Category Archives: Holidays

Posts about celebrating holidays with our family and those we love. Who doesn’t love a good holiday celebration?

Catch-up post: Our 4th Anniversary

Holidays, Vacations, , ,

Our 4th anniversary (celebrated last December) was wonderful. We left Carson with Grandma and Grandpa Lyman overnight (his first overnight! It was about time. He did great – and so did we). Then Josh and I headed to Colorado Springs and had a wonderful getaway together. The highlight was eating at a very very fancy fondue restaurant (fancier – and more expensive – than either of us had ever done, but we felt it was very worth it). The food was deeeelicious. A four-course fondue/raclette meal. Yes, the food was delicious, but of course the real highlight of the trip was being able to get away and spend time with each other. Do we really have to wait until December for our next anniversary?

Halloween 2012

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What a great Halloween it was. We took Carson for his first time trick-or-treating, and he definitely liked it. (We went to a ward trunk-or-treat party, too, but we didn’t stay for the trunk-or-treating part, and and we didn’t have any good pictures to post.)

Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood the night of Halloween was a lot of fun, though. Carson dressed up as a monkey and Josh and I were zookeepers (though I don’t think anyone could really tell – oh, well. People could tell at the trunk-or-treat and that was fun). Josh carried him most of the time, and Carson held onto his candy bucket but became increasingly interested in the brightly-colored wrapped things people kept dropping in his bucket. All he wanted to do was pull all the candy out and hold it in his hands, ha. I don’t think he even knew really that you eat candy and it tastes good. He just like the bright wrappers.

After a round around the block we headed home and Carson got to dump out his bucket and hold all of his candy to his heart’s content. He loved picking it up, inspecting it, showing it to Mom and Dad, and finding a new piece to hold. And then we let him try a Milky Way and things just kept getting better. Now that he knows that all of that stuff in his bucket is actually edible and yummy, we’ve got to keep it hidden. ;) He caught me sneaking a piece from his bucket hidden in the pantry the other day and was a little hurt, I think. I admit I felt pretty guilty…but I did share. Does that make it okay?

Hope you had a happy Halloween, Carson! Here are some pictures of costumes and Carson enjoying his candy afterwards. He must have been kind of tired that night or something because he had this kind of blank glazed expression on his face the whole time, but we know he had a great time.

Easter 2012

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Easter was really wonderful this year. We tried to keep the holiday really focused on the Savior, and we felt really enriched as a result. On Saturday we ate a Jerusalem-themed dinner to remind us of the Savior and the type of food he would have eaten (fish, flatbread, lentil soup, nuts, grapes). And we also had short devotionals throughout the week, during which we watched some of the new Bible videos the Church has created.

Today we had Sam, Caleb, Audrey, and Brenn over for a magnificent Easter dinner. It was so good to see you guys! Thanks for coming and spending time with us. We even hid Easter eggs for the sibs (I think they mostly enjoyed it, even though we hid like 40 eggs but only 4 had candy in them, haha). After dinner we ate ice cream and cookies on the porch (beautiful weather today!) and even took some family photos.

Also, on Saturday we gave Carson his Easter basket, which he enjoyed for a few minutes before going off to explore the house like he usually does. ;) But he did really like it, and it was a lot of fun to watch his excitement. All in all, a wonderful, spiritual Easter, and we hope you were all able to remember all the Savior has done for us and the wonderful blessing of his Atonement and Resurrection.

Valentine’s Day Date

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This year we kept with our new Valentine’s Day tradition of making a fancy meal and eating it together on a picnic in the back of the car. If you’re observant and noticed that we skipped a year, it’s because last year I was pregnant and dealing with morning sickness and some huge work project deadlines, so sadly neither Josh nor I can quite remember what we did for Valentine’s Day. Not cook a fancy dinner and take it on a picnic, we know that much.

Anyway, this year we were better. We really liked the French-themed meal we made two years ago, so we decided to do it again with some new recipes: gratin des aubergines, des haricots provençales, and tapénade on a baguette. Yum yum! Our favorite was the gratin des aubergines (an eggplant gratin dish). With sparkling cider and chocolate covered strawberries to top it off, the meal was delicious!

Audrey and Brenn came over and babysat Carson in the basement while Josh and I cooked, and then we were able to leave to a scenic overlook and eat our picnic in the car. The weather was even so nice that we left the back open. We loved getting to spend so much time together, just us, doing something fun. It was a wonderful, fun, tasty Valentine’s Day date. :)