December

I bought a bunch of icicle lights at a yard sale a couple years ago. Charlie decided this would be a good year to put them up. We had quite a bit of good weather this winter. It took a lot longer that we anticipated. The lights came with clips, but Charlie didn't think they would hold (I disagreed). so he used hooks that were already attached to the roof. That meant lots of zip ties and more work, but he finally got them up. Then he realized that some of the lights didn't work. We don't know if they were like that before, or if they got damaged while being put up, but a bunch of the bulbs were broken. He took the lights down that weren't working and I worked on finding the broken bulbs and replacing them. It worked out fine, except that apparently I put blinking bulbs in some of the light strands (in my defense, they look practically identical to the regular bulbs), but I didn't know which bulb was the blinking bulb, so I had to switch out a lot more bulbs to make everything blinking. The second time putting the lights up, Charlie used the clips. It went a lot faster, and they've stayed up just fine. There are shorts in part of the lights, but we can usually get them going if we wiggle them around. It's been nice having lights to brighten up everything since it gets dark so early, so I'm always coming home in the dark. Next year, we'll be sure to test all the lights beforehand :)

Sam had a lot of fun walking around up on the roof while Charlie was working. I went up the ladder to help Charlie with the lights, then I remembered that I'm afraid of heights, so I worked on the lights on the stairs instead :)

We bought a bunch of comic books. Sam found a new love for Baby Blues.

I had to do the traditional Santa Suit:

Here's a comparison:

Sam had his Christmas program. My pictures didn't really turn out, so I had to resort to taking some from Facebook. He did really good. He had to say "Merry Christmas" in French. It was fun to watch.

We had our ward party. My parents were able to come with us.

It seemed like a long wait for the boys to get food. They entertained themselves by wrestling.

Sam got to be a wise man this year. He was pretty excited.

Sam couldn't even contain himself to see Santa. I wanted a picture with all the kids, but I wasn't sure if Brett and Amelia would cooperate. We sat them down and took a quick picture before any meltdowns happened. 

Charlie enjoyed a lot of the winter break going ice fishing. He took Sam along the first time. They had lots of fun.

Amelia at 4 months:

She's in the 10th percentile for height and weight. She grabs everything she can get her hands on. She still loves giving smiles to everyone.

Amelia finally fit into this dress. It sheds sparkles like crazy, but Sam likes it because it makes his pants all sparkly when he holds her.

Sam saw me taking pictures of Amelia and wanted to join her.

Then Brett wanted to come too. He wasn't as cooperative though. He just wanted to play.

We went to the annual Savage Christmas party. Brett had missed his nap that day, so he crashed for the first part. After that, he had just as much energy as always. Sam had lots of fun too. During the White Elephant game, he won one of the comic books we had brought.

We had Charlie's family over on Christmas eve for dinner and presents. Sam had been really excited for his present. It was a really heavy one, so he was sure that it was something great.

It was the complete set of Calvin and Hobbes comics.

Brett got a trampoline. We had a really hard time getting him to open presents, but he was sure happy when we set this up.

As always, Christmas day was packed. I forgot to use my camera as much as I wanted to. I still got a few pictures. Sam got Beyblades from Santa, which is what he asked for.

 Amelia was mesmerized by all the presents. I think she was more interested than Brett.

Gotta love that hair :)

After presents at home, we headed to Great-Grandma Allred's for brunch.

Then over to Grandma and Grandpa Savage's. I was happy that we were able to get the Memories books done in time. Everyone loved them. Then we played a game of Aggravation. After a couple hours of playing and no end in sight, we understood the name of the game.

After finally finishing the game, we headed over to my parents' house. Amelia loved her play mat.

We headed home that night, and I was shocked by the sight. It had been so clean that morning!

We went to a movie at the Hyart. Amelia got a hold of some popcorn. Luckily, Grandma got it away before she ate it.

Christmas party in Cody with Charlie's extended family. There was a fight with the little ones over the rocking chair.

Sam is happy now that Brett is starting to wrestle.

Amelia made a couple friends during the break.

I didn't think to take a picture when it happened, but Sam burned his hands pretty bad before Christmas. He was stocking the fire, and the stove door hit the backs of both his hands. They blistered and were pretty sore for the day. My mom told him that it might be a good idea not to build a fire for a while because burns hurt worse when they get hot. Sam broke down. He loves making a fire every morning. So we found him some gloves to wear when he opens the stove. At least it didn't scare him away from making fires!

This is after a few days of healing. It's the best picture I could find. Even now they're still pretty red and rough. I don't know if they're finished healing and he'll just have scars, or if they still have some healing left to do.