Picture OVERLOAD!!

Does the blogging world get normal again after the holidays? I have so many pictures I want to post ... but, I just haven't even sat down to get them on my computer. So ... today I will post the millions of pics I took at the awesome Taylor Family Christmas party. We had a blast! I'm so glad that so many people could make it ... although, we DID miss those that weren't there. Believe it or not, I picked my favorite pictures to post ... there were just so many. Thanks ALL for a fabulous time!

Watching the BYU game ... Getting ready for White Elephants.

The spider-crawler ... Grandma Great and Santa.

Wonderful piano duet ... cute girls.

Being together is fun! Fun Santa gifts and white elephants!

What a great turn out!!

"That's Good Reading!" -- The Joys from Toddlerhood

Every time Krystal reads this book (which is like 100 times/day) she says, "That's good reading!" :D!!

The Foundation

I don't think I've ever done THREE posts in one day. Wow. We've been busy. Our foundation is poured!! :) We are so excited.


I love that we can see the front porch, livingroom, dining room, kitchen, family room, stairs, and garage now. It's starting to feel more real. Even though we have the beautiful view of the sugar beet factory from our back window - this gorgeous view of the mountains is what we are facing.

Here Comes Santa Clause

We love the yearly Jenson tradition of a personal visit from Santa Clause! It's so fun to get together for a special night of Christmas joy. Thank you Grover and DeAnn!

Marissa and Aaron are now pros with the Santa Clause scene. Marissa took the longest to get comfortable - and would not sit on Santa's lap with a smile until she was about 7 years old. Aaron did quite a bit better - and by age 3, was not afraid. Krystal sobbed this year, but ... with the help of Ryan Jr. found the courage to get semi-close and tell him that she wanted a pink baby.

Jeremy was the only person she wanted to be with once Santa came in. She wouldn't even sit with me. Silly girl. Thank heavens for Jeremy (bleherbleherbleh). He kept her happy ... like usual. She started crying when Santa Clause left, because he didn't give her the pink baby. Jeremy convinced her, however, that Santa was going home to make it and would bring it Christmas Eve. Love you Jers!!!

We LOVE being together. It's the best place to be.

Temple Square

Friday night we went to Temple Square with the Miller Fam.

It was very crowded. I lost my camera. Aaron's legs were wobbly from all the walking. I carried Krystal 95% of the time. It was FREEZING cold.

We love being together. Tyler found my camera (due to a 3 mile walk.) The kids were asleep after 2 minutes into the ride home. Krystal sings "I love to see the Temple" 24/7. The lights were beautiful.

We had a great time!!

Houses!

Our house has officially begun!! As of Monday, we own a great hole in the ground. And NOW we own the hole AND the footers! Exciting! The bottom picture really shows our great view of the sugar beet factory (haha)! We don't mind.

So, to celebrate - we put together our own gingerbread house for the 12th day of Christmas. Krystal could not stop looking at the gingerbread house ... I took like 8 pictures from that angle - she's looking at the house in every one of them. :) Only 12 more days 'til Christmas!!! Exciting!

A Glimpse into Marissa's Head

One of Marissa's homework problems yesterday was:

Look for a pattern. Write the missing numbers. Describe the pattern.
15, 26, 37, 48, __, __

Okay - do you all have your answer?

The answer should be 59 and 70 ... the pattern is add 11. Correct?

Here's what Marissa put...

59 and 610 .... the pattern is: The first digit in each number goes up one (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) - the second digit in each number also goes up one (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). So, the pattern goes: 1-5, 2-6, 3-7, 4-8, 5-9, 6-10.

How in the world do I tell her that she's wrong? Because, technically - she is correct. Sigh.

A Nutcracker Christmas

On Saturday, we attended BYU's "A Nutcraker Christmas" at the Art Museum. We were pretty skeptical at first (mostly because it was so crowded) - but it turned out to be a blast! We also got very lucky, because we saw Laney (Leisy's twin sister) there, and she just GAVE us tickets (she works there). VERY nice! They had lots of performances and fun activities. We first went to the story telling station - which was quite comical. Here are pics of the kids listening to the stories ...

Then we went to the cookie decorating station ... a little crowded, but we survived -and had no problemo eating the cookies :)!

Definitely the hit of the day was Lance the magician/balloon twister extra-ordinare (yeah - Aaron asked for a balloon machine gun ... I'm surprised he even knew what a machine gun was!) This magician was seriously awesome ... and we were all blown away by his magic tricks. We were sitting on the front row - so got to participate in quite a few things. FUN! Here's Ty trying his hand at pulling things out of a hanky ... the magician was much better.

And here's Aaron - trying not to lose my ring. Needless to say, he was really worried when he was holding it so tightly - and then next thing he knew - he was holding a key instead (the key that eventually led to my ring). Krystal cried when she thought my ring was gone. haha. It somehow ended up in a LOCKED box within a box within a box within a box within a bag .... crazy. Anyway ... we all loved it. We hope to get him for Aaron's birthday party. Wouldn't that be cool?!