Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all our family and friends. We love having all of you in our lives and are grateful for the way our lives are enriched because of you. We hope the coming year brings lot of great memory making events!

Merry Christmas!

As is our tradition, we go out to see a movie and then to dinner to start our Christmas eve. Austin, Steve and I went to see Avatar at an Imax theatre in 3D. It was amazing! We thoroughly enjoyed the movie (minus a bit of swearing). The special effects were incredible! We had dinner at Spaghetti Mamas before heading home. Steve read the Christmas story from Luke in the New Testament and then we each wrote down on slips of paper (to be put in a white stocking) what our gift to the Savior was going to be for the coming year. Clint and Heather joined us as we were watching A Christmas Carol (the musical one with Kelsey Grammer).. Austin headed off to bed quite early which made us all suspicious so after he was asleep I went into his room and sure enough, his alarm was set for 6:30am. I turned it off but to no avail- he was up at 5:30 and we were all up by 6:00am.
Coco joined in the festivities with her Christmas sweater...

Don't we all just look so awake and excited?! I didn't take pictures of us opening our presents. I was to busy watching everyone!

Steve got some clothes, a leather laptop briefcase, a socket set a book (the new Joseph Smith Papers), a cool U of U hoodie and slippers among other things.

One of my favorite gifts was the Wii fit Plus and Active programs. I also got some sweaters, a U of U Hoodie, some books and movies( Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion the new versions!)

Another favorite gift was this awesome standing jewelry armoire! Now I have room for more jewelry!!

Austin got some shirts, sweats, the Smallworld game and the best for him were Xbox 360 games!

Which he has played as much as he could for the rest of the day!

Kyle brought his Beatles Rock Band so they played that a bit and we got two new games- Snorta and Curses which we spent time playing also. Both are very fun games!

Part of everyone's gifts were tickets to go see Sherlock Holmes Christmas Night- which we did. Also a fantastic movie!

Everyone stayed over Christmas night and we did a little of everything all over again on Saturday. I love being with family for the holidays and Steve and I had a wonderful time with ours this year.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't take some time to say how grateful I am for our Savior, Jesus Christ and for his great gift to me and to all of us. It all started with His birth. His birth brought about His death and resurrection which allows all of us to be resurrected and if we are worthy, to live with our Heavenly Father and our families for eternity! There can be no greater gift than that! Merry Christmas!

Family Party #2

Sunday night we picked up Kyle and Han and headed down to my sister, Holly's house in Spanish Fork for a little get together. Not everyone could make it :( but those of us who were there had a good time. Check out these adorable faces... Chloe was not camera shy at all. As soon as I pulled it out she gave me this big smile and said,"Take my picture!"

And who could resist this adorable face? Abby is two years old and quite the smart little kid. She entertained us with her songs and her knowledge of the alphabet AND the sounds they make.

Little Stephen with Steve discussing whether Santa may or may not have time in one night to visit every house in the world. It was a very serious discussion.

Austin is a favorite with the cousins. They are all over him as soon as he walks in and he entertains them quite well.This is Keiran and below is Rachel.

Having them climb on Austin one at a time wasn't fun enough so...

Abby finally started getting a little tired although she insisted she didn't want to go to bed! What a cute picture of Big Stephen and his little girl!

My sister Amy brought some sparkling cider that evryone made short work of. I love the look on little Stephen's face - I had asked them all to smile!

We had fun playing Christmas Bingo again. I brought a whole bunch of gifts for our Bingo winners which ends up being everyone, even if you are the only one who never wins a game (Kyle) you still get a gift just for being a good sport.

Abby especially like opening the presents and wanted to open all of them!

The kids all had a fun time playing. Christmas Bingo is always a big hit. Thanks for inviting us down Holly. We don't get together near enough!

I just realized that I didn't even get one picture of me or Holly. Sorry Holly!

Happy Birthday Austin!

