A Christmas Night, A Snowy Flight, One Year of Light, What a Sight!

We had a wonderful Holiday season this year. Our Christmas Eve started out at Grandma Church's, where we had a fabulous meal and went caroling around the neighborhood. When we got home, all the children opened one gift. Can you guess what it was?

The next morning was chaos, as usual. I think the kids were pretty happy with what Santa and Mom and Dad (and Grandparents) got them.
Alex certainly looks content in the aftermath.

Nate got much-desired sparring gear for karate! (Not to mention, matching PJ's w/ everyone's favorite baby)

A side-ways view of stocking time!

The next day, we took a snowy drive to CO and then NM to visit Aunt Jenni, Uncle Ken and cousins. The roads were bad the first day. There were four accidents along one stretch of road, we felt lucky we made it. We saw a cool rock formation with an abandoned house on the second day of driving.



We stopped at a very chilly four-corners. Dave made sure to get lots of pictures, since we figured we spent $3 for every minute that we spent there!

My sister, Jenni, (the genius) planned all the meals ahead of time and prepared most of them in advance so she wouldn't have to constantly be cooking. We had some great food while we were there. She had also made Alex his own little cake and a big one for the rest of us, since we got there on Alexander's 1st birthday!

Alexander brings such joy to our family. This has been a wonderful year with him being in the world. He is so patient, happy and accepting of all us. We are so grateful to have him. You may notice that he is getting his teeth. I certainly have! Whoever coined the phrase, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you," did not have a nursing baby that was getting teeth. You also might note that he has a "fang" on the upper right side of his gums (I did consider calling him Edward). Hopefully those front teeth will hurry and catch up!

My sister's house in Albuqurque is close to several Native American petroglyphs that are fun to hike and see. Some date back to 1000 BC. Here is a cat and and man in the next photo.

Besides going to the Children's museum, all the cousins had fun hiking Boca Negra canyon to see the petroglyphs. At the top is a beautiful panorama of the city of Albuqurque. What a sight! Thank you, Richardsons!

Santa's an alias

Aidan: (after visiting

Santa at the Children's Museum)

"Santa talks like a mad scientist."

Behind the Times?

This morning Nathan was looking at a map and said, "I want to go to Africa on my mission, Mom."

"Wow, you would probably see a lot of sad things but it would really build your faith, I bet," I said.

Nathan replied, "Yeah, I heard some sad things that happen there. Like people go there and take brown people and bring them back to the United States to be slaves."

Krisi's Pics

My sister took some fun pictures of my kids a year and a half ago that she just sent to me. They are so nice.

Aidan's World

Aidan woke me last night because he'd thrown up in bed and "didn't want to lay in it". It was a fun night. This morning after he woke up ravenous, I had to tell Aidan to be careful what he ate because his stomach might still be upset. He looked at me quietly for a moment and verified,"It's mad?".

The night before the primary program I was laying in bed with Aidan and asked if he wanted me to sing something to him. He said he wanted me to sing "Awkward". Thinking he'd made it up, I asked, "Could you sing it for me?" He said yes, it went, "Awkward, ever awkward." It sounded alot like 'Called to Serve' so I sang that and he said that was it. The next day at the primary program I found that he did know that song when they sang, "Onward, ever onward...".

First Snow

The kids woke up this morning and were so excited to see the snow. Because he didn't have to get ready for school, Aidan was the first to go out and play.






After seeing Aidan have so much fun, Stephanie got her coat and gloves and boots on and went out and built a snowman with him. Once they came in, Aidan had to light the fire and make some hot cocoa. I desperately wanted to stay home and play rather than go in to work.

Halloween

Here is some of our Halloween fun!

We have the cutest baby!

The other kids weren't quite as cute so we'll spare you those pictures.