Merry Christmas!!

We hope that your Christmas was merry & bright, and filled with:

enough snowstorms to keep the world white & beautiful and children happily entertained for hours, complete with rosy cheeks and cold noses,
along with adorable signs that they left you on the stairs, since the excitement at a world full of white could not wait until after 6 am or until parents were awake;

as well as homemade toffee & other delicious treats;

reindeer;

beautiful buildings;

yummy smelling, perfectly fat, deep green Christmas trees;

brand-new babies to nibble on;

and lots of lights to brighten every night!

(or other joys that made you equally as cheery this year!)

With love,

Andrew, Rebecca, Tyler, Robby & Annie

What was your favorite delight of the season?

Amy & Claire, this one's for you!

Annie came prancing downstairs in one of her most fancy pink silk dresses. She danced around the house for a few minutes to YMCA (a song which the boys have recently become infatuated with, because, really, who doesn't love to stand on the kitchen counter and shape their arms into the letters of the song? Well, Andrew insists that he hates it, but really, deep down, I think he thinks it's fun.) Then she sauntered over to me while I was busy making treats for the primary teachers. We then had this charming conversation.

Annie: "I can dance because I'm at a wedding."

Me: "Oh, who's wedding are you at?"

Annie: "Mine."

Me: (with a tiny bit of fear at what her response would be): "Oh, who are you marrying?"

Annie: "No one, but I'm at my wedding. (she pauses for a moment of thought)

My second wedding is going to be all pink. And Amy will be there. And Amy is marrying Claire. And I can dance because it's my wedding. And I will wear a pink dress."

I really love little girls! Especially mine. :)

This is Annie last December at Amy's wedding, who married Nathan--not Claire.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Dear Andrew,
Since the first moment I saw you, you have been what I wanted more than anything else in this world. Thank you for being who you are and for making me better than I was before.


You are a fun, kind, thoughtful, helpful husband.

You are the kind of dad that kids want to be with more than anything and dream of becoming like you. I hope they do.

You are a loyal, forgiving, fun friend.

You're handsome, hardworking, dedicated, honest, funny, sweet, & dang sexy.

I love you more than anything. You have made all my dreams come true. Happy Birthday!

Love, Becca

Thanksgiving

I know it's old news now, but our Thanksgiving was a blast! Andrew's parents came to town and it was so fun to have them, along with Andrew's two sisters & my brother over for dinner (my brother being married to one of those sisters, for those of you who don't know about our selective family situation). It was also fun to have my sister & her husband stop by for a bit.

This was the first year we've ever had Thanksgiving at our house, and I was a bit nervous about being 'the hostess'...but everyone really worked together to make it a wonderful meal and a fabulous day. Lucky for me, I have a brother in law who loves to cook turkey and gravy and chocolate cheesecake; a husband who makes the best mashed potatoes (we learned a few tricks from our days spent as servers at Tucanos); a sister in law who makes amazing homemade stuffing-the real deal!; another sister in law who made the best sweet potatoes I've ever eaten in my life; a mother & father in law who kept the grandkids entertained outside of the kitchen; and a brother who helped me with my one big job (making rolls). After all that, I had hardly anything to do!

Esther & I decided that we wanted to start a few new traditions this year. One of our fabulous ideas, that wasn't really ours (I was inspired by the amazing Markoff family from my home ward. They have some pretty incredible Thanksgiving traditions. I really shouldn't even post this link, because then you'll compare us with the Markoffs, and it just really isn't fair for anyone else in the world to be compared with that amazing family, but I must share my inspiration, and their pictures are just so fun to look at! Hope you don't mind Jen!!), was to dress everyone up like Pilgrims and Indians. This was the first year we've ever done this (I know some of you do this every year), and I was a little nervous about how much work the costumes would take. Let me just tell you that we had so much fun! It really wasn't too much work, and it was so worth it. It will be even easier next year now that we have a few things on hand and know what we're doing better. (and YES, there will be a next year guys!) We bought a few things from the thrift store and make the Pilgrim & Indian hats, so it didn't cost us much money.

We also had the kids make gratitude turkeys out of apples and construction paper feathers. They had a lot of fun, and it was a great way to focus on some things we are thankful for, while still keeping them all entertained!

Things got a little dicey when certain football lovers realized that our home has no tv, which equals no football, but even that problem was solved quite effectively. (Luckily, my brother has sort of a thing for tv's, and his was located not too far away, and potatoes are easily transferred and must be peeled by several men at once.)


Anyway, here are a few pictures.






Couldn't have made those rolls without you Rob! ;)

This is one of my favorite pictures! Check out those Pilgrims and Indians, working so well together!

Our little Indian family.

Grandpa & Grandma Pilgrim

Everyone sitting down together & getting along so well.

Now that little Indian looks like he's going to get whatever he wants!

Our gratitude turkeys...don't they just look thankful?!


Hope your Thanksgiving made you as happy as ours made me!

"Where are you Girl?"

Okay, Jen, to answer your question... I have been:

-dealing with a computer that decided it no longer liked being connected to the internet, or being turned on at all. we have been working through its issues, and it seems that a few compromises have been made-at least enough for me to actually check my email and respond to a few of them.

-enjoying family in town. first, andrew's parents for a wonderful thanksgiving feast. then my mom and my sister and her two kids for the birth of my darling niece (daughter of my other sister, who luckily lives here!). pictures to come (but i'll just mention now with joy that this was the first time i've been at the birth of a niece. so, one nephew and one niece i've seen come into this world, and hopefully many more to come! it was awesome! and she is gorgeous. did i mention that already?)

-watching the birth of my beautiful niece (which i guess i just mentioned) and intruding into her once quiet home as often as i could find any excuse to snuggle her cuteness. did i mention how adorable she is? do i sound a little baby hungry?

-trying to figure out the ins and outs of Primary, because someone thought i'd have a lot to learn as the secretary. they were right, i do have A LOT to learn. (ie I have no idea what I'm doing, and for some reason, I'm expected to know! advice, anyone??)

-spending a lot of mental energy worrying over getting a christmas letter written and envelopes addressed and all that. with all the time i've spent worrying over how to possibly make this task accomplish itself, i probably could have done it all twice. but somehow it doesn't work that way. if i don't send anyone a card this year, will you still know that i love you, and still send me one anyway? because i really love getting them. (really, really love getting them!) (lots more than i love sending them!)

-i don't really know. stuff. lots of it. all that stuff that life just throws at you, or kids throw at you, or someone throws at you, and then at the end of the day you try to remember what in the world you did all day, but all that throwing has just made your head throb, so you can't really remember anymore. or something like that. but i'm sure you understand!

so, assuming this truce with our computer will last, i'll be posting some pictures of our adventures shortly. but right now i just want to go rest my tired head, okay?

love you.

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