'tis the season!

here is a little glimpse of how we have celebrated this wonderful season in the month of december

each year our old stake puts on a creche festival for the community that is absolutely incredible. they exhibit more than 700 nativities from 55 countries and the way they display them is so professional looking. i love seeing how each country and culture depict the birth of christ. each way is unique and beautiful. it is my favorite way to start the christmas season.

this is a nativity that my brother brought me from Angola in Africa. i love it!


decorating our *first* christmas tree

my mom turned 60 this year and my sisters, sister-in-law, brother and nephew came in town to help her celebrate. to kick off the birthday weekend suzi, angela and i took mom for pedicures...well pedicures for us and a manicure for her. after a little pampering we threw a "surprise" party for her. it was so much fun to celebrate my wonderful mom! more pictures to come!

we were invited back to a special christmas fhe with our old branch. we sure do love these people and were happy to see them and celebrate with them.

the daynes-a couple of our favorite people

how can you not love these people?

hot fellas

julie and carla-i miss getting to see these girls every sunday

me and megan-what a babe

the denver zoo has a fun thing every winter called "zoo lights." dave took me on a date and we had a great time. we also had a fun driving around the city and looking at people's christmas lights. there was one house that even had the lights blinking in time to music. you tuned the radio in your car to a station and could listen to the music and watch the lights. it was pretty amazing!

we celebrated together on christmas eve before heading over to dave's parents house

we had a wonderful christmas with dave's family. there was lots of fun, relaxation and good food! we slept over at dave's house and were woken up bright and early at 7:20 am by dave's mom. she was just like a little kid on christmas morning and it was so fun! and we woke up to a great surprise...a *white christmas* i can't think of the last time it snowed on christmas. it made everything look so pretty. i actually didn't take a single picture which is totally unlike me. even though my family was spread across the country in various states, we enjoyed the wonders of technology and all talked together through a webcam. it was fun to see some of our cute nieces and nephews and hear about all their christmas loot. we had a great day and were grateful to reflect on the birth of our savior and his life.

we hope everyone had a wonderful christmas season!

bowling buddies

a couple weekends ago we met some friends at the brunzwick zone for bowling. we had a great time with them and after playing 2 games it is official that i will be the last person chosen for any future bowling team!! i did have my moments of glory, like the 10th frame of the first game where i finally got both a strike and a spare. and i won a 99 cent game of laser tag for getting a strike...i was on fire!! i still finished last but had a great time!!

carla and kyle. i think kyle doubled my score. i would definitely
want him on my bowling team (he just wouldn't want me)

bowling buddies: carla, kyle, jd, amanda, me and dave

the kbco tradition continues

for the last couple of years dave has joined his dad to wait in line for the kbco studio c album. studio c is at a local radio station where popular artists come and play acoustic versions of their songs. it has become really prestigious for artists to play studio c and once a year they release an album. this year is the 19th volume and they only make 50,000 of them and they were only available at select cricket stores . dave and his dad were hardcore and got in line at 6:15 am and it was a COLD saturday. the doors to the store opened at 8:00 am and that was when i showed up and hopped in line for my first studio c album experience (kathy, kari and sterling arrived at about 7:30). when i arrived at 8:00 it was only 8 degrees...we're talking cold! we finally made it into the store at 10:00 and got our cds (a limit of 2 cds per person...we made a little money selling the extras on ebay). afterward we headed to a diner for breakfast and to warm up. it was a fun and cold morning.

crazy, cold guys
all of us trying to stay warm

20 great years of fun!

i have obviously been slacking with blogging and so now it is time to play catch up.

on november 24th we surprised dave's dad at pf chang's for lunch (when pete and kathy walked up pete couldn't quite figure out why we were all there). it was the 20th anniversary of him adopting dave and his sister kari. he was definitely surprised and it was wonderful to celebrate such a special day (i will admit i teared up a little). hey guys, it's dave-my dad gave up his young life (early 20's) to marry and take care of my mom, my sister and i. he has been a great example of selflessness and love of his family.
here are some pictures after the surprise.

kari, pete and dave...20 great years

the whole gang!