Happy Birthday Rachel!

Rachel is my beautiful sister-in-law who I love dearly. She is smart and intelligent and again beautiful on the inside and out. She is a very good wife to my brother and will be a great mother in April. Rachel and I have a lot of the same interests. I just wish we lived closer so we could spend a little more time together. I hope you have a great birthday today, Rachel!

Happy Birthday Papa!

True to form, I'm late on posting Papa's birthday post.

I hope it was wonderful. This year was fun for us because we were able to go visit Papa at his work on his birthday. There are many things I admire about Steve. He is a very hard worker. He is always lending a helping hand either at his own house or at ours. He has also devoted a great deal of time to learning both spiritual as well as secular truth. He is a truth seeker, and will always kindly let you know if you have been misinformed. He delights in service to both his family and to the members of his ward. He is also a very good Papa to Chase and Christian. 

Happy Birthday Papa!

Happy Birthday Diane!

I'm grateful to have such a wonderful mother-in-law. She has always helped me feel welcome and has treated me with such kindness. I love many things about Diane. I truly admire her compassion and her love for others. She believes that showing love and building relationships are more important than checking things off of a to do list. She is a great listener and will listen to anything you have to say whether she has time or not. In fact, you would never know whether she has time or not because she would never tell you. You always feel that she has time for you. What a great example that is to everyone around her! I love you Diane and Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Devin!

This year I wanted to write a note to the members of my family on their birthdays. I'm already behind for which I apologize.

I was able to serve with Devin in Hungary. I was impressed with Devin's work ethic and his ability to learn such a hard language. He learned to speak Hungarian very well. I also noticed that he took the work seriously but didn't take himself too seriously. He was able to laugh about his mistakes and be generally positive. I admire Devin's ability to make friends. If you were looking to be his friend I don't think you would be put on a waiting list. You also don't have to have any qualifications to be Devin's friend. I've always gotten the feeling that Devin is fairly non-judgmental and sees the good in everyone. We hope you had a wonderful birthday Devin!

Home for Christmas

It was such a blessing to be able to go home for Christmas. We enjoyed  every minute of it. We were all sick  on Christmas with a stomach bug but we were sick together. We don't have pictures from Christmas day because I don't think anyone felt well enough to get off the couch and get the camera. :)

Polar Express

My mom took us to ride the Polar Express. We had a great time. 

This is not too bad of a picture with Santa. Both of the boys had a little bit of a hard time with him this year. :)

Chase Birthday Festivities

Yummy Pizza. Birthday dinner of choice.

He was very much looking forward to this construction cake and still talks about.

Bliss. What could be better than chocolate and construction vehicles when you are 3!

Christian's introduction to chocolate and cake. He didn't get any on his birthday. He has such cruel parents...

Have you ever stuck your nose in vaseline and then tried to get a pom pom to stick to the end. If not, you have got to play this game. It ranks high for it's entertainment value. Not many of us could do it without gagging on the ribbon.

Such a great picture of these guys!

Pinching pennies. This game is a riot. I purposefully left some people's picture off of here so as not to embarrass them. My mom just looks cute. 

Present time! Chase had a wonderful birthday and was thrilled to have everyone there to celebrate it with him.