Monday December 29th, 2008- I spent today trying to recover from the long fun filled but busy week. When Bryan got home from work we went to McDonald's for dinner and let David play on the new play equipment. He had a blast. I wish I would have taken a picture. After dinner we rented a video. We had a prayer sang a song, read a story from the friend and ate Cinnamon rolls for family home evening. then we put David to bed and watched the movie"Get Smart."
I still am not caught up yet on house chores but will hopefully catch up before the new year. Thanks to all of you family and friends for making our 2008 great. We wish you the best for 2009.
Sunday December 28th, 2008- Happy Birthday CJ. We hope you and your family made it safely home. My High School friend Elizabeth and her husband Jack stopped by before we left for church. They are headed home to Utah and made a special trip from Nampa to visit us before there long drive. It was great to see them and catch up for a little while. Today David did pretty well during sacrament meeting. We learned if we give him Taquito's during the passing of the sacrament meeting he will sit and be reverent. We have done that the last two Sundays and it has worked great. I walked the hall with David during Sunday school and Bryan walked the halls with David during Relief Society. I can't believe how much I get out of Relief Society now that I do not have David. As the new Relief Society Secretary it is kind of weird to sit up front but it is great because Bryan takes David and I get to enjoy the lesson. We had invited the Sherman family over for dinner but Emily's Mom ended up in the hospital so they were not able to come. We ended up having the Conley family over. We had chicken Alfredo, with home made bread sticks, green salad, and mixed veggies. It was fun having them over. This last week our ward Relief Society president Robin Hollingsworth was in California for her sons wedding and suffered a severe stroke. She will be in California recovering for a while before she is able to come home. She is about my parents age and I do not consider her very old. (If you could keep her in your prayers that would be great.) Because of that I have not done a tone in my calling yet but With her having the stoke it has made me reflect on how precious life. I need to be more grateful for the simple things in life (like my health, My family's health and the time we have to spent together doing the things we enjoy). It has definitely made me want to take full advantage of the time I have with family.
Saturday December 27th, 2008- We got up around 7:30 am at Von and Sheri's. They are not home but were gracious enough to let us know we could stay there anytime with out them if we wanted to. Thanks Mom and Dad Sorenson. It was nice being able to drive only 10min to go to sleep instead of 35min. We spent the morning lounging around. On our way home we decided to stop at my parents. We ended putting David down for his morning nap there. I headed over to Scott and Amanda's to play games. Bryan came with David once he woke up from his nap. Amanda was sweet and had made a great soup for all of us for lunch. We stay the whole afternoon there. Bryan, CJ, Mark & Greg took on all of Stevens children and the Cahoon kids in capture the flag in the snow. They had a blast. The kids won 3 out of the 4 games. The men were slightly out numbered. We then all pitched in on pizza for dinner and enjoyed watching some of the College football bowl games. It was a nice evening together at family. Scott and Amanda left around 6:30pm. It is there 13th anniversary today. Happy Anniversary Scott and Amanda. They were so gracious letting us invade there house for the day. They headed out to eat and to the temple. This is the picture of them right before they left for the temple.
Friday Decmeber 26th, 2008- Bryan had to work today. David and I spent the morning getting some laundry and stuff done. Bryan came home for lunch. After lunch David and I headed into Boise. We met Tami & CJ, My Mom, Scott and Amanda, Greg, Mark and Janette, Kimber and Mike at the YMCA. We played racquetball from 2-4:15. We had a blast. Then Tami, my Mom and I got ready at the YMCA. I went and dropped David off at my Aunt Jamie's and Uncle Jeff Wolff's. All of us adults (My parents, Scott & Amanda, Tami & CJ, Greg, Janette & Mark, Kimber and Mark) went out to Texas Road house for dinner. It was great. Bryan met us there. After dinner Bryan and I went and picked up David. We really appreciate the Wolff's watching David. Thank you!!! Then we headed to my parents. We put David to bed and had an adult bingo night. We all got 5-6 $1 store gifts and then the winners of bingo got to pick the gift then wanted. It was a lot of fun. We ate a lot of junk and had fun together as adults. Bryan took David with him around 12:00 back to Von and Sheri's were we stayed the night. Thanks Bryan for letting me stay a little longer. I stayed at my parent until around 2:00am playing around the world ping pong & games. It was a blast. I love being able to spent time with the family. Kimber and Mike are leaving early tomorrow morning so it was great to spend a little extra time with them.
Thursday December 25th, 2008- David slept in this morning until 8:00am. It was great. It was fun to see him coming down the stairs excited to see the gifts. I am not sure he understands that we were celebrating the birth of the Savior but he had fun opening his gifts. Around 12:00 we headed into Boise. We brought Dad and Mom Sorenson there presents from us. Then we took them to the airport. they are headed to Las Vegas for 10 days to geo-cach. Then we headed to my parents house and opened presents there. I am so grateful for this time of year to spent time with family. I am grateful for the Savior, his birth and his atonement.
This is what the living room looked after Santa Visited.
