8 Already?

I feel like I just posted about our seventh anniversary.  Time really does go faster when you're older.  I think I said this last year but I'm starting to feel like we've been married a while now, eight years is nothing to scoff at.  We celebrated in high style as usual and I made chocolate cheesecake and Shawn proceeded to fall asleep at about 5 o'clock because he was post call.  So I ate my cheesecake by myself and watched the movie we (I) rented.  Shawn really knows how to go all out.  Just kidding I really don't care he fell asleep, it was what I expected.  He did wake up around 10 o'clock and we watched our movie (me for the second time) and ate more cheesecake.  It was a relaxing evening and maybe someday we'll be able to actually go out for our anniversary but for now watching a movie and eating cheesecake on our couch is pretty awesome.  We laugh a lot and I'm so glad I was crazy enough to get married so young.  Best decision ever.

Merry Christmas From the Funks!

Christmas 2012 was spectacular!  Probably the best one yet, it was awesome.  We caroled, baked an insane amount of food, and relaxed.  I loved every minute of it and I'm pretty sad its over but can't wait again until next year.  I"ll try and include all of the highlights so here we go!
1. Caroling is always one of my favorite things every year.  And I"m so glad that my kids love it too because I would be crushed if they didn't.
2. Spending lots of quality time with the kids and Shawn, I loved spending the last several days baking all day and hanging out with the fam.  Its the best.
3. Seeing how not excited the kids were about the bikes we got them.  It may be because they got up really early but I was slightly disappointed in their reaction and it was pretty funny.  They were pretty excited about their new socks they got in their stockings though.
4. Having a Christmas party with our friends here.  I loved having people over and I think they had a great time, I know I did.  We may have to do it every year.
5. Shawn being sweet and getting me a little something even though we said no gifts.  He's a liar, but I'm ok with that, at least this lie.
6. Watching Shawn and Devin build legos together all day.  It was the cutest thing ever.
5.  Seeing Caroline pour over her new cookbook and so excited to try with me.
7. Graham playing so hard he put himself down for a nap.  He's so cute.
8. Taking a huge tray of goodies to the hospital on Christmas morning, the residents were so grateful.
9. Caroline saying that it made her feel so good to see the people we went caroling to so happy.
10.  Every time we asked the kids why we have Christmas they always said to celebrate Jesus's birth and spend time with family and serve others.  It made me so happy.

Hanging out under the tree on Christmas Eve.

Caroline treats, the best ones yet.  Tarts, lemon snowflake cookies, eclairs, mint pillow cookies, chocolate hazelnut diamonds, and mini cakes (made from scratch this year)  It was so fun baking all this stuff!

The annual picture at the top of the stairs.  The kids love this tradition but I'm not sure they will when they're older.  

The kids got bikes from Santa and helmets from us.  Caroline was so cute and said, "I know Santa is real because he ate all the milk and cookies we left for him." I love that girl.

Devin opening his stocking.

Graham so excited about his superhero guys.  He couldn't wait to share them with his buddies Bryce and Ian.

The way to Devin's heart is through legos apparently.  These two were so cute, I love my boys.

At first the kids didn't seem too excited about the bikes but they really do love them. I'm so glad we found them!  I hope everyone had as good of Christmas as we did.  I really loved spending time with my family and celebrating the real reason for this wonderful day, the birth of our Savior.

Favorite Visitors

We had some of our favorite visitors come the last few days.  Grandma and Grandpa Funk were able to  hang out with us for a few days and we enjoyed every minute of it.  We did as much stuff as we could think of, like gingerbread houses, Adventure Science Center, dinner, talking, looking at lights, and basically having a great time. Thanks for stopping by on your tour of the States!

Our awesome gingerbread house.  I love it and we had so much fun making it! 

The kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa.

Every time Steve sat down Graham would run and get all of his blankets and make sure he was comfy, or compy as Graham would say.  He sure loves his grandpa.  We can't wait to see them again in the summer!

Party Down

This weekend was party time for us.  Friday night we had our ward Christmas party and it was actually pretty fun.  The kids decorated cookies, made ornaments, and got to talk to Santa (which is their only chance because I'm not going to wait in a huge line at the mall to do so).  Saturday we went to a friends house for a RAK (random act of kindness) party and they had a blast there too.  We made cookies for the retirement home, wrote letters to soldiers overseas, and made bird feeders because hey, birds need food too I guess. After the party we went to deliver cookies at the retirement home and sing with the kids from Primary.  It was a great day to remember the true meaning of Christmas, and serve those around us.  Now this week we get to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Funk!  So we may be mia for a few days. Enjoy the pictures.

Devin hanging out with Santa, he asked for LEGOS.  He won't be disappointed this year!

Caroline was a little unsure of what was going on.  I think she's up in the air about whether or not Santa is real.  She asked for an explorer kit.  I'm not sure what to do about that!

Graham had no clue what he wanted and Santa told him he would bring him a surprise.  That can be arranged.  Thank goodness he's easy to please.

Christmas Decor

I really love Christmas, the baking, parties, and decorating.  That being said I really don't like spending a fortune on decorating our house, but Shawn convinced me that it would be perfectly fine to spend a little bit of money to have more decorations.  So I looked on pinterest found a wreath I liked and one other thing and headed over to Michael's to get my supplies.  I love that I can make what I want and for at least half as much as buying it.  Someday I'll but things just not now.  Anyways I really like how they turned out and our house is much more festive this year, its great.

Here's the wreath.  I love projects that only require a little bit of hot glue.

And no I didn't make the stockings just the JOY letters above but I love them just the same.

The kids these days

There are so many little things the kids have done or said lately I needed to write down before I forget.

Caroline is going to be a great mom or at least that's what I thought when she was taking care of the boys when Shawn and me were sick over a week ago.  At one point she made peanut butter and jelly for lunch and there was some discontent among the boys and I heard her say, "Well peanut butter and jelly is the only thing I know how to make so eat that or you eat nothing."  Even in my dehydrated, sickened state I was so proud.

Devin loves to play and play, if he didn't like sleep so much he'd play all night.  More specifically he loves to build things.  We got out some old toys the other day and he hasn't put them down since.  He keeps on opening up more and more which we love.  Yesterday he had a nice long conversation with Shawn about Transformers and how they work and how do you know which ones are good and which ones are bad.  He then confessed to sneaking downstairs to get a drink one night while Shawn and I were watching Transformers and got distracted and watched a few minutes.

Graham is pretty insane. He can be yelling at the top of his lungs one second and then want to snuggle the next.  His most recent thing is wanting to wear shorts every single day even when its 50 degrees outside.  So we've kind of struck a deal he can wear shorts inside but if we're going outside he has to wear pants.  He still doesn't want to take his shorts off so he just puts his pants on right over his shorts.  I have no idea how he thinks this is comfortable but oh well.  I"m not willing to fight about it so I'll give this one to him.

Devin showing off the "guys" he built out of his turtles.

And Graham's obsession with shorts. Those are not boxers underneath, its shorts.  Like I said, he's crazy.