Christmas in Canada

The last day of school before Christmas break was ugly sweater day and pajama day. Plus Austin is sporting some new fancy blond hair because his students brought in 1,000 pairs of new socks to donate to charity.  If they would have brought 2,000 pairs his hair would have been blue so we are happy with the blond.

Sleeping under the tree on Christmas Eve Eve

We had a fantastic Christmas Eve at Rod & Sarah's house in Taber. We had delicious food, a white elephant gift exchange, and a nativity from the kids. We saw Rudolph's red nose in the backyard. Austin went outside to try and catch Rudolph, but instead he got stepped on by the reindeer.  But Rudolph did leave gifts for all of the kids - flavored chapsticks and lip gloss.

My favorite part of this year's nativity is the gold, frankincense and myrrh (aka bowling pins).

Christmas morning in our new house was very exciting. Grandpa & Grandma Nunn came to be with us on Christmas morning.
Santa brought Lucy and Carly 3-feet princess dolls, Hanna a dog collar for the new dog she is going to get, and Jill got a money donation to the new camera she wants to buy.

My favorite part of Christmas this year was watching our girls give gifts to each other. We draw names but then this year each of them decided to give a gift to everyone.  Carly was so fun to watch shop as she had $20 to get something for everyone. Her most successful shopping stop was Canadian Tire. 

Jill bought Hanna this bow and arrow set, exactly what Hanna wanted this year.

We enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner at Grandma Nunn's house!

Kaylynn's Birthday

Although I had a fantastic birthday, I don't really have any pictures to show besides this whiteboard list of Hanna's to "make a big deal out of Mom's birthday."

First, my friends had a lunch for my birthday a couple days early. Tammy Sommerfeldt hosted and fed us delicious chicken and rice. Dixie Bevans, Barb Salmon, Marilee Cahoon, Karen Bevans, and Shauna Smith came. We had fun eating and talking!

My husband made me breakfast and my family made me the most delicious dinner of steak, mashed potatoes and salad. They gave me scriptures and a sweater.

The day after my birthday Martha made us a delicious roast and potato dinner with the best part of all - cheesecake!

I was grateful for lots of friend and family and visiting teacher birthday wishes, and a 8:30 am delivery of birthday cookies from my 92-year-old neighbor, Phyllis Leavitt.

Nunns in November

Jill Nunn Photography took some awesome sunset pictures of Austin. They actually used Jill's barrel horse, PJ, because he was the easiest horse to catch. Jill is developing a love/obsession with photography, and she is really pretty good at it. I love her pictures.

Austin turned 40!
We had an over the hill party with a few friends and Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

The girls and I gave Austin a sweater and an end table for his birthday. (Of course he was thrilled with the end table. He told me he is going go give me a horse bit for my birthday:).  Carly wrapped up a little lamp to give him.  Hanna gave Austin an Essentials Kit complete with candy, gum, toilet paper, deodorant, soap, toothpaste, twine, and duct tape. (Hanna quotes the comedian, Brian Regan, everyday which is where she got the Essentials Kit idea).

Jill is playing on the grade 9 girls basketball team.  There are only 3 teams in our school division in their age group, so they haven't played many games so far. They did play in a tournament in Magrath which they won.

Hanna is on the grade 7 girls basketball team. She gets lots of steals and is super fast but then is still working on a light touch on her lay-ups. She is fun to watch.

My Mom and Dad came up for a quick trip to help us with some house projects. My Dad patched and trimmed around our new kitchen window and trimmed two bedroom windows.  He also brought floating shelves and whiteboards that he made for each of our girls for their bedrooms.  We let him have the afternoon off and we went on a drive to Waterton.  As you can tell, it was a hot day - or not.

This is Lucy, the Champs basketball player. Go Lucy!

Halloween

Hanna dressed up like Mr. Nunn and won the Super Hero costume award.

Carly was a witch and Lucy was a baby.

Jill outgrew Halloween this year.

I took Lucy and Carly trick-or-treating in Leavitt.  Country trick-or-treating didn't disappoint again this year. The kids get treat bags, pop, popcorn, full-size candy bars, coloring books, etc. 

Leavitt Young Women

I was really loving my calling as the 1st counselor in Relief Society. I love the women I work with, I wasn't the president or in charge of the activities. I really enjoyed teaching every 3 months. I thought I was safe for another year, since we only had been in for 2 years.

Then the last Sunday in August I got called into the Bishop's office and got called to be the 1st counselor in Young Women's. I said yes and went back to Relief Society and cried through the whole meeting.

Hanna said, "You are in Young Women now? That is going to be weird."

I am over 10 great Miamaids, including Jill. I have really liked it more than I thought I would. Teenagers scare me. But it is an exciting time in the church to prepare youth for life and missions.

Our first class activity, we did a photo shoot at my house. I had been worried for a couple days because it had been super windy. The wind did die down but it was a cold evening, but I love how the pictures turned out. 

Another fun activity was carving pumpkins we grew in our garden.

I was in charge of a joint activity Halloween party. It was fun for a few minutes, but after 45 minutes everyone had done all of the games. Luckily the other kids came through for me and organized another game.

Catch Up

Jill started her high school rodeo career. If all of our kids enter high school rodeos, we will go to high school rodeos for 14 years. Her first rodeo was in Pincher Creek - not her best rodeo ever.

Jill turned 15 years old! We had steak and potatoes and then went to Waterton for ice cream cones.

Grandpa and Grandma got home from their mission. 

After a few minutes of being home, Grandpa said, "If Nauvoo wasn't so far away, I would go back." It is a huge adjustment to come home from a mission. Reality isn't quite as fun as Nauvoo.  They gave great Sacrament meeting talks about their mission.

Hanna had a great volleyball season. Her team improved a lot with their great coach Coralee Williams.

Austin and I went to dinner and a movie for our 17th anniversary.