Good Old Family Fun!

We have had a few fun outings the past couple of weekends. The first couple were with Kyler and Jenna and the boys.

The first outing was to a BYU men's basketball game. The bench tickets were only $1 each and so it was a great way to have a cheap family outing. After the game we went back to our house for a bake potato bar and to just hang out.

Last Saturday Kyler and Jenna had gotten some tickets for the Draper Temple open house and invited us to go with them. We left Kate with my mom and dad so that we could enjoy the time with Alec and Chloe. It was amazing to be able to show them the sealing room and the celestial room and to be able to just enjoy the peace of the temple. I hope they felt the spirit there and that they will have the desire to attend the temple often as they get older.

A little later that night, Eric took Alec and Chloe to see his niece Stacie play basketball at Westminster.

She and her team from Montana were down for her last senior game here in Utah. Stacie is the one shooting the free throw. They had a lot of fun watching them play. One highlight, aside from seeing Stacie, was that John Stockton's son plays for Westminster and the men's game was right after the women's and John and Karl Malone were in the stands waiting for the game to start. They are hiding a little bit, but it really is them!

Dang, I can't believe I missed Karl! I had a life size poster of him on my wall when I was a teenager. I had a pretty big crush on him! I swore that his free shoot ritual was dedicated to me. If you don't know what I am talking about, it is probably a good thing, but if you do know, you now know something pretty embarassing about me. Oh well, those were the good days! The closest I have ever seen him is from the nose bleed section at the Delta Center. Maybe it is a good thing that I missed it!
Anyway, we have had a great few weekends, but are really looking forward to the weather getting nicer so we can get out of the house more! Anyone with me??

An Ice Fishing We Will Go!

For Christmas we all gave my dad a certificate to go ice fishing. He LOVES fishing and has been talking about going ice fishing for the last few winters and this year we wanted to make sure that it happened. He just had to pick the day and time and we would all take care of everything else. The day was picked and all the boys ready to go. Chloe loves to fish, but I wasn't sure she would be up for a day out in the cold. I was wrong, when I told her that we could have a girls day or she could go fishing with all they boys, I was told in no uncertain terms, "Girls can do everything boys can do!" Unfortunately Chloe was sick on the day that was picked, but 2 weeks later, with Banana in tow, they went again and she was able to go. They didn't have much luck either time, but they had a ton of fun and I am sure they will be venturing out again.

The End...

So much to do, so little time. It seems that no matter how many times I have set aside time to finish out the years activities, something else comes up. The bigger the kids get, the more I feel like a taxi driver. I am finding that I have less and less time to get to the things I need to do, but don't get me wrong, I am not complaining! It is great to be able to be at the beck and call of my family. The 26th of January is my 1 year anniversary of being "Just Mom", remember a title that I am 100% OK with! This has been a really great year for me and I just want to give a shout out to Eric for working so hard so that I was able to quit my job! I hope you feel it is as worthwhile as I do!
Anyway...on to our End of the Year Festivities!

We had reservations at "The Resort" for Christmas break. My mom had invited all the kids to come home for Christmas and spend Christmas Eve at their house and have a giant sleepover. We all live within 30 miles, or less, of each other, but we thought that it would be a fun way to spend Christmas Eve. This year it was Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with Eric's family, so it worked out well.

Christmas Eve turned into our own personal Felice Navidad. We decided that we were traditional holiday fooded out and we had a homemade Mexican dinner. It was delicious. We then did our gift exchange and each of the grandkids got a new set of Christmas PJ's and knitted slippers from Banana and Papa. Banana put a lot of work into the slippers and the kids loved them!

Christmas day the kids woke up to find that Santa had gotten their letters and found them at their grandparents house. It was full chaos to watch them all open up their presents and find out the they must have all been very good children, because Santa delivered. Alec got a Nintendo DS and some games, Chloe got a handheld Leapfrog game, which she affectionately calls her Leapster DS, and some games and Kate got a Cabbage Patch baby and a musical stand n' play. Kate was very uninterested in presents. In fact she refused to open them and just pushed them out of the way. It was very comical. Maybe next year she will get it!

After cinnamon rolls, bacon and eggs, we headed over to Grandma Marilyn's to spend the day with Eric's family. We had pizza and presents and a great time just hanging out with everybody playing games and watching movies. It was very low key and relaxing, but a memorable and fun day!

