CHRISTMAS!!!

So we made the trip to Boise to spend the Holidays.
We spent Christmas Eve & Christmas with Jaime & her family & now we're at Chuck & Anne's for a little bit.
Needless to say, the kids are having a blast with all their cousins & the snow.
We miss all our California family & wish that we could see you, we love you all.
Here's some pics of what we've been up to for the past few days:

Cousins gathering to get Santa's cookies ready.

Trevor started out the morning bright-eyed & ready to go....

.... Olivia on the other hand was still a little sleepy.

HULK!!!!

tools are always awesome...

... more Hulk!

This picture cracks me up, she really thought she got a case of yogurt & was SO excited.

Baby Alive from Aunt Crista, major hit.

Wii zapper/ crossbow thingie from "his favorite mother-in-law ever"... thanks Dan & Kim.

I don't know Grandma, she might not like this Cinderella dress.... if we can ever get it off her we'll let you know.

I am sooo excited about this particular gift.

Trevor made it for me at school, it's my first official hand-made "Mommy" present.

I'm keeping it forever.

Ahhhhh! Harry Potter stuff!!!

Matching cousins...

Uncle Chuck showing Livvy her Disney Princess shirt.

Little Miss Julia's debut on our blog.

She's the newest cousin (Chuck & Anne's daughter), born on October 23rd.

Girl-cousins in the snow...

My daughter is so beautiful.

Rick pile-driving Josh.

Chuck plotting his attack against his little brother.

....and of course, Rick had to retaliate.

Trev just kicking back.

#@%*#&*!!!!!

Arrrgh!

So yesterday SO was not my day. Rick ended up throwing up all night so I decided to be a good wife & go out & shovel the 12" of snow we had on our porch, sidewalk, driveway, & all around the cars. (Of course, it was snowing so quickly that two hours later it didn't really do that much good since there was another 4")

Anyways..... I got the kids bundeled up, they went out to play while I shoveled. I came back inside & saw that my laptop was on the couch. I figured that wasn't the best spot for it so I picked it up to move it onto the kitchen table.

WELL.... apparently my hands were still a little shaky from being outside & about 2" from the table

I dropped it.

Yeah, really, BAM on the floor.

Now it won't start. At all. Both Rick & Kade say I did something to the hardrive.

Nice.

Good thing the waranty ran out two months ago.

I'm off to bribe the computer shop guys this morning with cookies. Because, of course, none of my recent pictures or documents were backed up.

Genius.

Christmas tree pics

I took a couple quick shots of the kids in front of the tree this afternoon when we got home from church.

They always look so adorable & like such good friends...

Everything that happened while we were studying for/ taking finals...

Whew!

We've been a little busy around here, I had no idea that graduating would be so tiring... I'm still waiting for the happy exciting "yippe" part to start, it still hasn't all sunk in yet.

Anyhow... aside from the studying & test-taking we managed to fit in some fun stuff with friends & family too. We played some games, went to ISU basketball games, helped our good friends the McConkies move (*sniff*), & helped even did some Christmas shopping.

Every year for my Birthday I want to go see the Nutcracker ballet. Rick isn't quite the fan so this year as part of my B-day & Cristmas Olivia & I got to go.
It was awesome & she loved it. By the drive home she was so exhausted but still couldn't stop talking about how the Nutcracker beat the mean Mouse King.


We took a short break from it all for the 1st official "play in the snow" of the season....

We also had a quick trip to Boise & saw some of the cousins.... much more of that in the weeks to come.

GrAdUaTiOn!!!!

AAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

I'm FREE... I'm done.... totally.... and completely!

Forever!

I decided to wait until the school week was officially over but it's official

(well, as official as it can be until all the grades are posted & I have that diploma/ RN license in my hot little hands).......

I'm done.

Erin Helene Davis is now a college graduate, with her BS in Nursing (BSN)!

Wahooo!!!!!

Drumroll please.....

Ahem, ahem... is this thing on?

