Josh and Leigh are home!

My Laney girl is getting so grown up. She has grown a ton in the last few months. She is still crazy goofy, but she is also mature, kind and so tenderhearted. She's basically wonderful!

The Larsons came by caroling and brought us a bunch of yummy treats. They are such great friends!

Back: Heather, Coby, Jacoby

Front: Finn, McKenzie, Brock and Rhett

It's winter, so more snuggles, of course!

Poor Freddy. He is always so tired in between regular school and his medical assistant classes at WestMEC. He usually takes a nap before WestMEC. This is how I found him napping one day.

As I was driving toward home one day, I saw this big coyote walking down the street just ahead of me. I quickly sent a warning text to our friends who live down the street to make sure that their little ones weren't playing outside. He probably wouldn't have bothered them, but I didn't want him to scare anyone.

Poor Sara has been sick with a nasty cold for several weeks.

Thursday evening, the Mortensens had a farewell party for the Watkins family. They are moving to Germany for a few years. We will miss them!

Thursday afternoon, Josh and Leigh began their drive home from Idaho!

They stopped at Temple Square to see the lights and then stayed the night there with a friend.

 Friday evening Josh and Leigh came over. We have missed them bunches! The kids were very quick to show their love to Josh. They had him on the floor wrestling in no time!

Saturday afternoon, just before sunset, we met up with Josh Jensen to have Sam and Vivian's bridal pictures taken ahead of time. Vivian looked GORGEOUS! I love her dress. She had me do the alterations and it came together beautifully! I was happy and so was she. It fit her like a glove!

  

Sara and I were the assistants. It was a ton of fun. They looked beautiful together! 

I can hardly wait to see the photos when Josh is done with the editing. 

Sunday, we had our Christmas program at church. Freddy, Daniel, Sara and I sang a beautiful duet version of What Child Is This. We were accompanied by Krista Baker on piano and Sarah MaGill on the flute. I was pleased with how smoothly it went and we had a great time performing together.

These two are so cute together!

Sebastian came to hear us sing. He is such a sunshine! It was great to have him with us.

I had Sebastian take our family photo. I didn't realize how bad the lighting was until later in the day. Oh well. It was Christmas and we were all there.

And the lighting was still bad for this one.

 Lesson learned, always check the photos before you say that you are done.

Me with my daring friend, Krista Baker!

After church we attended the Hunsaker's Christmas program as well. Then they had us over to their house for lunch and to make gingerbread houses. The Lundberg family, their kids Matthew and Megan are in school choir with Daniel, were there as well. We had a delightful time!

All of the contestants. Rich, Sara, Roger Lundberg and I were the judges. It was hard to pick.

Laney won the contest for best gingerbread house!

The Kennedys came by with some BEAUTIFUL German lemon cookies. We sure love them! They are the sweetest people!

And the cookies were delicious as well!

It's also been wonderful to have Josh and Leigh around so much. We have really missed them!!!!!

Spiritual Blessings

We have the best sunsets!!! This week was a blessing from God in so many wonderful ways, just like this sunset. We have so much to be grateful for!!!

This is pretty much a nonstop thing at our house, almost constant wrestling and tickling. Luckily it is a happy thing. They all love it. Susie, Andrew and Noah all ganged up on Freddy this time. To me, Freddy looks a lot like Tim in this picture.

On Monday, Sebastian came over to play, study scriptures and study for finals.

 Looks like they had a massage break.

Andrew and Lauryn got matching pajama pants!

Tuesday, Sara and Sebastian went out for dinner and a sugar free, 

coffee free treat at Dutch Bros, Westgate.

That evening, Madeline Kidd, my team teacher for Sunday School, went to some of the girls band concert and then had our class over to celebrate. I dropped in for a few minutes, but I had to finish preparing for finals.

Josh Jordan, Brianna Watkins, Sara MaGill, Rachel Mounteer, Trevor Watkins, Jonathan MaGill, Nicolas Summers, Madeline, Noah, Sam Buhanan

Wednesday, after finishing finals (I got straight A's!) we went to the temple for Sara to receive her endowment. It was so special to get to be her escort. She has worked hard to prepare for this in her life. She has read and studied about the temple for the last 7 months with a goal of going to the temple before the end of the year. She is a magnificent young woman and has a heart of gold. I am so proud of all she has accomplished since graduating, especially spiritually. This was a wonderful day!

Makaila and Brynn came for her endowment. They both went through the temple in November for their own endowments. These girls are such sweethearts!

Even though Vivian couldn't come in yet, her endowment was later in the week, she came to be there when we came out. She will be a wonderful addition to the family. She is so loving and thoughtful.

Rich, Steph, Sam, Vivi, Sara, Bubba, Papa and Gram

We were all starving, so we went to In N Out after the temple. It was nice to hang out with these guys a little longer. Family is the BEST!

On Thursday, we went to the school to hear Susanna sing with the 5th and 6th grade choir. She and Gwen did a great job. They sang really cute jazzy Christmas songs. I love that they get to go to school with cousins!

Her music teacher, Mrs. McKinley

Her 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Fuller. Susanna LOVES her!

Susie and Molly Van Tienderen

Her friend Madi

I don't know why I like sleeping pictures so much, but it melts my heart every time I see them all snuggled together sleeping. I'm so grateful that they all love each other so much.

Saturday was a yard work day. We worked all day weeding, trimming, filling in rock, and just cleaning up, making it look good for the up coming wedding open house.

Laney had a lot of fun with the leaves.

We were happily surprised by a visit from Connor Olvera! We love him!!! It's so great when missionaries come back to visit.

The kids love to run around and play with Connor.

It was a nice break from the yard work.

After the yard, Richard, Sara and I got cleaned up and went to the temple for Vivian's endowment.

Sam, Vivi, Mari (her mom), Carmen (she's like a grandma to her), another sweet couple (like family)

Sunday, Freddy received his patriarchal blessing. He is growing into an excellent young man. I love him bunches and bunches!

Gram and Papa gave the kids their Christmas gifts. They gave them a soccer ball, a volleyball, a 4 square ball, 2 croquet sets (so we can have up to 12 people play) and a badminton set. They gave it to them early so that they could play with it for all of Christmas break. It has been getting used a ton! They love it!!!!

These guys are SO SILLY!!!!