This has been a fantastic week with Rachel’s family. On Wednesday (Christmas Eve) we went up to their uncle Steve’s cabin on Strawberry Reservoir. To get into the cabin we had to take snow machines up the road for about four and a half miles since everything was snowed in. Kelly, Brandon, and I took a load of gear up first, and then we returned for the rest of the people. Rachel and Eva got to ride in on a trailer that we hooked to the back of the machine. At first we were worried that Eva would hate it and scream the whole way, but instead the exact opposite was true; soon after the machine started she fell asleep and slept the whole way in despite the bumpy trail.

Once at the cabin we had a great time! It was so much fun just having everyone together and we played a lot of games, played in the snow, and played on the snow machines. Actually, the word “play” could pretty well sum up this entire week for us. On Christmas morning we all opened presents and watched “The Grinch.” We made Eva a Build-a-Bear with a little personalized message from Mom and Dad that she became instantly attached to. Rubbing her face in its tummy and giggling provides no end to gleeful fun for her!

Basically, we had a fantastic Christmas and it was hard to leave the cabin when the time finally came. We were there until Sunday afternoon and enjoyed every second of it. There really is nothing quite like being with family for the holidays.

Stay tuned...Rachel will post some picture of our cabin stay.

Merry Christmas!

This week was another wonderful week with my family in Rexburg. My dad, Griffin, and I played a lot of racquetball. Unfortunately, I never was able to beat Griffin. There's always next time! And I did beat him in foosball.

On Wednesday morning Haley flew back to Texas to be with Matt. She had been living at home for a semester to finish school and I'm sure she is very happy to finally be reunited with her husband. They are moving into a new house in a couple of months and will have just enough time to get things ready for the baby that is already on the way. We are very excited for them.

Thursday night we had "Christmas" with my family and exchanged presents to each other. We did this early this year since we won't actually be together on Christmas day.

Really, there's not much more to say- we had a fantastic visit and the time went by all too quickly. On Friday afternoon we drove down to Sandy where we will spend the next couple of weeks with Rachel's family. Yesterday we went to Hunter and Anna Sophia's (cousins) Christmas dance recital and were very impressed. Especially with Hunter; He is awesome and knows how to make dance look cool.

Anyway, we don't have many pictures for this week. We do have some great pictures of Evelyn though- given to us as christmas presents. These are the ones that Haley took at the BYU-Idaho photo studio. There are more that we will post at a later date. Merry Christmas!

We have had an awesome week with my family this week. It was the first time in a while that my entire family has been able to get together and it has been so much fun hanging out with everyone. Instead of writing a lot about our activities, I will tell the story in pictures:


My sister Haley graduated with her BS in Communications. We are proud of her and it was neat to be able to go to her commencement ceremony. Her husband, Matt, flew in from Texas to watch her walk across the stage and receive her diploma and it was fun to hang out with him for a couple of days too.

We went to the gingerbread display at the hospital and saw a lot of cool houses.

Evelyn is feeling much better after we got some antibiotics for her. She has had two breakthroughs this week: first of all she finally learned to crawl- second, she learned how to enjoy a bath. Woo Hoo! She has been a very happy baby even though she has SEVEN teeth coming in. Her mouth looks like it is full of blisters. She smiles and laughs through most of it.




Here's an appropriate video for the season :)

Time for relaxation

Whew! Vacation has come at last. This week has (hopefully) been the last stressful week of the year. And stressful it was. While we were getting ready for our big trip back west we were also madly working on Christmas presents and finishing our gingerbread house (see previous post). Also, we had our tests this week. I took the first part of the National Dental Board Exam on Thursday and Rachel took the first part of the National Interpreting Certification test on Saturday. We are both happy to have those tests behind us. Now it is time to play!

We flew into Salt Lake on Friday morning and spent the day with Rachel’s family. And then on Saturday after Rachel’s test we drove up to Rexburg so that Rachel could go to my sister Haley’s baby shower. While the girls were at the shower, Griffin and I went and played racquetball and he killed me. We will spend the next two weeks here in Rexburg which will hopefully give me a chance to redeem myself. On the 18th or 19th we will head back down to Utah to be with Rachel’s family during Christmas.

The week has taken its toll on Evelyn as well. On the day we left we woke her up at 4:30 am so we could catch our flight. She didn’t sleep very well on the plane, and had a really hard time adjusting to the time change. To add to the misery, she developed an ear infection, a cold, and is having a new tooth come in which is obviously painful. She has done her best to put on a happy face, but there are times when she is very miserable and a little unresponsive. Hopefully these things clear up within a day or two so that she can enjoy being with family (and they can enjoy being with her) as much as we are.

Anyway- Since we can’t very well post pictures of the Christmas presents we are making, the only pictures for the week are in the previous post of our gingerbread house.

Our Gingerbread House

Creating a gingerbread house from scratch is one of our yearly traditions that we started our first year of marriage. Every year the project has grown. This year Logan was the architect and he designed the house from a picture we found on the internet. First, he created a model out of cardboard that was 1/3 the final size. Then we baked for two days to create the gingerbread pieces. Next, it was time for candy shopping! Finally, we spent two days decorating our house. Here is a video that explains the features.

The original cardboard design

Raw material

Here is a tour of the gingerbread house 2008.