Thursday, December 22, 2016

Christmas Fun!

We had so much fun leading up to Christmas!

BYU-I Christmas Concert:
We found out David Archuleta was the special guest at the BYU-I Christmas concert this year, so we got tickets. The show was so good!

Mark, Tricia, Sawyer, Mason, Bailey, Hannah
David Archuleta and Nathan Pacheco. They were so great!
Ice Cream at Freddy's with the Hoplas after the concert!
 Decorating & Ornaments:
We added a few decorations this year. I did the entry way table, and Mark added some lights to the front yard.



When it was time to decorate the tree, Bailey went downstairs to put her elf pjs on. This is how she came back up! We were dying!
I tried for a long time to get a good picture of them in front of the tree, but this is the best they would give me. Bailey thinks the head wearing a Santa hat should qualify as a decoration, so I keep finding it in random places throughout the house. 
Their new ornaments for the year were fun! Bailey got a giraffe, because she got to feed them during spring break this year. Sawyer got a Texas ornament, in honor of his trip back to Texas to visit his mission. 


I think it's so cute!
 

This one is so cool!
We love this tradition, but we're starting to run out of room on our tree!
 Friend Party:
I love my annual Christmas party with Lesa, Becky, Michelle, and Misty. We've been doing it for years, and we have so much fun! Michelle broke her ankle a few weeks earlier, and can't have any weight on it, so we partied at her house. We all brought food we love durning the holidays. We ate, exchanged gifts, watched a Christmas movie, and talked till late into the night. Good times!


Misty, Tricia, Michelle, Lesa, and Becky
Sawyer had a party with all his high school buddies too! Not a great picture, but a great group of people!

High school friends and their spouses!

Ugly Christmas Sweaters:
Sawyer had an ugly Christmas sweater day at work, and Bailey had one at school. Bailey and I picked Sawyer's out when he wasn't with us. We got the most hideous one we could find. Sawyer totally embraced it! We found Bailey's lovely 3D sweater on Black Friday, and she loves it!


Bailey's Baking:
Bailey loves making Christmas treats! She decided to learn how to make 4 new things this holiday season. She made gingerbread cookies, Oreo pops, shortbread cookies, and she will be making us a pumpkin roll on Christmas eve. They have all turned out great so far!

Gingerbread cookies
Oreo pops- she made these for Sawyer's work party, and they won a prize, so now he has to take her to Chic-fil-a with the gift card he won!

Christmas Lights:
Kim and Russ came to visit for a few days because Jessica and James were graduating from BYU-I. The temperatures dropped to below zero, and it dumped a ton of snow. They got to experience an Idaho winter for a few days. We had fun playing games, watching Home Alone, and looking at lights.

Loaded Question
Sitting with Santa at the Festival of Lights.
Russ, Kim, Santa, Bailey, Tricia, Mark
Horse and wagon ride in the freezing snow!
We loved the horses!
We went to the Bellnap Christmas house in Iona. It has flashing Christmas lights and plays to music. Super cool!

Gingerbread Train:
We made the cutest gingerbread train!

Getting started!

The train is all built, now for the decorating!

Mark decorated the trees!
Finishing touches!
It's so cute! We're practically professionals!
 

We're pretty proud of our cute creation!
For mutual, we had a young women Christmas/winter sock exchange. So Fun!

I love all my cute young women and leaders!
We finished a puzzle over the Christmas break. This was a fun one that brought back lots of memories! We got this puzzle when Sawyer was just a baby. We did it at the bar of Grammy and Papa's old Lakeside house. It was a great one to pull out again.


We haven't played Rock Band for years! Now that the basement is finished, we found all the parts, and hooked it back up. Good times!



We've had lots of fun this month! Now bring on Christmas!


Holiday Performances!

Mark and Bailey had 3 holiday performances this year. I love listening to them practice and perform Christmas songs!

Festival of Trees:
 The first performance was the Festival of Trees. We love the Festival! It's always been a fun way for us to kick off the holidays. They played for a half hour. Jessie Larsen sang When Christmas Comes to Town with Bailey, and it was so cute!

Festival of Trees
 

Love them!
Bailey had fun singing with Jessie. I'm hoping we hear more of these two together in the future!
Mark, Bailey, Mason
Bailey's cute little fan club! She loves when the Temple boys come to watch her!
Mark's Company Party:
Mark and Bailey were the entertainment for the social hour before they served dinner. It's fun for Mark to perform for the people he works with.

Walsh company party
Museum of Idaho:
They played for an hour at the Museum of Idaho. They love to try out new songs at the museum.  This year the new ones were You Raise Me Up, and Christmas Hallelujah. They were awesome! 

Museum of Idaho
Jessie came and sang with them again.
We love Jaxson, Emersyn, and Preslee!
Hannah is so sweet! She comes to watch Bailey whenever she can. Hannah played the piano at the museum this year, and we went to listen to her. She did awesome! I want these two to play together.
Bailey, Hannah, Mark
 I love their music! It always helps get me in the true Christmas spirit. I'm so glad these two love sharing their talent with the community!


Thanksgiving Weekend!

Thanksgiving week was great! We had the missionaries over for Thanksgiving dinner, played games, and then headed to the movies to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. 

Fun with the missionaries!
Sawyer in a food coma!
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!
 Bailey and I spent all day Black Friday shopping. About half way through the day, Mason and Sawyer joined us at the mall. They made things interesting!

Gotta love black Friday!
 We also worked on our Thanksgiving puzzle. We started it and finished it on Saturday!

Our fun 80s puzzle!
I guess I should have said something different besides, "Mark, pose with the puzzle."
I loved having everyone home for the week. I can't wait till Christmas break!