Christmas tree hunting!

November 28th-

Getting all ready to go and look for the perfect tree. 

Keaton and Grandma searching together.

Maddie and Keaton...

Finding the perfect tree and then singing, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas!" around it per Keaton's request! :)

Finding Grandma and Grandpa's perfect tree! (Yes, we sang around this tree too!!)

Our tree is HUGE. But, we all loved looking for it and so therefore we love our 1st ever real Christmas tree and look forward to tree hunting together as a family for years and years to come!

(In the end, it was quite the day! After finding our tree, eating lunch, and starting on the drive back home our truck gave out and my parents had to tow our truck a good distance into Corinne where we left our truck at Grandma Norman's house and borrowed her car for the night. Our $5 tree permit and trip tree hunting turned into a pretty expensive day $300 later after Justin replaced the fuel pump in our truck the next day. --- (Then on Sunday our Yukon battery died! Lots and lots of $$$ for car repairs lately! BOO!!!)

A busy, wonderful, Christmas Eve

December 24th- Christmas Eve morning we left my parents house early so that we could meet our bestest of best friends Ben and Kari Spicer for breakfast! We hadn't seen then since we moved away from Nebraska so we were very excited to be able to spend some time with them! We sure miss these 2 and over breakfast we all made big plans of how we will some day very soon live not only in the same state together, but we just really need to be neighbors! We don't know how that will happen, but we are going to make it work somehow! Right guys?! :)

Shortly after breakfast we headed to Justin's parents house to go all together to deliver Christmas to a family in need. (One of my very most favorite Norman family traditions, and Justin's mom always makes it such an amazing experience for all of us!)

Keaton was really into all things Christmas this year, and for the first time really understood what Christmas is all about- the birth of our Savior- and after we told him why we would be taking Christmas presents and food to this family he was very excited and just loved holding this little box that Grandma gave for him to give the family. He held it so carefully the whole drive there. This little boy has a very tender heart and is such a gentle reminder to us each of every day of the important things in life.

Christmas Eve night we spent at the Adams family Christmas party! Where Talon and Kenzlie gave Miss Aisley lots of loves and attention. What more could a little girl ask for right?! She was in heaven the whole night!

The kids all got footie pajamas from Grandma Adams! Oh goodness! Ha, ha, I love that I got a picture of all of them together!

I even got a picture of Aisley and Maddie together- matching, in their footie pjs before going to bed so that Santa could visit us bright and early the next morning!

The O's game- Mormon night!

Last weekend we rode the "train" down to the Baltimore Orioles baseball game for Mormon night!

Keaton was soooo excited to hold his train ticket and kept asking when the person was going to come and punch it! (Like they do on Dinosaur Train. :) )

Oh and look who we ran into at the game! My cousin Elder Child!!! 

It was so fun to see him and meet his companion, Elder Jensen. We are so proud of Elder Child and are so happy that he is having such a great time on his mission and can tell he is being the best missionary he can be!

Such a fun night. :)

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. :)

He's home- Elder Adams is home!

At the SLC airport this last Wednesday, February 22nd- waiting... anxiously waiting for Talon to get off his plane!

And, of course we all had our matching shirts on!

This sweet baby girl was being quite photogenic. :)

And this little boy was an absolute riot to watch. He just couldn't wait for Talon to get home! If you asked Maccoy what his shirt said, he would simply reply, "Welcome home, Talon!" Yep, he can read foreign languages. ;)

Can ya see him? Our first glimpses of Talon... (I couldn't get very good lighting in many of my pictures...)

We took some pictures with our whole family all together with Talon... but, of course! my camera died before that happened... :( I was very sad to say the least. Darn camera! Why does it always end up dying when I want it the most!

And, after the airport we all headed over to my mom's house to eat lunch together. And, Keaton did just that. I was so impressed! He just sat at this little table and ate and ate...

 and ate...

and ate...

and ate... and once his plate full of food was gone he ate the food off of whatever kid left their plate next to him. :) Boy did it make me happy to see him enjoying eating. (Yes, that is quite rare around here, although getting those tubes put in his ears have seemed to work wonders so far!)

We are ALL so happy to have Talon home. :) And, although he may feel a tiny bit out of place, and a little bit lost no longer being on his mission, we have done a pretty good job of keeping him busy telling us all about his mission! He has some great stories to tell and we love hearing him bear testimony often of how much he knows that this gospel is true and that his mission was the "most important 2 years for his life."

Talon gave an absolutely amazing talk this past Sunday, February 26th. Words cannot describe how touching it was and anyone there listening to him I'm sure would agree. Talon has learned and grown so much these last 2 years and we are all so proud of and happy for him. We also all look up to up as an example of what we can do to not only be better in our own lives, but also because of him we all understand a little better the importance of sharing the gospel with all the world. I didn't take any pictures after his homecoming, but sooo many friends and family showed up to see Talon and it was just a great, wonderful day.