Monday, December 21, 2009

The Holidays

Okay, so Thanksgiving is long gone,but we failed to put anything about it on our blog, so here it is, just under one month later.
As always, Janna got into the baking spirit with a beautiful, and rather tasty turkey.
But she didn't stop there. She also made two awesome pies. The one shown above is her homemade cherry pie, with intricate lattice work.
For the third straight year we had Thanksgiving dinner with our good friends David and Chantel. This year we ate at their house, and then played games and had pie at ours. As always, there was tons of great food and loads of fun!
So now that we are caught up on holidays that have passed, oh wait, we missed some birthdays. Happy Birthday Shannon (12/1), Katie (12/10), Casey (12/11), Little Josh (12/14), Ashley (12/16), Jessica (12/17), and Scotty (12/20). Sorry if that seemed like some sort of rapid fire birthday acknowledgment, but it needed to be done.
Janna had the girls make a gingerbread house. Janna practically had to hide in the corner, plug her ears, and hum to herself to let the girls build this on their own, but they were able to do it. As you can see, Anna ate more than she put on the house, but her print was definitely left in the houses construction. Alyssa is the one that put the army guys outside the door. I thought it was to shoot Santa when he comes out, but she told me she was thinking more along the lines of shooting the wicked witch.
The picture above is of Alyssa and her good friend Tabitha. They both performed as part of their third grade holiday program. Tabitha recited her poem, while Alyssa played the recorder. In the video below, Alyssa can be found sitting slightly off center to the right of the screen. The program contained songs about Christmas and Hanukkah.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Alyssa's Special Day

We baptized Alyssa today, at the Amherst ward chapel in Williamsville, New York. We decided to wait and do it in December because we were hoping that we would be moving back to the west this month, and Alyssa could then be baptized in front of her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. With us making the decision to stay locally, Alyssa was baptized on a Saturday in which many of her member and non-member friends were able to attend. It was a very special day.
Alyssa with Dad in matching white jumpers.
From front right to back left: Charlotte, Anna, Ambrey, Tabitha, Alyssa, and Ellie.
Janna and Alyssa in front of the font after the baptism.
Alyssa and Josh in front of the font after her baptism.
The whole family after her baptism and confirmation.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Celebration!!!

In celebration of what was a big day for our family, a trip to the Anchor Bar seemed to be appropriate. It was our first trip to the home of the original buffalo chicken wings, even though we have now lived here for two and a half years.All fed and watered with acid indigestion. Good times!
Posing in front of some license plates at the Anchor Bar from left to right: Ellie, Ambrey, Alyssa, Anna, Tabitha, and Charlotte.
It could probably be argued David and I have spent more time together over the past 28 months than either of us spent with our families. And now they are headed to Albuquerque, and we are headed to... Buffalo? Right.
Anna's asthma kicked in when she got sick, so here she is doing her breathing treatment while sitting warmly under one of her new presents from Grandma. Kind of a funny story, but Anna has a favorite blanket. It's another one from Grandma, white with little red hearts on it. Well on Sunday Janna and I were resting on our couches with blankets, and Anna came to Janna so they could lay down together. Janna told her to go get her blanket, so Anna went upstairs to her room. After a couple of minutes Anna came back down the stairs empty handed and agitated. I asked where her blanket was and she grunted in an angry manner and pointed up the stairs. I got up to see what the problem was and found that she had tried to man-handle her big, new, heavy blanket down the stairs and it had gotten wrapped around the rail at the top of the stairs. She had left her "favorite" blanket laying on the floor in her room.
Anna and the girls posing with the birthday cake. Poor Anna wasn't feeling well so she didn't get to blow out her candles.

The "Happy Birthday" video for Janna and Anna