This year we finally cut down our own tree! I loved it. And, I must say, it is the nicest tree we've had so far. So tall and lush. It's a Norway Spruce; we were on the lookout for a Grand, but when we came upon this baby we decided to take it home. It was perfect timing weather-wise...the sun peeked out for a short while and then the weather turned sour just as we were finishing.

The adventure all started out very happy for the little people....

but after trudging through all of those trees for a while with parents who couldn't make up their minds, the smiles turned to this...

Still, we found the one, cut it down, and strapped it to the van for the ride to its new home.

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Yesterday a few funny things happened/were said:

*The following two things are funnier when you hear Max's voice and the inflection he uses*

Max came up to me with Tupperware on his head as a hat. He said something to me that I didn't quite catch because I was watching the Christmas devotional, but I did catch something along the lines of me and Tyler being given to him. So I said, "Actually, you were given to us. You're our present from Heavenly Father." He responded incredulously, "No! I am Joseph Smith the Prophet. He doesn't live in a gift box!"

Max talks a lot about not living with us, as I've mentioned, and we've had several conversations lately about dying. I've explained that everyone will die, but that it's not sad because we get to go back and live with Heavenly Father again. He had another such conversation with Ty yesterday. We were watching the Christmas devotional a little later and President Eyring said something about the joy we'll have when we go back to live with God. I started to say to Max, "See? We will be happy to live with Heavenly Father again..." He interrupted and said, "Mom, I was just kidding. I do want to die when I get old!" Oh, good. I just hope it's when he's really old and I am there waiting for him on the other side.

Tyler and I were in the kitchen when we heard Max wailing. I went in to see Kelly standing nearby with the "I know I wasn't supposed to do that and fully expect to be in trouble" look on her face. In her hand she was clutching the Baby Jesus from the Little People nativity we have. She'd whacked her brother with the Baby Jesus. I took her to sit on time-out and talked about how she should never hit her brother...especially with the Baby Jesus.

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Okay, I didn't mean to build up any suspense with our little man's name. Sorry to seem so secretive. :) We're honoring both of our dads with this name. When I first married into the Foster fam and heard my father-in-law's middle name, I tucked it away for a future first name or middle name...but I'd forgotten about it. We were reading all of the baby name books and coming up with very little. We looked through both sides of our family history and again came up empty-handed (no offense, progenitors). Then I remembered my father-in-law's middle name - Everett. It took a few weeks and there was another strong contender, but that is the name we decided on. His middle name will be Daniel, my dad's first name.

*Everett Daniel Foster*

We love it and we love the men he's being named after. Ty was worried that he'll have to spell his name and have it mispronounced his whole life...ummm...did you remember that you married Danalin?! I know a thing or two about that and still love my name. We're not sure what he'll be called for short; that will evolve on its own. Some possibilities are Rett and Ev. We'll see. If you're iffy on the name, just watch the short video below. When you hear Kelly's little voice say his name you'll be in love. Don't mind my children's "saucy" faces.