Christmas at the Davis'

Merry Christmas to everybody!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, I know we did.

We did presents in the morning, went sledding with the McConkies in the afternoon, & then did Christmas dinner together. The rest of the day was filled with toys & much playing of the new Wii.

(P.S. don't be a blog-stalker, please click on one of the links below each post to leave us a comment.

Family: this means especially you)

Trevor got Spiderman & Venom walkie-talkies from Grandma & Grandpa Nordstrom. He doesn't quite get the walkie-talkie idea but still thinks they're great.

Olivia got both the prince & princess from the Barbie Island Princess movie. She kept trying to make them kiss through their boxes...

Hmmm, & Rick thought that Erin was too busy with finals to track down his one & only present. Good thing Erin had a great little elf helping her out...these things have been selling like hotcakes for over a year.

Gasp!!! Holy cow! A Wii, how did you know I wanted one?

*sigh*
This is what Christmas is all about, being able to see the joy on your children's (I mean husband's) face as he plays with his new toy.
Rick & Rich boxing each other, they ended up fogging up the windows they were sweating so bad, yuck.

Ever since Olivia found her orange in her stocking she's been obsessed with them. Yesterday she ate 3 & learned how to peel them on her own once I wouldn't do it anymore.

Mom & the kids, they had a blast opening all the gifts.

Pretty bracelets & necklaces from Santa!

"Seriously? An orange???"
Wow, thanks Santa.

Santa came to our house on Christmas Eve, Trevor thought it was great but Olivia screamed.

Not a Christmas picture, I know. But I love the holding the kitten at swordpoint in the cradle. Gives a whole new meaning to naptime.

Gingerbread fun

So we had a little gingerbread building party w/ our friends last weekend.
Lots of fun. We cheated, Chuck & Anne had bought the kids a kit & as you can see it was much easier than the alternative:

The Wertz's were going for upper-class w/ the wafer cookie siding idea. Turned out too heavy & caved in. Bummer deal but really yummy.

McConkie house #3

The kids & I were in charge of exterior decorating...

and Rick oversaw the structural design...

Olivia had to make sure that every piece of candy had plenty of icing on it.

Ta dah!!!

Mmmmm... thanks for the kit Chuck & Anne, way easier than our friends' graham-houses!

Post-finals mess

For those of you feeling like your house needs a little "picking up" after the holidays:

this is my gift to you.

This would be my kitchen after finals week (a.k.a. 3 days before Christmas)...

I'm not really sure how many days Olivia had been stuck on the counter, as least she was close enough to the fruit bowl so she didn't starve.

How to give a cat a bath:

Ha ha ha... just kidding! (sorta)

Bad earring mojo

Something is wrong with me.
This week I have lost the right earring to two of my favorite pairs. Like as in forever lost, not just misplaced. I never lose things. grrrr! One was from a pair I made years ago & the other was my favorite-ever, my moonstone drop earrings that Rick got me for Christmas about 7 years ago.
*sniff*

Hilarious!

This site is hilarious...its the second time I've posted from it.

Whenever I need a random throw-your-head-back laugh this is where I go:

www.xkcd.com

Oh yeah, Finals are now officially over. YIPPIE!!

(four A's & one B+...so close)

Nothing but 3 weeks of being a "real person" & spending tons of time with Rick & the kids.

Oh yeah, & catching up on all the things I should've been doing all semester, like... the dishes. *gag*

I am SO happy!

Our new little addition

Everybody, say hello to Tonks...the newest member of the Davis clan.

The kids have been dying for a kitty for pretty much forever so we finally decided to go for it. I guess we just can't be without a cat for too long.

We were going to wait & do the kitty-with-a-bow-around-it-Chritmas-morning-thing but decided if we waited that long we may not get the one we wanted.

So, happy Merry early Christmas kiddos.

Happy Birthday

**this picture has been censored & removed by the blog editor (a.k.a. Erin).

For those of you who missed it, too bad.**

Erin's birthday was the 5th as most of you know. She had a wonderful birthday. I, Rick, made her a delicous chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing. She got a great camera as she has already mentioned. These were my other birthday gifts for her. Yeah baby!!!!!!!!!

