Jean is 90!

 yesterday my grandma turned 90 years old! My sisters and I went down to visit her after work and she was so delighted to see all of us. I stopped at the store and picked up a card and some pink roses (her favorite color, obviously) and she was so grateful for them. She has accomplished so much in her life and has so much to be proud of. We love you Grandma! Happy Birthday!

    

A few end of December Pictures

 Lucy is totally in love with her Teepee and spends a good amount of time playing in it. She likes to pull her chair in along with whatever she is playing with, and sets up camp for a bit. It is the sweetest thing!! The week after Christmas, we woke up to a foot of snow outside, Lucy couldn't wait to go out and play in it. I had all her snow clothes ready, and realized I didn't buy her new boots, and her old ones were way too small! So we hurried and loaded up in the car and headed to the store to get some boots. Once we were home, it was only a few minutes before we were outside eating snow! :) I attempted to shovel the walks, but being 7.5 months pregnant, that was near impossible. So we just played instead and let Matt take care of the snowy driveway when he got home from work. Lucy was killing me in her snow suit, she could hardly walk, but it was the cutest thing i've ever seen! We can't wait to get some more snow so we can build a snowman and eat a few more snowballs! :)

Christmas Day

I have a lot more pictures on my camera, that I need to upload, these are all from my cell phone, but Christmas morning was so great! Lucy didn't really know what was going on, other than that she walked into the front room and saw all sorts of new toys! She Immediately ran to her Teepee and crawled inside (which made my heart very happy) She saw some treasures inside, one of them being princess chapsticks, as soon as she saw Ariel she started singing, it was so funny and so sweet! Lucy got all the attention this year, and was lucky enough to not only open her presents, but mine and Matt's too. This year Lucy got a Teepee, a scooter, some books, an Ariel doll, some new clothes and few fun toys in her stocking. It was such a great day, I imagine Christmases only get better from here!

Cookie party, Sibling dinner, Christmas Eve

 Zann and Camer decided to host a little cookie decorating party for the kids a few days before Christmas. Lucy had so much fun with her cousins (and Henry) while they decorated snowmen, Christmas trees, and stars. Lucy ate more frosting than anything else, and ate her cookies as she frosted them, so we did't have any to take home... but she sure had fun! :)

On December 22nd, my siblings and our spouses all got together and went to dinner without our kids, to celebrate Christmas. I dont know why we haven't done this before, it was really fun to just get to hang out without chasing little ones and exchanging gifts with each other. We went to Parkstone in Farmington Station, and while we were there we ended up seeing our dear friends, the Allens. Who until just a few weeks ago, were our across the street neighbors for the last 16 years.

On Christmas Eve we kept up with tradition and went to dinner at The Olsen's house. The kids always put on a live nativity after dinner, before we open gifts. This year Lucy got to be Mary, and she sure was cute. She thought she looked so pretty, and she sat so still next to baby Jesus (Sylvie) It was so sweet to watch her and her cousins. After the Nativity, Lucy opened her gift from Mama and Papa Olsen, she got a My Little Pony and she was so excited about it. It has easily been one of her very favorite Christmas gifts. She loves brushing its hair and putting "hair bands" in it's mane. Once the party was over we all headed home to prepare for Santa's arrival! :) Having a child at Christmas time is so magical. After getting Lucy to bed, Matt and I spent our time watching The Muppet Christmas Carol while sitting next to our tree.

A few random December pictures

 After Thanksgiving break, Lucy got a pretty bad cold, so we kept her home from school for a couple of days. One of the days I stayed home from work with her, and even though I hated that she wasn't feeling well, I loved being home with her. She stayed in her pajamas all day long, watched lots of mickey and took time to warm her hands by the fire. :)

 This picture is from Thanksgiving night, three cute kids in the tub! :)

Lucy took a bath in my parents big jet tub, filled with lots of bubbles. She kept telling us she was "swimming" and had so much fun. Being in a tub that big, and being so small, she may as well have been swimming. I sure love this cute girl. 

MTC

Here are a couple pictures my mom sent to me while they were in the MTC. They were only there for one week, but they had such a wonderful experience and got even more excited to get out into their mission. While there, they ran into one of the missionaries from our ward. They took a picture of him for us to send to his parents. Something about seeing missionaries always makes me a little emotional. I love missionary work, and have had so many people I love serve missions.

Setting apart

On Sunday, November 31st, my parents were set apart as missionaries. These photos were taken after the setting apart, so they are officially Elder and Sister (Hermana) Francis. Our Stake President gave them each such wonderful blessings along with the setting apart. They were blessed with good health, strength, courage, compassion, and so many other wonderful things. We know, without a doubt, that they were called to serve in the Dominican Republic, Santiago Mission in the Self Reliance Center for a reason. It is exactly where the Lord needs them to be at this time. We are so proud of them and look forward to hearing about all the wonderful experiences they will have while serving. 

Leaf Party

My mother in law has a leaf party every year for the grandkids. She rakes up all her leafs after they fall off the tree, bag them up and then stores them in her shed and then waits for a warm enough day to dump them all out and let the kids play in them! Who doesn't like raking leaves up twice?? Because this year it stayed warm so late, we didn't have the leaf party until the day after Thanksgiving. My sister and her family had stayed over that night, so I took her girls to the party with us. They all had so much fun playing in the leaves, eating pizza and drinking root beer. 

Museum of Natural Curiosity

My brother Ryan was in town over Thanksgiving, so we took advantage of doing all sorts of fun things while he was here. The day before Thanksgiving, my sisters and Ryan took the kids to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving point. It was a busy day, and being pregnant doing the ropes course was a little challenging. But, it was such a fun day spent with some of my favorite people. Lucy had so much fun in all the different rooms and doing all the different activities. I can't wait to take her back again sometime.