A Book of Mormon Christmas

This year for our Leslie family Christmas party, we broke tradition a little. We decided to have our party early instead of on Christmas Eve. And instead of the traditional Nativity play, Ross's mom found a book called A Book of Mormon Christmas that we used as our script. This book had scriptures from The Book of Mormon that talked about Christ's birth along with traditional Christmas songs to sing. So we dressed up as characters from The Book of Mormon and acted out those scenes. I thought it was a fun addition to the traditional Nativity story that we have always done.

I think we all agreed that Isaac was the best looking Nephite/Lamanite. Look how awesome he looks!

William was our "Samuel the Lamanite." Everyone loved the part when the "unbelievers" got to throw rocks and arrows (i.e., feathers and pom pom balls) at him.

Leah especially loved this part. She kept throwing things at him even after the scene was over. And William, of course, was happy to let her do it. And for days afterward she loved talking about throwing rocks and arrows at William.

We passed the book around and took turns reading the scriptures from The Book of Mormon.

Here's Gavin as our "Nephi" praying for the people the day before Jesus was born. Followed by the unbelievers falling to the ground when the sign of Christ's birth appeared.  

And here's Sierra holding the star that appeared at Christ's birth. Followed by Mary (Alex), Joseph (Tyler)and Jesus in the stable.

Leah's attention span for the activity was very short! We had a hard time keeping her downstairs. She was much more interested in having a tea party with William.

The book even came with a menu suggestion. So going on those ideas we had enchilada soup, taco soup, quesadillas, chips, salsa, guacamole and for dessert some yummy tres leches cake. If you ask me, you can't go wrong with some great Mexican food!

It was kind of weird to get together so early in the Christmas season. But it is always good to spend time with family. I'm not sure what we'll do on Christmas Eve since we won't be spending it with our Leslie family this year. But I'm sure we'll find some way to make it special.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

Thanksgiving weekend was, of course, filled with all kinds of activities. We started off the long weekend with the ultrasound to find out about the health, growth and gender of our baby. The great news was that everything looked good in the ultrasound. Baby was very active and we got to see a lot a lot of it since three people each took a turn with the ultrasound machine (the tech, the intern, and the specialist). But probably the big surprise was finding out our baby is a BOY! Both Ross and I were a little taken back at the thought of having a boy. We are so used to having a little girl, that we were both not sure at first what we were going to do with a boy. However, the idea is definitely growing on us and we are getting more excited to meet him each day.

We decided to keep the gender a secret until we could tell our families in person. On Thanksgiving Day, we went to Ross's mom's. One of our food assignments was a jello salad. So we decided to make it a blue salad and cover it with cool whip so no one would know the color until they scooped into it. After the prayer was said, we let Ross's mom do the honors. Needless to say, she was very excited to dish into the jello salad and find out she had a little grandson on the way!

On Friday we went to my parents' house. We invited my parents, siblings and the kids to join us in our gender reveal activity. (Marc and Alison couldn't be there since she was having gall bladder/pregnancy issues and was at the hospital.) We filled up 16 balloons and put pieces of paper in each of them. Only one paper had the words "It's a BOY!" The other papers had messages like "Keep looking," "Try again" or "Not here". Then each person took a turn popping their balloon to see if they had the revealing news inside. I was afraid they would find it in the first or second balloon cutting the activity and suspense really short. But everyone popped their balloon and some got to pop a second one before we found it.

After our immediate families knew, I sent out a bunch of text messages with this picture. We saw this book at the library the day of the ultrasound and I had to get a picture of Leah with it so that I could use it to announce that she would be getting a little brother.

On Friday night, Leah happily stayed at my parents' house while Ross and I went to the Jazz vs. Kings game. I had hoped to see former BYU star, Jimmer Fredette, get some playing time. We were surprised to see him play for almost 2 quarters and nailing 3 deep 3-point shots. The Jazz were trailing most of the game, but made a great run in the 4th quarter to tie up the game. Then with a jump shot at only about 4.5 seconds left the Jazz took the lead and won 104-102. It ended up being a great game to see in person.

