Thanksgiving, Family Pictures, Don's 30th Birthday, and Sam Being Cute

SAM BEING CUTE:

To stay true to form, I must include some cute pictures of Sam. He is so happy in the morning. One morning, he was particularly happy playing in his crib and I got these cute shots of him. He is so giggly! I love it!

THANKSGIVING:

Since Don was deep in his semester and flights are so ridiculously expensive during Thanksgiving, we decided to stay in Colorado this year. I wasn't looking forward to cooking a turkey for two, but luckily, our wonderful friends, the Wilsons invited us over to share in their family festivities. Don grew up with the Wilsons in Broomfield and Dan and LaVon have adopted us into their family since we've moved back. It is so nice to be a part of the Wilson clan.

Here are LaVon and Alan in the kitchen. Dinner was delicious and LaVon's dressing is the best I've ever had, hands down. I found out the reason why it was so good: bacon grease. Yes, it single-handedly may have met my daily caloric needs, but it was well worth it! Yum!

Don and I made our first apple pies together to share at the Thanksgiving feast. We picked a recipe and bought all the ingredients. Then, we read the reviews online about the recipe and saw that some people thought it was too tart and that the apples went mushy. After consulting with my mom, Aunt Julie, grandma, and my friend Lauren, Don and I decided to throw caution to the wind and go all out. We put in all kinds of spices, citrus zest, etc. in the pies and they turned out beautifully! We were very proud. Alan is looking adoringly at the wonderfulness that was our pie.

Here we are hanging out at the Wilsons. See the happiness? It results directly from eating a lot of delicious food.

Preparing for pie time with Stacy, Rachel and Dan.

Here are Alan and Michele. We were so happy to get to hang out with them.

FAMILY PICTURES AND SAM BEING CUTE AGAIN:

On December 9th, My good friend, Beca Burnett took a bunch of awesome pictures of us. She is starting a photography business and so we got to benefit from her fabulous skills. Unfortunately, it was about 3 degrees outside the day we took the photos, so being outside was miserable, but we were able to get some good shots before we couldn't stand the frigidness anymore.

No, Don doesn't have a severe dandruff problem. The snow that was blowing off the trees and down our collars (brr!) just makes it look that way.

DON HAD A BIRTHDAY AND IS NOW AN OLD MAN:

On December 11th, Don turned 30 and we had a little birthday party with a few friends to celebrate. I also gave him a gift that took me over a month of intense prep and thought to put together. I spent most of November and December sending letters and emails to a bunch of Don's closest friends and family asking for letters about why they loved him, their favorite memories of him, and what they admired most about him. I was so amazed at the thoughtful, funny letters that people wrote. The response was amazing! I got 45 letters from Don's friends, church leaders, colleagues (THANK YOU to all of you who made this gift and milestone so special for Don! It meant so much to me and to him!) It was so fun to learn how much people admire and respect Don and to learn so many things about him I didn't know!

Once I received all the letters, I was faced with what seemed to me an insurmountable task of putting the letters and pictures together whilst make it look "pretty". I am seriously scrapbooking impaired, but thanks to my friend Rebecca , the scrapbooking genius, who basically did the entire "pretty" part of the book on her own, it was perfect. Don felt so loved and it was the best gift I've ever given; definitely well worth the enormous effort. Thanks again, everyone! It was so wonderful! He and I will treasure it always.

Don (old man on the left) with Sam and Luke at his birthday party.

YOGA BABIES AND SANTA HATS

Each month, I get together with three awesome girls that I met in my prenatal yoga class. We had such a great time in class together, we decided to carry on the fun after the little ones arrived. At our play date on December 12, one of the girls, Nicole, bought Santa hats for all the munchkins. I just thought they were so cute, I had the share the picture. L to R - Natalie, Sam, Isaac, and Harlan.

Sam wanted to show off his Santa hat a little more. I couldn't get enough of it.

More about our wonderful Christmas in Utah and what we've been up to lately to come...