Thanks to Steven's hard work in getting ahead in dental school, and thanks to Allegiant Air, handy-dandy flying into Idaho Falls-we were lucky enough to get to spend six weeks in Idaho with family for the holidays. We all had a great time doing things we love and being with people we love!
Thanksgiving
This year the folks hosted the entire Shively Clan at their home. It was great to get so many cousins under one roof! Here is Jackson wielding the guns that Gpa Egbert got for us all last year. They are a main attraction (for young and old) when we are at Nana and Papa's house!J
Here is Katie with her second cousin Treysen.
Jackson with his Shively cousins- how I remember doing these same things with my cousins! And now all of our "mini-me"s are running around together!
Freaky Friday Gma and Gpa Boyle had all the kids over for a sleepover Thanksgiving night so all of the parents could go "Black Friday" shopping.
FOOD FIGHT! No trip to Gma and Gpa Boyle's would be complete without a daily reading (or two or three) of the Food Fight book!
Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary!!
Steven definitely had HUNTING FEVER! He was able to go duck hunting three or four times/week. Lets just say we had a LOT of duck jerky!
COUSIN LOVE Nothing more entertaining than these little rascals playing together and chatting their grown up little three-year-old talk!
Katie giving grandpa some happy smiles while he puts up the Christmas tree. Katie is a Happy Little Bug. She is always so patient and smiley.
Jackson played hard everyday and more than once fell asleep at the table.
Gma Boyle got the Hobby Horse out for the kids to play with. The kids put in a lot of time on this guy!
Steve got his first PINTAIL!
If I wanted to spend any time with Steve, I had to help him breast out ducks. He spent most of his free time doing this and running out to the smoker to check his jerky!
I had to fly back to CA a few times during our stay to work for the weekend. The day after my second trip, there was a huge wind storm in Pasadena and South Pasadena. A state of emergency was declared and the power was out for over a week for many. There were giant trees fallen everywhere!
Somebody loves her big brother. Jackson is really sweet to Katie.
Preschool. Since Jackson was missing a couple of weeks of preschool, we invited his cousins over for "preschool" and Gma's house. We made Igloos out of marshmellows and frosting for the letter "I".
Katie spent a lot of time cruising around in this thing:
JD & LIZ came into town! It was great to see them since they moved to Texas in August. How I didn't get any pictures of Cami, I'm not sure.
One day we tried our hand at decorating cakes with Fondant. Here is Liz beginning her wonderful cake- our theme was Christmas Cakes. They all ended up looking great... and tasting great!
Merry Christmas!
We actually opened presents on Christmas Eve. Katie was pretty excited! Katie is hiding another surprise- her first tooth! Aunt Liz found Katie's first tooth on Christmas Eve!
My favorite gift was these awesome Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Oreos. Sound like heaven?! Yes, they were!
We met with the Shively's at the church to play volleyball and have treats on Christmas Eve. Here is Katie playing cards w Gpa!
After partying w the Shively's we went Christmas caroling with the Boyle's.
Here we are CHRISTMAS MORNING:
We attended sacrament meeting at the Iona Ward and then we were able to have dinner with the Egbert Family and then make it to the Boyle family get-together.
The Boyle kids acted out the nativity. Jackson was an Angel- he looks like he has some GREAT tidings!
Katie got to be the baby Jesus!
Gma Boyle made all the kids these amazing aprons for Christmas!
We sure enjoyed our time in Idaho celebrating the holidays with family. Just before New Year's we made the drive back to California.
2012 promises to be a great year!
Jackson became a Sunbeam!
Steve got off his braces!! This is kind of a goofy picture but he looks so nice!! :)
Steven will be graduating from dental school this year and we will be moving to Merced. We've had a great time living in LA, loved the weather, and made great friends, but we are excited to move on!
Katie will be turning 1 in the same week Steven graduates. She is such a loving and happy little bug, we are excited to watch her grow. She still hasn't figured out the crawling thing, but she is getting close!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!
