Christmas

I forgot to take pictures at our house opening presents. But Jefferson got some as we went to other houses. Christmas morning we got up and opened some presents. We got a new TV and it's been mounted on the wall in our bedroom for awhile, so we didn't have much to open. Lincoln started opening a present, but was having too much fun with the toothpaste I gave Jefferson in his stocking. So he opened one of his three presents before we left for my parents house. It was a small dump truck from Santa.

We got to my parents at 9 a.m. so my family could do our gift exchange before the extended family showed up for breakfast. The little kids all opened their gifts. Then we played a game with gift cards. Instead of presents to each other we brought a $20 gift card to exchange (it was the Porter family's idea). Anyway I read a story with right/left in it and we passed the cards around the circle. Whichever one you ended up with at the end of the story you kept. We did have to do 2 trades so people didn't end up with their own card. Jefferson and I ended up with Kohl's and Training Table.


After presents we took a family picture and started cooking breakfast. I didn't get any pictures of that, but Grandma & Grandpa Pay, Jerrold's family and my Aunt CA and cousin Allyssa all came over for scones, french toast, ham and scrambled eggs. YUM!

After breakfast we headed over to Grandma Pay's house. She didn't bring her gifts over so we stopped by. Lincoln got a super cute Sunday outfit and Jefferson and I got knives. Then we headed to Grandma Catlin's house. All the Allphin cousins were over there and we thought we would stop in to say hi. She had sent her gifts up to our house (Lincoln got a book about a mouse with the accompanying stuffed mouse and we got Lehi Roller Mills mixes and towels.) We were able to watch Grandma open her gifts and say hi to our cousins. We didn't stay long - it was almost 1:00 and Lincoln hadn't napped yet.

Lincoln slept on the way home and didn't want to go back down when we got home. He managed to open another present - a new shirt. So about a 1/2 hour later we loaded up the Porter's presents and headed to Jefferson's parents house. Everyone got there at 2 and we had food (sandwiches, meatballs, smokies, Christmas jello, pumpkin roll, and lots of other goodies). After eating we exchanged gifts and played our gift card exchange game. At the Porter's we went by age to pick a card. It could get stolen twice. Ramona kept getting all the good gift cards and was stolen from quite a few times. I took Target from her and Jefferson took Home Depot. Earlier Heather had taken Papa Murphys. It was fun and I am happy with what we ended up with. (FYI - to the Pays we took Kohls & Smiths and to the Porters we took Papa Murphys & Smiths).

Here is the Porter family photo.

Lincoln actually went down for a nap upstairs at the Porters while we opened presents downstairs. He slept for a nice long while. We went home around 6 and I was exhausted! Heather had given Ella a play tent with a tunnel. I had the exact one wrapped up at home waiting for Lincoln to open. I was thinking of saving it for another occasion, but decided to go ahead and let Lincoln open it. He did and we only took out the tunnel. He's had a lot of fun crawling through that tunnel!

Disney's Prep and Landing

On December 8 I recorded a show on ABC called Disney's Prep and Landing. It is Lincoln's favorite show. He will sit down and watch it - usually the whole thing (it's a 1/2 hour). He likes other shows but won't sit still while they are on. It's pretty funny. His new favorite thing to do is climb the ramp at the end of our bed and sit. (The ramp is for the dog.) He had some books this time and was watching the show. Too funny. He does enjoy flipping through books and looking at the pictures.

ps. That is our new TV we got ourselves for Christmas!! We've had it almost a month. I love it!

End of the Year - Part 2

Continuing on with the pictures in the camera....

We had a pretty good storm the first part of December. On Saturday, December 5, Jefferson went out to shovel the snow. Lincoln really wanted to go out, too. Here are some pictures of him and snow.


He walked over to the front of the house and fell in the snow. He didn't like it after that. Plus he took off his gloves and his hands were freezing cold. Not to mention how wet the rest of him was after falling in the snow.... So after all the bundling up he was outside for maybe 10 minutes and came in the house crying.

Lincoln falling down.

December 16 Ramona got all the grandkids together to did gingerbread houses/trains. Jefferson was helping a neighbor so that left me to do the train by myself. Luckily Megan stepped in to help. Lincoln just wanted to eat it. We had a good time decorating. I will have to get pictures of the completed projects from Abby. It's been about a week and the train has just been sitting on our counter. We let Lincoln get a hold of it and this is what happened.

Can you tell how colorful Lincoln's face is? He did push the train around for a tiny bit. He mainly wanted to eat it. He did manage to get a few little pieces of candy off the train, but he didn't get to eat them. The train is now resting in peace in the trash.

ps. Isn't it a nice looking train?

