Our Christmas/New Year in Utah, 2009

Well, this blog could be as long or short as I want it to be, depending on how many details I feel are necessary. Unfortunately, for you, I have a lot to say. . .On December 18th we celebrated Christmas as a family. Cooper opened his gifts and it was so enjoyable to watch. This is the first time in his short 2 1/2 years that he understood what to do with a wrapped gift! However, he is very detailed oriented like his father and insisted on removing and handing each ripped piece of paper to us before he would move on to the next piece, so funny! Here Cooper is in his new shirt and Daddy opening up his AquaDoodle so they can draw together. On Friday we started what should have been a 10 hour drive that turned into 14 hours! Due to snow in a place where they never get snow, we were held up on the road for over 3 hours!! Oh well, by the time we reached Logan we were ready to enjoy the swimming pool, hot tub, T.V. and bed in our hotel room.
Saturday morning we joined my little brother Erin and his Bride in the Logan Temple for their wedding. It was beautiful and FREEZING COLD!

I really enjoyed taking many, many pictures and we enjoyed a relaxing lunch at the bride's grandparents home along with all the family that could attend. During this weekend we also had the opportunity to see an old friend, Julia. We took her to dinner and attended her single's ward with her.
This was a first for Joe and he had such a hard time understanding how you could get so many good looking single people so close together and not have all of them married! We had lunch at Julia's apt and it was lovely to relax and spend time with her.
Come Monday we had a family Christmas party at Joe's mom's home and it was great to have so many of our family together. The only ones we were missing were Joe's sister and family in Michigan. Pretty good turn out for the terrible weather Utah was having at Christmas!
On Christmas we had Joe's mom come to my parents home and we shared a quiet lunch and visit, again more presents for Cooper since Santa visited. He is such a lucky boy. We have had 5 different occassions to open presents!! It was really enjoyable after the craziness of our first days, to just sit and relax. The rest of our visit went by without a hitch. We shared our time between our two families, our best friend Chris M. and running errands. We did lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Jarvis, bought a Durango, built a snowman, saw all our brother's and sister's new homes (the ones that have moved since we last saw them, anyway) and had lunch with an old mission friend of Joe's, went to dinner with Chris and his parents, and watched movies. All in all it was a great trip, even it I did come home with a sore throat. We traveled safely and are happy to be home. Happy 2009 Everyone!!

Baking with our Missionaries

Tonight we had the Elder's over for dinner and correlation, Joe is the Ward Mission Leader. They also needed to bake for their fireside tomorrow night so they borrowed our kitchen. It was a blast having them in our home and it is always interesting to watch someone who has never really baked, bake for the first time. Wow, does that bring back memories! Using too much of an ingredient or the wrong one. . .but after it was all said and done that Someone did a pretty good job. Not to mention that he even cleaned up after wards and washed all his dishes! His mother would be so proud! (Not to leave his companion out, the comp was doing correlation paperwork).
Here are some picture from our evening. . .Elder Dunoskovic. . .Elder Lund. . .Elder Lewellen. . .Elder Thedell (with Dunoskovic).
Cooper has so much fun with these young men. You can really tell that Elder's Dunoskovic and Thedell have small siblings that they miss spending time with. . .

Ward Christmas Party

It has been a very busy day decorating, running errands and cooking so unfortunately Cooper didn't lay down for a nap until 2 hours before the Ward Christmas Party. Joe had to go to work so we were on our own for the evening. Cooper was pretty good for the first 1/2 hour before he couldn't sit still any longer. If it wasn't for the fact that we were sitting with a nursery friend we may not have gotten that far in peace. Oh well, that's what being 2 is all about, right? During the last hour and a half I chased, begged, cajoled, pleaded, threatened and man-handled! It was a wonderful program and I really enjoyed being with the ward, but boy was I ready to go home! I'm exhausted!! The minute we got home I handed Coop a sippy, turned on "Polar Express" and I called Daddy to update him on the party. Neither Cooper or myself moved for almost a solid HOUR! Boy, am I thankful I'm not a single parent, I don't know how they do it. But on the bright side, times like this make me appreciate Joe even more than I already do!