Christmastime is Crazy!

December is always my least favorite month because it is so crazy. Of course, I added 3 children's birthdays to the mix (Joseph and Heather's are officially in November but since they fall after Thanksgiving I consider them as part of the December craziness.) Joseph and Heather's birthday was a lot of fun due to the fact that we still had all of our Thanksgiving company around. They took their cousins and went to Nickelcade for the afternoon and then we did the cake and ice cream at grandma and grandpa's house.

Their cakes were topped with powdered sugar instead of frosting and Joseph blew as hard as he could in order to share his powdered sugar with Heather!










Laura's birthday was a lot more calm. We had a family party and she got lots of love from her friends. They decorated our sidewalk with chalk, filled her locker with confetti and stuffed animals, and decorated her room with snow (fake snow!). She knew she was loved by the end of the day.


















Laura with her new guitar.
















Other things of note:
We are excited to have our nephew Josh Talbert moving in with us in January. We plan on this being a short term move in until Josh is able to find a job and an apartment, but we are excited to have him living close to us.
I have a new job. With Kent going on a mission and the financial help we have had from Joseph reaching it's maximum, I have been looking for a job but not very hard yet. I figured I had until February before I had to get really serious. Well, I found a job I know I will love and they hired me. I will be working at Orem Junior High as their flex coordinator. This is a new position, as is the flex program that I will be organizing. The flex program is in place of their homeroom reading time and it is for those who have missing assignments and low grades to work with their teachers on improving their grades and for those who are caught up and have passing grades to be able to participate in activities such as sports or movies or learning new skills. I am excited about the job. It will start in January when school resumes so this is my Christmas vacation as well as the rest of the family's. I am sure there will be a lot of adjusting that needs to happen for our family, but it is amazing how Heavenly Father takes care of us and provides for our needs. I just feel so blessed to have this job and to have it be something that I will enjoy, to have it before I need it, and to have a job that has the same schedule as the rest of the family.

Brad played Santa Claus for his parents' Ward Christmas Party.

Thanksgiving fun!

First let me update on Joseph. He endured the shingles and was thrilled to have his prayers answered and to feel better by Thanksgiving and by the day after he felt really really good and since that was his birthday, his life wasn't so bad as he had believed. From a mother's point of view, the shingles were horrible, even the pain medicine only took the edge off but the pain was still there.
Now, on to a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend!! We had a total of 34 people eating dinner at mom and dad Talbert's house. This was our trial run for our family reunion that we will be having this summer. Those who were present were Richard and Susan and family, Deborah (Jeff was in France) and family, including Deborah's sister Mary and her daughter Rebekah, Jim and Debbie and Josh, Jake and Sara, Charlie, Kevin, as well as our family and mom and dad. For sleeping we split between our house, Aaron and Diane's, and mom and dad's. This worked out very well. We also were able to have enough space for eating and for playing games. On Thursday and Friday, we set up 5 card tables and had 20 people playing the same game. It was wild. Brad had to set up a spreadsheet to help keep score and after every 4 rounds we rotated tables with the goal being to try to get to the top table by having the best score. Mostly this holiday was about laughter and friendship. It was amazing to have that many people together and there was no arguing, complaining, or any other difficulty. The Talbert family is truly an amazing family and I am so blessed to have become a part of this family.
Along with lots of family and food, on Friday we had a baby shower at my house for Lenay. Her and JC were not able to join us for Thanksgiving because she had family visiting but we were excited to have a shower for her since her family was around as well as so many Talbert's.

Lenay opening her gifts, Kelsey is on the side.



Susan, Bobbye, Diane, and Sara enjoying the shower.


Lenay again but check out the diaper cake that I made. I forgot to take a better picture than this but it turned out really cute (if I don't say so myself!).

So, Laura needs to do homework so the rest of the fun will be in the next post!