MERRY CHRISTMASTIME!!!!

{I had to say "Christmastime" because not all of the recent stuff is from Christmas day.}

I have some catching up to do! Let's do a photo update, shall we?

Ward Christmas Party. The theme was "Back in Bethlehem." We ate on the floor and didn't use utensils. It was super fun! Luke was a little hard to contain, but when ISN'T he??


Luke went and saw Santa and was terrified. Poor little guy. And poor Santa.


My father-in-law took some family pictures for us. They turned out AWESOME! I'll post more of those later.


Pepper women baking Christmas treats!


Apparently Luke is afraid of all Santa's...even his grandpa! Drew and his brothers had a tradition growing up that for Christmas Eve at his grandparent's, Santa would come and let them each open a present. And his grandparents hired someone to come be Santa so the boys wouldn't recognize him! Pretty elaborate! My dad just put a Santa hat on the day of :)


Christmas morning! Luke decided to sleep until 9, so Drew and I decided to finally wake him. We had things to do! He opened his stocking in our bed and then we went downstairs to open all the presents under the tree. After that we headed to Drew's parent's.


Luke actually opening a present! He wasn't very interested in it for most of the day.


Drew's mom made puzzles for him and his dad and the puzzle said their present was tickets to the Mavs vs. Lakers game next month! Drew's pretty stoked! And his parents bought me a personal-sized Cricut!! I'm so excited to play around with it!!


Soo...that's it for now. But tomorrow is mine and Drew's ANNIVERSARY! So I'm for sure going to have more to post later!

Merry Christmas from the Peppers!

This year has been an eventful year for the Andrew and Kathryn Pepper family.

January: Peppers decide to build a house. Then unbuy the same house because of Realtor issues.

February: Kathryn runs the Fort Worth Cowtown 5K. Luke’s first birthday extravaganza. Grandma Salas comes for a visit. The Peppers file their own taxes for the first time. Snow in Texas!

March: Peppers visit Utah for Spring Break 2010, visiting family and friends! Peppers move out of their apartment - Realtor issues again. Great Grandparents Free visit.

April: Luke gets an Easter basket and hunts for eggs. Granpa Salas visits.

May: The Peppers sell their first family car (Ford Taurus) and buy a Toyota Carolla. Kathryn goes to Wicked with Grandma Pepper.

June: Kathryn receives more than 20 classic books from Grandma Pepper! Kathryn and Luke set off on a California trip, including weddings of Kathryn’s best high school friends - Lacey Chavez and Stephanie Maertens. They visit Merced, Los Angeles, and San Luis Obispo.

July: Kathryn skypes with Drew and tells him she is pregnant! Kathryn and Luke come home from California and then the Peppers leave for a family reunion at Myrtle Beach with Drew’s side of the family.

August: Peppers move from Mansfield to Arlington. Kathryn and Luke continue the summer-long vacation in Aberdeen, WA, with Kathryn’s parents. Drew tears his ACL playing Church basketball.

September: Kathryn turns 24. Kathryn’s friend Kristina Gahley visits. Grandma Salas visits. The Pepper’s ultrasound says its a girly Pepper! Luke begins his obsession with Disney Pixar’s “Cars.” Great Grandma Olson visits.

October: Drew has ACL reconstruction surgery, has crutches for five weeks, and has a $3,000 medical bill. He begins Physical Therapy and doesn’t work for four weeks.

November: Drew turns 27 and recieves lots of Rangers paraphernelia.

December: Excited for Christmas and time together.

**Drew made a prettier version in InDesign but we aren't smart enough to upload it. So here's what it would have looked like:

Advent Calendar Days 14 & 15 AND....

Day 14: Have red and green pancakes for dinner.

I only have the Neon food coloring bottles, so the pancakes were super intense, but you get the point. Luke didn't seem to notice.

He's so dang cute!



Kathryn: Okay, please smile normally. That's not normal!
Drew: What? This is how I smile.
Kathryn: You're creepy.




Day 15: Watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn.

We found our Christmas movies (Santa Clause, Family Man, Joyeux Noel, and Elf) and then we decided we were too tired. Oh well. Sleep is necessary.

BUT...

I do have a preggo picture! I've basically been reprimanded by everyone for not taking any, so here's my 28 week pic:



And that's it for now!

Advent Calendar Days 12 & 13

Day 12: Decorate brown parchment paper for Christmas packages that need to be mailed.

I ended up doing this one myself. It did not warrant a picture.

Day 13: Have a slumber party with Luke.

We were supposed to do this Saturday but we're going to do a different activity that night instead. And instead of a full on slumber party, we watched Ratatouille in our bed until Luke (and Drew!) fell asleep. It was fun and Luke was actually laughing out loud at some of the parts of the movie! He's so cute!

Advent Calendar Days 10 & 11

Day 10: Make milkshakes after dinner.

Day 11: Read Polar Express by the Christmas tree.

We decided to combine these two since one of the nights we had plans (Ugly Christmas Sweater party--FUN!) and I'm glad we did. I don't know if Luke would have stayed still if there wasn't sweet ice cream enticement.

Good thing for timers on cameras!!


Cuties!!


This is basically what Luke did the whole time we were reading. Oh well.

Advent Calendar Days 8 & 9

Day 8: Learn what other countries do for Christmas.

