Happy Holiday Happenings

I have posted a few quick things here and there, but I'm really behind on all the big events! It's easy for me to get behind on pictures, because it can be quite an ordeal getting them all together! So, here we go!
This picture is from back in October, but I just love it! They sit like this together all the time. Taysum was making sure that Bailey was warm, so he shared his blanket with her. (As I was blogging about this, T and B saw the picture, so T went and got his blanket, B asked for some juice and they are sitting like this right now! :) ) Sadly, this is the only picture of Thanksgiving I have! We rented "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" through Net Flix and Taysum wanted to take this picture. We were in Lovell for Thanksgiving this year and we had a wonderful feast over at my parent's house with the Lindsays and my Grandpa and Grandma Anderson. It was really nice and really yummy! The kids and I REALLY enjoyed having Ken home for a couple extra days! The day after Thanksgiving, we were really on the ball and decorated for Christmas! Taysum was so cute and kept saying Merry Christmas to each of us. This is our little tree we've had for 10 Christmases now! It was a hand-me-down from Ken's sister Holly. We love it and it turns out beautiful every year. I think it may have to retire after this year, however! Taysum was really funny because he turned out all the lights and then started loo loo looing to Hark the Herald Angels Sing, just like in Charlie Brown Christmas.

Bailey LOVES olives...just not eating them! :)

We were also pretty brave and had our family pictures taken over the break. My sister Lindsay took them and we are so happy with how they turned out! For our Christmas cards and our pictures for our wall, we added a sepia tint and we think they look great! It's always fun to have new family pictures; especially when you're happy with them!

Our Family 2009

This is one of Bailey's extra-cute faces! :)

We've had enough Halloweens now, that I was able to put together a dress-up box. The kids have had a lot of fun with it. Taysum always chooses the fireman outfit!

Bailey is our little cowgirl. Here she is in her daddy's boots!

Christmas started at the end of October at our house this year! Taysum saw a toy car at the Pharmacy that he wanted and Ken suggested writing a letter to Santa Claus. So, they wrote the letter and Ken taught Taysum how to draw a Santa. Nearly every day after that, Taysum would talk about Santa bringing the yellow car. He didn't understand the waiting part of it, though...he thought Santa should bring it right then! We got out some of the Christmas cartoons and Taysum had a fun time singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and playing Santa!

We had a really nice time at our Ward Christmas Party as well. This was a great Santa and his beard is real!! I was surprised that Bailey sat with him!

Later that day, Ken and Taysum were drawing together. We missed it in this picture, but Taysum sticks his tongue out when he is concentrating, just like his dad!

Taysum also built his first snow man! He used his own mitten for the hat and rocks for the face!
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We usually go to my parents on Sunday evenings and my grandparents are usually there as well. I love this picture of Great-grandma reading to Bailey!

On the 16th, Taysum had a school program and it was so cute! I was SO impressed with his teachers teaching them all those songs! Taysum loved it and he did such a GREAT job! Unfortunately, they were right in front of the window, so the pictures and video didn't turn out so great (I was so lucky to have just barely enough video tape to record it)! Bailey was very good, too, which made it very enjoyable!

Taysum and Ms. Lori Taysum and Ms. Carol

Chillin' with our favorite Scout Leader

My brother Matt was home for about a week and we REALLY enjoyed having him here! He asked me to help him with a gift for his girlfriend. He had written a song and he wanted to present it in a nice way. I was SO excited to do this project!! I haven't done any scrapbooking in about a year and it was GREAT to get all my stuff out again! I think he was a little overwhelmed with my enthusiasm, so he left the creative part to me...I was really happy with how it turned out! It's not much, compared to his words to her, but I was thrilled to be able to help in any small way!

The BEST part is that he proposed to her January 3rd and they are going to be married this summer! We are so thrilled to have Megan as a part of our family and can't wait to meet her! :)

And so we come to Christmas Eve! We spent Christmas at home as well, which was a lot of fun! I think Taysum said it best when he said, "This is the BEST Christmas EVER!!" Christmas Eve we went to my parents for dinner and our traditional program. Just before we started, the Carter Family came a-caroling. They sounded great and it really touched my Grandma.

We had our traditional finger-food dinner (the best in my opinion!!)

Then we watched the Nativity and my mom had me help Taysum tell about it using a cute little wooden nativity set. We also played our Christmas chimes and we sang "Silent Night" with my brother playing guitar. We were kind of a small group: My Grandparents, parents, us, Matt and Tyler. (Lindsay was with Chad's family and Nick and Lindi had to stay in Las Vegas because he had to work.) Ours were the only kids. While we missed the others, it was still nice and we had a good time together. At the end, my dad did his traditional reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and I'm so happy we got this picture, even though it's blurry (the kids just move so much and we don't get very good pictures anymore!)

