December

Oh, the catching up I have to do...  

December was super fun!  I did some Christmas projects like...

Making an ornament wreath,

Making Lexsi's stocking (she chose the material, by the way-- I held a few choices for her and she picked these reindeer!)

Decorating with the cherished Granny-Garland,

And making a new Christmas tree topper.

A few weeks before Christmas, we decided to have a gingerbread house competition.

DJ and I with our football stadium

Tia Sandia with her house

Davey and Meg with their temple

Jill, Kate and Jord with their house

(Kate is clearly thrilled with getting to eat the decorations!)

And Lyssa with her house.

The week before Christmas, I got on an "I need a dog" kick.  DJ obliged by buying me this sweet puppy for Christmas!!!

Don't you love her??? Her name is Cosmo and she's a lab/collie/heeler mix.  She's super smart and so so so sweet!  We originally planned on house training her (our whole main level is laminate), but after the first day it was apparent I am allergic to her.  I cried ALL day long on Saturday because I thought I was going to have to sell her and I was already attached to her!  DJ convinced me she'd be fine living solely outside, and that's what she's been doing ever since.  She's such a good puppy, and I'm so glad I have her!!!

On Christmas Eve, we went to Grammie and Tooge's house for dinner and all the kids got to open Christmas Jammies!!!

Cougar, Bean, Lex, Bekah and Sarie-Loo-Who.

I got DJ a banjo for Christmas, and was able to keep it a secret from him!  He's really good at it, but unfortunately hasn't had much time to practice, as we spent the 4 days following Christmas in the hospital with Lexsi.

We have a tradition that we make each other home-made presents and we exchange them on Christmas Eve.  It's my favorite Christmas tradition we have!  This year I painted DJ a picture of the Manti Temple and he made me this table:

DJ bought Lex a BYU hat (so cute!):

Unfortunately, that's all the pictures we have from Christmas.  Lex was already sick (RSV, remember?) so I wasn't really focused on picture taking.

For good measure, here's one last picture...

This was the first night we got home from the hospital.  Lex was SO sleepy that when we took her out of bed to hook her up to her monitor (it monitors her oxygen levels), she stayed asleep!  Poor little baby!