MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas to all. What a wonderful time of year Christmas is. It is an opportunity to reflect on the past year, to show friends and family how much we appreciate and love them. And most importantly to show love and appreciation to our Heavenly Father for the gift of his Son. Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior, and Redeemer. How thankful we are for opportunity we have to worship Him and to follow Him.



We have been so blessed this year. We frequently look around at our situation and smile. According to the world's standards we are in pretty bad shape.



Money is very tight as Dave finishes up his last semester's of school until he graduates in April. We have one car to share between a busy student and a busy mom. We live in a 500 foot square apartment with a VERY active 19 month old. Most of our furniture are hand-me-downs with "character." The rest of our furniture is plastic shelves and drawers. Our kids are dressed in all passed down clothes from generous friends and neighbors. The government helps us survive by subsidised housing and food stamps.



But we smile because we feel so blessed. In April, when Dave graduates, he has a job offer in Huston, Texas, with an oil company. We have two great kids. We have very supportive family. We have good friends, and a great ward. Our future is so bright we gotta wear shades.

Dave had a very successful year. He landed a great internship on an oil rig for the summer. It was pretty hard on all of us. Dave lived on the rig with only the Internet and satellite TV to keep him company. He learned a lot identifying samples and working with rig hands. He was happy to come home to confront a semester of Calculus and Physics and other "fun" classes. He did well and is pumped for his last semester of "ologyies." He has Paleontology, Ecology, and Hydrology. He is a great dad. Jensen has a ball growling and wrestling with Dave, and Lily lights up every time dad comes to play with her.



Danica's year has been a year of ups and downs- mostly ups. She had to watch her husband suffer through 12 hour days of studying Calculus and Physics. She was alone much of the year with Dave being home only 15 days over the course of 5 months. She was gripped with fear that the week buffer between Dave coming home from his internship, and when Lily was due would be eliminated by an early birth. Her ups included the birth of BEAUTIFUL Lily ( Dave was there, thankfully), being able to teach Sunday School with Dave, starting new crafts like card making and pottery, and "being the sole reason for her husbands success" (as quoted by Dave.) She feels incredibly blessed to be healthy and be able to stay at home and play with the kids. Her only wish would be to never do dishes again.



Jensen is a very busy 19 month old. He is dense. Not in a slow to learn way, more like a little cannon ball of pure muscle. He ate 4.5 hot dogs for lunch the other day. He climbs as high and as often as he can. He loves to pour water from one container to another. He has about ten words he uses consistently. Mom means "I want that, get it for me", and dad means "Let's wrestle." He entered nursery last month and loves it. He seems to enjoy bonking his head based on how often and how hard he hits it.



Lily is pure joy in an adorable little baby package. She is so kissable with her dark skin and sparkling brown eyes. She is quick to flash a huge grin and coo whenever you smile at her. She eats well and sleeps even better. We are so blessed to have this good natured adorable 3 month old in our family.



Merry Christmas to you. Jesus is the Christ- the giver of peace,love, and happiness.

The McDonalds
Dave, Danica, Jensen and Lily

When it gets quiet you know there is trouble. I was feeding Lily then came to check on my too quiet son. Jensen didn't mind sitting quietly if he had container of Nesquick to snack on :)

In spirit of today being the last day of finals and almost Christmas- Dave's friend Matt Cannady put this together for Dave of his web shots in the testing center. Merry Merry Merry Christmas

Elf Yourself!

Check out my elfed Family!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1149923714

THANKSGIVING!

We had a fun week last week. We got to visit Dave's sister and her kids.

She had Clayton two weeks before Lily was born. These two will have fun playing together growing up.We had actual Thanksgiving dinner at my grandparents house. We took 4 generation pictures.
We blessed Lily at Bryce's house. The kids had tons of fun in Sam's awesome room Marcia decorated.
The whole crew at the blessing.
Lily and Clayton.Dave reading his birthday book.

25Years Old!

Dave's Birthday was on Thanksgiving this year. He hasn't really ever had a birthday party because we usually grab the nearest pumpkin pie and stick a candle on it. As much as Dave loves pumpkin pie he has always wanted a party. So a week before his birthday I organized a surprise party for him. I don't think I can say enough how HARD it was for me to keep the secret. But we pulled it off! He got Guitar Hero III for the Wii ( from like five people). And we played Guitar Hero and Double Dash on the projector. It was really fun. And in the words of Dave "Best Birthday Ever".

FINALLY NURSERY!

Jensen hit 18 months and has finally entered nursery. I feel a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders. It has been a challenge to try and contain this very active and inquisitive boy during church. We walked up to the nursery room and I expected a tiny bit of trepidation and then he would be fine. But he didn't even look at me once, even when I repeatedly said goodbye. He didn't cry at all. We got a cute little outfit to celebrate the occasion. He knows he looks good.

Lily's Smile

So Lily has started to smile. It is so fulfilling and awsome to experince your child's first smiles. We have been trying hard to capture them. We had a couple of partal sucesses.

Then today I got it. Success!
Jensen carried Dave's temple bag around for like an hour. Temple prep already man are we good! J/K


This was right after he walked right into the wall.

2 week age difference

Danica says its the McDonald face.

I say its cute.

This is our first video post.

Hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

I have to admit I was more excited for this Halloween than I have been since I was "Genie" from Aladdin. As much fun as smearing your face with blue paint, climbing into an over sized blue jumpsuit, than covering up your whole costume with your winter coat ( because it always snowed in Colorado) was, doing a holiday with cute kids is way fun.

We will start with Lily. She is a bug with a homemade crochet hat complete with pipe cleaner antennae. She pulls off pink and purple well.

Dave and I tried to pass as Homer and Marge Simpson.

I tried to lighten this up so you could see Homers hair on the top of his head. Dave wore his costume all day at school. He really enjoyed using all of his Homer catch phrases and didn't miss an opportunity to say "D'oh"

Saving the best for last- Jensen. He was a cowboy riding a bear. I had a ton of fun making this costume and it was SO cute when he walked around. I'm going to try to post a movie clip tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!

A couple of pictures-

Jensen tried for along time to put this pen back together again. Little engineer

Last Friday we went to a pumpkin patch. Jensen did great eating dirt and sucking on dried vines, oh and he got a pumpkin too.

Note from David: I taught my son to smack pumpkins for one reason and one reason only, to make sure its not 'The Great Pumpkin'(from Charlie Brown). Last thing I want is a freaky Pumkin all spooking out and hanging around my kids. So he smacks them and if its him I put my foot through the pumpkin. So far so good.

This last week we had the stomach flu passed around. Sunday was Jensen, Monday I had it. Tuesday was an eye of the storm, than Wednesday and Thursday Dave and Lily had it. We are finally all disinfected and feeling better. Thank goodness for recovery. You should be glad we don't have any pictures of that experience, or the 5 loads of vomitous laundry. Fun times.