the holidaze

Things have been going pretty nonstop around here. The Andersons and the Lines's were here for Christmas, and that was a BLAST!!! Sara, in an effort to "get back at me for stealing her birthday" decided to bless baby Madi in our ward with Nathan. Little does she realize that I thought it was awesome. I've been to quite a few baby blessings in my day, and I've always thought that they were pretty cool. But having my own son being blessed was such a new experience. There is literally nothing that I can compare it to, and I was in tears. I am so, so grateful for the restored gospel and all the ways it blesses my life. I am also grateful for my sweet husband who does everything he can for our family and makes sure that he is always worthy to exercise his Priesthood. I'm also grateful for the love of my family. My dad even came, all dressed up in his Sunday best. And my Aunt Patty. She may not understand my beilefs, but she came to support me and my son on a day that was special for him.
Later that night, we had 'second Christmas.' That grew to definately unexpected proportions. My original plan was to have Mom and Dad, with all their kids/families at Dad's house with me, Dan and Spencer. It turned into a 'the more the merrier' type deal with Sara's in-laws, a friend, Dan's grandparents, etc. I was worried about feeding everyone, but we ended up not only having enough, but having leftovers too. It was my 'second Christmas' miracle.
Speaking of miracles, Dan and I got the oportunity to go out, just the two of us, to the Temple. Dan ended up getting sick, and I went by myself with the extended Anderson fam. Poor guy. I had an awesome time though. We haven't made it to the Temple since Nate was born, almost 3 months ago. And I've not been with a family group doing family names before. That was a really special feeling. Somehow it was a different feeling, knowing that these were people I night have met, had I been alive and in the family a hundred years ago, versus doing work for some random person. I know that we're all spirit siblings, but it's neat to feel like there's a connection. And Sara promised to help me do the work for my own family after she pointed out that on mom's side, I'm the first who can do it all. Wow, that feels like a big responsibilty, but Sara says it'll be worth it. So, we'll see how it turns out.
New Year's Eve was so much fun. Every year, Dan's extended family gets together and plays board games to bring in the new year. This year I was watching Lilly for Suzanne, she went to Tempe Town Lake, or the block party, I think. Either way, she came along, and she and Nate were fun, but challenging. I managed to play apples to apples, balancing Lilly's bottle with my chin as I threw out and drew cards. I fed Nate while playing the bean game one handed, and when asked for a binky for Nate, I produced one from my pocket, along with Lilly's socks. After the kids fell asleep, we played Catch Phrase until the wee hours of the morning. We only broke it up because both babies woke up crying around 4am. So, we said our good-byes, returned a happy, alert Lilly to her sleeping mother, and headed home.
Well, I think this has been quite lond enough, so I'll end here for now. Starting late next week we'll have internet in our room, so I should be able to post more often and hoepfully avoid these novelesque ramblings!