December 25, 2014 ~ Christmas Day!

December 25, 2014 ~ Christmas Day!

Christmas day was full of fun people, good food and good memories! It was sad that Lucas had to work because he missed the Skype session with SISTER HOER!! It was so much fun to talk to Anna, she is such a cute missionary. She talked so enthusiastically about her mission and shared some stories that mom hadn't heard (for a reason). She shared some scary stories about a prior area that she had been serving in and isn't serving in anymore so she figured it was safe to share. After talking with Anna dad got into a cleaning kick, and I mean cleaning!! He started cleaning the garage. He figured since Bryant and I were there we could clean all of our stuff out of the garage and take whatever we wanted to keep to the storage unit. Dad said it was his Christmas wish to clean out the garage...so we all started cleaning. Bryant and I then drove with dad to the storage unit to then clean out the storage unit and take some of Bryant's things to the storage unit. We were able to clean out Diana's stuff from the storage unit since she has a house now and a place to store it. We also threw away or gave away some things that Bryant no longer wanted in the storage unit and I took the cradle from the storage unit for myself. I love dad so much, he always works so hard and even on vacation and holidays he continues to work. I don't think dad will be able to retire because he can never stop working! After the cleaning fiasco it was dinner and talent show time! Michelle Reese brought her famous stuffing and creamy pineapple celery sticks, Lucas's favorite ;), and everyone brought dishes to go with the Ham that mom prepared! Lucas also invited Eddie from work! The talent show was a success as usual and dad performed his traditional piano piece and recited a monolog he memorized. We have so many talented people in the family!

Some pictures from Anna's Mission so far!

Dad was snacking while talking with Sister Hoer

And so the cleaning began

Driving to the storage unit

Lucas and I performed the First Noel for the talent show. Lucas came up with his own rendition of the song and he played while we sang a duet. I have such a talented husband!

I guess this is what the teenagers talents are these days...texting...this was actually after the talent show but still

The cute Allen girls!

 I told Eddie to face the camera more and this is what resulted haha

 The Hyer Family!

The Utley Family

December 24, 2014 ~ Christmas Eve

December 24, 2014 ~ Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was spent at the Tielemans house! We have developed some traditions over the last couple of years such as a fancy dinner prepared by Sally and the girls in the family bring sides or desert, then the boys give devotionals and sally shares a christmas story and the night is topped off with christmas songs using the chimes and presents! This year was more fun because Berkley is old enough to know what is going on and was so excited for presents. I forgot how magical Christmas is for children and it makes me look forward to when I can see the pure joy on my children faces around Christmas.

We took 2 pictures and I didn't like either of them so this is the face I got from Lucas on the 3rd picture. 

 I guess 4th picture is the charm

 Jordan and Carrie are both pregnant!! Carrie is due the beginning of May and Jordan is due the end of June. 

I brought cinnamon rolls for the Christmas Eve dinner. I tried aunt Carolyn's recipe this year instead of sister Lawson's recipe and the bottoms were nice and burnt because I put too much sugar on them which resulted in the sugar melting and going to the bottom and burning. At least one pan of them were edible...

Due to Lucas having work on Christmas day we celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve. It was sad not being able to wake up and have breakfast and unwrap presents together as a couple but at least Lucas got an early shift so he was able to make it to all of the Christmas Day festivities at the Hoer  house. 

December 20, 2014 ~ David Hyer's Wedding

December 20, 2014 ~ David Hyer's Wedding

Mom, Diana, Cody, Bryant, Luc, Jac and I were all able to drive up to Salt Lake and go to David Hyer's wedding! A lot of the Allen family was also able to make it and uncle James! We made it into a fun weekend and also saw the Piano Guys concert in salt lake after the wedding luncheon. We stayed at aunt Gina's house for the weekend, which was really nice of aunt Gina! The sealing was beautiful, it was fun to see David so happy and cute with his new wife. It didn't snow luckily but the weather was horrible...it was overcast, cold and raining on and off throughout the day. After the sealing we stayed in the lobby as long as we could because of the rain outside. After the cute newlywed couple made their entrance we then waited in the rain to take pictures. I felt bad because people started to leave due to the rain and I am not sure if they got all of the pictures they wanted. After pictures we walked over to the Lyon house where they had the wedding luncheon. KT's only wish for the wedding day was to have her wedding dinner and reception at the Lyon house and unfortunately the house was booked for dinner time and therefore she had a luncheon instead of a dinner and reception. It was a beautiful lunch and the house was so cool! I hope she was okay with not having a first dance though...I hope she doesn't regret it down the road. But after the lunch we went shopping...naturally and of course we happened to run into David and KT on the street. They were walking down the street in salt lake in their wedding cloths and looking so happy! After shopping we headed to temple square to look at the temple square lights! I haven't been to temple square around Christmas time in a while and it was breath-taking! After seeing the lights we headed to the Piano Guys concert and uncle Scott had hook ups and therefore we got a buffet before the show and watched the show in our own private box!! It was so cool to be able to watch the show from the box because we could walk around and choose any seat we wanted. After the concert we went to see the "tree of life" at Draper park. I had seen an article on Facebook talking about the "tree of life" and wanted to see it very bad. Luckily the tree happened to be at Draper City Park! The tree has more than 1,000 strands of lights on it. It was an amazing sight to see even though it was ridiculously cold outside.

