The Sweet Life

I looked at the date today and realized that this year is almost over.  I feel like so much has happened this year, but when I tried to list it out for Tyler, it didn't feel like so much.  I think it's because everything that happened felt so BIG that it made it seem like more had happened.

We had a great Thanksgiving, and I hope everyone else did as well.  We went to Utah and spent time with both my family as well as some of Tyler's.  We threw a Hello Kitty birthday party for Tyler's youngest sister, Emily on Wednesday.  I'd never planned a birthday party before, but it was really fun and I think it turned out well.

(I hope it's not totally snobbish of me but I just had to brag because I'm super proud of myself...I made Emily a Hello Kitty hat!  Oh, and the cake and games for the party.)

Everyone was assigned a part of the Thanksgiving feast to be in charge of.  Tyler made the mashed potatoes and I made the rolls.  I have always avoided making breads because they seemed like so much effort (you know, feed the yeast, knead, let rise, knead again, more rising...) but when I finally started trying them out...I discovered it's not so hard.  Since I was using my grandma's recipe for the rolls, I wanted it to be perfect.  I practiced a lot but it paid off.

Before our Thanksgiving dinner, some of the family went out shooting (Auntie Leisl stayed behind and played with Jamison...what a good aunt!).  Tyler has a few guns that he hasn't had much opportunity to shoot and since they are "for our defense"  I had to shoot them at least once.  I'm not a fan of shooting and the first gun, I hated.  Then I shot this beauty:

I still don't love shooting, but I liked this gun much better than the others!

On Friday Tyler and I decided not to participate in the Black Friday sales.  We kind of lounged around and just enjoyed having nothing to do.  That night we went to Spanish Fork's Light Parade, which my family has been going to for as long as I can remember.  Jamison enjoyed looking at all the lights, and especially enjoyed the horses.

After the parade we had a Cope Family Christmas Kick-off with caroling and food.  Jamison even joined in some of the singing.  He really seems to love music.  You can keep him occupied for hours with our keyboard (and so for Christmas we are buying a Jamison -sized keyboard!  I'm so excited!)

Saturday morning we enjoyed playing games as a family.  Then that afternoon we headed back up to Rexburg because Sunday Tyler and I had to speak in church.  It was a nice weekend and we needed the break before getting back into the craziness Tyler is experiencing with the end of the semester.

We have our Christmas tree put up and Jamison really loves it.  In fact, sometimes when he's fussing, looking at the Christmas tree is the only thing that calms him down.  We sit in the big chair by the tree and he touches it with his fingers and quiets right down.  I'm really excited to share Christmas with Jamison.  I know he's not going to remember it but I feel it's never too young to start the traditions and instill the values.