British Breakfast

I have been having a hard time blogging these days. It's a lot more difficult to blog when you take pictures on someone elses camera and then you never get around to getting the camera or the person, to up load the pictures.

(sigh)

So I will post as I get around to it.

 

After we open our gifts on Christmas morning, we walk over to our neighbors house where we enjoy a delicious breakfast and exchange a few small gifts. Sue is always so nice to host and have all of us over.  

 

After waking up early and eating so much, we were ready to go home and go back to bed.

Holiday Bowling

This year (the 21st to be exact) Luke and I were trying to figure out what to do on this day. It was the last day of work for a few days and this was the one and only day that we had to just hang out as a family.

 

We decided to take Oliver bowling. The Friday before Christmas was the perfect day to go. There were very few people there and it was fun to take a break from some sort of party or dinner.

 Oliver was having a blast

 So was Luke.

 And so did I because winning is fun...and so is being with my family.

Darcely and Marco's Day

I love weddings. I especially love going to the temple for these special sealings. This time in particular was amazing.

 This morning it was snowing and it was beautiful. Here we were waiting to have pictures taken. I asked my brother to take a picture of Luke and myself. He went a little crazy with the camera, but I loved that he captured us in a moment of pure happiness.

 

The rest of my family members.



 don't ask...

 And the reception was so much fun. This was the only picture I ended up taking while we were there. I loved everything about this night. They had an awesome dinner, beautiful decorations, tons of dancing (even Luke danced with me) and we got to spend time with our extended family, which is always so much fun.

Congratulations to Darcely and Marco. It was a celebration to remember. 

Baker Christmas Bash

 

It's that time of year again where we all gather at my parents house to enjoy some quality time together over good food and fun. This year we had shredded pork carnita tacos

Love these guys

 The gift exchange

Everyone with their white elephant gifts. Best one of the night was the magical/Chinese frog. Little did we know there was 25 dollars tucked away in the box it game with. After much confusion, Dora finally ended up with it.

us

 The real us

Hey ugly...sweater

This past weekend we were so happy to host our first ever Neighborhood Ugly Sweater Party. We decided to hold an adults only party (with the exception of the babies) complete with dinner and a white elephant exchange.

 

Luke and I as the happy hosts.

We found these beauties deep in the depths of my in-law's closets. Luke's grandma actually knit the sweater Luke is wearing for Luke's dad. We were actually very impressed with it. Mine...not so much.

 

Everyone that came were great sports about showing up in their ugly.

But Travis took the cake with his winter wonderland sweater and won the grand prize. An ugly sweater-ed sparkling cider and glasses.

 

The white elephant game had me in tears. Especially when Bob won the grandma panties. People brought some great stuff and we had a great time.  

 

 Get ready for next year.

 We are thinking this is going to become a holiday tradition.

Happy Ugly Sweater-ing!

CARDS!!

One of my favorite things about Christmas time is getting Christmas cards in the mail. On Tuesday, we recived these...

Our first Christmas cards of the season.

I think these girls should get a prize or something for being so on top of things. I'll be sending mine out next week.  

Art Masters

I found this awesome idea on Pinterest the other day and I have been wanting to create a similar project with Oliver. On Black Friday I went to Joann's to buy a canvas with my coupons and to my happy surprise, they were 60% off. Score! I bought a larger canvas and thought it would go perfect in my bare room.

 

Oliver was very excited to help me paint and he did great for about 8 minutes. Luckily he got in some great strokes and created some pretty cool abstract art. I finished up the rest. Even Luke got in one very profound stroke that can be seen right in the middle.

In the end it turned out perfectly.

And that saying is just a little something that we always say to each other.

And just to add a little balance, I made this...