January 3, 2008

A few weeks ago we celebrated Mike's birthday. This year was a big one for him. 30 years old!
In honor of his life on this important milestone, here's a look at how he has grown through the years . . .

Newborn:

First Birthday:

Third Birthday:

"Michelle":


Scouts:

High School:

Mission:

College (on tour with BYU group Young Ambassadors):

Mike is a great dad and a great husband, and we hope he enjoyed his day!

December 28, 2007

Early in the morning, the day after Christmas, we flew to Seattle for my brother Tim's wedding. Everything was beautiful, and we enjoyed getting to tour a bit of Seattle and spend some time with my family.

We toured the famous Pike's Place Market while we there, which was fun, but this was the only picture I managed to get from the excursion:

Kate looked beautiful, and I couldn't be more thrilled with Tim's choice in a wife. Welcome to the family!

After not eating much the entire week prior, poor Kate was feeling light headed that evening at the reception. I had to restrain Olivia from constantly trying to be in Kate's arms. Olivia was enamoured with "princess" Kate and her "pretty dress," but we didn't want the bride keeling over!

Ketchup

Sorry for my lack of blogging lately, here's my "ketchup" post (ha, ha, ha).

Christmas was wonderful, of course. I really love the holidays and was happy that Olivia was able to appreciate the magic of the season this year. We sang Christmas hymns every night before bed, and listened to carols every day in the car. Olivia learned about Santa Clause and visited him several times in the mall.

This was our little family's first year spending Christmas morning together, just our little family. We had a wonderful time with Mike's family on Christmas Eve and Christmas afternoon and evening, participating in all the usual traditions. It was fun to begin to establish our own family traditions on Christmas morning. I'm just a kid at heart when it comes to Christmas, so Mike has to sneak up every Christmas Eve after I'm asleep and fill my stocking too : )

As can be seen in the video, Olivia recieved a doll house for Christmas this year. It has been a big hit, and hopefully she will still enjoy playing with it a lot when I am busy with a new nursing baby!

After seeing her doll house, and getting Dora candies from her stocking, Olivia really wasn't interested in opening any presents. We mananged to get her to open one more, and then I felt a little ridiculous trying to force her to open more toys, so the rest of Christmas has turned into birthday presents to be opened this weekend on her 2nd birthday (eek!).

Blogger won't load my video, but here's a picture of our Christmas morning scene: