Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!!

Every year we get a fresh tree. We love going out and picking it (at Home depot) bringing it home and the smell of it.

This year we heard about a tree farm not far from our home. You get to go out and look for your tree, cut it down and bring it home. What fun!! We ventured out and the hunt began. It was full of caroling, sweet smells, family bonding time.....Oh wait, that was a dream.

Have you ever watch the movie "Christmas vacation", the opening scene when they are driving to the tree farm, the kids are SO excited to go(megan and the little guys were excited) we had some protesting and some not so excited kids(Ben).

Once there we were hoping for a bright light to shine upon "the tree", but that didn't happen. I was very overwhelmed! So many trees to pick from and it had to be "the perfect" tree. We would find "the one", but then we would find another one. Ben was full of support and led the christmas caroling....NOT!!! He was cold and was ready to go!!

We did find "the one" and had a really great time hunting for it. We got it cut down and then had it pulled by a 4wheeler to the car. Now that was the best part!!

We have it up and I am thinking it is kind of BIG! Oh well, we love Christmas around here so the bigger the better!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I think the tree is a bit on the big side!!

On our way home!

Kids loved the ride and we loved that we didn't have to carry it all the way to the car!

Timber!!!

"The one"

The feast before the feast.

So this year we spent Thanksgiving at my sister Jenny's house. So to start the day off right we had a pre-feast. I went all out for breakfast and had a lot of fun.

We had:

Homemade sticky buns

Homemade hash browns

Eggs

Bacon

Orange juice

It was very yummy!!

As we sat eating our breakfast we went around and everyone said one things they are grateful for. Sarah: my family, Josh: Jesus, Ben: food, Megan: mom & dad, Greg: his family, Callie: my testimony and my family(i can't pick between those two).
I wanted to eat ALL the sticky buns!
YUMMY!!!!

Bowling

So now that the boys are getting older we feel like we need to spice up our family nights. We polled the kids the other night to see what they wanted to do for our activity. Their ideas were Ice skating, bowling. We thought we would start out easy and go for the bowling.

Megan really enjoyed herself. She is a good bowler!
Ben is better than me at bowling. Of course that isn't hard to do. He really had a good time, but of course worried about the boys the whole time. He is are worry wart. He is very protective of the little guys, but of course not over his sisters.

Out of all of the kids I think Josh had the most fun! Yes, he insisted on wearing his spiderman costume. He thought it gave him muscles to carry his own ball. He would not let ANYONE help him. If you got close to him he would tell you to "get away, I do it myself!" No matter if he hit a ball or not he had this high pitch scream. It was HILARIOUS!!!
Sarah was quite the bowler herself. She really enjoyed it and was very eager to help everyone with their ball.
I was surprised at how strong the boys were. They would pick up these heavy balls and carry them and never drop them once.
The boys worked hard on their patients. They did a very good job and were great cheerleaders.
All-in-all we had a great time!! The kids all walked away very happy and grateful and we made another great memory as a family.

Family

The girls and I got to go see Theo in his very first piano recital today. He did so well!! He was so excited and ready to show his stuff.

It is when I get to be a part of these thing that makes me so grateful that I get to live by some of my family. I wish I could live by all my family but I can't.

About 2 weeks ago I was lucky enough to go out to Wisconsin and be apart of two very wonderful events. Beth blessed sweet little Hector and Baptized Damon. My sister Beth and her husband Jason have done an amazing job with their family and I and grateful for their example.

I was able to be with both my sisters, which doesn't happen often. We had an awesome time together!! There were many late nights, lots of laughing (maybe a little of wetting our pantsbecause of all the laughing), and long talks about everything. I am so blessed to have 2 AWESOME sister in my life. I think I am the luckiest because they are both my older sisters, so I have to guardian angels looking out for me.

The sweetest addition to the ever growing Baker family!! I love family and we have a pretty dang great one!! I think there are 16 grandkids!!
Here is sweet Damon on the day the he got Baptized. He was so happy and excited. I am very proud of him. He is a wonderful example to his sisters and brother.
Cutest thing ever!!! Hector was able to share Damon's special day with him and be blessed. I am so grateful for the Gospel and the hope peace and joy it brings to me and my family. Sitting there that day and witnessing the Gospel touching my family was priceless. It was a real testimony builder.
Beth and Jason are wonderful parents. They have a beautiful family.

Yes I am not the best blogger.

Oh well, right.

Part of my problem is that I think that if I don't have picture's to show then I don't have any thing to blog.

Well I am going to try to get over that and blog my thoughts as well. I want to use this as part of my family journaling as well as keeping in touch with family and friends and not have it just be photo's.

Not very many people view or comment on my blog so I don't think it will bother any one if I start adding just my thoughts.

Well here goes. :)