finally, it's here!

the first copy of b's book finally arrived yesterday. i was working a 1/2 day, conveniently, and drove to campus so b could open up the package and bask in its glory!

it was so exciting to finally see the book and to see b's name on it. b admitted to enjoy touching and caressing his book. thoughts of "my precious" came to mind, but who can blame him? how can you not be excited!?

later that night, we decided to go to creamery to celebrate. we ate our burgers and fries at the counter stools.

w and s were most excited about the pop and ice cream. brian and i learned that you can get full on the burger/fry combo and single scoop of ice cream. boy were we full...but what a way to celebrate. it was perfect: we all got along and had a really good time together. definitely a day to go down in the family annals.

another play!

william and sierra were invited to be in a play called "the rented christmas," which was directed by a student here on campus. we spent all of november and the first week of december practicing the songs and going to rehersals. w and s were both carrolers in the play--william's stage name was "little joe" and sierra's was "linda."

sierra was immediately excited about being in the play, which i knew would be the case. but w was not into it at first. actually, he wasn't in it at first. but then when i explained that they'd get a cookie during each of the six performances, that they'd get dismissed from school early one day, and that there'd be a party involved, william was totally into it.

here are some pictures from a couple of the performances we went to.

s with other carrolers. all of the carrolers lined the stairs and sang along to christmas songs playing over the speakers. the carrolers were the first thing you saw when you entered the theater.

s in her costume, which she loved.

a view of the decorations.

each of the cast members got to wear a scarf at the end of the show.

can you find w?

it was a fun experience for w and s. and b even got to bake his first cookies--he made four dozen sugar cookies to help out with the play.

family christmas party

a few weeks ago, my family got together to celebrate christmas. it was a little early, but some folks were going to hawaii (how nice), and my mom is going away for christmas. so better early than never, right?

we had a nice, relaxed dinner, which included soup in breadbowls. w and s both thought the breadbowls were a cool idea. then we got down to business. we always have a family nativity play. this year, my mom decided we'd do a book of mormon christmas play.

some of the fam--pre show.

tricia and don dudded up.

isaac with his proud parents looking on.

william as samuel the lamanite standing on the city wall.

the wicked unbelievers throwing rocks and shooting arrows.

leah joining in on the action.

mom doing a good job orchestrating the play.

cyleste being a narrator.

b being a narrator.

sierra--the star--over mary, baby jesus, and joseph.

after the play, we enjoyed the super delicious tres leches cake i made. not much beats tres leches. and with the pommegranate seeds on top, it was tres bueno!

thanksgiving

we had a nice thanksgiving and long weekend. to kick things off, we decided to watch the lord of the rings. in fact, we decided to watch all three in the trilogy: we watched one each night except for thursday night. we borrowed the extended version dvds, which made for some long, but interesting nights. we also watched them in the order of 2, 1, and then 3. that was a bit weird, but the order we got the discs, and it worked.

for the big turkey day, b and i got up and went for a 5-mile run. then we all made thanksgiving shirts before we went over to grandma's house.

w and s eating their turkey.

excited about their lord of the rings shirts.

b's shirt is wishing his beloved islands of the sea a happy thanksgiving.

then, of course, he drew the indonesian and hawaiian archipelagos. my shirt, which isn't shown, was an homage to pet sounds with "I'm waiting for the turkey."

whitney

ross and cyleste letting us know that they're having a boy!

los esquincles y granny.

little leah.

kirsten and matt.

the day after thanksgiving, b had the good idea to go to a hot spring nearby. we drove through the mountains and made our way to a place b and i have gone in a few times...but it was the first time for the kiddos. it was pretty hot, but bearable. especially once you got used to it. we all had a good time. william was all over the place. and i have to admit that it all seemed a bit like the swamps in the two towers movie. and we even saw a bald eagle on the drive over. super cool, no?

on sunday, we decorated for christmas. and, since thanksgiving was over, it meant it was time to pull out the old frosty record (which i like more than anyone) and that bob dylan christmas cd. william said that he likes the bob dylan cd because he sounds like an old man, kind-of like a cowboy. i liked that.

fun-time fall-time pictures

here are some miscellaneous pictures from this fall.

the first day of school.

our traditional first-day-of-school donut at the creamery.

willie's donut was big!

we got some innertubes and went tubing down the provo. it was a lot of fun.

william and sierra next to our growing pawpaws. yes, they are growing.

this one is taller than sierra. and notice our peach tree behind william. it's grown so well, and it gives us such nice fruit.

w, s, and baby leah at the pumpkin patch.

the cousints.

sierra, alex, and isaac showing their jack-o-lantern faces.

b feeding the big ol' billy goat at the pumpkin patch.

sierra hugging b on his birthday.

w, b, and s with their gift to b (ritter chocolate bar). doesn't that sound good.

b with his present from me.

sierra got her face painted at b's department party.

s as a "black widow" on halloween.

a close-up of s's owl jack-o-lantern. i was quite proud of my carving skills.

w as a ninja with his pumpkin.