December in Pictures

A lot of stuff happened in December.  Most of it consisted of me getting out of the hospital, Curtis, Sam & Justin finishing up the fall semester of school, wedding plans & Christmas.  Oh, well there was also the talk of getting a lung transplant, but that is for a different post.  At this point I didn't even want to hear the "H" word again (hosptial).  I wanted to stay as far away from there as I could...at least until after Sam & Justin were married, then I didn't really care what happened as long as I was able to be there & enjoy their big day.  Thankfully everyone managed to survive finals week! Yay!!!

 This was a common sene at our house,

working on homework...or wedding plans

 Justin designed this. I think it turned out really good!

We all had fun stuffing envelops & putting addresses on them....well, it wasn't as fun as it could be, but it was a necessary thing that needed to be done...they sent out around 400 invites!!!  Thank heavens we didn't have to hand write all of those envelops! :)

Christmas day was on a Sunday this year.  It was a very special day for us.  Curtis & I started the day by taking a card & some food to my Dad at work, since he still had to work Christmas day for 12 hrs.  (He is a security guard in Boise).  It was a surprise to Dad so it was exciting to see him light up & realize that he wasn't forgotten about on Christmas day.  After that Curtis' family came to our house & we made traditional Christmas breakfast of potato pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, fruit & toast. YUMMY!! We did open a few gifts & we talked to Heather & her family on the phone.  Curtis & I got a new camera (Thanks Mom & Dad Cahoon!) but sadly I couldn't take pictures in the morning because I needed to charge the battery 1st.  I did use it later though. :)   Then Curtis' family came to church with us because Curtis was singing in the ward choir.  (sadly I had to give up choir because I just can't breathe very well...that has been really hard to deal with, I LOVE singing...but I will be back!)  We only had sacrament mtg for church that day since it was Christmas & they wanted us to spend time with our families.  

My family came over around 6 pm on Christmas day & helped finish up preparations for dinner.  Dad came over right after he got off work & then the feast began...baked potato soup w/rolls.  Mmm, mmm, good! :)  During & after dinner we had a great discussion about the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  What a wonderful blessing He is to all of us! :)

Now for some pictures of the day w/the new camera:  

 Our cute little tree

 These two are amazing!

Can you feel the love there? :)

K-I'm only posting the next couple pictures of Brenda because it is such a great story!  Normally when ever she gets a present that is wrapped she tears through the paper super fast & then moves on to the next gift.  Opening the presents is her FAVORITE part.  We've had to open presents one at a time during Christmas now because she rips through them so fast & then we never get to see her reaction to them.  This year Justin got the privilege, or rather, the challenge, to wrap "the big one" for Brenda.  Boy he did a great job....I think he used a whole roll of packaging tape on the small box.  We let Brenda decide who got to go first & she couldn't wait to find out what was inside "the gift that Justin wrapped".  I just have to say, this is the most fun we have EVER had with Brenda opening presents.  It took her about 20 min to unwrap the box & find out what was inside!!! (we had to cave a little & get the scissors out because she was getting no where...she got 4 small cuts...it probably would have taken her an hour if we didn't "help")  She did a great job at trying & finally succeeding to open her gift.  Justin was so proud of himself when Brenda finally said at the end..."fine, I give up!"  She did get it & boy was she excited!

She sticks her tongue out when she's really focused on something

 She managed to get through several layers of tape & 

wrapping paper, only to find more layers of tape :)

 She has wanted one of these for a long time & we finally caved in & 

gave her one, mostly because we got a really good deal on it. :)

 "YES!!!" She did this several times once she saw what it was.  We also heard for the rest of the night..."Thank you sooo much for my jersey! I love it!"  After all that work, she was exhausted & was very calm the rest of the evening.  :)  Great job Justin!!!

Parley wasn't w/us on Christmas day, but he did come over the next day to get his presents.  I couldn't resist getting this shirt for him, it has Parley written all over it! Love ya Parley! :)