Jon's Valentine

The young men in our ward did a 'singing valentine' fund-raiser for Valentines Day. The boys got all dressed up, delivered a valentine, chocolate, and rose... and sang a love song to those who were loved enough to receive one.





















Nope, his valentine was not from me. It was from his very best friend Mike Withers.

Thanksgiving trip to Utah

Tyaan and I took a trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. I hadn't been to Thanksgiving dinner at my grandma's house for many years so I was excited.

We got there a day before Thanksgiving so we spent a day out in Salt Lake. This is Tyaan ready to go shopping and to visit my other grandmother.


Finally time for Thanksgiving dinner! It was great food and great company.



We also got to go to Temple Square the night they turned the Christmas lights on. It is so beautiful. My cousin Shannon came with us, which made it extra fun.


Before we went home we got Tyaan to try on my grandmothers wedding dress. It fit her pretty well.

Halloween 2009

Halloween season was a fun one.

Our Ward Halloween party turned out great. They had people bring chili and lots of kids (and teenagers) came dressed up for a trunk or treat. Tyaan borrowed a hat and dressed as a cowgirl. She won an award...she was cute. Here's Russell and Tyaan.



We had our traditional pumpkin carving night with the Withers family. Here is Kathy, Russell and Mike.


Jon (in the background), Tyaan and Katie. This is a fun night for us because the first time the Withers came over to our house was to carve pumpkins. It was the start of a great friendship!


When Halloween finally got here Tyaan dressed up as a football player. Here she is with some friends.


and here she is with her 'lil sis' Katie!

Valentines Day Cake

The Laurels got together this week to do cake decorating for Valentines Day. Tyaan decorated me a cake and it was adorable!



Isn't she a sweetheart?

Christmas

Christmas morning

Christmas was a fun morning at our house. Tyaan's gift was a dirt bike. We've wanted to get her one for a while but hadn't done it. Jon found a great bike at a really great price so we got it and surprised her with it. She was really excited and can't wait to get to take it out. We put #3 on it for her because that's her water polo number.



This is her excitement when she saw the new yellow vans she got. I think she likes them...


Ty and Jon


After we got all of our presents opened we headed over to my moms house for presents there. Here are pictures of the family

Brandon


Jeff

Andrew (and Jeff's friend Josh who was with us Christmas morning as well)


Mom


And dad (mom got him a Wii. I think the rest of us were more excited about it than he was... :-)

Christmas Baking

There are a couple things I intend to do every year at Christmas time. One is sending out Christmas cards (never happens) and the other is doing baking. The baking actually got done this year. The Christmas cards will get put into storage along with the many others that were purchased and never used.

So on the 22nd I started my evening of Christmas baking. Tyaan made time to help me for a little while. (She actually came home from her boyfriends house to help me which gives you an idea of how much she loves me. She doesn't like baking...) I put her in charge of rolling and cutting out sugar cookies because it is one of my least favorite things to do. She made it through a couple cycles before starting to grumble, but managed to finish almost the whole batch before I relieved her to do the last handful. It was nice to have her help with that.



Besides the sugar cookies I made rocky road (the biggest request from my co-workers), chocolate chip cookies, and fudge. I made at least 2 batches of everything (except for sugar cookies because 1 batch is a lot) so it turned in to several hours of being in the kitchen. Tyaan helped me stir the first batch of fudge which is a 2 person job (right Lisa?!) and Jon came and helped me with the 2nd. Tyaan also stuck close by so I could call her in to hold, or stir, or open packages when I needed her to. I also made the icing for the sugar cookies and decorated enough to send to work the next day.

These are the containers I put together for Jon and I each to take to work the next morning. They were really cute (the picture really doesn't do it justice) and I had to take a picture after working for so long on getting everything ready. Jon said his was gone pretty early in the day.


I was also able to put together 5 plates to give to people and took another of these cake pans to my moms house on Christmas eve for us to snack on. It was really enjoyable for me and helped get the Christmas spirit in our home a little bit more. Plus I had lots of goodies to pick at for a few days!

Our Christmas Tree

I put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. (Yes, I have a fake one) It's such a pretty tree and I've been enjoying it. The tree skirt is new, because I had people coming over and couldn't find mine in the garage. (of course I've found it now!)