the week between holidays

We made it on Sunday to my Grandparent's house just in time for dinner! It was soup night and it was so delicious :) It was so nice to be with the extended family again... it was so loud with everything happening at once! you take a walk to the kitchen to get a piece of Grandma's home made bread and trip over kids playing "Sorry" in the middle of the floor, get hit balls and shot by nerf guns, you try not to walk through the middle of any conversations, you get attacked by pirates knights and cowboys, you get quizzed down by aunts and uncles, receive multiple big sloppy kisses from your cousins, get attacked by the tickle monster, and watch kids run around you playing tag and trying not to become "it"! you finally make it to the kitchen to get that big slice of home made bread and you realize its gone :) haha and i love every minute of that craziness! I love my big loud family and cannot wait to have one of my own!

Here are a few of my many picture i took (with my NEW camera!):
I love how excited everyone gets when the "fun family" gets there! We are showered with attention from my relatives... sometimes it is a little too much attention but i love it none the less! i love the feeling of being loved and looked up to! Where ever I go somehow I always end up wit two or more kids on my lap and i LOVE it! all my cousins are so cute :)

present time! almost all of the cousins are waiting very patiently to receive their present from Grandpa and Grandma
they all love putting faces on for the camerawe are in the shower :) our hiding place for one of the many rounds of hide 'n seekEvery year, a couple days after Christmas, we help Grandma and Grandpa take down their Christmas decorations and put up their winter things. Boy is a lot of work, but it has become a tradition and something we look forward to doing. Over the years we have become pros at itwhile we are packing things in boxes and putting things into closets we use it as an excuse to go exploring at Grandpa and Grandma's house. We find some pretty fun stuff! This year our favorite thing we found was an accordion! it entertained us for a long time :)
I love my family and one of the reasons i love the holiday season is because i get to spend a big chunck of my time spending time and playing with them!

Paige waving :)

Paige was waving to us before she left :) haha and that mouth you see at the end... that belongs to Nick!

Tradtional Christmas?

Tradition! The holiday season always brings family traditions... some traditions are old, a little boring, and need to be replaced, once in a while we have a new tradition that we are starting that year! There are traditions that I will not be doing when I have my own family and others that I will for-sure teach my kids! There are those special traditions that you cannot wait until next year to do them again! One of those fun traditions my family has is on Christmas Eve!

At my house the 24th of December mean pinata night
Every Christmas Eve the Althouse family and the Krogh Family (across the street) brave the snow and cold to have some fun smashing open a pinata! It is always so much fun... and who doesn't enjoy free candy!?

Each family provides a pinata full of candy! The Krogh's made their pinata this year! It's a frog and it turned out great! Kristin and I pick out our pinata! Her name is Florence!It is fun to watch the little kids hitting it as hard as they can, then your turn to take a wack at it, the candy spilling out which is then proceeded by everyone running to get the BEST kind of candy!

It was sad to see Florence get beat on... Kristin Florence and I had become such good friends in the 6 hours we had her! Yes it was sad seeing her get dented but the worst part was she was decapitated!!! it was so sad! (We were mourning her death Christmas morning when we looked on our porch. We were pleased to find Florence's head! We took her inside and she is now hanging on our christmas tree so everything is fine and dandy)The whole pinata clan! Christmas morning! (The pictures are going to be VERY VERY limited... it was quite early in the morning)

Our Christmas Treewe took LOADS of pictures waiting for the parents to get up! These two are the most decent :)

:) it was a wonderful christmas morning... but strange in a non-traditional way. It is weird not to have Michael there with us. Last Christmas we had FOUR extra people at our house for Christmas! We invited four of the missionaries in the area to join us! It was SO much fun playing games and such with them! It was a DRASTIC change to go from 5 guys one year to 0 guys the next!