Yesterday was Austin's 17th birthday. It's hard to believe that my baby is 17 already! We had celebrated on Sunday so no gifts to open but I picked him up from school and we went to Arby's (his choice) for lunch. He had a swim meet after school. I officiated for the first hour but then went home - they had even officials and I have been under the weather this week dealing with a nasty cold.
Austin's times today-
50 Freestyle- 27.43 seconds (personal best is 27.42)
100 Backstroke- 1:14.21 beating his personal best of 1:20.09!
He also swam in two relays but I don't have his personal times for those. The team didn't beat their times. He has for the most part steadily improved all year and is doing great!
After the swim meet he went out to dinner with some team mates and they hung out at the Mall getting their picture taken with Santa and window shopping. He says he had a good day. He is such a wonderful young man and is so fun to be around. Mr. personality- just oozing with it!
Happy Birthday Austin! We love you!

P.S. Austin came home from school today and said they read his name over the intercom today congradulating him because he came in third over all in the 100 Backstroke! That is fantastic!

A Weekend of Festive Fun!

Our weekend began on Thursady night when Heather, Clint and I (Steve was in NYC on business) went to the Mo-Tab's Christmas concert. Natalie Cole was the guest singer. It was a beautiful performance and we quite enjoyed it even though we were on the very top last row in the Conference Center.
Friday Austin had a swim meet that Heather and I went to and that night Steve (back from NYC) and I took Clint and Heather out to Tepanyaki (love that place!) to celebrate Clint's graduation. You will have to check out Heather's blog for pictures cause I forgot my camera. We got Heather to try some Sushi and she liked it!
Saturday was Christmas cookie making time! Heather and I made the cookies...Heather left me a message in the flour... I love making sugar cookies at Christmas time and it was fun to have Heather helping me.

Clint joined in to help decorate...Thanks for the help!

Since this week is Austin's 17th birthday and everyone was here this weekned he got to celebrate a little early and open his gifts today. Heather and Clint gave him a Cold Play CD and Kyle and Han gave him a CD of the Killers. Steve and I got him an Xbox 360 - and a game to go with it.

Happy Birthday Austin!

It is also Kyle and Han's 1st year wedding Anniversary this coming weekend and again since we were all together we celebrated today. We gave them a gift certificate to go out to dinner and this funny card- Happy Anniversary ...you party animals!

It wouldn't be a proper 1st anniversary without serving the top of the wedding cake. It survived the year well and tasted pretty good,too.

But Saturday isn't over yet... we had our annual cone decorating competition tonight. No extra family this year, just us. This is a very serious competition and everyone gets pretty into it.
Han and Steve in serious concentration....

We had to have two catagories this year for winners because it was just too hard to chose. Heather won for best looking and Kyle won for most creative. Here are the our fine looking creations...

The one above is mine and the one below is Austin's. Mine is a traditional tree, white flocked, Austin's is a creature tree - at least that's what he called it!

Heather's winning tree. I loved the little train and tracks around the base. Cute idea Heather!

Steve's was a volcano tree.

Clint's was calles Hark the Herald Angel Sing. Very cute Clint!

Kyle's Most Creative winner was a view of Australia at Christmas with a surfer...

and a view of Utah at Christmas with a tree about to be cut down by an ax weilding gumdrop man.

And finally we have Han's which was a tribute to their upcoming Anniversary with a bride and groom tree.

These just get funnier every year!

Sunday brought a Christmas party with Steve's side of the family. I love parties at Christmas time! Even Wayne joined us this year. We all enjoyed some great food. I even got a few poses out of some...

like Adam who looks like he had a little too much spiked egg nog and we didn't even have any...

or Heather who can always bring a smile with the faces she pulls...and let's not leave Becca out puffing out her cheeks in the background!

Clint's always up for posing too although I missed this one and unintentionally cut off my husband, sorry honey!

After dinner it was time for some serious Christmas Bingo playing. Always a family favorite-

Seriously we all look like we need to loosen up and have fun but we really were despite what it looks like in the pictures. Grandma brought a bunch of wrapped presents and each time someone won they got to open a gift. There is always enough for everyone to get a gift.
Kyle is hanging his head here because he hadn't won yet ...