I've been trying to start a tradition of getting the kids pajamas each year at Christmas and letting them open them Christmas Eve so they can sleep in them. They really love them and that made me happy! We got some blue pajamas with construction vehicles on them for Taysum and some pink ones with monkeys on them for Bailey.

Christmas morning was great!! The kids went to bed just fine, but Ken and I couldn't sleep. I don't think either one of us knew the other was having trouble sleeping, otherwise we could have watched movies or played board games or something! We were really excited when the kids woke up. They had a lot of fun opening presents. Their "big" gifts this year were new bedding; Spiderman for Taysum and Dora the Explorer for Bailey. Taysum grabbed Bailey's and he was convinced it was his and was really upset when we wouldn't let him open it. Finally, we opened his for him and he yelled out, "SPIDERMAN!!" He was OK with it after that! ;) They had a lot of fun opening their gifts. We were very blessed this year. I had an early Christmas, as the things I needed couldn't wait until Christmas. We had been without a washing machine and vacuum for at least two months. We found a place in Cody that sold re-built washers at a great price! I won a contest at work for naming a new website and won a gift card that bought our vacuum. Then I was really spoiled when Ken bought a bed topper. I've had trouble with my back for about 4 years now and this topper has been such a blessing!! I sleep so well and so comfortably and my back doesn't give me any trouble! Ken and I decided we must be getting old if we get so excited about gifts like these! I think the best gift was to be together in our own home for Christmas...it was great!

Well, actually the best gift was/is that after a year and a half of working on it, Taysum is potty trained!!!!! We started again when Ken was home for Thanksgiving and he has done great!! There were a few set-backs and a couple weeks struggling with "#2" but he is doing great!! We're so proud of him!! He's not perfect at it and he still wears a pull-up at night, but we're thrilled and relieved!!

Of course, the ultimate gift is that of the life and love of our Savior! We are so thankful to him for His constant love and guidance in our lives. We are truly blessed!! This was my gift to Ken. During conference, Elder Bednar's talk really stuck out to both of us. We looked at each other and exchanged looks that said, "Maybe there is hope for us after all!" ;) I wanted to capture that and have it be a part of our family. I couldn't find the artist or the painting any where, so I improvised (looong story) and came up with this. I was so pleased with how it turned out! I think it's more for me, though, because I think of it and look at it often during the day when things are "less than perfect" around our house!

Then it was back to Grandpa and Grandma's house for Christmas breakfast! (SOOO yummy!) The Lindsays were there, too and we had a great time with them! Ken made hot egg nog which is a tradition from his family. His family isn't that big on egg nog hot or cold, so he didn't think my family would really like it. We all like egg nog, though and it was a huge hit!! Lindsay said, "You've been a part of this family for HOW long now, and you are just sharing this now??" So, we have a new tradition!

We tried to get all the grandkids under the tree for a picture in their Christmas jammies, but Carissa and Bailey weren't too thrilled about the idea.

We relaxed and played and baked the rest of the day and finished up with a great Christmas Day dinner at my mom and dad's. It was a wonderful Christmas!! A few days later, we celebrated my youngest brother's birthday! I can hardly believe that Tyler is 18 now!! I can remember when I graduated from HS, figuring out how old I'd be when when he graduated. It seemed SOOOO far away, and now here we are!! Who'd have thought?? The next day, Mom, Dad and Tyler came over to our house and we had a fun time playing the game we gave Ty for his birthday.

2010?!?!?!! Yep...believe it or not! We left New Years Eve day for Utah. We had to make a lot of stops (this was our first trip with a potty-trainee,) but we made pretty good time! We stopped in Salt Lake City to see the lights at Temple Square. Every year, we make plans to see the lights and we never make it, but this year, we were determined! We were going to meet up with Ken's brother Shane and his family, but Shane was very ill and we missed out on getting to be with them. Ken's brother Mark made it, though, and we had a fun time with them. Our kids are really close in age, so it's a lot of fun to be with them. The kids were pretty worn out from the trip, but they handled it pretty well. I really enjoyed it! I just LOVE Temple Square!

Taysum's favorite was the escalator. It made Bailey pretty nervous, but she liked it too. The rest of the evening Taysum kept asking for the elevator and the escalator. I remember when I went there when I was young I thought the escalator was somthing else, too! (Can you tell we're from small town, USA?) :)

My very most favorite was the Christus. It is always so amazing to visit there and feel the peace, reverence and love. It was so fitting this time of year. Bailey hardly took her eyes off of him. I asked her who it was and I am so thankful that both my kids know who he is! It was so special to watch her watch Him!