End of the Year - Part 1

I was trying to get my pictures off the camera and organized so they could be printed. I came across a few from the last 2 months that I would like to share.

First the Festival of Trees in Davis County. For the Porter birthdays this year we decided that instead of gifts we would do a tree for the festival of trees. We made a lot of the ornaments during the birthday parties. The rest were bought by various family members. In November it was time to put it up and on display. Michelle, Suzanne and Ramona did a fantastic job decorating. Jefferson, Lincoln and I went over when they were pretty much done to check it out. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. Next year the plan is to save for a trip to Disneyland. We'll see how that goes... :)


Our theme was Patriotic (in case you didn't get it). 4th of July is a favorite family holiday and seemed to be a perfect theme for our tree.

Also in November the YW held a baby shower for two of our leaders. The 1st counselor - Stacie - had her baby in December. The 2nd counselor - Allison - is due in January. We invited all the ward member to come. We made quilts for them during the shower, guessed baby pictures, had yummy brownie sundaes and opened presents! They are both having/had girls!!

I'll continue more in the next post! :)

Christmas Card 2009

Merry Christmas! I hope this year finds you doing well. Here is a little recap of our family this past year.

Jefferson has been working at Pine Canyon Electric. They stayed pretty busy during the slow season, which was a blessing! It has been a little slow lately. Luckily he has been able to do some manufacturing work for his brother which is awesome! Jefferson was released from teaching primary in the summer and got to have some time off. He was just recently called as a Webelos leader in the Scouts. It should be an adventure! In his spare time he has been doing projects in the garage and helping neighbors with their projects (cutting down trees, installing new ranges, fixing light problems, etc.) He has also been busy playing with Lincoln. Jefferson is an awesome dad and Lincoln loves being thrown in the air or pulled around in makeshift sleds.

If you read the blog last year, I reported that I was able to go to work part-time last year and still have insurance. Well, in April I found out that numbers were going to be low and as a part-time teacher I was being involuntarily transferred. It was a very stressful time for me as I wondered where I would end up and how it would affect Lincoln and the daycare situation. I would say it was a trial for sure - I loved where I was teaching and what I was teaching. But I must say that Heavenly Father is aware of me and was waiting to bless me. I ended up at the junior high right by my house. Fairfield Junior has been a GREAT place to work. They went to the block schedule this year so I just teach on B-days. Right now I teach all 4 periods that day so I am making some extra money with productivity. I teach 3 CTE Intro classes and 1 Word Processing Bascis. The CTE Intro class is for Technology and Engineering (which is usually taught by the shop teacher). A little crazy I know, but I am having a great time. CTE is all 7th graders and WP Basics is 9th. The teachers I work with (and administrators) are amazing. I was called as the Beehive Advisor right around the same time. I love teaching/seeing my Beehives at school. It's been the best thing for me! On my "off"days I am at home with Lincoln and loving being able to be home most of the time with him. I also had some back issues which made heavy lifting (i.e. Lincoln) almost impossible. I just got a steroid epidural shot in my back on Thursday and must say it's amazing. I'll try and post the x-ray with the needle in my back. :)


Lincoln is 14 months. I can't believe what a little person he is. I was carrying him up the stairs the other day and thought - this definitely isn't a baby anymore! He spends most of his time running around the house, climbing on things, and getting into things I am trying to keep him out of. He spends B-days at the Davis High Daycare. I love that he still gets to go there. Lincoln keeps us on our toes! He is so fun to have around and is a really happy kid. Check out how cute he is in the Photo Shoot post.

This year has had it's ups and downs for sure, but I am always grateful for the blessings after the trials. They do come! I am thankful for this time of year to focus on the Savior and hope that everyone can feel the true meaning of the season this year. Merry Christmas!

Photo Shoot

Isn't this kid adorable? My neighbors are photographers and sponsoring an "Adorable Baby Contest" for kids 6 months-2 years. So I thought I would get some pictures of Lincoln.


Here are some of my favorites. I'll let you know when voting on the contest begins so you can go and vote for the cutest one - I mean Lincoln!

Temple Square Lights

On Sunday we went to temple square to see the lights and watch Maren perform. She is in a singing group in Lehi and performed a few songs with them. We watched the first performance at 6:30 in the Assembly Hall. Her second performance was at 8 in the South Visitor's Center. After the performance we walked around for awhile with my mom and dad, Josh-Liz-Samantha, and Natalie's family. We didn't walk for too long because it was getting late and Lincoln was ready to be out of the stroller! It was fun to see the lights. I think Lincoln will really love it next year.