Over Thanksgiving, the Draper family had their first family photo shoot in 12 years! (excluding wedding photos) Our awesome cousin, Skye Melessa, took these wonderful shots of us at Nisson Park in Washington, Utah. Here are a few favorites:
Katelyn hit explorer mode with full force right before her birthday. It is amazing to see how independent and adventurous our tiny babies become in just one year of life.
We found out she loves pomegranites...She definitely fits in the family. :)
Jacob went met Santa for the first time (that he remembers) at our ward Christmas party. He was interested in the candy canes more than Santa himself, but I guess that's pretty normal.
This kid LOVES to talk. Every Sunday, after church, he has to give a talk in the primary room. After the ward Christmas party, Jacob saw the primary room and convinced daddy to let him give a talk.
Katelyn refuses to sit in her high chair most of the time. This is somewhat worrisome, but she actually has great balance standing up and eating. This is her usual eating stance. What does this tell us about her future...?
I didn't realize until now that we only took pictures of our real tree this year. Oops! I actually let the family get a fake tree this year. We put the fake tree in the family room, decorate it with colored lights and all the fun kid and family decorations. We'll take a picture next year...The real tree we put in our front room in front of the window. We did a silver and gold tree with white lights. I found the PERFECT ornaments for our little family...
MUSIC NOTES!
AND DANCERS!
We also had some silver angels and gold birds, and a few French horns. I made some decorations out of Simon Dewey pictures of Christ last year that have silver sparkles on them and we added them to the tree to help us remember the true spirit of Christmas.
Kate has discovered our plants...The pictures are worth a thousand words...
Most of the plants now live in the master bedroom...
Jacob keeps things lively with his endless energy and conversation. He is full of life and everything is a game for this boy. He also has a very sweet, snuggly side, which melts his mommy's heart every day. Multiple times throughout the day he will just stop, hug me and say, "I love you, mommy." It is the most precious thing in the world.
I baked pies! This is big because I rarely bake pies. I even got adventurous and made homemade pie crust! I made a pomegranate pie, and it is my new favorite! (aside from my dad's pumpkin and coconut cream pies) It was super easy and delicious! The other pie was a berry pie because Brian, as we all know, LOVES berries. We invited a few new couples in the ward over for pie and had a great time meeting some new friends.
I. Love. Her.
Macaroni and Cheese for lunch-her latest favorite...
We often call Katelyn "Katie-bug, the lady bug." That explains the theme for the cake/cupcakes. :)
The Before Picture...
Jacob was so excited to see what would happen...
Still not sure about the giant cake just laid in front of her...
First taste...hm...pretty good... :)
A few tastes later...Mmm! Really good! :)
Near the end...This cake is SO good that I want to swim in it!
The AFTER pictures...I think we'll make a vanilla cake next year...
PRESENTS!
Our sweet friends, the Porters, Katie Midgley, and Natalie and Velia Poston joined us for dinner and cake. It was so much fun to have them celebrate with us. Happy birthday, Katie-Bug!
We invited Jacob's friends, the Bott boys, over to make gingerbread houses. They had so much fun and were pumped full of sugar and energy by the end of the night.
More snow fun...
Jacob worked very hard to make this delicious marshmallow juice for our family one night. Ingredients included apple juice, water, marshmallows, candy cane chunks, and a few M&Ms and skittles. (This was all left over from the gingerbread house adventure.) We all tasted it. It was...sweet...
The little chef was so proud of his creation.
More shots at the window. These are included more for my benefit than for anyone else. I love how much my kids love the outside world.
This one is just plain cute.
We started a little tradition of our own mini-Christmas eve the night before we leave for St. George. This year, we had a pajama party, read Pres. Thomas S. Monson's, "The Christmas Train," watched "The Muppet Christmas Carol," ate popcorn and treats, and opened a couple of presents before bed.
Another picture included just for me...
My mom and brother, Nick, came up for Nick's friend's wedding and to buy food storage for our Christmas present. After completely spoiling us at the store, the kids and I drove down with them to start our Christmas vacation. Jacob and Katelyn didn't want to sleep...which made for a fairly looooonnnngggg trip. However, around Cedar City, Nick began to count every second all the way up to 4 minutes out of boredom (example: one second, two seconds...one minute, one second, one minute, two seconds...three minutes, forty-four seconds...).
He knocked the kids right out.
And, he got the prize of snuggling Jacob when we met the rest of my family for dinner at Buca di Beppo...we sat at the Pope table, if that means anything to anyone. Jacob looked thoroughly confused when he woke up surrounded by Pope pictures and pasta.
I let Jacob wear his new suit to church the Sunday before Christmas. He looked so handsome!
And then there was the crazy family party after church...handsome isn't quite the right word here.
We spent Christmas Eve and day with the Crosby family. It was so much fun to have Tammy and Bryson and their little family and Sean and Sophie there to play with the whole time. Here's a picture of the cousins on Christmas Eve: Jacob, Katelyn, Ethan and Brayden.
Ethan and Kate
I found this old violin-uke buried in my room at my parent's house. Jacob is obsessed with the cello (thanks to the piano guys) and asked for a cello for Christmas quite a few times. Meet Jacob's cello:
He played along with Tammy while the family sang carols together on Christmas Eve. He felt so big and grown up. I love singing and playing music with Brian's family! On Christmas day, we had a family band playing in their music room: Sophie and Sean both played Euphonium, Tammy played violin, Bryson played trumpet, Brian played clarinet, I played flute, Jacob played his "cello" and Sue played the piano. It was stellar. :) Such a fun tradition!
Christmas day was everything we expected and more. I couldn't sleep at all, I was so excited to see Jacob's face. It was totally worth the sleepless night! He was a present-ripping machine! He hardly even acknowledged what was in each present before tearing open another. I think that next year, we should just wrap a bunch of boxes and let him go to town. We can bring the real presents out after he has fun ripping everything apart. He did love his presents, when he finally got around to noticing them. :)
Kate was super-cute too. As always.
Brian spent 5 hours the Saturday before Christmas cleaning our carpets with our neighbors carpet cleaner. We returned home to the most pristine carpets in the world. Best. present. Ever.
Brian had a bunch of presents. I think the gardening book is his favorite, but he was also pretty excited about this one. Rudolph is his favorite!
We went on a Crosby Adventure on Christmas day. Jacob always enjoys riding the "grandpa horse."
Fun with Sean :)
Peek-a-boo!
Ah, red sand!
The Arch (of awesomeness)
Kate liked the sand too. :)
We headed to the Draper home on Christmas night and opened yet more presents. We'll just say, the kids had a blast, our car was packed to the brim, and we feel very spoiled, but mostly blessed and loved.
The night before we left St. George, Jacob snuggled with grandma and grandpa and watched the Disney channel. I love to see my parents be grandparents.
We had the best Christmas yet, thanks to our wonderful families. We feel so blessed to have family members that are our best friends. The best present of all was spending time with them. Merry Christmas to us!
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