Aunt Catherine borrowed jewelry from her brother-in-law who is a jeweler for the wedding...yep it's real!!

Cute little Jaxsen Hyer

Waiting in the rain...if you can't tell we are pretty cold!

The Hyer Boys

 "I love to see the temple"

 They had a really cute waiting room in the bathroom in the Lyon house

Aren't we sooo cute!

All the Hoer girls!! (Well, really Campbelll, Hoer and Tielemans)

Old fashion style

 David and his cute wife and Liz

The Utley sisters! (Well, really Lindsay, Hyer, Allen and Hoer)

Temple square lights

The Piano Guys concert 

 The "tree of life"

December 13, 2014 ~ Primary Class Christmas Party

December 13, 2014 ~ Primary Class Christmas Party

I love Christmas Parties so much!! Since Lucas didn't want to have a Christmas party with our friends I decided I would host a Christmas party for my primary class I teach, CTR7. When I mention it they were so excited and after the party at church they kept mentioning how they wanted to have another party. I guess I am just good at hosting parties, but I did plan a lot of fun activities so I don't blame them! We had Belgium waffles, juice and yogurt for breakfast. We made "ginger bread houses" using Graham crackers, frosting and candy. We were going to watch a Christmas movie and bring out the popcorn maker but I decided it would be fun to take the top off of the popcorn maker and let the popcorn fly everywhere, which resulted in them not wanting to watch the movie. They really wanted to play hide and go seek in the house so then we ended up running around the downstairs and upstairs playing and hide and go seek slash tag game. It was actually really fun playing the game and of course they wanted me to be it...a lot. I forgot how much energy little kids have!! After playing that game we opened Christmas presents that I got them. The boys got Lego's and the girls got a nail kit and 2 finger nail polishes. The morning was so much fun and before we knew it parents were coming to pick them up. I have some fun kids in my class!

Making the Graham Cracker houses

 Joslin Rodriguez

Trey Bunker

 Preston Chambers

Ellie Ekersley

 I happened to get a picture of Ellie's face when I told her what we were going to do with the popcorn maker. It's a face of pure joy!!

 Waiting and anticipating the eruption of popcorn

The eruption!

December 2014 ~ Christmas Festivities

December 2014 ~ Christmas Festivities 

On December 7th we finally put up our Christmas tree! We finally joined the rest of the family and put up a fake Christmas tree...yes a fake one. Growing up Lucas always had a real Christmas tree and I always had a real Christmas tree. The first Christmas together we cut down a tree together, the second year we bought a tree and boy did that cost more then we thought! We figured we would save money with a fake Christmas tree until we have kids and once we have kids get a real Christmas tree. Real trees smell amazing and it makes it seem more like Christmas.

On December 12th we had our ward Christmas Party and then went to my (Rachel's) work party. For the Christmas party we brought mashed potatoes for dinner that were amazing (I am not biased at all). The mashed potatoes took longer to make then I thought but they turned out really good. In the processing of transporting the mashed potatoes I got some all over my jacket and purse though. But the primary put on a Nativity Scene and it was really neat seeing some of my kids playing parts. My boys were shepherds and some of my girls were angels or in the bell choir. It turned out very well and there was a secret guest at the end. 

We missed Berkley Giles sitting on Santa's lap at the ward party because we left early for my work party but I thought the picture was priceless so I HAD to include it.

At the OIHNV work party we had a white elephant gift exchange that was a hit! It was a good turnout. Sarah, her husband, and her little girl, Julie and her husband, Stetson, Brooke and her husband, Bailey and her fiancé, Sandi and her husband and the medical student and his wife all came.  Cafe Rio was provided by Dr. Hoer (daddio) and I ended up taking home a twister game!! I wish we took pictures but we didn't.