November Recap

Holy moly! I still haven't done a November recap?! Ay-yi-yi! How am I ever going to remember back that far?? Hmmm... This may be pretty short. I know there won't be many pictures because I think I've already posted about everything that I have pictures for. Anyway. Here it is. November's recap.

* Date-night-movie-of-the-month: Remember in October's recap. When I said November's movie was way better? Well, it was! We went to see...And loved it!! Hilarious. Great acting. Well cast. I think it's at most people's "cheap" theaters now, so go see it.

* Skate America 2010: Sean got free tickets from work! See this post for pictures and details.

* Thanksgiving 2010: Spent with family in Oregon! See this post for pictures and details.
* Mom-moment-everyone-seemed-to-miss: Ok, I admit, I thought it was pretty hilarious when, in a hurry, I dabbed pale lip gloss under my eyes instead of my concealer! I posted about it here, but I guess it was either missed or not everyone thought it was that funny!!
* A couple of random pictures... These were taken at Grandma Sandy's house after we watched the Oregon vs. Arizona game. Silly boy! He cracks me up!! :)

That's it! See?? Short and sweet!

Every Ornament has a Story...

Ok, so, literally I started this post 2 YEARS ago - I even took the pictures for it, but never got around to writing it. Last year I started writing it, but still didn't have time to post it. This is the year, though! Mainly I want to post it for journaling purposes because, truly, almost every ornament on our tree is there for a reason, not just because it's cute or pretty. I love that our tree has a history and you can visually see what was going on in our lives each year.

Hallmark friendship ornament: "Hello Hello"
purchased as a pair - the other one is similar and my good friend Heather has it.
1999


Mickey in cap and gown.
Received the year I graduated high school.
2000

Jewel-toned glass ornaments.

Bought our first Christmas together because our tree was so bare!
2005

"You Make Me Melt"

First ornament purchased together.

2005


Received from my in-laws our first married Christmas together (which was only our second Christmas together ;)
2005


Hallmark ornament: "Our First Christmas Together"
wanted to buy in 2005, but sold out - found it in Southern California and purchased in 2006


Hallmark ornament: "Joy of Music"

purchased because Sean and I both have a love of music.
2005


Received from my in-laws while prego with Ethan.
2006

Hallmark ornament: "Parents-to-be"

Pregnant with Ethan
2006

Hallmark ornament: "Looking for Santa"
Bought because it reminded me of an ornament my mom had... later we found out we were having a boy and I fell in love with it even more!
2006

Baby's 1st Christmas - received from my co-worker Jessica.

2007

Hallmark ornament: Baby's 1st Christmas

2007

Hallmark ornament: Baby's First Christmas

2007


Received from my in-laws - Baby's First Christmas
2007


Hallmark ornament: "I Wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas"
Plays portion of the song and was purchased because Sean's animal name in his family is Hippo.
2008


Hallmark ornament: "Helpful Handy Manny"
Bought because this was Ethan's favorite show. He also received several different Handy Manny toys for Christmas.
2008

Disneyland ornament - bought after Ethan's first trip to Disneyland.
2008

Oregon Ducks football snowman
Received from my grandparents because we are Ducks fans!
2008


Hallmark ornament: Little Einsteins
Bought because this was Ethan's new favorite show and he got a Little Einsteins rocket for Christmas.
2009


Pressed tin fire truck ornament -
received from grandparents because of Ethan's love of fire trucks and because it was our last Christmas living across the street from the fire department.
2009

Oregon Football
Rose Bowl ornament

2009

There! Now I am all caught up from previous years - have a couple new ones to add from this year, but that's another post.

Sean's New Look

After 5 years with a goatee, Sean decided it was time for a change....

So he shaved it off!

And here's Ethan's reaction to seeing Daddy clean-shaven for the first time!

