Calendar pages

Every year I scrapbook calendars for my mom and mother in law. This year I tried creating a digital book and I was pretty happy with the pages. I'm excited because I can also print them out use them for my own pages.
(Each month has pictures from that month in 2008- so some are the same that I posted below.)

2008 Favorites

We have no idea what happened to 2008, but are glad it's over and the crazy schedule is now behind us. We can't wait for all the exiting things coming up in 2009!

Below are 2 of our favorite pictures and/or memories from each month:
January:

(photo above from Erica Grover)

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

Noah's friends

Noah has some new friends in town. His ten year old cousins. He calls their sister, Charlotte, his cousin, but Henry, Connor and Ben are not to be called his cousins, they are his "friends." He gets really mad when he can't find them, he following them around, sits with them and trys to be a big kid like them.

It's been really fun to see how much Gage and Noah love playing with their cousins. It will be great to see more of our cousins in Utah this spring.

Festivities

We've been so busy with Christmas & family festivities. It's been great to have 2 of my sisters here and the crazy snow storm has not got in our way of enjoying a good time. There are so many fun pictures I could post about!

Christmas Eve we headed to my parents for a fondue dinner, some games, and activities. We made cookies for Santa and the boys had a great time decorating them. Santa had a hard time taking bites of all the cookies left on the plate, the mounds and mounds of frosting was just too much. It was gross!

After dinner we did a fun scavenger hunt that my mom put together. It was such a hit we did an encore of the game, with more teams, when both my sister's were able to join us on Christmas day.

The "treasure" of the treasure hunt were the scriptures, and we listened to Grandpa read us Luke chapter 2. Then we tried on our new Christmas jammies and took some pictures.

The boys were so excited on Christmas morning! Santa brought them both pop-guns. Gage got a pack of transformers and Noah got a fire truck.

Gage kept walking around all day with this grin. He would say randomly, "I love my Transformers, I really love my Transformers." It was great!

Both boys got new sleeping bags, pillows and sheep from Grandpa and Grandma Christiansen. We couldn't have planned it more perfect, they have both become fascinated with camo the last few weeks and request everything to come in those colors. Noah was too cute with his camo pop-gun, sheep, bag and pillow.

My favorite part of Christmas came from Gage. He figured out earlier this week that mommy and daddy should get something for Christmas too. When we asked him what would be a good thing for a dad, he said "screwdriver" and when we asked him what a mommy would like he said "a new dress...a sparkly one."

Well, we usually don't get each other gifts, at least the past few years we haven't. This year we both cheated a little. I was surprised when I saw a package under the tree with my name on it. I found some new lotion and this:

Yes, it is a picture of a dress, a sparkly one, and lots of lots of curly q's drawn around it, because, of course, that is what girls like.

I made Wade a digital picture and framed it of his new favorite quote. I'm glad he likes this one, it makes me feel better when he comes home from work and the house is still a mess and dinner isn't done (or is from the freezer or a box!).

Christmas afternoon and night we spent at my parents again. This time two of my sisters and their families were there for the festivities. The highlight of the night had to be the coke taste testing contest.

The name of the game is simple (and has flashbacks to the pepsi challenge in the 80's and 90s). I brought an assortment of drinks which were presented in dixie cups and the participants had to choose from a list, what drinks were what. I had to make this hard for my hard core Diet Coke drinking sisters, so I brought 6 different drinks to the table. (Diet Coke Plus, Diet Coke Caffeine Free, Diet Big K with Lime, Coke Zero, Coke Zero with Cherry and Pepsi Wild Cherry)

We were all astounded and surprised when the answers were read and the winner was announced. Wade won the game - who doesn't even drink caffeine or like coke! He credited this winning to the fact that his taste buds have not been de-sensitized to any caffeinated or cola products. Maybe for New Years I'll have to come up with a harder rootbeer tasting test for him.

The winner of the game won all the drinks and a fancy picture. As you can tell, Wade didn't care about either of these.

Christmas 2008 was great fun. While we missed our family in Utah, we had fun with the family that was here. We have more fun to post about sisters and cousins that will come soon!