My mom and I had planned on making some new quilts and since she was off work for a couple of weeks we had set this time aside to get it done. It took us a little longer than we planned, but they turned out great! We actually ended up staying about a week because of this, we made a California King and two Queens...what were we thinking??, hopefully not overstaying our welcome! While we worked, the kids and Eric and Papa enjoyed the snow outside. Papa even hooked tubes up to his truck and pulled the kids around the neighborhood on the snowy streets. They had a blast!

New Year's Eve we went over to Kyler and Jenna's house. Their kids got a Wii for Christmas and wanted Alec and Chloe to come play. We had Cafe Rio for dinner and played cards while the kids played together. Thanks to the Wii, the 4 older kids all made it to midnight and were able to bang pots and pans outside and ring in the New Year.

It was a perfect ending to a great year. Despite the hard times many people are going through, we have had a very blessed year. It is something we don't take lightly. We are so grateful for all that we have and know that none of it would not be ours if it wasn't for our Heavenly Father. We are blessed to have the gospel in our lives and wonderful family and friends all around us. Our kids are amazing and each one of them brings such joy and happiness to us that we are glad we get to hang on to them, and each other, for eternity. No blessing could ever beat that! May our Heavenly Father bless you all and have a wonderful New Year!

Let It Snow...and snow...and snow...and snow...

What do you do with three kids who have bad coughs, runny noses and are totally bored because they are out of school for winter break and they can't go out and play in the biggest snow storm we have had in years????

Bake...and stay in pj's all day long!!

They couldn't decide whether they wanted to make chocolate chip or sugar cookies...so we made both. While we were at it, we also made fudge. Everyone helped out...well almost everyone!

I even got clean up help, WOW!

Anyway, it was a great day to spend snowbound and now we have yummy holiday treats!!

Crazy, Busy Month!

Happy Holidays everyone. It has been a few weeks since our last update and we thought we would bring you up to speed on what has been going on!

We began our December with a Christmas gathering that put us all in the spirit of the season. On Eric's side of the family we usually draw names, one for each family member, and then exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. This year we did something a little different and decided to give rather than receive. On the first Saturday of the month we all met at Target and pooled the money that we would normally spend on gifts and provided Christmas for a family in need. It was a really amazing experience and the kids were actually really excited to participate. We ended the night by going downtown to see the lights at Temple Square and then over to Kim and Michael's for hot chocolate and cookies. We had a great night!

Chloe's preschool put on their annual Christmas Concert at University Mall. She did a great job and we finally got to see her perform all the songs she has been singing around the house for the last few weeks!

Here is a small sample for you to enjoy!

It FINALLY snowed and Chloe couldn't wait to get out and enjoy it!

My mom's side of the family had their Christmas party the same night that we had a party for Eric's work, but we were able to show up for a little bit and then my parents and my brother and his wife were gracious enough to keep our rugrats with them to enjoy the rest of the party. Dinner included the regular family favorite Sauerkraut, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the lovely smell of Sauerkraut, the kids read the Christmas story from the posters that we have been using since I was Chloe's age, each family shared some kind of talent or game, and the night wouldn't be the same without singing "Who's Got a Beard That's Long and White?" to welcome in Santa who came to hand out Oma and Opa's presents to everyone. This has been the tradition for as long as I can remember and even before that. I am glad that my kids will have some of the same memories that I do!

We are so fortunate to have so much family so close and love to spend time with everyone! We have had a wonderful season so far and the kids are so excited to be out of school finally and we are really looking forward to the next couple of weeks!

It Was AWESOME!

The countdown from 76 days has ended...and it was worth the wait!!

Me, Eric wouldn't go, my mom, my dad wouldn't go, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, her husband wouldn't go and my 24 year old brother, his wife wouldn't go...he totally lost a man card, all braved the horrific weather and made our way to the Energy Solutions Arena to see Neil Diamond and had a blast! He put on an amazing show and we all sang and danced the night away! Thanks for sharing my nerdiness with me!!

Tag...

Awhile ago my sister-in-law Marne tagged me. I hardly ever use the desktop computer, which is where the pictures are stored, so I am just now getting around to it. 4th picture file, 4th picture.

Alec's baseball. He is the one walking up to the plate wearing the red shorts. It would have been about 2 1/2 years ago.


I tag anyone who wants to play, mostly because almost everybody I know has done this one. But it's fun so if you haven't, go for it!
To play: go to your biggest picture cache, select your 4th picture folder, then select your 4th picture.