James’ shiny whites :)

Super Heroes

Because Matt graduated in December, he has had a lot of time to play with James. I am amazed at how fun Matt makes everything for James. James loves his blanket and dad taught him a new use for it… superman of course! I really love my two super heroes!

Snow Day

James really truly loves his daddy, especially when he plays with him. This past week it snowed here in Provo, so Matt wanted to take James out to play in the snow…. but James definitely didn’t want to go. He was fussing and crying when we were putting his snow boots on, and I started wondering if it was worth it. From the pictures below though, you can see that it was. James loved it (as usual) and (as usual) he cried when he had to come inside for his nap. Oh our little boy :)

Youth Temple Trip

I absolutely love my calling- I really really do! I love the girls I serve and I love the gals I work with! Every year we make goals as a group, and this year one of the goals is to go to six different temples and do baptisms. We started out with the Provo temple. Here are just a couple pictures!

Freezer Meals!

For one of our mutual activities, we decided to make freezer meals for the compassionate service committee in our ward who would then give them to families in need. Overall it was a huge success and we had fun while doing it. We ended up making 14 meals! Here are some pictures of everyone in action :)

Here are two of the ladies I work with, Jade and Sage. I can’t tell you how amazing they are! They are such great leaders, friends and role models! I am honestly so lucky to know them!!

Mckell is one of our girls who is so much fun to be around!

Sis. Gines (Stake YW Pres. and bishops wife), Yon Soo, and Mckell!

Some of the other leaders working at a station (the blonde gal is Lindsay, another counselor that I work with that I just ADORE… seriously I am so lucky to get to work with them!)

The entire group with all of our meals!

Three Christmas Days

We had an unusual Christmas vacation. This year we celebrated Christmas three different times. We first had Christmas at our house here in Provo. We were able to have a Christmas dinner and then open up Christmas presents with Uncle Stu and Aunt Ashley. James was able to open up his presents from the Mauger side of the family and from us.

Its so fun to see James open up his presents at this age- he really enjoys taking the wrapping paper off and finding out what is inside. This was his favorite toy from Grandma and Grandpa Mauger.

 

Daddy got James these big legos (or duplos) and I think Daddy likes them more than James at this point

 

After opening each present, James kept going back to his farm. He loves this toy and still plays with it all the time! Christmas with Stu and Ashley was very fun and we REALLY loved all of the presents that we received (I definitely got the best present! :) )

 

When we got to Texas, my dad had just been admitted to the hospital and stayed in the hospital for the entire break. (More about that in a later post) Because of this, we had to adapt our Christmas a lot. My dad was in ICU on Christmas day so we couldn’t bring any presents to the hospital that day (no kids are allowed in ICU and only 2 visitors at a time). On Christmas day we opened our stockings and had a Christmas meal with my brother Bill and his in laws.  It was a delicious meal and it was nice for James to spend time with his cousins, even though it was hard to be away from my dad and mom for most of that day.

 

A week after Christmas was when we actually opened our presents with my dad at the hospital. He was moved to a different part of the hospital so we brought the gifts to his room and opened them up.

Here is James’ Aunt Andrea and his two cousins whom he LOVES a lot!

To be funny, I got Bill some dollar sunglasses that were the shade of blue. For any of you that may know my brother, you know that he is hilarious, so I knew that he comments towards this gift would be memorable. He cracked all of us up as he made his sly remarks about these sunglasses.

Overall, even though this Christmas wasn’t typical and what we had planned, we enjoyed being around family!

Provo December Fun!

 

James loves playing hide and seek, and he especially loves hiding in a pile full of pillows.

We haven’t had a lot of snow this winter and we were a little nervous that all of James’ snow gear would never get used! About a week into December though, we were finally able to use his snow pants and boots because a storm came barrelin’ down the mountain!

He usually likes touching the snow, but when we sat him in it, he wasn’t quite sure what to do

He soon learned that it tastes cold!   

James loves the snow! Next on our list is to teach him snowboarding! …. j/k :)

Happy Birthday Ashley

On December 12th we had the privilege of celebrating Ashley’s, Matt’s sister, birthday at our house! Ashley is definitely the aunt that James gets to see the most- last semester she helped us out a ton and watched James once a week while I was in class and Matt was working. We love Ashley a TON and hope she had a GrEaT birthday!!

Daddy and James Time

James loves building forts with Matt (and Matt LOVES it too- he is a little kid at heart :) ). Here are some pictures of my two cuties :)

Thanksgiving 2010

I absolutely love holidays! We always have an opportunity to be with family and I just love the feelings I get when I am around the people I love! This year we stayed close to Provo and celebrated Thanksgiving with some of Matt's side of the family. We were sad that we couldn't spend Thanksgiving with my family or Matt's family in Alaska, but we did have fun with Stu, Ashley, Great grandma and grandpa Evans, and some of our other aunts, uncles and cousins. Here are just a couple pictures of Thanksgiving day:

James loved playing with great Uncle Curtis

Look at those handsome brothers!

Grandma-great Evans insisted that she help cook the Thanksgiving meal

 

Stu and Grandpa-great relaxing on the couch while the food is cooking.

I guess Dallin and Ashley got a little jealous of all of the attention that Stu was getting from Grandpa-great!

One of the tables during the actual meal :)

He is We

About a week and a half before Thanksgiving, we were able to have my little brother Adam come visit. He just came up for 8 or so days, and it was nice to have him in our home. James LOVED playing with him and it was nice to spend quality time with him. Adam has an AMAZING talent of being able to play the guitar REALLY well (like so well that he could do it as a profession). He is a lover of music and is always finding good bands to listen to. He likes 'folk' type music and introduced me to a band He is We. If you haven't heard of them you should check them out- I especially love the song "Happily Ever After".

I love you Adam! Come visit anytime!

Change in Scenery

In November (before Thanksgiving), I wanted to change our living room a little bit. With a lot of persuasion on my part, Matt finally agreed to let me buy some frames and make a wall collage. I love the results!



At the same time I also had the Christmas itch. In previous years I always thought that people who put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving were silly, but in my mind I rationalized it saying, "We won't have enough time to enjoy our decorations because of our Texas Christmas trip, so we NEED to put the Christmas tree up NOW so we can enjoy it". So, for the first time ever, we decorated our home Christmas style a few weeks before Thanksgiving.... and I loved it!