Last of the Utah Pictures

Here's the last pictures from our trip to Utah...

My parents, Bryn, and me

Bryn loved parking herself on the little ottomans and reading books

Playing "Polly Pockets" with my Dad

Bryn was crazy about the Polly Pockets. It's always fun to see Bryn enjoying the my old toys that I loved as a child!

The girls: Getting pedicures the day before Rie's wedding.

The boys: playing games on Christmas Eve

We got new sweats on Christmas Eve. This position was a horrible idea because (A) it's totally unflattering but more importantly (B) the boys loved jabbing and tickling me as Mom was taking the picture. You can tell by the picture Logan is up to no good!

We had a fun party with the Clarkes, my dad's extended family. Bryn loved doing crafts and running around with her second cousins. I wish she got to play with them more than once or twice a year!

Playing with Jae

Practicing the "Flex Arm Hang" on the basketball rim

We also had a fun party with the Tuellers, my mom's extended family.

There's nothing my brothers love more than some good Christmas chimes.

We had a White Elephant gift exchange at the Tueller party which, of course, provided lots of laughs. I brought the black "du-rag" and Grandpa Tueller ended up with it! Classic!

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This trip to Utah seemed to go by way too fast (probably because the first part of the trip was busy with wedding details), but it was still so fun to be with our families and fit in as much as we could!

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas day at my parent's house and it was wonderful! I love it when Christmas is on Sunday because it's great to go to church and hear of Christ...the whole reason behind the holiday. My mom is ward choir director now, and it was a treat to hear the choir's Christmas program.

These are all my siblings minus Marie who spent Christmas with her new in-laws

Bryn and I before church. She still looks half asleep!

We didn't open presents before church, but we did see what Santa left in our stockings. Bryn was pleased :)

My mom's parents went to church with us and then spent the morning with us afterwards. Grandpa enjoyed a little head rub with my mom's funny scalp massager.

Grandma Tueller had just finished her cancer radiation a week before Christmas, but you'd never know it! She was as radiant and energetic as always! She even insisted on cooking the bacon on Christmas. Love you Grandma!!

Bryn LOVED my mom's big stash of Christmas books

Reading with Jordan

Bryn loved all her Christmas gifts, especially this little doll cradle from my mom.

My dad's parents joined us for Christmas dinner and games that night.

What a wonderful day!

Brynlee is THREE

Three years ago today our sweet Brynlee was born! It's been a blessing and a joy to have her in our family and I'm so grateful to be her mom. She is so silly, sweet, confident, smart, and creative. She is my little buddy and I'm grateful to spend each day at home with her.

Happy Birthday Bryn!

Homemade Christmas Gift #2

Another homemade Christmas gift this year was sewing throw pillows for my sister's new apartment. She just got married and she needed some pillows for her bed. Her sheets are pale blue and her duvet is a charcoal gray color, so hopefully these pillows will be a fun pop of color. Zippered pillow covers are a simple sewing project and THIS is the tutorial that I always refer to.

Homemade Christmas Gift #1

We always do a gift exchange with Josh's siblings and this year we had Becky and Hema's family. Becky said they could use some quiet activities to keep their young kids entertained during church, so I made a couple things...

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(1) First of all, I made a "Dry-Erase Quiet Book" using my friend Autie's awesome tutorial that you can find HERE . I don't have a picture of it, but I printed off lots of coloring sheets and activity pages from the online Friend Magazine, put them in a binder in heavy-duty sheet protectors, and then added a pack of dry-erase crayons. You can color on the pages and then just wipe it off clean for next time.

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(2) Then I made some really simple felt activities. The background for each one is 6 inches by 9 inches (a half sheet of felt). The background pieces are glued down, but the other pieces can be moved around. (That's probably obvious).

Butterflies

Fish Pond

Christmas Tree

Flower Garden

Autumn Leaves

Dinner Plate

Rainbow

Jack-O-Lantern

Faces

Ice Cream Cones

Names

(I included the names of all the family members)

The pieces for each set were put in super fancy snack-size bags

And all the pieces and backgrounds were put in a big gallon-size ziploc. And that's that. I usually don't make homemade gifts, but these were fun projects to put together!

Bryn was a little sad that we gave the felt activities away, so I'm working on making a set for her!

Utah: Hawkins

We had a great trip to Utah and had so much fun with our families! Here are some pictures with Josh's fam, all photos via Josh's phone...since I didn't have my camera!

The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

Having fun digging around

Hunter, Bryn, Vela, Hema, and Halle

We spent a few days/nights at "the farm" with Josh's parents. Bryn LOVES "Tag" the cat and always tries to follow it around.

Feeding carrots to the horses

Walking down the lane with my Mom in law.

Bryn feeding "Tag" breakfast

Josh's mom is an amazing baker and cook. One of my favorite things she makes is her amazing breads!

Beckam and Brynlee were good buddies

Playing games

The cousins love to dance around when Josh's dad plays the guitar

Cute cousins!

Josh's sister Jess is Bryn's preferred hair stylist and she gave Bryn her annual shearing.

Bryn had fun helping her Grandma Hawkins in the kitchen

Josh's fam LOVES to play games, so over the break we played Rook, Apples to Apples, Word on the Street, Settles of Catan, Sequence, and Ticket to Ride. My favorite was playing Rook with Jason and Brandi. Fun times.

Playing with the wigs

It's a fun tradition to spend Christmas Eve with the Hawkins side. We have a Christmas devotional, sing songs, play games, eat lots of good food, open presents, and have a talent show with the cousins. Bryn's talent was singing Silent Night. She sang it about two octaves too low for her range, but that made it even better.

Usually all of Josh's seven siblings are in town for Christmas Eve, but this year it was a small group! We missed all the other Hawkins families, but it was still a great night!

I am lucky to have married into such an awesome family!