Merry Christmas

Our Christmas tree in the early hours of morning.

Tessa tries out her new electric tooth brush.

Ben couldn't believe his good forune with a "woo woo" set.

Ave Maria!

Ben was a camel in the nativity.

He was also a shepherd.

Tess as a wisewoman.

Marie in front of our friends' Christmas tree.

Mommy and Grace.

Grace Renee.

The kids before the Christmas Eve party.

Happy Grace.

We are finally getting a neighbor on the lot next to us. Ben loves to watch the tractor.

This was our latest project in an attempt to put up more pictures of Jesus and the temple. But as you cannot afford those pictures (and pay tithing), we had to come up with our own. James worked for two solid days to write a program in MATLAB to antique the picture that we took coming home from our Santa Barbara trip. It came out beautifully. [James' clarification: It took me two days to figure out that I couldn't create the effect I wanted with other people's software, so I ended up writing it myself in about about five minutes.]

Ben and James prepare twice-baked potatoes. This is Ben pulling the sword from the stone.

What a handsome guy! I told James for one of my presents this year, I wanted him to go get a real hair cut so that I could look at him without staring at the mistakes I make when I cut his hair.

This is what my dad calls "violence on the screen." Notice the pink eye. Last night I thought I was having a heart attack. After experiencing sharp chest pains, sweating, chills, racing heart, and having nearly passed out, I had James call 911. My vitals were great and my heart, according to paramedics, looked like it belonged to a marathon runner. Ha! They also said that an infected eye affects all parts of the body, and it is not uncommon for conjunctivitus to cause vomiting, fever, and strong heart pains. Scariest thing since my miscarriage last year. We're glad Christmas wasn't spent in the hospital.