Wrapping up 2011 and what to expect in 2012

So I finally took the time to get the pictures from December off my camera.
The first weekend we went to Sedona. It was snowy and the kids loved it!!!

 They had a treasure hunt, had a snowball fight and built snowmen.

 The second weened we went up to Oregon to visit the Watson side. We had a good time, but we probably won't be going up in the winter again anytime soon. It was sooo cold! We exchanged presents, went caroling and even went to the zoo.

 Christmas was great...a little rushed with church but overall we had a good day. Santa was very good to Madie this year. She must have been a really good girl.

 She got her first bike and had pretty much mastered it by the end of Christmas day.

 This picture is my favorite. I love the look on her face. This is how excited she was opening each of her gifts.

This is the awesome tie we got for my did. It's the leg lamp from A Christmas Story and it lights up. 

 I love this picture. I'm not sure what they were discussing...it looks to me like Madie was explaining something to Katie, who is listening very intently. These two girls are so cute together. I love that Madie has cousins her age. We didn't get any pictures of Dustin & Sarah's kids...not sure how that happened. But the kids all had a great time together.

Now, let's talk 2012.
Madie is a Sunbeam and she just LOVES it! She loves going to Primary. She has passed off her first two Articles of Faith already. She knew the first one from being in Nursery (I taught the song to all the nursery kids) and when she passed it off and got a chocolate for it she was adamant that I teach her the next one. So she learned number 2 in one week. And she is giving her first talk on Sunday. I'll tape it since grandparents can't be there.

Zach will be graduating in May!!! Hopefully he'll be able to get a job with a Landscape Architecture firm. There is one in Chandler that he has applied with and he is working on a job with them this week with his current company.

We are hoping that we will be able to buy a house this year. That will probably all depend on what kind of job Zach is able to get. We'd like to stay in the Chandler/Gilbert area. I try not to think about that too much yet, since it's still all up in the air.

Zach was extended a new calling yesterday...he won't be sustained for 2 more weeks, so I'll share then. But it is sort of uncharted territory for us.

And the last of our new adventures for this year is that we will become a family of 4! I'm due September 10th and Madie is so beyond excited to become a big sister.  She thinks it is a girl baby because it is in mommy's tummy, not daddy's. If it's a girl she wants to call her Aurora and if it's a boy, Phillip (can you tell she likes Sleeping Beauty?). She likes to ask me if the baby is sleeping and then she pats my tummy and says "wake up, baby." We're excited and now taking suggestions for boy names (we have a few girl names that we like, but no boy names).