Meagan turns 12! (How do WE have a kid that old?!?!?!)

I wonder sometimes how it is that I got so old when I wasn't looking.  I remember being a teenager.  I remember going on and getting home from a mission.  I remember getting married and the rush of that first year with my beautiful wife Sarah.  The next day, I have a 12 year old daughter.  What.  The.  Heck.?!?!?!?

This is Meagan with her skateboard.  Yes, I said skateboard.  No, I did not bribe her or dictate this picture in any way.  This is my daughter.  All of these, are my daughter.

Pre-present Meagan.

Meagan with Lego Lord of the Rings.  Yes, my daughter likes Tolkien.  I'm tearing up I'm so proud...

Yes, those are Hobbit Pez dispensers.  You may be overwhelmed by awesomeness at your leisure.

And as a side note, this is the picture that I didn't post in the Christmas Blog.  The two other gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Stumm, both from their mission to Africa.

And what birthday would be complete without cake.  And a Rainbow Dash cake that she helped decorate at that.  It's almost like the CAKE is somehow 20% cooler.  I never knew cakes could do that...

Now, however, Meagan is officially in Young Women's at church.  She LOVES it.  We have some fantastic young women in our ward.  To meet some of them, might I suggest you check out THIS.  They are fantastic and we love them very much.  I am so proud of the woman our daughter is becoming.  She inspires me with her love of life.  I am grateful to be her father and look forward to many more years of birthdays and togetherness.

- Josh                  

Christmas

Christmas.  Just the word evokes a torrent of memory.  Excited voices, crumpling wrapping paper, John Denver and the Muppets, cereal...  All of it adds up to Christmas Morning at the Walles home.

Grandma and Gramdpa Walles fed the artist in Meagan with supplies...

...and the builder in Jacob with Minecraft Legos (you'll notice a theme here).

A foam Minecraft Pickaxe.  For when you have to mine something...really soft, I guess.

And then there was the MP4 player.  Now Meagan has all the room in the world to load the songs that she likes from Mom and Dad (as well as those that annoy them) on her own device.  With headphones.

And for those times that headphones just aren't loud enough, a dancing monkey speaker she can plug her MP4 player into.  Because everybody needs a dancing monkey in their life.  Seriously.  They do.

Somebody may or may not have discovered My Little Pony, which has, inexplicably, made a resurgence into popular culture recently.  I swear that for some odd reason I can't seem to nail down, when she wears this shirt, she's like 20% cooler than normal.  No idea why...

It's MINECRAFT... for X-Box 360.  For those times when Minecraft on iPad or PC simply won't do.

Look!  Jacob is happy about a book!  A BOOK!!!! Oh.  It's about Minecraft.  That explains it.

Meagan, on the other hand, LOVES books and so a kindle gift card to download some new ones is right up her alley.

LOOK!!! It's...it's...ANOTHER MINECRAFT BOOK!  Yay!!!  WAIT A MINUTE!  I see what you guys are up to.  You're trying to get me to <gasp> READ!!!

And then the family gift from Grandma and Grandpa Stumm...  A table runner from South Africa, where they served their mission.  It fits ours pretty darn good.

There were a few other things, but unfortunately, I was remiss in my duty to capture every single present to photo.  Yes, I know.  I'm a terrible, terrible person.  You can beat me later.  Christmas time is one of my favorite times of year.  I get to spend a significant portion of it with a family that I love very dearly.  Occasionally, that includes extended family (sometimes, in person, sometimes like this year, via Skype), but quiet (in a very general, not ACTUALLY quiet sense) Christmases with close family, to me, are best.  We can focus on being together, and more easily focus on the real reason we now celebrate, the birth of Christ, our Savior.

May your Christmases be full of joy and family and may you be filled with the magic and the spirit of this great season, and carry it with you all the year through.

- The Walles Family               

Gingerbread Houses

This year, we continued the tradition of doing Gingerbread houses as a family.  Lately we have taken to doing quasi-gingerbread or graham cracker houses.  This year, however, we bought a "gingerbread village" kit (we didn't feel like baking the actual gingerbread - so sue us).

All set up and ready to go.  Of course, Jacob has already started EATING his decorations...

Meagan's work in progress...

Jacob's work in progress...

My work in progress...

And for some inexplicable reason, we don't have an in-progress photo of Sarah's so just imagine tangible but unfinished AWESOME and you'll get pretty close.

Jacob's finished house.

Sarah's finished ginger-farm complete with hay-eating animal crackers...

My finished "shack"

Meagan's finished house

And the family's finished reindeer house that we worked on together.

With Sarah starting to study art with her friend Nicole, SHE may actually start putting out quality work.  I can say with confidence, however, that nothing that leaves my had will EVER be able to be called quality art.  Still, the kids had fun and that's really the point.

Afterwards, we decided to give them away and drove over to Meagan's friend Angelica's house to do so.  In return, we got some fantastically rich cookies that they were baking.  They were YUMMY... and so rich that Meagan and Sarah couldn't eat theirs.  I don't know about you, but I know how to take care of that.  And I did.

- Josh

A tradition we're going to adopt...

So this year, as we were staying home for a quiet Christmas, we were awoken on the 12th late in the night with a knock at our door.  I went to see what it was and no one was there.  There was, however, this outside:

Someone had decided to surprise us, with no clue as to who it was.  But I'll tell you what, at that moment, we felt incredibly blessed.  Over the next days, we eagerly awaited (and were never disappointed in not hearing) the knocking at our door.

Gifts 10,11, & 12 came all at once and we correctly assumed that it was because our wonderful benefactors were leaving town for Christmas and wanted to make sure we would see all 12 days.

As it turned out, we were all off on our guesses during these 12 days as to who it was, but they are a family that we have been blessed to at least be acquainted with in our time here in Lubbock. 

Above, you see the finished product.  And now, we have a new tradition for Christmas: to find and share the 12 days of Christmas with someone else.  We are all excited to try this out next year.  Thank you, McClure family.  You have truly made our Christmas memorable and blessed.

- Josh

Meagan 2013 Choir Christmas Concert

Meagan is one semester into her foray as an "official" singer (for school choir) and boy are we enjoying it.  Her class gave a Christmas concert prior to the holiday.  She is in the middle of the second row.  The video was taken with my iPhone (I'll have to remember to use my actual camera next time - zoom).  But they sounded REALLY good.  Here are the uploads.

Their choir teacher has really done a great job helping them in their first few months.  There's a lot of budding talent in there...

This one was with all of the 6th Grade female choir singers together.

A still of Meagan's choir class

We are so proud of her and her passion and joy for music.  It is a blessing in our house.

- Josh