We at the Davis home are pleased to announce that we are having a ..........

BOY!

The kids are both super-excited (so are we, we were kind of hoping), they just kept shouting "its a brother, its a brother!"

So very cute.

Eeek!

Ok, here goes.... the start of my last week of finals, EVER.

(that is unless I totally fail & then I guess there will be another semester, ugh)

Nope, that's not going to happen.

Wish me (us) luck, pray hard.... only 5 more days until I'm a college graduate, WAHOO!

ABC's

Trevor gets these great packets sent home with him for us to work on together. This last week's had one that focused on learning the ABC's, they are always fun & both of the kids love to work on them.

What you would do is print & laminate 2 copies of the pictures. One copy you would glue to the inside of a file folder & cut the other set out. The child then matches the letters, what sound the letter makes, & identify that the picture on the letter matches that sound.

Just a fun way to help your kids learn.

Santa & rocky road candy

We're (finally) getting into the full-swing of Christmas around here.

Our Ward had its Christmas dinner the other night & guess who showed up?
SANTA!!!!!

And then last night Sandi & Jacqui & I got together to make some Christmas candy... yum!

He told Santa he wants a bike for Christmas.... score! I think we might be ok on that one.

This is the first year we've gotten a picture of Olivia with Santa that she wasn't screaming.
I kind of miss those days....

(This was last year, hee hee hee)

Rocky Road candy

I vary the amounts & pretty much go by how big of a batch I want & how full of stuff I want it to be

~Melt in a heavy pan: semi-sweet chocolate chips (1.5 cups) very low heat & very slow, keep stirring until just melted, then turn off heatvery low heat & very slow, keep stirring until just melted, then turn off heat

~Add: chopped walnuts & mini marshmallows (or big ones cut in half for bigger marshmallow pockets) the amount varies on how lumpy you want it to be... maybe 1/2 C nuts & 2 C marshmallows... totally guessing, could be more, you don't want too much drippy chocolate left over

~drop in spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet & let cool

Birthday wishes

So.... Friday was my 29th Birthday, it was great.

Even though I had 2 tests to take that afternoon it ended up being a great B-day. It was a lot of fun, that evening we had some friends over for cake & games. It was so wonderful just to be able to relax & have fun.

And yes..... to all you Russells out there.... that would be THE cake, oh yes.... I got chocolate ice box cake made just for me by my awesome husband.

For those of you who aren't blessed enough to know what it is, I'm SO sorry. It's chocolatey-oooey-gooey-graham-crusty-goodness that is heaven. Is is so rich it takes years of training to eat more than one piece. I am literally proud to say, "in my family we eat that stuff for breakfast".

Unfortunately it literally takes all day to make.

Mmmmm....

Awwww.....

THE cake..... oh boy!

Mmmmm....


These 2 beautiful pics are Rich & Chris pretending to be horrified at how old I am now.... you take pictures of yourselves making fun of me boys & they're going to end up on my blog.
Muaa hahahah!

Christopher at his finest.

This sight just makes me so proud.... *sniff*

Catching up: Thanksgiving

Ok, so I'm trying to make ammends for all the time I was MIA in the blogging world & hit a few highlights.
Rick's family came for Thanksgiving & there was much fun had by all.
Lots of cousin time, shopping, & Wii-playing all around.
Too bad they had to go home & we had to go back to our lives.

Look at our cute little decorations, aren't we festive?

Livvy, Ariana, & Carter.... the kids were all zoning out for cartoons in the morning while preparations got underway.

Trevor & his cousin Brandon, they look so much alike sometimes it's freaky.

Cousin-time at the park while the turkey finished cooking.

The ladies playing Wii, Mario Kart to be exact.

Olivia & her Ryan, she's soo in love with him. We adopted him for a few days while Jacqui & Brynnah had to stay in Salt Lake for a Dr's appointment.


Ok, so this one isn't related to Thanksgiving at all but it was too cute to pass up.