David coming Down the stairs all excited to see the presents.
David's big gift from Santa. He loved the basketball & hoop.
Wednesday December 24th, 2008- We ate breakfast at Von and Sheri's. Von helped Bryan make a tv stand and a toddler bead frame. Then we met my family at the racquetball courts at the West YMCA in Boise at 10:00am. My Mom, Scott and Amanda, Greg, Janette & Mark, Kimber & Mike, and, Bryan & I all played for a good two hours. We had a blast. Kimber did great playing at 28 weeks pregnant and I forgot I was even pregnant(14 weeks). After playing racquetball Bryan, David and I headed back to Von and Sheri's. We took a shower and got ready. I went into Eagle and helped my Mom, Mandy & Janette set up the church for our Stevens family Christmas Eve dinner and play. Then I headed to my parents to help finish getting some of the food ready for the dinner. I went and picked up Bryan and David and then headed back to the church for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner and entertainment. Tami brought the scripted for the kids to put on the Christmas story. We had a great time being together as family. We all helped with the clean-up and then headed to Dad and Mom Stevens to open our Christmas Eve present. (My family draw names and then exchange the gift on Christmas eve.) Those are the gifts that we open.
Here are some of the pictures from the Christmas Eve evening. It was great.
Tuesday December 23rd, 2008- We have had a ton of snow and bad weather today. David and I traveled into Boise today. My sweet sister Kimber watched David for a few hours while I went to the temple. It was our Stake fill the temple day. Because of the bad weather the temple workers nor I expect the temple to be so full, but it was. It was great to see. my session was full plus they added some chairs to the session so a few more people could fit in. I later found out the whole day was very busy at the temple. After going to the temple I went and spent the day at my parents house. I was able to enjoy so fun games with my Mom, Kimber and Mike. David love his aunt Kimber and Uncle Mike. Around 4:30pm David and left for Bryan's parents in Boise. We met Bryan there to watch the BSU vs TSU football game. Sheri also made us a great dinner of potatoe/ Ham cassarole. BSU ended up losing by 1 point. We stayed the night at Von and Sheri's. It was great to be able to put David to bed at a good hour and still enjoy watching the whole game. Von & Sheri played two games of Cribbage with us before we went to bed. I also made the tow jellows for our Christmas Eve dinner.
Uncle Mike and David
Monday December 22nd, 2008- David & I made some sugar cookies for Bryan's office. David love eating them. He got made at me when I limited the amount of cookies he could have. When Bryan got home from work we did head to the YMCA to work out. They had a Santa Clause there. We let David sit on his lap. Obviously David was not a fan. He did a lot better with Santa when Mom was holding him on Santa's lap. We came away with some small candy canes. David loved the treat.
Daddy gave David a cookie after we got back from the gym.
David's 1st incounter with Santa Clause.
David was much happier sitting with Mommy on Sainta's lap. It was even better when David got a candy cane from Santa Clause.
David having a small tantrum when Mommy would only give him 1 cookie. 
Saturday December 20th, 2008- We stayed the night at Von and Sheri's last night. This morning Sheri made us a great Swedish Omlett for breakfast and David had waffles. David seems to be feeling a lot better. We went and visited Kimber and Mike. We ended up going over to Scott and Amanda's for the evening. We played games and had a blast. Little Gideon and David had fun mooching popcycle licks off of everyone. I hope no one else got what David had. By the time I realized he was eating others popsycles it was to late.
Aunt Kimber and David.
David thought he was so cool when Grandma Sheri and Grandpa Von put ornament on his ears. 
Saturday Morning David had free rain in Grandma and Grandpa's house. We obviously had a few messes to clean up.
Friday December 19th, 2009- Today David and I went to a play group at the church. The seven women who came all brought a part of the lunch to contribute and then we all let our children enjoy playing in the gym and eating the variety of food. We had a potatoe bar. It was great to get some adult interaction. David and I also brought some Tokito's by Bryan's work before we headed to the play group. They were having there lunch christmas exchange. Bryan came home with a new miniture shop Vaccume. We headed into Boise to have Von and Sheri watch David while we went to a movie with my sister Kimber and her husband Mike. David ended up throwing up right as we pulled into Von and Sheri's drive way. We did not end up going to the movie's with Kimber and Mike. We did spend the night at Von and Sheri's though.
Thursday December 18th, 2008- My visisting teaching partner Amy Thompson and I went out to visit all three of our sisters today. I had gotten the appiontments scheduled during the week and had gotten some cute gifts to deliver with our message. To our dismay all three of the sisters we vist were not there. They had stood us up. We left the gifts we brought at there door. Two out of the three later call us and apologized. I guess is January we will just have to make sure we get to visit them .
Wednesday December 17th, 2008- I decided I needed one more picture of our decorated Christmas tree. I find it quite funny to have only the top half of the tree decorated. It is amazing what you have to change when a toddler is running around in the house.Tuesday December 16th, 2008- I spent the day cleaning the house. I cleaned the bathrooms, vaccumed the house and got things in order.
