Christmas Morning

Our kids had a great Christmas this year. They didn't wake us up until 7am... that's good for our kids. We drug Dallin out of bed because Kyle and Nathan were just too anxious to wait a minute longer. We checked out what Santa brought and then opened presents. About 10am we went over to my moms and ate breakfast and opened presents with them. We stayed with them until bedtime as our sewer issues (see below) were in full swing). Todd got a Maltese puppy for my mom. That was a big surprise to her (in a good way) and the boys have loved playing with her. She named her Maggie. She is a sweet and good natured puppy. We only did videos this Christmas. We did get some shots with my moms camera and I will try to post those when I get my hands on them.

 

Busy December

Dan has been really busy the last 2 weeks. The weekend before Christmas he had a wedding to shoot... Friday and Saturday. I'll post one of my favorite pics from it. He did a great job, as always. The day before Christmas Eve our sewer backed up. So he dug up our front yard and hit a water line in the process and had to fix that, leaving us with no water for a day. Needless to say a few dug up hedges and 2 large holes later he figured out it was not roots in our pipes. Him and Bob peeked in a manhole and they were thick with roots. So the county came out to fix them and we are draining fine. YAH!!!! We are in the process of doing some landscaping. I thinks it's either that or get kicked out of our neighborhood, with all the digging that has taken place. We are definitely NOT loving the southern red clay. I had to shampoo all the downstairs carpet as they were tracked with orange clay. 

Snowmen for School

I got this brilliant idea to make 40 snowmen out of marshmallows, prezel rods, and various candy for Kyle and Nathan's class parties. About 10 snowmen in I realized I was out of my mind. All the 'help' was 'fun' too. So I pushed through to 20 for one class and dipped prezels in the white choc and added mini choc chips for Kyle's class. They were both cute.  Lesson learned: Making 40 of anything, even when it looks so cute and 'easy' in the magazine is not 'fun' at all!! 

Santa Baby

Santa came to our ward party earlier this month. Dallin is not yet a big fan. He wants to like him so bad and begs to sit on his lap. Once he gets close he freaks. 

Nathan and Santa

Kyle asked for a Wii and a DS! 

Kyle sang in the talent show and did great.

Stick em' Up!

Bob took Dan, Eric, Nicole, Todd, Shelby (Bob's daughter) and myself out shooting. We had a blast. The cops even showed up and Bob explained that  we were 'exercising our 2nd amendment right.' Thanks Bob for taking us out and for opening up your home for a fun and memorable Thanksgiving with family. And thanks mom and grandma for watching all the kids while we went shooting!

Dan the Man

Here's Shelby hamming it up

Yep, when you're packin' you feel pretty cool

Fun with our Cousins

Trent is just playing with Dallin, but look at the pure joy in his face at the thought of slugging him. Don't think Dallin is feeling the same joy!

Nicole made blankets for all the kids on the last night. They had the best time playing pirates with all the scrap material.

'Give me your best pirate face!'

Dan took all the kids to the park by himself... twice. What a good guy. This picture looks posed, but they actually just all came down the slide at the same time.

Thanksgiving 2008 Knoxville, TN

We went to Bob's for Thanksgiving again this year. Eric and Nicole and their 4 kids and grandma Genie also came to enjoy 5 days together. 

Lots of card playing. Grandma Genie proved to be the master card shark. She still owes me a rematch to double solitaire.

 Bob has a creek in his backyard and Dallin was of course drawn to it like candy. Needless to say he averaged 3 outfits per day. 

Kyle traced his hand and wrote "you are it!" We all had fun sneaking it on each other. Dan had even more fun taking unsuspecting pictures of those sporting it. 

Rope swing in the backyard. 

Here is the whole gang (except for Bob's kids) taken Thanksgiving Evening

We put Dallin to bed and then stayed up another few hours. When we checked on him this is what we found. Dan went to give him a kiss and he felt greasy. Apparently he got into the lotion and lathered up and went to sleep. In his defense he did 'stay in bed' as I instructed as the lotion was in reach. Guess he was feeling a little dry?