Friday, December 19, 2025

December 2025

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Hayden, Melanie, and Verity spent the night serving food at Culver's as a fund raiser for the Christmas adopt-a-family project Hayden was involved in for Student Council.
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Alex got to spend a day in Rexburg for work, so he and Given enjoyed work together...
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Then Alex went to the BYUI ward temple night at the Rexburg temple
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Melanie, Hayden, and Verity had their own special temple night together.
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Pictures from the tender, touching SNAP program Christmas presentation. it was beautiful!
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Verity helped out in the program in many ways. She loves helping mom with SNAP.
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Our good friend Andrew who offered the closing prayer for the program. So tender!
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Hayden looking good - ready for his Sadies dance!
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Hayden and Kate Leavitt before the dance
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Best buddies!
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Saturday we went to the BYUI Christmas performance with special guest Jeremy Jordan (from Broadway). Great presentation!
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SNAP Christmas activity with Santa/Mrs. Clause as special guests!
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Some of our YSA friends after a FHE activity Monday night at our home.
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Melanie and Verity visited Gwen Whitney before a BYUI ward Relief Society activity
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Special Christmas weekend with Given and Grace. Activity 1: Temple night
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Then we went to the reading performance of A Christmas Carol (done by one very talented guy).
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Saturday we went to an awesome radio show of "It's a Wonderful Life". So well done!
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(Part) of Kaleb's Christmas village. Finally got it out!
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The wonderful, powerful, Light the World Christmas-music production from our Stake. Here's Verity doing her solo. 
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Verity sounded like an angel!
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Some of our YSA friends came to listen to Verity: Noah, Gabe, Margo, Emily, Emma
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Alex and Melanie took a day trip to Kaysville for Melanie's Aunt Karma's funeral. Here's Alex and Gpa Hatch being silly after the events.
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So glad Averly could join us at the funeral from Provo, too.
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Given's BYUI Graduation!
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Congratulations, Given and Grace!!
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The walk in the BYUI Center
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Incredible crowd!
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Hayden with his hand over his heart during the graduation procession.
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The walk out
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Receiving his "diploma". 
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Bachelor's degree looks good on ya, Given!!
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Right in the middle. Can't miss that tall guy.
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Friends of Given and Grace
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Jayson and Chris came all the way up from Utah (even though there was a snow storm!)
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Our family and the Haller family. So awesome they came up to celebrate from Arizona.
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Haller family
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Super proud of this guy!
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Here we are trying to navigate our way out of the parking lot with very slick snow and ice!
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We met at their church after for dinner and the gender reveal of their baby!
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It's a BOY!!!
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Unbelievable caramel apples from one of Alex's Midwest teachers (sent from Missouri!)
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Our YSA friend Gabe Bingham came down for a couple of days for the weekend and brought flowers and a nice Christmas gift.
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We all got to go to the temple together (except Verity who was sick and Mel who stayed with her).
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Friday night Filipino food that Gabe made for us. (Hayden survived - proud of him!)
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Saturday after backyard football with the boys!

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Christmas Eve was an incredible day. We started with our Elderly visits to Teena Loveland first, and then to Layne and Michelle Merritt.
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Then to Chris Cunningham
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Then we went to Cabela's to get our picture taken with Santa
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Later, we went to the movie, "David", then back home to make Santa's gingerbread cookies. 
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Then we went to Dixie's Diner to celebrate Grace's birthday dinner
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Then we finished our great day out by going to the CrossPointe Christmas Eve service.
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Christmas Morning together!
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Wow! What a spread of gifts under the tree. We are so blessed!
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Great "The Chosen" shirt from Verity to Hayden
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Nice ear coverings
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Odor-neutralizing devices for dad's van (he doesn't recognize the smell)
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Verity gave Grace new Jandals!
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Hayden created a very clever tennis ball picker upper!
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Averly created a beautiful picture of Jeremy giving a hug to Jesus Christ. Alex was very touched!
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Christmas morning breakfast from mom - french toast breakfast!
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Um.... yeah
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Loved chatting with Elder Chatelain. He created so many fun activities for his Zone and had a wonderful Christmas making it great for his missionaries!
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The cards we sent to Kaleb with our testimonies on the back(for him to share with others).
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Back to the gifts!
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Dad published (on Amazon) the book he and Verity worked on - "Kid Inspector - the Adventures of Blake Johnson."
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Sweet new Samba's for Hayden!
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Hayden demonstrating the "pregnancy pillow" he and Averly got for Grace
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Give gave some very silly gifts to Hayden.
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Verity got a rice-pack animal (you can warm it in the microwave).
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Hayden's gift from Santa (a weight bench).
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We finally concluding unwrapping gifts at about 3:00 pm (then we played with them)
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We concluded an incredible day by celebrating Grace's birthday. Happy #24, Grace!
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December 26th = Hallmark Movie Marathon! Hayden, Verity, and Averly laying on top of each other as we enjoyed four straight Hallmark movies. Great night!