Christmas Eve and Christmas

We had so much fun on Christmas Eve and Christmas! All the family came for lunch on Christmas Eve! I love having all my family together! After lunch we heard some bells ringing outside and then the doorbell rang! Santa actually stopped by for a little visit and it was so fun. I have to say that my grandsons as well as their parents enjoyed his visit more than my granddaughters did but we all had fun with him! The picture below is of Santa with all the grandkids. Grandpa and Grandma with Santa.

Alyse and Annie got in on the action.

Jennifer's family with Santa, Emma wanted nothing to do with him.

April's family, after a while Eliza did warm up to him.

Andrew's family, Warren was all smiles and just loved him!

Grandma with her grandchildren.

Christmas day we ended up having everyone for lunch again instead of dinner because of the big snow storm that was predicted to hit. Thankfully it waited until everyone was home safe and sound before it came! Watching everyone open their presents (especially the grandkids) was fun for me!

This is probably the longest picture post I have done, but we wanted to share the fun!

Sibling Breakfast

For the past 14 years ever since my mother passed away my sisters and brothers have met the 3rd Saturday of every month to have breakfast together! The exceptions are my dear sister Carol who lives in Colorado and the years my sister Marilyn and myself were away serving missions for our church. Other than that come rain or shine we all make the effort to be there together. Our numbers have dwindled over the past couple of years with the passing of Jim and Earlene, my youngest and oldest siblings. They are very much missed as we meet each month. I'm grateful to have siblings who love and care about each other and want to keep our relationships strong by spending time together. My younger children usually attend with me and because of that they have gotten to know their Aunts and Uncles well, which I am grateful for. This past Saturday we met (at my children's favorite place for breakfast) and had our Christmas gift exchange. Everyone looked festive and it was nice to be together. I hope our 3rd Sat. of the month breakfasts will go on for many more years!

`Christmas Party Adventure

Last Saturday morning our Ward held their Christmas Party. It was a breakfast up Millcreek Canyon at Camp Tracy (a boy scout camp). The lodge there is big and the Christmas decorations were just beautiful. There was a huge fireplace and on both sides of the fireplace big glass windows where you could look out and watch the snow coming down. It really was picture perfect like a scene out of the movie "White Christmas". The food was wonderful! The short program nice and then Santa even showed up! It was such a fun party! We had invited our next door neighbors who are not members of our church. Our daughter April's family also wanted to attend so they had followed us up to the party. When the party was over and we left is when things got interesting. It was snowing so hard the roads were very slippery. We were going slow and our son in law was following us down. Cars were in trouble all over the place, sliding here and there. Kim didn't want to get to close to them so he braked to slow down a little more. That was a mistake. We slid out of control and did a 360 spin sliding almost to the edge of the road that had a pretty steep drop off down into the river. I was praying hard! We stopped before plunging over the edge. Can I tell you how grateful I was for that! Our son in law slid into us and ended up hitting us. Thankfully there was not to much damage to either car. Kim told our son in law to continue down the canyon as carefully as he could. We waited about 15 minutes until there were no cars coming then Kim tried to maneuver out of the position we were in. He couldn't go forward but he could go back wards and we started sliding again- it was scary sliding down the road backwards. Finally the car turned sideways and we were siding down sideways. He was eventually able to get turned the right direction and we continued home very slowly. I am happy to report we made it home safely after that and our neighbors who I was afraid were feeling sorry they'd come with us just laughed as we dropped them off and said "We thought we were just having breakfast we didn't know we were going to have an adventure! The picture below is of Brianna and Eliza with Santa. Yes Brianna isn't very happy about it.
Grandma with her baby girls.

Brianna's Blessing & Winter Formal

This past Sunday our little grandaughter Brianna was blessed. It was a special day for our family! Briannna looked beautiful and she was good during the blessing. After the meeting we came back to our house to eat. Their was a lot of family and friends that attended to support Brianna and her family, so thanks everyone for coming! Below is our little sleeping beauty.
Proud Grandma and Grandpa with little Brianna.

