New Year's Eve whirlwind

Lyssa really wanted to take us to Jungle Quest. The kids put on harnesses and hooked themselves to a rock wall, zip line or huge swing. They had exactly one and a half hours to play hard. It was so fun to watch them have so much fun. Lyssa's kids could do upside down tricks since they have been there a couple of times before. Seth hooked in and jumped off the highest plank without looking back. We thought they would probably not make it until midnight after that much exercise but most of them did.

In the afternoon we went to a movie either the Squeakual or Sherlock Holmes. Most of us chose the ladder which shows our kids are getting older. Dad and Lyssa took Max, Seth, and Thomas to the Chipmunk movie...thanks guys.

Then, that night we went to Peter's office downtown to watch the fireworks at 9. It was nice they had two shows, one at 9 and one at midnight. We got to go out on the deck. Our view was a really cool train station with rainbow lights. Tanner was amazed at the fireworks...or maybe he's just posing. Then we went home to bed. Seth has a watch on that he kept looking at trying so hard to stay up. He made it until 11:30 and Max was about 11:40. Tanner and Maddie had no trouble.

Family and Food

When we get together as extended family, a lot of the time revolves around food. I guess because there's so much of us there has to be so much food! The reason we went to Denver was to see my nephew, Thomas, get baptized. It was a very nice night and Thomas was so excited.

After the baptism we all went to Smashburger. It is a very yummy place. It was also Jon's birthday and he got to have a giant burger and shake so he was happy. Sadly we were too full for ice cream cake afterwards. We had it the next night for New Year's Eve so it worked out.

One day, to get the kids out of the house we went for cupcakes. They were also very yummy. We got take out for lunch one day at a place called "Snooze" which was awesome! I got the pineapple upside down pancakes, mmmmmmmm.

Denver Zoo

We went to visit the Krumholz family over New Years and had lots of fun. One day we decided to go to the zoo. Because it was a bit cold, but not bad, it wasn't crowded at all. Right when we got there they started throwing bones to the lions. That was very entertaining. Seth claimed he had never seen an elephant before, which I know he has, but not that he could remember. We also had to get a picture of the kids on the hippo statue. Katie could never climb up for the pose which they all thought was very funny. Tanner changed places with each picture. We also got to see a seal show which was interesting and I got to see my favorite animal...the giraffe.

I like this picture because Thomas, Seth, and Max are looking in here for quite a while and there's nothing in there.

Christmas 2009

This year for Christmas we went to Idaho Falls to spend it with Jon's mom...Grandma Marilyn. We had some super great meals and ate way too much. It was nice seeing so much family.
The cousins playing a rousing game of Clue. Lots of giggling.
Calli and Maddie sitting at the kids table waiting for Christmas Eve dinner.

We have LOTS of boys in our family, YAY!
We got to Skype Aunt Sara and Uncle Sam in Washington. All the kids fought for the front row seat to the computer.
Seth is looking a little impatient to open his presents on Christmas morning. I'm sure Jon was explaining something that was taking a little too long.
Lots of I Spy books!
I was trying to get Max to pose for me but he was kind of in the middle of something.

Maddie's Peace jammies. She loves peace signs right now.
Tanner got a quilt from his Grandma and an ipod alarm clock.
When we got home the day after Christmas, we went over to my parent's house and got to have another Christmas. No complaining from my kids. Ryan and Melanie, Donovan and Paige, and Lincoln came up also which made it a party!
Remote control car, it takes a million batteries but is really fun.
Max loves legos and was really excited to get a Great States puzzle, I'm glad he was excited for that! Tanner and Maddie got presents also but they were across the room and I didn't want to get up, by this point I was just tired. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card

Timer's set....Go!

Not the gumdrop buttons!

A sweet neighbor and fellow carpooler brought our family a gingerbreadman kit. After dinner the kids made theirs. Most of us ate ours too fast but I did get a picture of Tanner's and Maddie's.

We had potatoes for dinner so Tanner used bacon bits for the hair...gross.

Temple Square

A couple of weeks ago we drove to Salt Lake to Temple Square to see the beautiful lights. The whole way up the kids were fighting. Grandma Marilyn tried to distract them by playing a "name that tune" game with Christmas songs. It helped a bit. We walked around and it was beautiful and super freezing. I could feel the chill through my jeans. The next Sunday Tanner bore his testimony in church and in it he mentioned what a great experience that was and how beautiful the temple looked. A woman told me afterwards what a great boy Tanner is. For some reason I felt I had to tell her that I was quite surprised by his comments of the temple because of the rocky beginning we had in the car on the way up. She said, maybe it was because of all the fighting that he could appreciate the beauty and peace of the temple lights. I thought that was a nice thought and probably true.

Brrrrr. It was 19 degrees!

This tree was so huge!!

Ahhhh. Hot chocolate in the Joseph Smith building. Hits the spot!

Cookie Exchange

I got an e-mail from a neighbor that they were going to meet at her house on Saturday for a "Cookie exchange." I'm there! I brought 3 dozen cookies and took home 3 dozen cookies. Then you're suppose have a variety of cookies to give to neighbors as gifts but I brought mine home and we all ate them during the weekend. I made "Peanut Sitting Pretties" from Jon's Mom's recipe. They're just so festive looking. They kind of take a long time but they taste SO good.

