Merry Christmas! Happy Wedding day! Happy Birthday! Happy New Year!!

Joseph with only some of the many, many talking cars that he got from mommy, daddy, and Santa.

Okay. To begin. Christmas was fun! I love to watch Joseph open presents. He wants to play with each one and forgets that there are others. It takes a long time, but he is so excited about all of them (even the socks, shoes, and underwear). He got a slot car, a train rug, a lot of dinosaur skeletons, lots of talking cars, some games, and some books. He is busy trying to play with all of them. Joe got a few socks, some relaxation stuff, some slippers and some blu-ray movies. I got a camcorder (yay!!!), a cast iron skillet, a serving tray and a memory card. My camcorder is tiny and uses an SD card. It can record on the highest quality for over 6 hours with the card Joe gave me.
Here is Joseph with gifts that his cousin Elena sent him. Thank you Ernest, Lydia, and Elena!! Hopefully we will see ya'll soon. Joseph received great gifts from all of his aunts, uncles, and grandparents. He even got a dinosaur from his great uncle David (ya'll seem to young to be great uncles and aunts).


Joseph eating an eggnog candy while we wait for daddy to come down on Christmas morning. Daddy had fallen back asleep, so Joseph had to go and wake him up.

We went over to my parent's for a couple of hours on Christmas day to spend time with them. We love the gifts they gave us and we loved the excitement of the holidays around us. Joe's family got in on Christmas night. The weather was awful, so they sat at the airport waiting for Alison for a few hours before they headed down to Provo. Poor Grandpa Rankin had to go back to the airport. It was snowing and icy and he and Alison didn't get in till 3 in the morning. They have been staying at our house. It has been busy and crazy. I forgot how much insanity goes into planning a wedding. Grandpa also made trips to the airport of Saturday to pick up Alison's fiance (now husband), Ryan. He also went on Sunday to pick up Adam, Meredith, and Mackenzie from the airport.

The Wade clan family dinner on Sunday night was very nice. Thanks Connie for organizing it. I took peach cobbler and convince mom Rankin to bring frog-eye salad. It is something that I have been wanting for a little bit. We got to see lots of cousins.

My birthday was low key. Joe got me a book (thanks sweetie) and a carrying case for my camera. I went out to lunch with my parents. They gave me a very nice watch. I need to get the battery replaced. Jeff and Michelle came on Sunday night, so we finally got to meet our nephew Nathan. He is a solid little boy. He is adorable! Joe asked to carry him (I was shocked). He even carried Mackenzie (shocked yet again). She is getting so much bigger.

Congrats to the bride and groom! I hope that you and your ten children remember this day (and I hope you wrote down what the sealer said)!

Alison got married on Tuesday. The ceremony was beautiful. We drove down to Manti for the wedding. Luckily, the weather was nice. Of course, we did have to get by about 200 cows that were walking in the road.

Alison and her big brothers on her wedding day. She was such a gorgeous bride. I just hope that the zipper that broke on Tuesday will work again for tonight's reception.

Here is Michelle with Nathan. I love all the blue and how it brings out the blue in his eyes. I like this picture a lot and I don't think it makes you look funny Michelle.

The 2 newer daddies carrying their little bundles of joy. It was fun trying to take the family shots in front of the temple. Mackenzie was tired and cranky, so she started to cry. Nathan was okay for a minute, but he was tired also, so he started to cry. All in all, they were good babies, it was just a very long day for them.

Joseph with his daddy. Joseph was running around everywhere as pictures were being taken. At the end of the day, he gave daddy some kisses and we were off to Provo again.Joseph giving his aunt Alison a kiss goodbye. He wants to grow taller so he can dance with her tonight. He also said he was going to marry me and daddy needed to find a different special girl. Let's hope that doesn't happen for all of our sakes! ;)

Happy New Year! Only 22 more days and we will hopefully meet new baby Rankin. I don't know what we are going to name him, but we still have time to decide. I will try to post more pics later. My computer was acting up, so I didn't get to put all the photos here that I wanted too.