The camera caught just the end of a smile.

Brianna with her family.

Three generations picture.

Annie and Brianna.

Alyse and Brianna.

Brianna with her Aunt Jennifer and cousins Emma and Mckay.

Brianna with Uncle Andrew, Aunt Annie and cousin Warren.

Last Friday night Alyse's sorority held their Winter Formal. They had dinner at the institute, then held the dance at the Capital Rotunda! It was beautiful! Following the dance they all headed over to the Kappa Moms house for dessert. It was a fun night. Alyse I think you look beautiful!

Seeing Santa & Festival of Trees

Last week while we were tending Warren we decided to take him and his cousins Eliza and Brianna to see Santa. I thought the little ones might be frightened of Santa but Warren just laughed and loved all the attention from the elves and Santa. Because Warren wasn't frightened and Santa was holding her baby sister and she wasn't frightened Eliza decided it was ok to sit on Santa's lap and get her picture with him too. It was fun to see the babies having fun and to get some cute pictures with them and Santa!

Today while we were tending Warren, Alyse and I decided to take him to see the Festival of Trees. There were some pretty amazing trees, gingerbread houses, wreaths etc. Alyse and I enjoyed seeing it and Warren was just in wonder about it all. I don't know if you can tell but the tree behind Warren in the picture below is made of golf clubs. I thought his parents might appreciate it since they are into golf.
Alyse's favorite tree was the Disney character tree but she liked this one also, and so did Warren.

We had to get one of the BYU and Uof U trees with one of our UofU and BYU fans.

This tree was made totally of glass. It was pretty interesting.

Warren with Grandma in front of one of the patriotic trees.

Thanksgiving

We had all the family this year for Thanksgiving. I love being all together! Everyone helped with the food. My son Andy made wonderful mashed potatoes, my daughter in law Annie made rolls that were to die for, my daughter Jennifer made delicious stuffing and a yummy green bean casserole, my daughter April brought a really good cake. [She doesn't like pie] Alyse and Annie helped me out with getting things ready and with some of the other food, and Kim cooked the turkey which turned out really good! Thanks everyone for your help! We ate and then while we were waiting for desert Annie and the grandkids went down in the basement and started playing rock band. Pretty soon a few others made their way downstairs too. All of a sudden Andy started calling for his wife Annie. Their cute little son Warren had fallen on the fireplace hearth. We all raced downstairs and poor Warren was bleeding all over the place, and I do mean all over. Kim was trying to get the bleeding stopped. Andy gathered him up and Annie drove them to the emergency room. Me and my Annie followed. After they got him cleaned up it turned out all that blood had been made by a half inch cut. Poor Warren had to have stitches. Not a fun day for him. By the time I got home Kim had all the blood cleaned up out of the carpet. Amazingly enough he was able to get it all out. Everyone had had or were having pie and were getting ready to leave. Andy and Annie stopped by to get their things and take some pie home. Poor little Warren was just wore out and he was asleep. The good news is he will be fine! The first picture is with the food right before we all dug in. Yes Alyse and Annie still have to sit at the kids table with Mckay, Hunter, and Emma.

Little Warren after the wound was cleaned up.

All worn out.

Reflections of Volleyball 2008

This past week Annie had her Volleyball Awards Banquet. It was held at the school and was for the parents and girls. She recieved her certificate, a volleyball necklace, and a CD with pictures on it that had been taken of her at the games. It was a really nice evening! We thought we'd share some of the pictures with you. Annie's on the right blocking the ball.
Now she is on the left smacking the ball.
A great serve!

A good dig.

Big smiles

Sophomore team.

Another great serve.

The whole team- Sophomore, JV, Varsity.Another dig!Go Titans!

Beary Cute

Whenever Warren or Eliza are at our house they always head into Annie's room to one of the big teddy bears that sit on her floor. They always hug it and give it kisses and cuddle with it. It really is beary cute!