Pizza Eating Baby Girl

This baby girl of ours absolutely loves pizza.  It is her favorite food.  Every time I make it, she screeches at us until we give her some.  And she eats the whole slice, too.  She really hasn't shown much interest in most baby foods, especially the baby finger foods you can buy, but she loves to try out anything we are eating. 

Matching "Nana Jammies"

Every few years, Corey's mom makes all of her kids and grandkids matching pajamas.  I don't know if she does it every time, but at least once in the past, each family had their own pattern for the pants with all matching shirts.  Of course, only the kids are pictured here, but she made pajamas for Margrethe as well and both Corey and me.  The kids look forward to the matching "Nana jammies" every time she makes them.  And with five children, four kids-in-law, and fourteen grandchildren, that is a LOT of pajama pants to make!  We sure appreciate all of what she does for us!

New Car

Corey got into a minor accident in October in his Ford Focus Wagon, which we've had since 2008.  There was front end damage, but it didn't look considerably bad.  We saved up the money for the deductible ($500) and by December, we were ready to finally take it in and get it fixed.  But it turned out that with that damage, plus the rear end damage from a few years before, plus some side damage from Corey hitting the side of the garage, with all of that (we only asked for an estimate on the total), the car was deemed totaled by the insurance.  I don't know if they took into consideration they had already given us a paid out for the rear end damage, but they weren't going to cover the cost to repair the rest of the car.  So, we took the totaled amount, just over $5,000, and went to Carmax and Corey bought a new (used) car.

The car he picked was a 2010 Chevy Malibu.  He has driven Chevy Malibus on some of his In-N-Out management trips and has liked them, so that was what he wanted.  He felt they looked more sophisticated than compact cars, which he feels are "teenage" cars.  I wasn't so sure about how much we were spending (still am not) but in the end, he is happy and we can make the payments.  I just hope this car lasts longer than the other cars he has driven.

Christmas Eve Fowles Style

On Christmas Eve  we got together with all the Fowles in Utah for a brunch at Adam and Eve's house.  The younger kids all played downstairs while the adults and older kids played some silly games.
 

Visiting at first

The game:  We had to pick up a paper bag with our mouths and our hands behind our backs.  We also had to stay on our feet, no going down to knees.  When we got it, we put it back after cutting off a section, thus the paper bag grew smaller and smaller, lower and lower.

Allison demonstrates

Marianne has a go at it

Adam rocks it

Margrethe even tries

John has a turn

Austin is REALLY flexible!

We played a few other games, including Christmas charades.  A good time was had by all.  Hopefully Margrethe doesn't think we're too strange!

Christmas Lights at Temple Square

We try to go to the temple lights every year but this year it was really hard to get there.  It seemed we were busy through most of December.  We finally made it, but so close to the holidays and too late in the evening, so it was packed.  At least it was a slightly warmer night.  We had such a cold month of December that the weather was a deterrent to our Temple Square visit as well.

Principal's Pride: Think Win-Win

Travis earned the Principal's Pride award in Decemeber. These are based on the Seven Habits of Happy Kids, a program that our school has adopted (called "The Leader in Me"). Each month there is a habit for the month on which they focus. Travis' teacher chose him to be the recipient in his class for this award.

Christmas Band Concert

Westley had his band concert on Corey's birthday.  The band is huge this year!  Westley is now in advanced band and gets to do slightly more difficult music.  I've tried to be better about remembering to have him practice.  He does seem to enjoy it.  I hope he chooses to continue with it so he can have a good group of friends like some of my brothers did with band.