Annual Dinner & Bowling Night

We look forward to this night every year - My grandma and grandpa Jenkins take everyone out to a yummy dinner and a night of bowling (this is their Christmas gift to all of us). Rob was lucky to attend this year as he had to miss last year due to work. We love getting to see everyone in our extended family, and to show off our ''mad'' bowling skills.

Rob and I at dinner

I think my dad told me that this year we had about 60 people come and enjoy the night. I think that pretty amazing. We had so much fun bowling: we are not professional by any thought of the imagination - but we do have a good time. Guess we better practice more through out the year.

Me with sister Monica and sister-in-law Hayley

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Our night ended unexpectedly. We left the bowling alley and found out that our car had been broken into - SERIOUSLY!!! We called the police and looked around to see if anything was missing. We couldn't see anything. Luckily we had nothing of major value in our car. NOTE: when we got to the bowling alley we talked about leaving our bags, wallets, phones in the car - so we didn't have to worry about them inside while bowling. So so GLAD that we didn't. And no this didn't darken the super fun night that we had.

Here are some pictures of the moment:

Rob in disbelief

Frustrating that there are people out there that have no respect for other people. We are looking at the positive and no other damage was caused to our car.

Update: We got our window fixed the very next day, and also realized that there were some little pink snow boots that I had intended to take back to the store that were stolen. STUPID PEOPLE!!!!!

Our 2011 Recap

I thought it would be fun to do a little recap of our lives in 2011, so here we go:

January:

• Karlee's most prized possession Elmo (missing 3 mo.) was found and Rob was the HERO!!!
• Rob still working at Clean Harbors - living in Stansbury Park.

February:

• Karlee celebrated her 3rd birthday, and watched her very first movie in the theatre (Tangled).
• Heather was called to be Primary President in our Porter Way ward, Stansbury Park, UT.

March:

• Karlee discovered the game Hide & Seek and loves putting Puzzles together.
• Heather had a toothache that lasted a full week then woke up one day and not there anymore!

April:

• Heather celebrated her 36th birthday by going to the Hogle Zoo.
• Potty Training started off slowly. - Not much interest.

May:

• We moved out of our TownHome and into Rob's parents basement.
• We went and watched BYU play in the Rugby Championship at the Rio Tinto stadium

June:

• Karlee's dental experience was finally a success.
• As a family we went up to Bear Lake and Heather played her first round of golf.

July:

• Heather took care of Monica's kids while she spent 11 days up in Alaska.
• Karlee discovered she had 'bones' in her body. Actually had x-rays taken!
• Went as a family to Dinosaur Land up in Ogden.
• Heather and her much of her family hiked to the "Y" down in Provo.

August:

• We celebrated our 11year Wedding Anniversary.
• Couple trips up to Bear Lake (Raspberry Days, and with the Frehners)

September:

• Rob sprained his ankle on sidewalk chalk.
• Our deep freezer lost power to it, and we lost everything inside! :(
• Heathers family reunion at Manti

October:

• We all dressed up as Pirates for Halloween
• Rob celebrated his 34th birthday.

November:

• As a family we went to Disney on Ice in Salt Lake.
• We had Thanksgiving with Heathers family (Toms house)

December:

• Went with Rob's family and walked through ZOO lights at Hogle Zoo
• Celebrated Christmas with Rob's family.

Our Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Stanbury Park with Robs family. We were really spoiled with what Santa left us. Karlee got up about 8:30 and asked us if we thought that Santa had come, so we headed upstairs to check it all out. Yep Santa found us!

Karlee had so much fun opening up all her Christmas, which was seriously the best part of the morning. She first started with her stocking - she was super excited to find a toothbrush inside (this girl loves toothbrushes). Then onto the rest of her presents, Santa gave her a heavy supply of Littlest Pet Shop toys, a Tree house, and a Hampster run. Santa didn't realize these little pet shops come with lots and lots of little things (yay!). She was having so much fun with these that she didn't really want to open anything else. But alas she needed to catch up with the rest of the bunch. Santa gave her a Leapster LeapPad with two games (Cars2 and Tangled). She is hooked on it - okay for now. haha.

