Laura lost her first tooth at dinner last night. She'd been complaining that her teeth hurt, but she'd just been to the dentist so I thought it was just a phase. But while we were eating oranges she suddenly noticed one was gone! She didn't swallow it, luckily it was sitting on her plate. The tooth fairy came, even though Laura said she was just 'pretending' to be asleep all night long, and now she can't wait to head to the dollar store to spend her precious money. By the way, thanks Maren for setting the quota, Laura knew that the fairy would bring her a buck because that's how much Bailey got awhile ago. Whatever happened to the days when we were lucky to get a quarter? Inflation I tell ya.

'Saturday Night'

Chasin' the boy. 

January 2, 2010 

All of the lady cousins: Bailey holding Addie, Emma, Laura, Kate giving Kylie a hug, Allie and Eden.

One of the reasons we stayed a whole week in Idaho was that Bailey, the oldest cousin, was baptized and confirmed by her father, Michael Stafford, on January 2nd.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of them all sitting in front of the font watching, but I was chasing the boy.  Did you know they now have plastic partitions from keeping the other kids from jumping in?  That almost happened at my cousins' baptism, maybe Garth inspired them to put it up.

Bailey looked beautiful in her white dress that Grandma Martha made for her, and set a wonderful example for her younger cousins.

After Christmas we went up to Idaho to spend the week while Brent and Laura were out of school and work.  For Christmas Brent and I gave each other a little mini vacation up to West Yellowstone.  We stayed overnight at my parent's condo and cross country skied along the Madison River inside the park.  It was so beautiful.  I forgot my camera in the car the first day but the ice along the edge of the river was all bubbled up and there were big chunks of ice floating.  It was freezing!  But we were smart and brought some hot chocolate in a thermos along.

 After dinner at the Gusher restaurant we had a Psych marathon and then got to an entire night's sleep.  It's amazing how refreshed you feel after just a night away.  The kids were good and had fun playing with Grandma and the cousins while we were gone.  In fact when we got back Laura told me she didn't even miss me. 
Little stink.

Christmas Morning 2009

Santa found his way to our house and left a few surprises.  L got Barbie-ish dolls, Eden got a Cabbage patch with clothes, and Ryan got a workbench that lights up and sings.  Santa brought Brent a new chopsaw and dropped off Season 3 of Psych for me.

 

We spent the afternoon in Midway with Great Grandma and Uncle Wayne.  We played in the snow and had fun finger food (little smokies, oranges, and stuff) for dinner.

Christmas morning Brent surprised us all and put letters he had written to each of us on the tree.  The kids loved reading theirs with him and I got all teary.  That guy has a way with words.
 

Christmas Eve 2009

We spent Christmas eve afternoon and evening in Salt Lake with Lanna and Scott and co.  The kids loved playing with their cousins and making a gingerbread house.  Lanna and I tried to make donuts, next year we'll use the trusty Huffy Puffy Jemmett recipe.  We had easy and delicious pizza for dinner and the boys had another showdown on the Chess board.   

After dinner the kids, with Lanna and my help, put on a classic Nativity play.  The costumes were part of our Christmas present to the Whetsels, and before dinner I wrote up a short and kid friendly script.  We saw the angel (Kayla) tell Mary about the baby Jesus.  We watched Mary (Laura) and Jospeh (Eden) ride to Bethlehem, and saw the Shepherds (Ryan and Braydn) and the Wise Man (Dylan) come to worship the newborn King.  We even sang some appropriate hymns and primary songs.  It was really sweet, I think we all really enjoyed it.   

After we got back we made sure that Santa had a yummy snack, sprinkled reindeer dust on the snow, and tucked the girls in bed.  Then Santa got to work filling the stockings!

 It says: Dear Santa, I hope you like all these fruits.  Thank you for bringing us presents. Love Laura and Eden.  It was getting late so I helped write the body of the note and the girls signed it.