Elder Miles' Update in Pictures

We love talking with Miles (via Facebook) every week. He's always happy and positive. :)

2024

So it was a little sad to not have the boys with us for our Christmas festivities this year. But then I thought how only having to make 4 gingerbread houses wasn't so bad . . . that didn't last long, however. The girls each invited their boyfriends and we also had Alaina join us - so I ended up making even more than usual, 7. Ha!

But it was really a fun evening and I loved it. I just love looking at our gingerbread houses! (In fact it is January 5th and we haven't eaten them yet nor have I allowed Ben to take them down . . . P.S. I am post-dating this post to December so it will end up in our 2024 book . . .)

The table all set and ready for the fun!

Fun!

I liked how everyone got into it! Alaina had never made one before and her's turned out pretty picture-perfect. Aidan and Patton might have helped decorate one, but that was pretty much it. But they just went at it and it was awesome. :)

Aidan's

Lucy's

Patton's (I love the angry Gingerbread man)

Ben's

Mine

Alaina's

And Emmy's - which was 20% Emmy, 30% Alaina, and 50% Aidan. :) Emmy's creativity can be rough at times, so glad she had willing hands to help. (She usually just copies me - which she tried to do, ha.)

The Creche

My friend Molly and I had the idea last year of doing a community Creche festival . . . Molly reminded me of this in late fall and so we decided to go for it. We got permission from the stake presidency to do it and then spent the next 1 1/2 months working out the details, etc. Unfortunately we were only given a 4-hour window on one day to hold it, but it still turned out great. (It was just a ton of work to only host it for that short period of time . . .) I am not going into all the details, but we were able to pull it off. We had over 150 nativities from stake members (we tried to invite a few other churches to join with us and they were very adamantly against joining us sadly) and had over 275 attendees. It looked really great and I was glad to have been a part of it. 

I will share pictures, but they don't do it justice. The gym really did look nice - I promise!

A very unique and awesome nativity.

My good friend, Melissa, finished up this stained-glass nativity right in time. It was gorgeous. 

P.S. Jonas had a birthday on Saturday. We weren't able to celebrate with him, of course. But I did manage to get a cake mailed to him and he said it was really good! :) We talked to him on his birthday and it was nice to see him and visit with him. I think he's doing pretty good overall.

The High school State Championship Game

Well since our football team made it to state and since Emmy is dating Aidan . . . we went up to Fort Collins (CSU) to watch the 4A championship game. Emmy headed out earlier and went up with the Lamberts. We came up later that evening (Friday) and stayed with Jim and Diana. Lucy was with us. On Saturday, we made our way up to the CSU Football stadium to watch the game - stopping at Bucc-ee's, of course, on our way up. :) My best friend Sarah Bugarin came with her husband Jay and son, Alex. So it was so fun to see and sit with them. There were quite a few people from Montrose there and we all sat together and had a good time. Well we had a good first half . . . Aidan played amazing and had a couple of touchdowns, some great catches, and some great runs. Our team led at halftime 28-7 and Montrose was feeling pretty good . . . 

Then the second half came and it just went downhill for some reason or other. It was pretty sad and Montrose ended up losing 28 to 35 (yep, we scored no touchdowns in the second half . . .). But it was still so cool to be in that collegiate stadium and hopefully the football boys can now just enjoy the experience. They were all pretty devastated and heart-broken, of course. So was Emmy.

On Sunday we went to church at Joe and Britt's ward and had a good time. Afterwards we went to their home, with Jim and Diana, and had a wonderful visit and lunch together. 

Sadly we didn't get any football pictures. But we did get some nice pictures at Joes and Britt's. :)

It was a fun weekend full of football and family. :)

Oh Christmas Tree 2024

On December 1st, we went up to the woods to cut down our Christmas trees (yes, two - the kids put up a small tree upstairs . . .). The pickings seemed very slim this year - literally.  But we eventually found a couple of trees. The girls hated our main tree - ha. They thought it was ugly, pathetic, etc. It was pretty sparse looking . . . but lovely in its own way. :)

Apparently I never took a picture of it all decorated. It wasn't that bad. :)