Now for the holidays...

So I searched for pictures from Thanksgiving only to realize that we didn't take any so in a nut shell...we ate lots of food, saw a bunch of family, watched some football, ate some more food, did some black Friday shopping, ate some more...the end!

Then all of the sudden it was Christmas, then it was past Christmas and I have no idea where the time went! We had lots of fun parties with family and friends and a busy wonderful December. One of these parties was the Tait/Bergstrom family party. It was lots of fun with food and baby Jesus and Santa even came! We weren't sure how Dax would be with Santa because if we are honest, Dax is one of the biggest chicken hearts I have ever seen! He is very afraid of a lot of things and a very cautious little boy. After watching Maddie and Lydia both not be big fans of Santa this year, I was even more sure that Dax would completely freak out. But instead he went right up and said "anta come?, anta come?" He sat right on his lap and was excited for his little football that he was given and really didn't want to leave him. 

Christmas eve night I was scheduled to work at the hospital. It was kind of a bummer, but Robert and Dax were going to go up with my family and have Christmas Eve with them and I planned to just come up on Christmas morning when I got off work. I was dressed in my scrubs and ready to go when I got this marvelous call from work that told me that one very nice girl that I work with said that she would work so that I could be on call and have Christmas Eve with my family. Thanks Oakley! It made my whole Christmas that is for sure. Anyway, so I got to go up to Enterprise and surprise my family. We all went to my Aunt Jen's and ate yummy food, sang songs and had a little program, and act out the nativity. It was a fun little party and I was just happy I got to be there!

Dax was an angel with Aunt Melinda :)

The Three Wise Guys

The angel bringing good tidings to the shephards

A tired angel

Then there was Joseph, Mary, the trusty donkey and a cow :)

The whole crew

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Dax and Maddie were funny and Santa definitely found all of us and dumped his sleigh! Dax and Maddie couldn't decide if their new toys were the coolest or if the others toys were better. Luckily they shared pretty good and had fun with everything. Maddie loved the chocolate first thing in the morning and made us giggle as she went through everyones stockings. 

Waiting to go down stairs to see if Santa came

Playing with Uncle Dallin while waiting to go donwstairs

Dax was excited to see Lightning, Mack and Mater under the tree!

Aunt Melinda in her cool new chair

Maddie got a fun trampoline from Santa that Dax loved!
Please bless he learns how to jump right on it!

After all of our presents were opened and we had eaten breakfast, we loaded in the car to head to Leamington to see Grandma and Grandpa Lovell for more presents and fun. Unfortunately we have not one picture to show for our fun weekend with them. If anyone has some that they want to share then please send them our way! We did have a very fun weekend. We ate and played games, basketball and volleyball and enjoyed so much seeing everyone.

For New Years we went to Enterprise and had a party--well at least as much of a party as the Clove family knows how to have! We even made it to midnight! It was pretty miraculous! We had a good time and laughed a lot which is always good...I shall always remember singing beneath a full moon!! :) On New Years Day we went sledding. It was pretty fun. Dax liked it until he got so cold he couldn't move or feel anything and was so tired he couldn't keep his eyes open. Robert forgets he is getting old and was trying to do tricks on little saucers and entertained us all as he fell over and over! We captured some of them on video if I am smart enough to get it on here for you all to enjoy I will...(I ended up putting them on-Robert)

The whole holiday was great and we were so glad that we got to spend time with our families and think about and focus on the Savior. We are so blessed to have so many things, most importantly our families and the gospel. There were so many sad things that seemed to happen around the holidays this year that it really made me stop and realize how blessed we really are to know that Jesus really was born and came to earth for all of us. He made it possible for all of us to be happy here and make it through all of the hard things and live forever with our families someday. How grateful I am for the atonement and my knowledge of the plan of Salvation. I am so grateful for the Savior and his love for me and my little family. I am blessed so much to be able to feel his spirit and get his help though my little hard spots in life. I have been thinking so much about the people, some that I don't even know very well, who are going through such hard things and hope and pray that they are feeling the Saviors love and spirit as they go through the hard days that will most certainly come. I hope that I will be able to keep the Savior in my focus as we go through this year and be more grateful for all of my blessings big and small and take advantage of every day I am given.