:) it was a wonderful christmas afternoon... but strange in a non-traditional way. Mike called!!! We talked to him for two and a half hours! it was sooo good to talk to him again. When he called every got onto a different phone in the house so we were all on at the same time. Well this confused Mike a bit. He couldn't tell Dianne Kristin and I apart when we talked... it was so funny. (We get that all the time! Every single time one of us answers the phone we are always ALWAYS mistaken for someone else. it makes it very easy for us to play pranks on people ;)
:) it was a wonderful christmas night... but strange in a non-traditional way. it's "tradition" to go to my Grandparent's house in Layton after we open our presents. With Christmas falling on a Saturday it messed everything up. My Dad and I had meetings we had to be to the following day. So we decided to hold out Evans Christmas party the DAY AFTER, which has never happened before. So we stayed at home all of Christmas! It was different but good :)
I don't know what we should call the Christmas of 2010... it sure wasn't a traditional Christmas but none the less the christmas spirit was there and that is what makes this time of year special! All-in-all it was a wonderful non-traditional day.

I'M NOT GOING BACK!!!

Yesterday we drove to my grandparent's house in Layton. The reason for that was because I was having an MRI in SLC today.
Don't freak out... it was only a check up MRI.
The MRI went fine... and so did talking to the neurologist!
I don't have to go back for another MRI/check up for THREE years! YAY I was so excited and relived to hear that :)

Three Wards, One Sunday

Today I was able to attend 3 different wards! The first ward I went to was my home ward... good old Hillcrest 1st. It was their Christmas program. I LOVE Christmas programs. In that ward, before the meeting starts, they have everyone that plays a string instrument play Christmas hymns! It always sounds SO amazing and it brings the spirit into the meeting so quickly. (Kristin played and did a wonderful job! She is such a good violin player!) My dad was also giving a talk... His talks are always SO good, and this one followed the pattern! That is for sure one of his spiritual gifts, giving talks!
After that sacrament meeting was over I went to pick up my friend Letici. We were going to go support Missy. Her Young Woman's group was singing in her sacrament meeting! Missy is an amazing singer and got to sing a solo to the second verse in the song "Breath of Heaven". It was so beautiful. They did a wonderful job :)
I then hurried, dropped off Le at her ward and made the last 20 min of Ward Counsel and then proceeded to go to my AWESOME ward! YSA 9th ward is THE best... I love it, I have so many amazing people in my ward... so many wonderful friends and examples!
After getting home I hurried packed a day of clothes and then jumped in the car with my family to drive down to my Grandparent's house in Layton.
All in all it was a WONDERFUL, SPIRITUAL, BUSY Sunday.

Ginger Bread houses!

My grandparents came up on Saturday... just in time to help us with our Gingerbread Houses! Every year we make gingerbread houses out of gram crackers and hot glue! They are so much fun :) This was my Grandparents first time making them... and they did a wonderful job!

In order to make the frosting (or the glue) we use we need eggs that are at room temperature... well we are too impatient to let them warm up by themselves so everyone but Mom and Dad are given the job to warm them up!

Grandpa came up with the idea of warming them in our mouths! haha o boy i love my grandpa :)We had to give it a try too...We decided that Dianne and Grandpa have the biggest mouthsThe eggs are warm, the frosting is made, the candy is on the table and now we are just waiting for the houses!... guess we will just have to entertain ourselves with sugar cube stackingMom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa are working hard putting the houses together
YAY we finally got our houses :) now time to decorateThey are finished! and look great!

Grandpa made a trainDad'sGrandma's first gingerbread house! it looks greatDianne's tree houseKristin's cute housepart of mineand Mom's

I think they all turned out wonderfully!

Sisters Night

The 17th of December is my Mom and Dad anniversary. This year they went to SLC.
It was me, Dianne and Kristin at home... without parental supervision... and it was a BLAST! We had so much fun having a "sisters" day :)
I am SO thankful for my sisters! they are such an amazing example to me! I love having someone around to talk to and to laugh with. I also love it because i know no matter what i do they will always be there for me, loving me! And it also goes the other direction! i LOVE my sisters, no matter what! i LOVE when they ask me for advice, help with their hair, or even help with their homework!
Sisters are AMAZING :)