Pictures from the Holidays!!!!

Its been a while since I last posted....sorry! I was just so busy during the holidays. Between TJ and I, we were gone every single night up until Christmas. It was kinda hard to just sit back and relax. I had all of these grand plans to drive around with Hot Chocolate and look at lights, to just sit at home and enjoy our own Christmas lights while listening to music, and much more. Drew and I were able to do some Christmas Crafts! We made a candy train with Grammy, Poppa, Dall, and Mandy; we made a gingerbread house with Eminee (Emily); and we made paper snowflakes together. We did get to go see some lights with our friends Thomas and Michelle. They are always up for a fun adventure with the kids! We went up to Willard Bay State Park and drove through a huge park filled with lights! It was truly spectacular!

Then we drove to a home in Roy with lights that were set to music. We sat outside and listened to music on their radiostation...it was sooooo cool!

Christmas eve was amazing! We had a dinner with TJ's family. It was my first time to every make an entire Holiday Spread and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to the Stevens/Stephens fam for letting me experiment! We spent the night eating, opening gifts and singing songs...TJ tried anyway (luv luv sweetie) while reading the Luke 2 account of Christ's birth. After the boys went to bed, TJ and Grandpa (a.k.a. Santa and his helper) put together the train table while Grandma Miller, Karen, Jill, Mitch and myself played a game called curses. It's kind of a hard game to explain, but it was such a blast!!
On Christmas Day, TJ and I got to wake up in our own little bed with our own little family! We actually woke up before our kids (?)! So I ran downstairs to get the first looks on camera. We thought Drew would be more stoked to see the train table...he loves it now, we were..a...I mean Santa...was looking for a little more excitement! Drew opened a present from me and Teej...a HUGE hummer! Both boys enjoyed their stockings and the other presents they received.




I opened my presents before TJ. He handed me a small rectangular gift (there was no way a Nikon d40x fit in there!), but guess what! It was one of the lenses to
a Nikon d40x...so the other box had to be the camera! It was. I just sat there and bawled. I had wanted it so bad and was led to think that I wasn't getting it! My dad, actually was able to cash in some credit card points to get it for me. I'll never be able to thank him enough...he has NO idea how much it meant to me! He is so incredible. Thanks dad, I love you! TJ got some great presents this year! He got tickets to TWO Jazz games...and lift tickets, because he has been dying to go skiing! He also got giftcards to buy/rent ski gear. The rest of Christmas day was just AMAZING! We went to my parents around 11 am on Christmas morning. We exchanged gifts there and then went to Grandma Childs. It was fun to see my two uncles and there families as well as my cute little Grandma! We came back to my parents later that afternoon and while the boys slept, we read, slept, played with the new Wii (Oh, did I mention that "Santa" brought a Wii as a family gift to my parents....) and cooked some fun finger foods for dinner. We spent the rest of the night working on a puzzle and just goofing around and enjoying each others company. We are so blessed! I just love this life and really have strong desire to accomplish and to experience as much as I possibly can!

Grandpas Birthday

I have some great pictures that we took while celebrating my father-in-laws birthday! We had a great time that night with dinner
at Pei Wei, and ice-cream back at Grandma and Grandpas house. Happy Birthday Craig!
Funny story: So, I'm oustide taking pictures of Drew in the snow yesterday and notice TJ has a wierd blue thing on his head! He actually asked me "what's wrong whit this hood?" Umm...its the little pocket thing that you zip the coat up into...lol!

Oops....

Oops....ok, hopefully I can get the link to post this time....

Elf Yourself

Hey!
I just saw this hilarious skit on my sis-in-laws blog....SO FUNNY! Enjoy!

What a busy week!!

Hello all! It has been about a week since my last entry, so I thought I'd give an update, plus I have some cool pictures. It has been a busy week here at the Stevens home. TJ ended up leaving Destination homes a week earlier than planned and so it was full speed ahead with the new business. He was gone just about every morning and night getting stuff done. He also had singing practices for a performance he had last night for our Stake Christmas party. As for me, I have had all kinds of crafty
projects building up and this was the week that I finished them...I won't bore you with all the little things that I did, but the one thing that I will tell you about is my advent calendar. I saw this idea on Ali Edwards' blog. She got the idea from Martha Stewarts kids. Anyway, it took a LOT of work, it may not look like it, but between painting 24 boxes, an uncooperative photoshop program and two kids, it took me about four days to finish this! It was worth it though. The boxes look SO cute on the wall! I love being crafty!!
Last weekend (Thanksgiving), my husbands family got together for the Holiday. Half of his siblings live out of state, so to have everybody together was awesome. We had a lot of fun eating (of course, duh, its the Stevens), playing ping-pong and living inside the Steph-coined phrase the "Stevens Family Musical." Little explanation there, my husbands family has been singing together for a long time, and so when ever they feel the urge, they will burst into song. This happens more frequently when they are all together ;). They sound good and they are all talented, so it is kinda cool to listen to. So, here are the pictures I promised: The first two are of the before and after of my advent boxes, and the rest are our Thanksgiving pictures...ENJOY!