Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Countdown to Christmas...part 2

Christmas Eve we went out to Barrett's brother Brett's house for lite finger foods and traditional Nativity. Slightly exagerating about the "lite" finger foods-we had so much good stuff, we hardly put a dent in any of it, except the chocolate fondue. There was a little bit of everything and it was delectable! Of course, I could not tear myself away from my plate to get a picture, but it was beautiful! Then we had a short piano concert from Joslyn and Sabrina and then the Nativity. This is just about half of the Bishop family grandkids...Here is one of the very handsome shepherd's (this costume lasted all of about 49 seconds and then he was done!)

Another handsome shepherd (Andrew), baby Jesus-played by a baby doll, Sabrina portrayed the part of Mary, Eden was a very beautiful Angel, and James was a donkey!


Erin was the Shining Star!

here's a couple more; Joslyn was a wise "woman"! and Anson as another handsome shepherd.

And here is a picture of parts of everyone but Blake, who was a very cute drummer boy, plus Becky Ann and Boyd herding the mass. Thanks guys! One big happy Nativity if I ever saw one...

We also had an opportunity to call G&G Bishop, or should I say Elder and Sister Bishop, in Kenya to wish them a Merry Christmas. Just about everyone got a chance to say hello and good wishes, though the call got cut off a few times. We can't wait till next year when they will be home to partake of this crazy, beautiful madness we call Christmas Eve!

Two days before Christmas we were over at Gma Woods house watching the BSU bowl game, which we won't be discussing, and Barrett went in to check on the kids who were watching a movie and Anson just handed him his tooth. No blood, no crying or complaining, nothing. We had discovered that it was quite loose several days before when he was eating some popcorn and he wiggled it a lot that day, but I had not noticed or heard him mention it since. Then, tadaaa, here it is. He was not keen on having the camera up close and personal to his mouth, obviously, so you can just kinda see a shadow where the tooth used to be-bottom, middle, left, whichever one that is. Gpa Wood may have gotten a better picture, not sure. Needless to say he mentioned the Tooth Fairy and everything so G&G put a dollar in change under his pillow that night and he was very content! My little sunshine, all growing up!


Just like most children, Bo enjoys trying to trudge around in mom's (or dad's) boots. They are so huge on him, it's just hilarious watching him. I'm afraid that he'd already fallen down a time or two by the time I tried to snap this picture so he wasn't very pleased to pose...


This was our families first snowman of the season, courtesy of Barrett and Anson who had moved on to other things by the time I got outside, so Eden posed for me. When I asked her what we should name it, of course she said frosty, every snowman real, stuffed, on paper, ornament, etc..is called frosty. End of story. And just so you know we did build our own right next to this little cutie, just didn't get any pics.

Eden chowing down on an icicle from somewhere. Underneath the tire swing, I think. Yum!


Unfortunately this is about the only still picture I have of Anson waiting with his SLC class for their school program to start. I'm just pretending like he's scrating his face, but more than likely he is picking his nose. Think what you will..Anyway, his class has a boy who sits up on stage and each member of their class takes some piece of clothing up to him to dress him up as Santa, while the members of the choir sing "Must be Santa". Anson got to give him a beard that's white-he did a great job!Then they load Santa into a wagon and the other kids put on reigndeer headbands and pull him away. Anson also took the opportunity as he was walking past one of the mics on stage to sing, "Ho,Ho,Ho", not scripted, but kind of cute in a little bit of an embarassing sort of way...Of course, this is all on video on the camera, I just don't know how to post it. So you get the one still shot and can just imagine the rest in your head-it's cute, I promise!

This is the morning that we started decorating the tree, and I use the word started because the kids have never really finished, and it's really nearly a week after Christmas. They are constantly rearranging ornaments and decorations-next year, they will have their own tree...It really was a good time though, that first morning. It started snowing for the first time in December and the kids had a blast!Unfortunately Anson's bus came to pick him up just as we were getting started. But like I said, the decorating never ceased, so he's had a chance or two.





Monday, December 29, 2008

Countdown to Christmas...part 1

So we made the trek up to our secret place past Idaho City to locate our lucky christmas tree. We met up with uncle Travis and aunt Stacie and had a real memorable experience searching for our tree, thanks mostly to Eden and her toileting techniques. Anyway, we didn't give ourselves a whole lot of time so we had to look fast and furious...luckily "our spot" did not disapoint and Travis and Barrett picked out a couple of real winners. Big, beautiful trees for $10-how can you pass that up...unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the trees before they got loaded up, just some of the kids, searching and/or eating snow! Good times...Eden and Bo both got in a good nap on the way up, but Anson stayed awake and sang lots of christmas songs with Barrett and I.





Our friends, Blake and Emmalee Anderson came to play one day so we whipped up some cookies and frosting. There was lots of eating and a little decorating-what a great tradition!





A little brother/sister love...


Aunt Bethany, Eden and James riding the zip line in neighbor Travis' backyard!



Thanksgiving Day

We had such a fantastic day with two of Barrett's sisters and their families! Becky Ann, Boyd, James and Andrew hosted and Bethany, Matthew, Evan and Dallin came over from Portland. And they brought Rock Band, which always makes for a great time with the Bishop families!!! The food was delish, and the company was fantastic! What a blessing this family is! Thanks to aunt Bethany for letting me borrow all her pictures, even though I somehow managed to lessen their quality. Not quite sure how, but I did. Hopefully, you'll still get the idea...