Christmas greetings from the Norman family!

It turned into quite the chore, but I finally got all our Christmas cards mailed out! We have never sent out Christmas cards before, but with us being away from so much family and friends we decided this year would be the perfect year to send out some Christmas cheer. :)

"What do you want for Christmas, little boy?"

Santa visited our Branch Christmas party here in Columbus. We tried to get Keaton to sit on Santa's lap. Yeah right. So, we saw Santa as a whole family instead. :)

What do you want for Christmas?

Thanksgiving in Utah *a poor picture documentation

For Thanksgiving we made a visit to Utah! Keaton and I were able to stay a whole week and Justin came for 4 days (from Thanksgiving to Sunday) and we had a blast with both our families and extended families! We did so many fun things. Sadly, I wasn't very good about taking pictures. I guess I was too busy just enjoying everything. :)

I did pull out my camera a couple of times...

On Tuesday, November 20th, I had the chance to go to the Bountiful temple to do baptisms for the dead with Talon, his girlfriend, Kenzlie (soon to be sister-in-law! Talon proposed right after we left last week- on his birthday- November 28th!), Hunter, and Jackson. It was such a great night.

Then on Friday, November 23rd, we went Christmas tree hunting with my family!

We found the perfect tree!

(Uh, what's that face, Keat! He, he.)

The finished product!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Utah even despite the fact that it was poorly documented. :)

Early.

Yep. That's right. Thanksgiving is still a few days away, but our tree is up and I am in love! (Justin doesn't usually let me put our Christmas stuff up until after Thanksgiving, but I think he realized how happy it would make me to just be able to put them up a little bit earlier than usual. :) )

 We let Keaton stay up late this past Friday night so that he could see the tree and help decorate it. :)

Do you see Justin laying on the couch? He is asleep. I guess I took too long putting up all the rest of our Christmas decorations after Keaton went to bed.

"For unto us a child is born." 

"Gobble!"

If you ask Keaton what a turkey says he says, "Gobble!" And it is just about the cutest thing ever!

Last night for family night, we helped Keaton to make this "I am Thankful for..." turkey. It was a lot of fun. And very funny to let Keaton put it together all on his own. (Don't ya just love the placement of this poor turkey's eye and beak? Ha, ha!)

It was a perfect family night. :)

27...plus, a visit from my mom.

My 27th birthday was last Thursday, November 8th. And I woke up to these beautiful flowers from my wonderful husband! :) Such a wonderful surprise!

My mom came to visit us for a couple of days (my birthday included) and on my birthday we went to Daylight Donuts in downtown Columbus for breakfast. YUM!

And then we went shopping! (Ha, ha, if you can call going to Walmart and Dollar Tree shopping?)

While Keaton was napping we made these SUPER DELICIOUS caramel and chocolate covered pretzels! (My birthday present from my aunt Suzanne! Thanks again- they were amazing!!!)

I had such a great birthday. :)

As you can see, Keaton loves his new "hat." He wore it all that day and night. Even when we went to the movies to see Wreck it Ralph- which is such a super cute movie, by the way. :) (Justin left in the afternoon on my birthday to go hunting for the weekend, so me, my mom, and Keaton spent the rest of my mom's time with us eating yummy snacks and food, shopping, and watching Christmas movies! It was such a blast having her here! I missed Justin a lot while he was gone, but not as much as I would have if my mom wasn't here. :) )

On Saturday, before dropping my mom off at the airport, we went to Olive Garden for lunch and I managed to take this cute picture of Keaton and Grandma Melanie together. :) We love and miss you already! Thanks again so much for coming to visit us!

"Cheese!"

Keaton saw me grab my camera this morning while he was eating his oatmeal for breakfast and said "Cheese!" So, I snapped a quick picture of him and was surprised after uploading it to the computer how much of a big boy my baby is becoming!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween was pretty low key. We had the missionaries and the Spicer's over for dinner. And, after the missionaries left the Spicer's joined us to take Keaton to do a little bit of Trick or Treating... But boy did we have one sad puppy on our hands! Ha, ha. Needless to say Keaton didn't really love his costume.

But, we knew he would like going out to get some candy and once he was distracted he ended up really enjoying himself. :)

Ben and Kari. :) We always have such a blast hanging out with them!

Keaton enjoying all his candy. :) I don't think he has ever eaten so much candy at one time in his life! We only went to about 6 houses, but he didn't care he got plenty of candy to make him happy.

Us and our cute puppy. :)

Happy Halloween everyone!