Christmas 2011

Before the kids can open Santa's presents they have to line up on the stairs from youngest to oldest.

And then the magic of Christmas morning begins...

Of course one of our favorite parts of the day was the phone call with Jordan

Christmas Eve 2011

This year Christmas Eve was a lot calmer than usual.  Mom had all of the shopping done, the
neighbor gifts delivered and even the house cleaned.  This was an unusual year.
It was nice to spend the day at home making cookies for Santa and having our traditional fondue and
appetizers for dinner.
Of course everything couldn't be perfect.  Jenessa had the stomach flu and we all kept wondering who
was next (as it turned out nobody else was sick)


Frosting Cookies for Santa

Not sure why Kaitlyn is eating the whole plate?

We each got to open one present

Chris always spoils me....I love this Temple Square Christmas Village

And I think Brycen is the cutest shepard in the nativity

I am so thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.

That he came to earth in a lowly stable and then taught us the

way to return to our Heavenly Father

Merry Christmas!

Ty's Golf Banquet

Tyler played again for Bingham Golf and tonight we attended his banquet.  He received an academic award for his 4.0 grade point average.  What a great kid!

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn Noelle

This year Kaitlyn let me know weeks in advance that her birthday was going to be on fast Sunday, I said that it would be hard to fast, but I knew that she could do it, and bless her, she did.

After church we had Birthday dinner and cake and ice cream.

and no we don't usually suck cups onto our face at dinner...

Kaitlyn turned 10 this year  so we invited her friends and  celebrated with an ice skating party

I started the day by baking Tye-Dye Cupcakes.  Kaitlyn loves bright colors

She was surprised when she opened it and she loved it

All of her friends met at the Ice Rink

It was a perfect day for skating and it was almost 40 degrees, so no coats required

We opened presents and enjoyed The Pie pizza and hot chocolate with whipped cream

tommy gave Kaitlyn a GIANT sock monkey and she loves sock monkeys

The 10 reasons we love Kaitlyn:

1 - She has so much energy

2- She loves to plan and create fun

3 - She is loving to read like her mom

4 - She wants to obey and choose the right

5 - She is a great student at school

6 - She has funny voices that imitate:)

7 - so she always makes a laugh

8 - She likes to learn especially from Mrs. Bowman this year

9 - She is a good friend

10 - she loves her family and helps us so much

Kaitlyn's Birthday List (see #7 above)

Thanksgiving Blessings

Jenessa wrote about our Thanksgiving Day service and I loved hearing it in her own words:

For my project I wanted to do something special. I thought doing it on a holiday would make the project even more meaningful. What I decided to do was to deliver meals to the poor on Thanksgiving. My whole family ended up going, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. At around 11 o’clock on the morning of Thanksgiving my family headed to Salt Lake City. I was really excited for what we were about to be doing for others. I was hoping to learn something from this experience.

 The organization we were doing the service project through was Salvation Army. When we got there we had to wait in a long line, because many people were also lined up to serve others on this day. When it was our turn, we grabbed about 5 meals a person. We had to load up a plate of food. The food that we were going to serve to them was just about everything that made up a Thanksgiving meal. There was turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, rolls, and even a pumpkin pie. Everyone seemed to be really happy and ready to serve.

After getting all the meals we needed, we put them all in the trunk of our car, and drove all around the valley to deliver these meals to those who were less fortunate than ourselves. Some were up in Ogden, and some in Sandy. One family I went to did not speak a word of English. We got to their shabby looking apartment, and knocked on the door. A young girl, around 18 or 19 answered the door. Following  her up to the door were five little children, all with big, brown eyes. I felt sorry for all of them. It must have been difficult for the girl to have so many children. There was no husband in sight. We told her to have a good Thanksgiving, even though she didn’t understand us. Then, we set the meals on the small table and left.

Another house we delivered the meals to was in Draper. This was the smallest, dirtiest, saddest, run-down house I have ever been in. The woman had about six yapping dogs in her tiny yard, and the house looked like a shack. We went around to the side of the house were the door was. Outside of the house were old televisions, lamps, sofas, you name it. This woman was a hoarder. She wouldn’t throw anything away. When we got inside, the house smelled of smoke. The wood floors were rotting.  The woman had only two children that I knew of. One of them was a little autistic boy wearing superman footy pajamas. He was really cute and was very thankful to receive the meals.

Seeing these people and how they lived was an amazing experience for me. Doing this service on Thanksgiving made it even more special. These people taught me to be more thankful for what I have been given. I have been given so much. I know now that some people are carrying many burdens and have many hardships. We should try to do more to lift the burdens of the poor and needy by helping and serving them. Doing this service taught me so much. It made that Thanksgiving the best one I have ever had.

         

 

Halloween

Our Annual cousin's Halloween Birthday Party was another fun event!

Meet Frank:

Spooky Pumpkins

The Kids love the scary apothecary jars

Kaitlyn and Tommy were hilarious as  Santa and the Elf

Kaitlyn had 2 costumes this year because she wanted to be a vampire for school

Mostly because she thinks wearing the teeth are so cool...

Fall is my Favorite

The Kids were off track in October. 

We loaded up the wheelbarrow with some perfect pumpkins

Pumpkin Patch

We love to go to Gardner Village in the Fall to visit all of the witches

We also went to Airborne.  The kids love jumping and jumping

and ended the perfect afternoon with some oatmeal chocolate chip caramel cookies!

Hump Day

Jordan has been a missionary in Houston Texas 
for 1 year!

Treasure Island Girls Camp

This past week was Girls Camp.  This was my 2nd year as camp director and I really love this calling.  It lets me use my creativity and my love of cooking.


Our theme was "Treasure Island - We Believe, We Seek, We Endure"

This was a Stake camp and we did a survivor twist with lots of challenges for immunity.


We were the "Pearl Tribe".  I sure love these girls...

Our first morning was dry.  

But after that it rained, and rained and 

rained......

Our Shoes were caked in Mud and we could barely walk down the muddy road to the amphitheater

The Girls will never forget the night it started to thunder and Lightning.  We dashed for the Scout Trailer and all 24 of us crammed into it until the lightning stopped.

After, Bishop Clough gave a priesthood prayer on the camp and

we all felt peace.  This experience brought us so close.  

I'm so glad I was able to have these memories with Jenessa

We taught the girls the Hula, made poi balls and maori stick games

They loved the Island Spa!

 The Rain Poncho Hula

I wish I could really play the ukelele

The Girls Enjoyed perfoming for the Bishopric

The Immunity Challenges were always a hit

And We really laughed at The Challenges we gave to our Bishopric

Chris is always a good sport....Good Bishop!

I will admit the Luau was yummy - Cooking is one of my favorite parts of camp!

I made Dutch oven Luau Pork, rice, dutch oven rolls, fruit salad, and Chris brought up rainbow sherbet for dessert 

Kaitlyn was sure excited to come up with Chris and stay overnight!

We ended the incredible week with our testimony meeting