Christmas 2010

We had a fabulous month of December. We decorated the tree even before Thanksgiving! We were all anxious to get into the Christmas Spirit. We did lots of fun things this month including making gingerbread houses, decorating the tree, going to our Stake Nativity two times, driving around to look at lights, lots of outings to the mall and such, my birthday on the 19th, and of course the crowning glory of Christmas morning! We did our own little Nativity on Christmas Eve which was really fun. We also watched Luke 2 and I think the kids really did understand what Christmas is really about. We talked about it a lot all month, but emphasized it before all the present sharing started.

We tried to keep the presents to a minimum, and did a pretty good job but as always we could have done better! Somehow it never looks like enough, which is Satan I'm sure trying to worm his way into Christ's holiday! But the kids were ecstatic with what they got and Chris and I were pretty blessed as well. The favorites were Pillow Pets, Legos, new Robes to snuggle in, and plenty of gum!! Chris got me a really cute coat, that I may or may not have picked out on a shopping trip prior, and lots of cute accesories, a new hat to wear on bad hair days, and a new cd. I got him a cool pair of dress shoes, cds, a new dress sweater and shirt (he dresses up pretty much every day for the clinic), and some shirts with his Motorcycle Trip decal transferred onto them with T-shirt vinyl I cut with my machine. That was my "surprise" gift to him, everything else was pretty main stream and boring! He was really happy with that gift and I felt best about it because it was the most thoughtful. Isn't that what Christmas gifts are all about?!

We chatted with family on all sides during the day, ate a wonderful Turkey dinner, and then went and saw the new Tron. It was a good flick, can't beat a movie on Christmas day! We got home plenty tuckered out and all crashed. Chris is home for a whole week with no clinic!! but will be working on his thesis here and there, but I'm so glad to have him home in the evenings for a week. Chris's dad and brother are coming to visit on Thurs. night for a couple days so that will be something to look forward to as well. I'm feeling the "After Christmas Blues" and hope the next couple months of cold will go quickly.

We do feel so blessed as a family for everything we have and all our wonderful friends and family. Heavenly Father has poured out his spirit on us this year with too many blessings to count, and we hope we can always remember him and give thanks throughout the year, not just at Christmastime. Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

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November 2010

November was kind of a blur to be honest! Getting in a routine with Delaney has been harder than with the other kids, just too many other schedules to deal with. She's not sleeping through the night at all, still wakes up every 3-4 hours, and has lots of gas we can't seem to remedy. But generally she's still a very happy baby and we love her to pieces!

Chris's mom and Todd came for a visit! They brought all the kids' Christmas presents and we had an early Christmas celebration. We went and stayed in a condo down in Branson for a couple of days. It was really fun! We went to Ripley's Believe it or Not, and walked around Branson seeing the sites. It was great having them and for them to meet Delaney.

We blessed Delaney the Sunday Chris's family was here. It happened to be our stake conference so we did the blessing at our home. Chris's friends from school, Mike, Tessa, Kylie, and Kylie's husband Robbie were able to come as well. We were so grateful for their support! It was a special night for us and our little sweetheart. Chris gave a beautiful blessing, one she'll be blessed with her entire life. I'm so thankful for the priesthood Chris holds in our home worthily!

We stayed home for Thanksgiving this year and just did our own dinner. Chris baked the turkey and it was delicious!! He's a chef deep down. We went and saw Tangled afterwards, it was a great and fun movie. We missed all our family in UT and abroad, but it's always kind of nice to have a low key holiday as well. Here's some pics from our month.

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Ward Family Halloween 2010

This free photo slideshow customized with Smilebox We had a wonderful Halloween this year with lots of fun activities. Thanks to the Chapmans for inviting us over for Halloween Eve, as Halloween was on Sunday this year. We had a great time at their wonderful party! We didn't go trick or treating so we could focus on the Sabbath that day, but did have a great Trunk or Treat at church the Thursday before. Our little genie and Raphael TMNT had a great time, and we had a lot less candy to deal with! Happy Halloween!

Gavin turns 5!

So I'm WAAAY behind in the blogging biz, but since this is a journal for me I feel I need to catch up, for posterity's sake of course. So here goes. Before all the baby craziness, Gavin had a monumentous 5th birthday! We had a big friend party last year so we kept it low key this year. We told him we could go do something fun and he could invite one friend. He decided he wanted to go Mini Golfing, and invited his best bud Jason Martin. Branson has a lot of cool Mini Golfing places. He chose the Dinosaur themed one, and we went on the Fri. before his Bday. It was lots of fun, and we only lost a couple balls :-D

Gavin had just started preschool the week before, and his birthday landed on a preschool day. He got to take cupcakes to school that day for their snack. He requested ham potato skillet for dinner and a Batman cake. We had a great family dinner and loved devouring the Batman sign.

Gavin just makes me smile. He has the funnest, goofiest at times, personality. He LOVES to dance and shake his booty, every time he hears any kind of song with a beat he is up out of his chair or off the floor and just starts to boogie! He does a MEAN robot. It's so cute and awesome, he can hardly contain himself. He loves to rhyme, and sometimes will just start saying words with a string of rhymes after a word, even if they aren't actual words. He LOVES his baby sister. He kisses her every chance he gets and will continue to kiss her soft cheeks until mom calls it quits on him! He has a very sweet and loving personality and loves to snuggle in the evenings. He loves playing with Maci and they come up with crazy and interesting games to play together, until it all falls apart as it often does with siblings. But for the most part they get along really well. We recently moved them into separate rooms and they've really missed being together in the same room! Gav loves to play the Wii and especially the Playstation with Daddy when he's home and able to relax, which believe me, is kind of a rare occasion! He loves to ride his bike, and to play with his buddies Jason and Hunter. He loves all thing Super Hero and has recently gotten into Star Wars. Overall, Gavin is just a joy to be around and I love him so much! I'm really going to miss him next year when he goes off to all day Kindergarten!

Happy Birthday Big Man! We Love You!