Matthew cracks us up!

It's hard for me to look at this kid and not just smile, he's super CUTE and in these brand new snuggley pajamas, I just want to grab him and squeeze him all day long!

And he does this thing that totally cracks us up--this is how he prays:
For a few weeks he was just refusing to fold his arms when it was prayer time and then all of a sudden he started doing this. He balls his fists up and covers his eyes and has to bury his head into the table or a lap or the ground.

It is really funny--and he's really good at staying in this position for the whole prayer, though at mealtimes, he has to sneak a few bites to tide him over during the prayer--he is only 21 months after all!

Sam the Mohawk man, secret service agent

This kid needed a haircut on Monday. It's winter break from school and we don't have to be anywhere until church on Sunday. So when he asked for a Mohawk we thought--why not? He was on cloud nine with his new "dew".

It was a big day for him too because earlier while Dad was outside doing yard work Sam noticed that our neighbors had A LOT of leaves in their yard and he asked if he could go to some service by raking their leaves. He wanted it to be a secret too. Stephen came and got me and we started working on it together, and it soon turned into a family project. We raked enough leaves to fill a couple lawn debris bags!

Service can be fun too!

And I had to add this precious photo--Sam is really trying to learn how to tie his shoes and I snapped this great moment of Stephen trying to help him out, I LOVE this kid (and the man is pretty awesome too!)

Sweet Kaitlyn

My sweet Kaitlyn has joined this cute singing and performing group called the "Showstoppers" and they had their first series of performances recently. They'd worked really hard learning a bunch of songs from Broadway musicals and she had a great time.
She even had a little solo to "I got rhythm, I got music, I got my man who could ask for anything more?" Her little voice was so clear and so on key, I was so proud!

I am also impressed at her poise as well, she gets so nervous and anxious about so many things in life, I'm really happy to see that in front of crowds she never is nervous but seems so confident!

2 of the performances were at retirement facilities and the sweetest thing was that after it was over the girls each walked around and gave hugs and wishes of Merry Christmas to each of the audience members. I was so touched because some of these people may not get many visitors or physical gestures of love a lot--what a sweet service these girls did for them.
And at one of the performances, Grandma and Grandpa Lewis were able to make it--it was fun for them to come!

Nativity Weekend

The week after Thanksgiving is always a really busy one around here. Our church does an annual Nativity display for the community-and we do it up real nice.

Nearly 550 Nativity scenes are displayed among nearly 100 Christmas Trees, and white twinkling lights, musical numbers are performed by people and churches in the community. It's no small feat, it takes a small army of people wonderfully orchestrated and planned down to the last detail. It's overseen by the Stake Public Affairs Council (moi) and so I have a list of things on my to-do list.

This year was SUPER SUCCESSFUL if I do say so myself. A wonderfully timed series of media blasts and promotions did wonders to get more people not of our faith than ever before--for us that's a HOME RUN! I was so happily exhausted when the weekend was over.

But the other fun thing we did was attend Stephen's work Christmas Party. It's always on the same weekend as Nativity but we try really hard to make it out. There are lots of family friendly activities like making ornaments, decorating sugar cookies, photos with Santa and this train ride which was really fun!