I'm sure they do this every year, but I thought it was so beautiful that he was surrounded by white poinsettia.

It makes me sad that our pictures are so blurry...I think our cameras are having trouble or something. Here is one with Mark, Alicia, Sami and Ryan. Alicia is due a couple months after me. Then another sis-in-law, Leah, is due in between; we're excited that our kids will have cousins so close in age!

This was really neat! In the eliptical pool in front of the temple, they had this white Nativity with floating lights all around. It was so beautiful!

After that, we went on to Lehi to Ken's sister Holly's house! I was so pleased that our kids just jumped right in and joined the fun! They just started playing with their cousins and all the toys and DID NOT want to leave when we were done! We had a fun time eating party food and playing Guitar Hero and "The Face Game" (a Cutler original!) Then we moved the party to Ken's parent's house to stay up until midnight! We got our kids down for the night and stayed up playing games. Then Grandpa Ned (Grammy Penny was coming back-through a blizzard- from her cousin Benny Jo's funeral in Idaho) broke out the sparkling cider and we watched the ball drop in New York on TV. I also got a very nice New Year kiss! Welcome 2010! The party pretty much broke up after that, but Mark and Alicia stayed and played games with us for a while. It was a lot of fun!

The next day we spent getting ready for the big Cash Bash! Ken's mom's parents Guy and Mary Ellen Cash (the Guy that Taysum Guy was named for) were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary (and Gpa's 80th birthday). 80 of soon to be 100 were there! It was pretty crazy, but pretty amazing! Bailey struggles with crowds and heat, both of which were in abundance, so she had a pretty hard time, but we survived and it was a very nice event. We had a fun program and Taysum said a poem "Somebody Said" (with my coaching) that is a part of Gma ME's family. He did a great job. He also sang a song with all the kids and did a great job!

Then

Now

Even Gpa and Gma got into the act...

The next day we mostly played games with Mark and Alicia. In the afternoon, Paul and Holly's families came over for fun with the horses. Mark saddled up his horses and pulled around the bottom of an old sailboat (that Ken and his brother Shane sunk in once) as a big sled for all the kids. They had such a blast! He also saddled up his daughter Sami's pony, Copper, and let the kids ride him as well. He was so cute and Bailey was in absolute HEAVEN!!! Mark is really excited to be Bailey's favorite uncle with the horses!! :) We put Taysum and Bailey on Copper together and they got bucked off. I was worried that they'd be hurt or scared, but they were just mad and got right back on! "You don't do that, pony!!" (Taysum)

Adelaide, Taysum and Kymball Garrett, Bailey and Kymball
Ken, Bailey and Copper
Ken, Taysum and Copper

Uncle Mark, Taysum and Buttons

Ken, Bailey and Buster

We had dinner all together, then we had a movie night. Ken went over to Paul's to watch "Rad" an 80's movie they loved as kids. I stayed with Ken's parents. After I got our kids to bed, Penny and I watched a movie called "Front of Class" (I think). It was based on a true story about a guy with Turrets Syndrome who's life long dream is to become a teacher! This guy is my age and I can't believe the ignorance that was around even then!! It was such an amazing movie! I highly reccomend it to anyone!!

Then, all too soon, it was time to head home! Bailey thought she was going to drive! :) We had great weather and the kids did really well. We were SOOO blessed to have good roads and weather there and back and that our van hung in there, even though the heater doesn't work when we're moving (we'd have to warm it up when we'd stop). We had such a great time and can't wait to go back again! Taysum said, "I want a new grandma that's far far away."

This was just a cute moment from the other day. I was popping some pop corn for the kids and Bailey was upset about something. Taysum invited her up to watch it pop with him. He had had his arm around her, but I missed it. He was able to calm her down and they had fun watching the pop corn.

Usually I'm sad to see this time of year end. This year I tried to not look at it as an ending. I really enjoyed everything about it and I'm now looking forward to moving on! I tried to look at this holiday season as the beginning of a New Year rather than the end of an old and I'm just overwhelmed with a quiet excitement and assurance that the best is yet to be and everything will be fine as we exercise hope and faith in Christ. We are so blessed with a warm home, food to eat, employment, (mostly) working vehicles and the love and support of an incredible family! Most of all we have eachother and the true Gospel of Christ to lead us and guide us. We are truly blessed with treasures beyond compare!!! Happy New Year!!!