So, Drew is out of town and it's only me and Luke. I knew as soon as I saw it that this wasn't going to happen. Luke doesn't even know what country he lives in. So instead, we had a dance party, Luke threw down some seriously ghetto moves to Air Force One, and we twirled and wrestled.

Day 9: Make and eat sugar cookies.

Well...I had just made sugar cookies for the YW party on Tuesday, so we skipped making more tonight and we just ate the leftover cookies.

Luke is in shock that I gave him a whole cookie!


Chowing down and watching "The Office"

Advent Calendar Days 6 & 7

Day 6: Learn about nativity/Christ's birth

I did NOT think Luke was going to enjoy this one at all. I set up his Little People nativity (which his Grandma got him last year...it's AWESOME!!) and had him come over and we told him an EXTREMELY shortened version of the nativity. He listened to the whole thing! And then he just sat and played with it. I was so happy we were able to have a decent FHE night for once!





Day 7: Go to storytime at the library

This one would have worked if there were storytime in December. Rats. I should have looked that up. Luke did have fun running around the library, playing with blocks and driving his little Lightening McQueen car around. Oh well, I'll just read him extra books before nap time!

Advent Calendar Days 4 & 5

I've slacked off, but I've been hanging out with Drew and Luke, so I consider that a good excuse.

Day 4: Visit the BIG Christmas tree at the mall.



Day 5: Go to the church Nativity. Okay, this is seriously awesome. Arlington Texas stake does this event where everyone in the stake can showcase all their nativities that they've accumulated over the years. It takes up the whole stake center! I wish I had better pictures, but Luke was going crazy.

This room had nativities that the kids could play with. A couple of people have over 100 nativities!! The nativities are from all over the world...I really love going to this event.

Advent Calendar Day 3

Day 3: Create your own pizza!

My mom showed us this great deal at Costco: Three pizza crusts and sauce for all three for $5. We love getting them. And then we can make the pizzas any way we want.

Sooo...last night we were all supposed to help and make a family pizza.

Well, Drew didn't come home until 8:30, so I figured I would just pull up a chair and Luke would help me. Yeah. He didn't want anything to do with it. Oh well. So it was make MY own pizza. And then Luke ended up eating leftover pancakes, too.

Geez.

The only picture I got before he ran away from me.


Pre-baked. We like pepperoni, sausage, bell peppers, and onion.


Tastiness!!

Advent Calendar Day 2

Day 2 of the 24 days of Christmas: Get scented candles to make the house smell super Christmas-y!

(We have a fake tree, so we need some scent help.)



(This is a borrowed picture. I didn't want to take a picture of my Big Lots candles :)

24 Days of Christmas (Advent Calendar)

I made an advent calendar (seen HERE) last year and now this year I get to use it for the family!

I want to share what we do for EACH day.

Day 1: Drink hot chocolate and dance to Christmas music.

Luke had chocolate milk and marshmallows.






And our activity quickly turned into a wrestling match:

A Very Peppery Thanksgiving

We stayed in Texas for Thanksgiving and hung out with the Peppers. Kevin and Martha came up from College Station and we all stayed the night in Mansfield for a couple days.

Happy Thanksgiving!! (We also celebrated Dad Pepper's birthday on Thanksgiving. Happy birthday, Dad Pepper!)



I made an apple pie and mashed taters! YUM!!



And of course, Drew and I went and did our traditional Black Friday shopping. Which all revolved around Luke. Like he NEEDS anything! This was our fourth year of going shopping on Black Friday together!

Saturday night we went and bowled and played arcade games at Alley Cats and then got pizza.

F.U.N.



And when we got home...

Christmas time!!! Let's decorate!





(Since this picture, the tree has been moved twice, has all the decorations on it, and has presents under. Updated picture to come soon.)

It's been CUT!!

Yes, Luke's wonderful curly hair has finally been cut.

I have been DREADING cutting his hair for two reasons:

1. It's curly. Moms stop me in the grocery store to tell me how they cut their boys' curly hair as a baby and the curls never grew back. (Thanks for the info.)

2. It's blond. Actually, the edges are blond and the roots are growing in brown. I like it blond.

Sooo...I've been postponing the inevitable. Last night we decided to bite the bullet and cut it.

Before Pictures:





After:





LOOK! Still blond AND curly!! Hallellujah.

What was I even stressing about? Here's a pic of him after church today. PRECIOUS.



And...all the hair we ended up cutting off:

Ice Cream Addiction

I think Drew is addicted to ice cream. Which is better than a lot of other options out there, but it's still an addiction.

Dictionary.com defines addiction as: (n) A habitual or compulsive involvement in an activity, such as gambling.

In Drew's case, the activity is eating ice cream. I believe addiction also involves a substance: ice cream.

Wal-Mart recently had Blue Bell ice cream for $3/half gallon and we bought three. When there was already three half gallons in the freezer at home.

I don't think Drew's very worried about his addiction.

I love my wife. Five of my favorite photos.

Random Happenings

1. Luke has been obsessed with VeggieTales. Which means I know EVERY song by heart.




2. My son is adorable.





3. We have been watching a LOT of baseball recently. And then the Rangers lost.



4. Luke was the absolute cutest Superman ever recorded in Halloween history.







5. Drew turned 27! He got an awesome bat from his parents, a hat from my parents, and a T-shirt from me and Luke.