Peanut Sitting Pretties

1 ½ C. butter

¾ C. brown sugar

3 eggs

2 t. vanilla

3 C. flour

¾ t. salt

Finely chopped walnuts

Vanilla frosting

Peanut M&M’s

Blend butter and sugar in bowl. Divide eggs from the yolks. Set the whites aside. Stir in egg yolks and vanilla. Add flour and salt. Mix well and chill for 1 hour. Roll into 1” balls. Dip into slightly beaten egg whites. Roll in nuts. Place 1” apart and bake at 350 for 5 minutes. Press thumb in center of each cookie. Bake 5 more minutes. Cool. Fill center with frosting, top with M & M. Makes 4 dozen.

Daddy Daughter Date Night

In church for the last four and a half years I have been in the Primary which I have loved. A couple of months ago I got a new calling to be the Activity Day leader for the 10 and 11-year old girls. Maddie will be 12 in March but at least I get to be with her for a little while. This is such a great calling. The girls actually listen to me and are excited to do the activities. I taught cub scouts for a while and that was very different. 11-yr-old girls are different from 8-yr-old boys. Anyway, last night we had a fancy Daddy Daughter Date night with dinner and dancing afterwards. Maddie and Jon had a great time together.

Maddie is getting Jon ready for the big date by "shaving" for him with a tongue depressor. Jon also had to paint Maddie's nails.

Dancing

Tanner and some of his friends were the waiters, they really got into it. Tanner told me last night that he would like to be a waiter someday.

Max gets his braces off

Before

After.

Lookin' good! (I had my camera on "Night" mode so the quality isn't good.)

Two great thoughts

I love uplifting messages, and let's face it, who doesn't' need to be uplifted? So, I got the first one from my friend Stef and the second one from my friend Sandra. Hope they can uplift you also.

• "Both abundance and lack of abundance exist simultaneously in our lives as parallel realities. It is always our choice which secret garden we will tend.
  When we choose not to focus on what is missing in our lives but focus on the abundance that is present, the wasteland of the illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth." Thomas S. Monson

"A Christmas to Remember"

November 29, 2009, Broadcast #4185

As we look forward to Christmas this year, let's look back to Christmases past and appreciate what makes a holiday memorable. Some memories may involve less-than-perfect circumstances--and that's all right. Few real-life celebrations resemble the slick ads and scenes in holiday movies. In fact, sometimes the most cherished Christmases take place in conditions that are not quite ideal.

Of course, it's easy to feel discouraged when things don't go according to our plans. But in time, families often look back and laugh about the mishaps: the year the tree fell over, the time they forgot to turn on the oven, the school program when everyone forgot their lines.

Other times, families weep when they remember more serious hardships: the year when someone was in the hospital, the year there were no presents because times were tight, the first Christmas after a loved one passed away.

As such memories fill our hearts, we would do well to recall that original Christmas night. It was not without difficulty. Mary and Joseph were far from home. No room could be found in the inn. Few comforts were available. And yet, love was born. Heavenly choirs sang. A new star lit the sky, and shepherds came to worship.

Unrealistic expectations for a picture-perfect Christmas may be misleading and actually keep us from appreciating the holiday's more subtle yet more satisfying blessings. Everything does not have to be just right for wonderful things to happen.

No matter the circumstances for Christmas this year, cherished moments are within reach. Hold a child in your arms. Pause to look at the night sky. Welcome friends and family into your home, and listen to heavenly choirs. Give the love that only you can give, and you will have a memorable Christmas: a Christmas that recalls that first holy night when, in the lowliest of circumstances, a King was born.

Festival of Trees

Last year I went to The Festival of Trees with Maddie's Activity Day church group so this year I made our whole family go. This really gets me into the Christmas spirit. It's a fund raiser for the Primary Children's Hospital. What's amazing about it is everything is donated. Even the employees are all volunteers so 100% of the money earned goes to the hospital. People decorate amazing trees and gingerbread houses then others can bid on them as a donation. Last year they made 1.5 million dollars. People are so generous! They had 800 trees donated this year. The other thing about it that pulls on my heart is little signs by some of the trees about children that spent lots of time in the hospital and some died and some lived but the families donate trees as a thank you. Last year our neighbor's mom died so all the sisters got together and made a tree to donate then my neighbors husband went and bought it as a surprise to his wife. Just so many sweet stories.

The "UP" house

A gingerbread bird house

I told Max to stand by his favorite tree and I'd take his picture so he chose this one.

Maddie

Tanner by the "Guitar Hero" tree

I thought this paintbrush tree was creative.

Choo Choo

My grandma bought this at the grocery store the other day and it was so much fun. It comes with everything, even the icing and candy. The kids had a lot of fun putting it together with Grandma Marylyn. It didn't make the whole house smell like gingerbread, but that's the only bad thing about it. I highly recommend it!!


Even Tanner couldn't resist getting in on the decorating.

Decorating for Christmas or Spring cleaning?

In order to get to my Christmas decorations I decided to clean out the whole storage area, which is Jon's office closet, he says it's actually my closet because I have more junk in there than he does, that's debatable. (That was quite the sentence.) Then, the whole house needs to be relatively clean in order to get out all the bulky Christmas stuff. It is quite the process but I love the end result!!