On Saturday, we had our annual Putnam Family Christmas party. It was great to see and visit with so many family members. I love my Putnam family and just don't get to see them enough anymore. One of the highlights for the kids was a visit from Santa. Leah talked about seeing Santa all week, but I was a little worried about how she would react when she actually saw him in person. Here she is waving to him when he came in.

Here's some of my family hanging out for our turn to see Santa. Leah was a little hesitant at first. But she did sit on Santa's lap. (It helped that he was handing out candy canes.) She even answered him when he asked her questions. But I doubt he understood anything she said since she was whispering so quietly. Later she wanted me to take her back up so she could wave to him again, but she made it clear that she didn't want to sit on his lap again.

Here's all of our family with Santa (minus Alison who was still at the hospital). In her present, Leah found Minnie Mouse pajamas and a "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" DVD. One of the sayings around our house is that Leah "can't get enough Mickey!"

Here are my Grandma and Grandpa Putnam. I love these two people SO MUCH! It is great to still have both of them here for the party yet again. Here's to more years with both of them still together!

We made sure we got pictures with my mom's generation along with their parents. They got a picture with and without spouses. These people have been so important to me all of my life. I am so grateful and proud to call them family.

After Santa, the little kids broke open a pinata. I would have gotten pictures of it except that Leah was so tired by then that she didn't even want to try it and ended up falling asleep on my lap through most of the excitement.

By the time the weekend was over, we were all exhausted. We had a great time and loved spending so much time with our family members. But I daresay, Ross may have been happy to go back to work on Monday so he could recover from our busy long holiday weekend.

Big News at the Leslie House

Now that word is starting to spread, I'm finally posting about our big news around the Leslie household. This picture is how we shared the news of our next little one with our parents and other family members.

I'm glad the first trimester is over. I often felt nauseous, but luckily never threw up. The hardest part was the food aversions. Very few things sounded good to eat. Foods that I loved, I couldn't handle even the thought of eating. Even water was hard to handle. I was also very tired during the day and had little motivation to do much of anything. Despite the great weather, poor Leah was stuck inside with me most days while we just hung out in our PJ's watching TV. But we survived and I'm feeling much better. I have more energy and a much better appetite now.

We have reached the 20 week mark. I'm starting to feel the baby move more and next week we get to find out if Leah will be getting a little brother or little sister!

The other big news for our family is that about a month ago our bishopric was reorganized and Ross was called to be the 1st Counselor. He is serving with two great men, Bishop McGriff and Brother Gorski. We're looking forward to getting to know these men and their families better.

However, our feelings about this news are a little more mixed than our news about our new baby. We are excited for the chance to get to know more people in our ward better, but the demand on our family's time and the weightiness of the mantle of responsibility is a little daunting (especially for Ross). Luckily we have a great ward with many people who are willing and have already helped us out with Leah so that we can take care of our church responsibilities. I'm sure when the baby comes, there will also be many hands ready to hold a fussy baby or entertain a restless toddler.

So often, daily life with the Leslies seems "same old, same old" and even with these new big adventures it still seems that way most days. But I know that as these big changes come about (and others that the future holds) that the Lord will continue to take care of us and that the new "craziness" will just evolve into the norm like it always does.

Halloween 2012

I always forget how much I like Halloween until it actually gets here and we get to do all the fun Halloween things. This year was no exception. Here's a summary of the fun things we did!

I don't have any pictures from it, but Leah did get invited to a Halloween themed birthday party for our neighbors' little girl, Millie. Her mom had planned lots of fun activities and the kids had a great time. They especially loved playing with the big bowl of dry black beans and other little objects that they could scoop and pour into jars and cupcake tins. They also enjoyed dancing to "Ghostbusters" with the black light.

The Saturday before Halloween, Leah and I went trick-or-treating at the zoo with Lyndsee and Kynee. We also brought our nephew Carson. The zoo was crazy busy with tons of people. We didn't get to see many animals and the kids didn't really get that much candy. But the important thing was that they had a great time.

When Leah saw the carousal, all she wanted to do was go get on it. But we had to wait for the others to eat their lunch. So by the time she actually got to ride it, she was beyond excited. Look at this big grin she had when she finally got to get on the kangaroo she choose to ride.

