Return with honor

 It's been a year and a half since Grandma and Grandpa left for the MTC then on to Brownsville, Texas.

They have been missed! We all knew they were doing great things but you still miss them just the same.

Wednesday January 23rd they pulled into the driveway a little after 2:00 in the afternoon to a crowd of adoring fans!

 We had been tracking their progress often so we could all be waiting out front when they arrived.

The kids were so thrilled!

 Everyone got big hugs and grand babies met Grandma and Grandpa for the first time, Well mostly grandpa since mom made a little stop in when her baby had her first baby.

 I tried to get a good shot of Andrew hugging them but I failed. darn.

 You can see the end of the hug between father and son in the background.

Everyone arrived that day! We all hung out together and enjoyed the easy dinner of pizza. Cousins played and there was plenty of catching up.

We look forward to their talks on Sunday.

All in all I am so happy to have them home.

Christmas day

Christmas Eve

 Rigdon started off the night sprinkling the lawn with reindeer food. You want to keep them happy!

Then we made Santa cookies, talked to Grandma and Grandpa White on Skype, Grandma read The night before Christmas. The children had been begging all day to open their gifts to each other... so we did.

 Then off to bed!

 Had to put up the barrier before I could get to sleep.

December activities

 In December the handsome Bishop performed his first wedding. Aabri looked beautiful, and Rylan looked so happy.

 Andrew, Aabri, and Rylan Teller

Cristal and Jordan welcomed the beautiful baby Elsie! 5 and a half pounds! tiny.

I made cinnamon bread instead of cookies, it was less labor intensive but pretty yummy! It did take a few days to get all the loaves made. I think I ended up making 28 loaves all together.

 More pictures of the cute baby

 I mean really.... A D O R A B L E.

 Mason competed in the battle of the books and his team did pretty well.

 Maxwell the elf found himself in all kinds of mischief.

 And Andrew and I went to the much anticipated and full of fun caroling party at Jody and Angela's house. We love it. No kids and treats to eat.

trimming the tree and nativity

 One of my friends posted a picture of her tree and she had burlap wrapped around it so I decided to copy.

I was thrilled with how it turned out.

 We also made it to the temple to see the lights. I took Sienna, Mason, and Rigdon on the same night that Ashlynn, Gunner and Andrew went with the mutual. So I don't have the older kids in the pictures. But we had a great time looking at all the lights and enjoyed all the nativiteis from around the world.

It really is a beautiful display, and if you've never been it is something to check out next year.