Our Christmas Joy!

Heather got spoiled this year with a new laptop, and a small Nikon Cool Pix camera. Can't tell you how excited I was to get these two things. I have been pretty much cut off from the virtual world since we moved out of our townhome and into Rob's parents home. My sister has been my lifeline and has allowed me to intrude on her life so that I could check my email, and pay my bills. Maybe i will be able to keep up on my blog (baby steps.haha). And as for the new camera!!!! I am so excited, and I love it so far. It is just so much more compact, and easy to carry around in my bag. I love that it is Red. haha.

My laptop!!!! yahoo!!!

Rob happened to be on the "Good List'' this year because he got some workout equipment (The Rack) and some BYU clothing. He got movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. He is super excited to finally have movies on Blu-Ray (I still have caught the bug - however when it comes to animation Blu-Ray is AMAZING!). Rob got a Big Suprise: a Guitar and case. He has wanted to learn how to play the guitar. He has been playing it a couple times aday and is catching on pretty quick I think.

 

Santa was super nice to us like I said before, but our Santa wasn't done yet. Santa gave our little family the XBox Kinects and some super fun games.

After opening presents we got dressed and ready to attend church (sacrament only), which was really a nice way to spend celebrating Christmas. We skyped with my parents and my sister Kaye on my new laptop. It was super fun. I think that Karlee and I will skype with my parents and my sister alot. Its a fun way to stay connected. We spent the rest of the day with Robs family visiting, playing games, and resting. We really did have a GREAT Christmas.

Merry Christmas from the Westons

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

We hope that you have a very special day

full of the love of our Savior, family, and wonderful memories made.

You gotta BELIEVE . . .

Karlee and her Christmas Bell

Karlee has been so fun to watch this Christmas, as she is grasping so much. She watched the Polar Express this year and loved it! One day while over to my sister Monica's home Karlee's cousin Paige gave Karlee a jingle bell with red yarn to put around her neck. She thought it was the best thing ever. She wanted to wear it everyday. She would ring the bell and ask us if we could hear the noise coming from the bell. One time Rob told her that he couldn't hear the bell. She got the most concerned look on her face, and then looked at me.

Karlee said to me " Mom - dad can't hear the bell!  I told her to tell her dad that he needed to BELIEVE so that he could hear the bell. So Karlee rang the bell again, and asked her dad if he could hear it, again he told her that he could not. Karlee looked at Rob with the most sincere look on her face, and said, "Dad you have to BELIEVE!! Rob came back with... believe in what he would say? In Christmas she came up with on her own.

This was such a cute experience. Almost everyday since she would go around with the bell around her neck ringing it and asking everyone if they could hear the bell.

We FINALLY got some Christmas Stockings

So I finally did it - I finally got brave enough to make us some Christmas Stockings. For all our married life Rob and I would use our stockings from our own childhood. As for Karlee I think we just found a cheap stocking from a store and had her use it. I didn't want Karlee to grow up not having her own special stocking at Christmas time like both Rob and I did. So I got brave! Making stockings seemed so daunting - that it would get passed up every year. Not this year. I was determined! I found some fabric that I liked (which has been one of the problems in the past) - got home and started sewing. I was able to make 4 stockings in one day. (I made an extra one in case/ in hopes that we might be able to adopt again). They turned out to be super easy and really easy to assemble. So here they are: Our new Christmas Stockings! I want to find letters pins for each of our stockings -  maybe I will do this next year. 

And the stockings were hung with care!

Cocoa the Elf working at the North Pole!