Tree-slaying adventure

So we went off into the woods to slay our Christmas tree this weekend.

Our friends, the McConkies, came with us...major bonus points for Aleisha, she's due in 3 weeks!

We had such a blast & it was absolutely gorgeous up there.

Hope you all enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed making them, you may want to click on each pic to truly enjoy its greatness.

Wheeeeee! Olivia having the time of her life.

This was the pose Rick chose for his picture in this post, quite flattering I thought.

Such nuturing mothers sending their small children down the steep hill on the sled...all alone...with only one dad at the bottom to take pictures...I mean, catch them.

But if you look closely you'll see that they're smiling as they crash...

LOVE this picture of Olivia!

Rick's awesome picture taking skills. He was eating his a sandwich as Rich came tearing down the hill on the sled & caught him mid-sumersault. It was great to witness, notice how Aleisha is diving out of the way on the left of the picture.

(sorry Rich, not a very flattering picture, I know)

This is my "so you think we're getting that tree, eh?" look.

I think this is my new favorite picture of Olivia. Any of you Nordstroms reading this will notice a striking resemblance to a certain picture of a little girl of about the same age. We'll say her name is, oh... I don't know, we'll call her "Bristy" to spare her embarassment. Both beautiful little girls, both strikingly accurate photos.
hee hee hee

He was so excited when he found these antlers in one of the Christmas boxes.

Happy Birthday to me!

So, as many of you well know...this Wednesday was my birthday. Although I spent the majority of the day studying for an exam (sooo fun) the last half of the day turned out great.

Rick made a rockin' cake (chocolate-chocolate-with-homemade-frosting, yumm!) and some friends came over to help us eat it, then we went to the ISU vs. Boise State B-ball game (where we totally got creamed).
But, the high point of the day was my gift. For those of you who don't know, this year I finally asked for what I have wanted for at least the last 4 or 5 years & Rick delivered.

I asked for a big grown-up gift, a combined Birthday/ Christmas present from the entire family & man it was awesome!

I wanted a nice semi-pro grade digital SLR camera that I could take great pictures on & that could transition with me as I learn photography (in all my spare time). Photography is a hobby I've always wanted to pursue & since having children I really wanted a high quality camera that would enable me to take the type of pictures of my children that I want.

So, I did my homework & talked to a couple really good friends who have this caliber of cameras. Anyhow, I finally decided on a Nikon D50 & got a great deal on one on-line that came with 3 different lenses & a bunch of other stuff.

I LOVE IT!!!!
Holy smokes! The difference is amazing, I can't wait to learn more & figure out all the fun manual functions.

Busy week

So, we've had a busy past few weeks.

We made two trips to the Boise area, one to Chuck & Anne's for a week of Thanksgiving & then back again the next weekend to Jaime's for Ariana's baptism & an early Davis family Christmas party. It was a lot of driving w/ yucky school inbetween but it was so much fun & well worth it.

Aunt Crista & the girl cousins: Megan, Ariana, & Olivia.

Santa was smart enough to bring both Megan & Olivia the same ballerina Barbie...what a guy!
P.S. for those of you who don't know, this is our sister-in-law, Anne (a.k.a. Joshua's mom).

Trevor was mighty impressed with his dashing knight whatnot. He got all suited up & began sword fighting any cousin that would take him on. I actually think Megan held up the best.

Trevor got this dinosaur pop-up book from Aunt Crista, it was a major hit w/ him & Carter.

While we were on our way back from Boise Tanner & his fiance MacKenzie were on their way back up to Rexburg from visiting Laura in Provo. They stopped by for a quick dinner of Dutch Babies, played w/ the kids, & were on their way again.
They are such a blast to have around & the kids absolutely adore them. When they walked through the door Trevor went running up to them & his first words were, "There's your sword Uncle Tanner!"

...and so the battle began.