Christmas Letter

Family and Friends:

This year has been full of changes for our family. We have truly been blessed.

Jason is working for a local company and is able to be with his family every night. After several years of working in Las Vegas, it is really nice to have him home.

Sheri has decided to go back to school. She has already completed two semesters this year, only seven more to go. However, I must say I aced my finals thanks to my wonderful husband. She is really enjoying her time off between semsters.

Jamie is now 18 months old. He has grown so much this past year. He is starting to talk and repeating everything we say. His new favorite words are "Mine" and "All done." We have also introduced the subject of potty training, wish us luck. He loves his Daddy. Jason is definitely his favorite playtoy.

We have been very blessed this year. We are grateful to our Savior for his love and sacrifices. We are grateful to our family and friends and all those who have helped us throughout the year. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year.

Last weekend

Friday afternoon we were hanging out and making dinner. Jamie loves to play in the shoe basket. He'll climb in the basket and sit on them all. He'll carry them around on his hands. Friday he actually put them on his feet. He tried walking around but didn't make it very far.Saturady we went to Las Vegas and saw Jonathan and Camille. Jamie loved holding his newest little cousin, Mya. She is the sweetest baby and so cute. Last night Jason played Rock Band while I was once again studying. Jamie got ahold of the drumsticks and started going at it. We haven't played this game for a long time. I have no idea how he knew what to do. All I can say is: He's a little genius.

Then he started singing with too. Totally cute. Love ya Buddy.

Sleeping habits

Last week Jamie had a hard time going down for his nap, so we shut the door and let him cry it out. Jason decided to check on him. This is what he found.

Jason has been reading to Jamie a little before bedtime to help him settle down. If Jamie is in his room, he's got Harry Potter in his hands.

I have been studying all day. Jamie has been trying to sit ON me all day long. Now that I'm on the computer, he crawled under the desk. And promptly fell asleep.

sleeping

Jamie is currently sleeping. He was really crabby after lunch so I took him upstairs. Lately, he gets right back up so I didn't bother taking away his cookies. I figured he'd loose them on his way back down. I didn't hear a peep for a whole ten minutes. This is highly unusual. So I peeked and this is what I found. He hadn't moved at all. His hands were cupping his ears and one still held an animal cracker. By the time I got the camera, his hand fell away and he dropped the cookie. But he is still really cute.

School is going well. I have finals next week, one each day. Wish me luck. One semester down, six to go. YAY!

7 HOURS

It snowed Sunday. So we waited to come home until the storm had passed. HELLO! The storm was moving SOUTH. So after lunch we jumped in the car and headed home. We hit some stormy patches along the way, but nothing really bad until we hit Beaver. There was a sign saying that the freeway was closed at mile marker 67, right above Cedar City. So we filled up and got some food, just in case and off we went. The further we got the worse the storm got. 15 miles north of Cedar traffic stopped. Apparently, there had been a roll over a few miles ahead. An hour later we were moving. By the time we actually got to Cedar it was snowing hard. The entire way home, we averaged 40-50 mph. However, right before we hit St. George City limits and it drops to 65 we hit 75 then immediately had to slow down but we did it. Some nasty weather, a few frights, and seven hours later, we finally got home to our freezing cold house. We unpacked and warmed up and here we are.

Tada! Next time it's scheduled to snow, we'll be leaving early.

Jamie

I have decided that Jamie is just too cute not to blog. While we were in Orem, Jamie got Uncle Ethan's guitar for Guitar Hero out and started jammin'.

He had tried getting the strap around his head, but needed some help. Then he started bouncing and stomping his feet and rocking the guitar. It was SO funny.

I have discovered that I no longer have a baby. He is a little boy. He rocks out with guitars and he's learning to do puzzles.

He played with this puzzle all the time. He couldn't quite get the pieces back in, but close enough. How time goes so fast is beyond me, but it needs to SLOW DOWN. I'm not ready for this.

Potty training here we come!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving up North this year. We decided we needed a quick family photo of the event. (The gap between me and Tashina is for Ethan who is currently serving his mission in Argentina. Miss you buddy.) Anyway, we had a blast. We were able to score on Black Friday without getting up at a ridiculous time. Yay for us. Grandma and Grandpa decided to hang Christmas lights Saturday, before snow came. Jamie and I wanted to help.

Jamie helping Grandpa.

Jamie with Daddy and Grandpa

After we were all back inside and warm, we had some fun with Aunt Tashina.