If you are familiar with the show "Little Einsteins," then you might know the little girl, "June" who loves to dance. That was what Kynee choose to be for Halloween. So Lyndsee turned her wagon into "Rocket" and we used it to pull the little girls all over the zoo. They loved riding around in Rocket! 

On Sunday we were all home for the evening, so we decided to carve our pumpkins. These two are so cheesy sometimes. I love them!

Leah of course had a great time scooping out the pumpkins, but if you look closely at the picture, you might notice that her previously cleaned out pumpkin is more full of seeds than the blue bowl. She made a mess, but I didn't care as long as it kept her entertained while we were carving. She also couldn't resist tasting the pumpkin guts and informed us several times that they tasted "funny."

After hours of working on the pumpkins we realized that we may have been a little too ambitious when picking our designs. Our carving project carried over into Monday night as well. Ross and I each worked about 4-6 hours on these silly things. But in the end, we were both happy with how they turned out!

On Tuesday, we had our annual Halloween Carnival hosted by the young women and young men in our ward. This is my favorite activity to do with the youth each year. Here are my cute Beehives! I love these girls and they did a great job with their cupcake/cookie walk and "mystery-goo" boxes.

Of course Ross brought Leah over to join in the fun and you can tell by the smile on her face that she was excited to be there.

She especially loved the bounce house! It took up a lot of room in our little gym, but it was a great hit with the kids.

I made sure I got a picture of Leah with my wonderful friend and Young Women President, Janice! We're going to miss her and Debbie so much when they move!

Leah enjoyed the games. Here she is bowling and walking around the pictures for the cupcake walk.

And here's Leah with her buddy, Riley. He is so sweet with her and loves it when she sits with him at church.

On the day of Halloween, I took Leah to run errands and decided to stop my my old work to visit and show off Leah. Everyone was excited to see how big she had gotten and also commented on how cute she was. It was fun to see those people I loved working with and still admire.

Here's our little "Abby Cadabby" all ready for trick-or-treating!

After trick-or-treating, we went to visit the Millers. They are so good to us! It is always a treat to see them. By the end of the night, we were ready for Halloween to be over. We had a great time, but I'm glad it only comes once a year!

Ross and I did a couple other fun things to celebrate the Halloween season. We got to go a local play production of the murder mystery "The Mousetrap," by Agatha Christie. And we had a fun "How to Host a Murder" party. The theme was "Roman Ruins." So we all got to dress up in togas and such. We had a great time getting to know some of the couples in our ward better. I want to do another one in a couple months so we can invite some more of the great couples in our ward.

Pumpkins!

October is a great time for pumpkins! And we've seen plenty of them this season. One evening while visiting my parents, we decided to take a walk to my aunt and uncle's house to see the giant pumpkins my uncle grew. Here's the little girls bundled up for the ride.

Leah was too nervous to sit on the pumpkin by herself. But of course had no problem sitting on Grandpa's lap for a picture. This pumpkin weighed in at over 200 pounds. He had another one that was over 150 pounds.

One Saturday morning we also visited a local pumpkin patch with some of our Leslie family so that Ross's mom could help her grandkids pick out some pumpkins. First we wandered through the corn maze. Leah was more than content to stick with William and Grandma and hold their hands all through the maze.

The kids loved these big pictures where they could stick their faces through for some fun snapshots!

It had poured down rain through the night and I was worried that we would be tromping through giant mud puddles all through the pumpkin patch. But as you can see in the pictures, by morning the sun had come out and it was such a nice morning. We did get a little mud stuck to the bottom of our shoes, but nothing too bad. I was surprised at how firm the ground actually was after so much rain.

Along with many farm animals that the kids could look at, they had some play structures that the kids could climb on and run through. Leah loved climbing to the top of this one and raising her hands up to show how high she was. This little girl has no fear of climbing!

But in all the fun things the pumpkin patch had to offer, this was probably Leah's very favorite part of the whole morning. She LOVED playing on this swing! She played on it for a long, long time. She kept asking me to push her high and take her picture. I had a hard time convincing her to leave it so we could join the others who were picking out their pumpkins. But she didn't care in the least about picking a pumpkin when there was this great swing to play on. Luckily Ross was willing to get our family's pumpkins so that his little girl wouldn't have to quit playing.