leftover ham and ate Tracie's yummy potatoes for dinner. The next morning we headed down to Utah. The Idaho roads were pretty good but once we crossed the border the roads were snow packed and not very fun to drive on. We saw several slide offs and one roll over on the way down. Thankfully, none of them were us and it didn't look like anyone got hurt in any of the ones we saw. We made it to the Mitchell's house just in time for the annual Bartholomew Christmas party. I always enjoy being with my extended family. I wish we had more time to spend at things like that. Ami brought her nativity costumes so we did out own version of the nativity with the kids. I was very impressed with her costumes. She made them all! Great job, Ami. Thanks for sharing with us.
Here is Jacob in his donkey costume. We really needed a shepherd but he wanted to be a donkey so we went without shepherds. He looked so cute as a donkey I had a hard time being the narrarrator with a straight face.
The audience, some of them.
All of the kids with their costumes. They all look so cute. I ecpecially love Luke's (I mean Joseph's) face.
Many presents are distributed at the party. Ethan got a set of musical instruments and right before this picture was taking there was a band going on with my mom, Tracie, Jeff, Jake, and Ethan. But it was breaking up when I got the picture. Jenna seems pretty interested in joining.
This is special agent Ethan. He also got a spy kit for Christmas. Too bad the mustache only lasts one wearing.
On Saturday my mom's side of the family got together at IHOP to celebrate my Grandma Christiansen's birthday. I counted about 35 people there. Here are Grandma and Grandpa.
New Year's Eve Tracie and Jeff came up again. They are such good sports to keep coming up and keeping us entertained. We made homemade pizza and played games until midnight. Then we made a lot of noise. Ethan tried to make it until the New Year but he fell asleep early and I couldn't wake him up. Maybe next year.
Jeff thought he could make more noise by blowing two horns at once.
Darren forgot he was supposed to blow the horns with only the mouth.
The barbeque chicken pizza.
Everyone celebrating the New Year.
While we were in Utah, we had to visit Cabellas. Curtis and Dexter met up with us. All the boys loved looking at the fish and other animals. My boys also love to help Dexter. It's pretty cute.
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