Forgot to post about this very important email we got:

Buddy (our Christmas Elf)

Last year we got a special Christmas visitor "Cocoa", our Christmas Elf, he would come to our house everyday and appear in different places around our house. He really brought such a magic to our home at Christmas time. It was getting really close to the beginning of December when we were expecting to see Cocoa come and share our Christmas season and we were all getting pretty excited. Well this year we got an email from Santa up in the North Pole that had some sad news. Here is the the email that we got:

Dear Karlee:

I am very sad to have to write this email, but I wanted to be the one to tell you that Cocoa, your Christmas Elf, he is going to have to work the Christmas Overhaul up here in my Christmas Toy Factory. Karlee, I have been watching you all year long, and you have been such a good little girl. In fact you are in the top 3 on my 'Good List'. Cocoa is one of my BEST elf's up here at the North Pole and so with all the Toys that we need to make this year I need someone that I can count on. I hope that you understand and will continue to be a really good girl. Cocoa is really sad that he doesn't get to come and see you everyday, so I told Cocoa that I will give you a couple extra presents this year when I come to your house on December 25th. So I hope that you wont be too sad, Cocoa will be back with you next year! So Merry Christmas and listen to your mom and dad!

Love, Santa

Karlee was kinda sad to know that Cocoa wouldn't be coming to visit everyday, but thought it was pretty cool that he would be up at the North Pole making toys!

Karlees encounter with Santa in the Bathroom

My sister Monica has watched Karlee for the last couple Mondays for me. She posted this on her blog about Karlee and I wanted to have an entry for this so I am stealing her post.

. . .We had a toilet seat cover like this growing up. This little Santa (missing one eyebrow, but that’s just life in our house) sits there all day until…

until the toilet is needed and then he covers his eyes.

It was so funny - when my niece Karlee needed to use the bathroom. She walked in and then walked right back out. “Karlee, go potty.” I said. “No, there’s a man in there.” “It’s ok, it’s just Santa.” I told her. “ I’m not going potty with Santa in there.” And she didn’t. Gave me a good laugh.

Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo

This year we along with Rob's family went to Hogle Zoo to see the Zoo lights. What a fun night it was. We had great weather as it was only 27º most of the night.haha. We were prepared as you can see. Karlee is not a huge fan of walking (ask anyone who knows her), so we dusted off our stroller, loaded it up with blankets, pulled on the winter hats, and layered up our clothing, and topped it off with our winter coats. We were READY!!!

Karlee got to see Santa and Mrs Clause at the Zoo. She was nervously excited. I think that she still isn't completely sure about this Santa Clause character. haha. She was excited once she got up on his lap, and got a special sparkle when Santa told her that he would find her on Christmas Eve.

Here is Rob's traditional picture at Hogle Zoo, so we couldn't pass up a photo.

At the end of the night we stopped in for what else... other than ICE CREAM (well just the little kids). We took advantage of a warm place and got a large group picture.

Loved this picture too - because seriously ... Like father, like daughter. (they are both tilting their heads the same way). Too funny!

Karlee excited with her Ice Cream!

Gardner Village at Christmas Time

Karlee and her Dad @ the Toy Factory

We had so much fun going to Gardner Village at Halloween time that we knew that it would be one of our Christmas stops this year. Rob had a Friday off and so we decided to head in and get some Christmas shopping done. We took a little break and stopped in to Gardner Village. They had lots of little elves all around, and so it was fun to go and find them all. The weather was perfect, a little brisk, but with the sun out it kept you all warm.

Here were some of our favorites:

Mom and Karlee found the Elf selling Hot Cocoa!

Karlee and Dad checking out Santa's Nice and Naughty Lists!

Funny story here is while they were checking out the Nice and Naughty lists Rob noticed that the name Holly was on the Naughty List. Holly is one of his younger sisters names. Karlee couldn't believe that Holly made the Naughty List. When we got home that night Holly and her boys were over to the house and Karlee made a point to tell everyone that Holly's name was on Santa's Naughty List. Everyone had a good laugh!

Checking out the Elves hard at work!

We found the Elf selling Christmas Trees!