Wood

Did you know that there are certain themes for anniversary gifts for each year you are married?  Each year we have gotten a good laugh at the traditional and modern gift suggestions.  Our fifth anniversary is coming up, so one night I joked with Devin that I was going to get him a hunk of wood.  Now if that isn't romantic, a nice 2x4, I don't know what is.

But it turns out Devin gave me the best hunk of wood a girl could ever ask for.  You see we have a nice cold storage room.

As you can see, there are no shelves.
We have been stacking food and things on the floor.  Devin decided that the time had come to build some shelves.  He called up his brother Gene, who I consider the Michael Phelps of wood work, and they got to work.

Anna loved "helping."  She didn't love the loud noises, but she just had to be there.

Now we have this.

Wow!  How cool is that!!!  Now that is my type of wood.

I now get to put all of this ...

back onto my beautiful new shelves.  Christmas might just have to wait, I've got a really fun organizing project just waiting for me.

If you are looking for an expert wood working guy, give my brother-in-law Gene a call.  HE IS AMAZING!!!!

Christmas Time

Christmas Time is in full swing here at the Baldwin house.

Anna helped put up the Christmas tree.  She loves pushing the button that makes our pre-lit-pre-decorated tree move up and down.  

I use to mock Devin for buying such a silly tree. But I have come to love it.

Our ward did an awesome service project for the Ward Christmas party.  We made Infant Kits with the goal of having each child in the ward be able to take a kit and place it in the manger, a gift for a baby, just like the gifts for the Baby Jesus.  It was an amazing experience working as a ward to gather and make the materials needed.  The night of the ward party all the materials were ready, we put together our kits and reached the goal.  It was neat to see the kids take their gifts to the manger.  

The thing I loved was that Anna really got it.  

She understood that there was a baby somewhere that needed a blanket, just like the Baby Jesus.

It was quite the sight. 

The next day we made gingerbread houses with the Hendersons.  Devin and I swallowed our "what kind of cool gingerbread house can we make" pride and just helped Anna decorate the house.  She had a great time.

The rest of the crew did too.

Nicholas enjoyed having all the toys to himself.

Work Baldwins! Work!

The Baldwins know how to work.  When you get them all together they can get lots done.  Over Thanksgiving all the Baldwins went up to Devin's brother Kyle's house to help do the drywall in their basement.
They made quite the train bringing all the drywall in.

They worked hard all day to put it up.

I don't have any pictures of the finished product, but I think it looks great. (more pictures)
While the guys worked hard there was plenty of time for the rest of us to play.
Nicholas had a great time playing with Daisy the dog, his new best friend.

He loved playing with Chelsea.

And just had a good time overall.

Anna also had a blast playing with her cousins out in the snow.

We had some great visiting time.

I am grateful Devin loves to work with his brothers, and that they are such hard workers.  When you want something done, call the Baldwin boys (and Missy too).  They can get the job done!
Speaking of getting the job done.  One of the highlights of our trip to Idaho for Thanksgiving was that I finally finished Nicholas's quilt.

I love how it turned out.  Now I just have to finish his cross stitch.  Off to work we go!

The Cake

The best part of a first birthday is the cake.  Nicholas made us proud!  I have never seen a child attack a cake like Nicholas did.  Once he figured things out, he went at it taking fist fulls of cake.  He even licked the plate.  Way to go Nicholas!  Thanks to all the Baldwin photographers.  You guys got some amazing pictures!

And if you'd like to see the full video, enjoy!