And Grandpa

And Grandma

And GG Evans

Sunday morning we woke up to snow. So daddy and Jamie helped clear the street.

Grandma had a snowsuit for Jamie to wear that kept him nice and warm.

He was too interested in driving to look at me. However, one trip down the street and he was done.

So we went to play in the yard with Sheila (the Dog), but the wind blew some snow in Jamie's face and he freaked out. He had a hard time walking around, but he loved eating it.

Faces

Jamie has learned to pull faces. I promise my son is NOT always running around naked. It just so happens that Jamie had just woken up and his diapered had leaked. Instead of putting him in clothes just to get dirty while eating I decided to wait. Then he started pulling faces and I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

This is one I see a lot.

His pouting face

He and Daddy love pudding.

Lickin' the bowl

Sneaking ice cream after dinner,

I don't know what happened to his sock.

Caught ya!

Love you guys,

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

YAY!!!

Jamie, my awesome, wonderful little boy, is the best.
I have not been able to find my camera since Halloween. Since my wallet was stolen, I figured my camera went with it. Well, my wallet found its way home thanks to some Good Samaritans, but not my camera. I had given up looking for it. But thanks to my wonderful baby boy, my son, the apple of my eye - I have my camera once again. It was not stolen or lost. It was just folded up inside the stroller. Jamie was playing with the stroller and out it came. Thank you my Baby.

This year for Halloween Tina and I got our families together and we went trick or treating at both malls and to our Trunk or Treat. Jason and I were construction workers. Jamie was a clown. He had fun going around to everybody. We'll have to do it again next year.

Jason has finally been allowed to come home, YAY! He will be working in our area again for a few weeks. We couldn't be more excited.

We were a little bored tonight, need I say more. This is what happens when we have a Daddy at home.

Here we have our little fort.

Jamie giving our fort a thumbs-up.

Jamie in our fort with Daddy looking on.

Then Daddy got a bit creative . . . and a little festive.

OREM!!!

We had a blast in Orem this past week. Unfortunately, the camera came out late. We the Cousin-get-together Saturday night at Chris and Bri's place. We played games, had burgers, decorated cookies, and played more games. It was so much fun, thanks guys.

We volunteered to bring the frosting and sprinkles. Grandma Chipman let us use her sprinkles. Jamie being the little tyke he is found them right away. While waiting for our burgers to be ready, he dumped the entire bottle, all four sections. We could only groan, sigh, and clean it up. Jamie sitting and playing in his mess. He was quite proud of himself.

Dustin and Jamie, notice the sprinkles lid in his hand.

Busy decorating cookies (Tashina, Dustin, Bri and Jayde)

Dustin, Bri, Chris decorating cookies.

Aunt Tashina and Jamie

Jamie ate his fill of cookies and spread frosting everywhere.

We got home early afternoon today. Instead of putting things away as I brought it in, I decided to just get it all in before the rain started.

This is what it looked like. Yes, Jamie had to crawl over it all to get through. You don't realize how much stuff you take with you, until you have to unload it all.

You can see the wheels turning in his head as he's contemplating getting over it all.

We had an awesome week. It was good to be with Jason and everyone, but it feels so good to be home. Jamie got out of that car and was off to the only water puddle area in the lot, laughing all the way. After a potty break, and eight trips to the car, we were finally done. I close up the car, close the gate, jump over our pile of stuff and see this:

Oh Boy. As I am cleaning this up and unpacking, Jamie heads upstairs. Not five minutes later, I head up myself. My closet is open, the painting equipment is all over the floor, with the roller at the top of the stairs, he's been in his room, his toys are back in the bathtub, etc, etc, etc. Oh it's so good to be home.

Park

After the farm, we went off to the park so the kids could let out some energy. Jamie has never gone done the slide without someone with him. This time, however, he did it all by himself. Although it did freak this Mom and everyone else out.

After he slid down, his hair was full of electricity- stickin' straight out. So cute. This is one of April's pictures, she did an awesome job, thanks.

Farm

Tina's friend, April, was in town last week. We had her take some pictures for us and of course, they were AWESOME! We went out to the Church Farm and had a blast. These are not April's, they are mine. But they are still cute.The three babies started out happy in the wagon, but it didn't last long.

Jamie loved his balloon!

And then it popped, it was the silence before the storm. We all thought it freaked him out and were waiting for the cry. But not my little man, instead he belts out his laughter. Funny little man.