After we had our fill of Bingo I brought out my chimes and we all played Christmas songs. No pictures of that though because we were all busy ringing our chimes. It was a fun party.
Did I mention that I love parties at Christmas time?!

Austin beats his times again!

The Davis District Championship Swim Meet was held this morning at Layton High ( yes, that means I officiated at it...all 5 hours of it!). All of the events Austin swam in today were in Freestyle events. In the 200 yd. (8x the length of the pool) he beat his old time of 2:30.07 by about 6 seconds, getting a new personal best of 2:24.95! In the 100yd. (4x the length of the pool) he beat his old time of 1:02.86 by 1 second getting a new personal best of 1:01.85! Way to go Austin!

A time for decorating...

I love the Christmas season. It's the only Holiday I decorate for. There is just something so warm and cozy and inviting about Christmas decorations. It takes me a whole day, sometimes longer to put all my decorations up and I thought it would be fun to share a few of them with those of you who are away from us at Christmas time... new to my array this year is this centerpiece on the family room table. I bought everything separate and it all came together like this! I guess you could say we have three trees if you count this little guy. He sits on the landing of our stairs...

The garland and accessories on our upatairs fireplace are also new this year. The picture doesn't do it justice but it is very cute and looks so nice with our family picture.

Okay, back to the trees, this is the tree in our front room- kind of my country Christmas themed tree...

And this is our downstairs tree. Many parts of this are also new this year and I love the way it turned out! Again the pictures don't do them justice. I love to just sit by the tree at night with all the lights out ( except the tree of course) and have Christmas music playing.

Well, that wasn't quite as fun as a virtual tour would be or even an in person tour (even better) but at least you have a glimpse of our home at Christmas! Did I happen to mention how much fun it is to go to Tai Pan for decorating ideas...love that place!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we had Steve's parents and Austin, Kyle and Han with us. I love to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Largely because I know we will have leftovers!!! I was so busy cooking and getting everything ready that I forgot to take pictures of our delicious feast but I did remember the pies.... Chocolate Cream (brought by Grandma), Pumpkin pie (made by Han) and

Apple pie (made by yours truly). I love making Apple pies. There is just nothing better than homemade pies!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day... eating, playing games, eating, relaxing, eating, watching a Hallmark movie...ahh! Since it is Thanksgiving, I thought I would share a few things I am Thankful for...

• My Husband... he is the love of my life!
• My Family...there is nothing better than being with them!
• My Friends...you all know who you are. You have been a great blessing in my life over the years!
• The Gospel...I know My Heavenly Father lives and I am grateful for His Son, Jesus Christ- for the Atonement- for a living Prophet on the earth today and for the many blessings that have come to me and my family.

Those really are the most important things in my life. There are lots of other things I am grateful for and I could make a list a mile long of what those things are but that would just plain take too long!

Thanksgiving night I started putting up Christmas decorations and finished Friday afternoon (well, mostly finished) just in time to go out with... are you ready for this... Myself, Steve, Kyle, Han, Heather, Clint, Austin, Tony, LeAnn, Amanda, Mark, Halie, Ammon, Hunter, Max, Troy, Lanelle, Zack, Tyson, Kaden and Bridger- whew! That's alot of us! I know, pictures would have been great but you should all know by now how inept I am at that! It's kind of a tradition that we get together with these great friends of ours after Thanksgiving and usually after Christmas,too.We all went to the Pizza Factory then to see the new movie- The Blindside. The movie was very good -definitely a must see.

Good Times with Good Friends!

Saturday we were supposed to go down to my sister, Holly's house to visit with another sister, Kristin and her family who were here for the Holiday but they had some sick kids so we did a little shopping instead and had an afternoon of what I will call retro game playing. We chose games to play that we haven't played in quite a while like, Mad Gab, Outburst Jr., and Taboo. I had forgotten how much fun those games were. We finished off the night watching the Jazz game- Go Jazz! Did I mention how grateful I am for family and friends... you know one of the reasons why? Because they bring so much love and laughter into my life! There's nothing better!