2010 Primary Class

Sean and I were first given the calling to teach the 10-11 year olds together {he has since moved on to serve in the YM presidency}. The class was labeled as being "energetic". Yeah, I knew that was a nice way of saying they were rowdy! Well, I survived the whole year with them. Originally I had six active {you can read that either 1. active because they came to church almost every Sunday or 2. active because they couldn't sit still for more than 20 seconds - both are quite accurate!} boys and four active girls, although some Sundays I would have 12 kids!! Mid-summer one of the boys moved away and at the beginning of the school year one of the girls moved away. :( As crazy as these kids were, they were fun. Never, and I mean never, a dull moment in my class! We studied the Old Testament this year and I know my understanding of it definitely grew. I have always struggled with studying and learning and understanding the scriptures, so having to teach it to Primary-age kids has helped me out a lot. I actually remember the stories now! Anyway, here are a couple pictures of my class on one of our last Sundays together {they move up to a new class next year}.

The "nice" picture.

And this is a little more typical of their behavior!!

Ward Christmas Party and a Return to the Christmas Tree Farm

A week after we got our Christmas tree, Ethan and I were out running errands and decided to go back to the tree farm to visit the animals - something we had wanted to do when we got our tree, but it got too dark. Of course, Ethan loved visiting the animals. There were ducks, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, a llama and a pony. We fed the pony.

After our visit with the animals, I convinced Ethan to do a little impromptu photo session with all the beautiful evergreen trees as our backdrop.

We decided some of the branches looked like antlers!

We made several attempts at getting a good mommy/Ethan shot.
And had to throw in a few funny faces.

These are my favorite shots of the day, though...

Ethan {just wish the flash hadn't made his face so white}

Me {can you believe Ethan took this picture with no help?! Seriously, one of the best pictures of me from recent years!}

The next night was our ward Christmas dinner. After dinner, "Santa" stopped by for the kids. Ethan is totally a believer! :)


Of course, "Santa" happened to be played by one of our friends, so this is a picture of all the husbands from the main group of couples we hang out with.

Clockwise from top: Eric, Sean, Jeff/Santa and Brian

And here are 3 of the 4 wives from the group. Not sure where the other Jenn was....Left to right: Keri, Vicki and me

Then a nice couple shot of Sean and I... we don't seem to get too many of those. Not because we're not a nice couple or anything, just lack of a photographer most of the time!
And finally, a family shot! Me and my handsome boys! :)

Christmas Cookies 2010: Baked, plated and delivered.

There has still been a rush to get everything ready for Christmas this year, but since I'm not working, it's been nice to have a little more time to get things done.... like baking! I baked up 5 different kinds of cookies and Sean was on candy duty with Buckeyes and caramels. I'll just get right to the pictures. Please, try to avoid drooling on your keyboard. ;)


* Sugar cookies - about 7 dozen.Sean and I were a tag-team for these. I rolled out the dough and cut the shapes, he added the sprinkles. The stockings and gingerbread men were per special request from Ethan.

2. Chocolate-peppermint cookies - about 7 dozen. {Sorry, no individual picture of these.}

3. Cranberry-orange cookies - doubled and still only about 3 dozen.Ethan was a good helper on these. He did all of the icing drowning, I mean, drizzling! He he he!! I had to make a second batch of icing to cover all the cookies. I didn't hear any complaints though. I love that the icing and the cookie both have fresh orange zest. Yum! Oh, and they were also probably the healthiest with some wheat flour, dried cranberries and orange juice.

4. Gingersnaps - about 6 dozen. {No individual pictures of these either. Blame Sean - he did all the cookie picture taking!}

5. Raspberry Shortbread cookies - about 8 dozen. This was before I sliced them into little rectangles.

6. Buckeye candy - about 6 dozen.
7. Salted Caramels - about 9 dozen. {Obviously, this was pre-cutting.}
Total goodie count: about 46 dozen. That's over 500! Of course, over 100 pieces of that were caramel. We gave them away to, I think, 10 different families in our ward and still weren't quite able to include everyone we wanted {which is nice to know we've made so many friends up here!}, Sean took a HUGE tray into work, I loaded my family up with a big plate when they came to pick Christine up {she flew into PDX yesterday}, we've snacked on a few and what little is left is going to California.

The final product! This plate was for a family with 5 kids, so it was packed a little fuller.