Family Nativity

On Christmas Eve we went over to my sister Michelle's house and our kids and their cousins presented the nativity. Gavin played the part of Joseph and Chloe played the part of an angel. Of course, Grandpa (my dad) recored the whole thing. All of the kids were adorable It was sweet and very typical of any family nativity. This is the second year we have done this and the kids seemed to enjoy it more this time.

Gingerbread Houses and Other Structures

All of my brothers and sisters and their spouses and kids were in Portland for Christmas this year. That is five brothers, four sisters, 5 in-laws, 1 sister's boyfried, and thirteen neices and nephews. Instead of a huge gift exchange, we decided to pack the week with fun activities. One day we built gingerbread "houses". Each family built their own structure. It was fun to see what everyone came up with. The funny thing was that the kids tired out and were done before some of the adults. Gavin, Chloe, Randy and I made a rocket ship. Paul and Camille's family made a chalet complete with a rock chimney. By the time we were all done we had a large table full of gingerbread villages. The kids had fun eating the candy off the houses the rest of the week.

December Birthdays

We spent Christmas week in Portland with my family. While we were there we celebrated almost all of the December birthday's. My brother Joseph didn't want to wait so he had a family party earlier in the month. The birthday party was for the three girls; Laura, Heather and me. Our sister-in-law, Nicole made the cutest snowman cake for us. Later in the week Nicole taught all of the ladies in the family some really cool cake decorating techniques. What a talented girl.

December Snow Storms

It was so fun for the kids to have it snow again and again and again in December, but it got a little old for those of us who had to try and get around town finishing our Christmas shopping. The Kids had fun sledding down our double sloped backyard with their older cousins.

Sunset At Our House

Randy took this picture from our den window. You can see the tops of the mountains and then the fog that has come in. The fog looks like water. It's beautiful.

After 14 Years...

Yesterday was our 14th wedding anniversary. Oh, how the years go by so quickly. I remember the first time I had a "conversation" with Randy. We were both attending BYU and happened to be in the same ward. We had our Sunday sacrament meetings in the Joseph Smith building auditorium. On our first Sunday I was sitting with all of my roommates. Towards the end of the meeting I kept feeling someone touching/petting my hair. One of my roommates slyly looked behind us and told me that the guy sitting behind me was pulling on my curls. At first I tried to ignore it, but finally I turned around to confront him and there was Randy and his roommate Mark grinning. Mark was emphatically pointing at Randy. Randy laughed, shrugged and said, "It just looked so soft." I blushed and said, "Thanks." Then they got up and left and I left with my roommates. And that was the beginning.

Snow Day

Last Saturday night it started to snow and we told the kids that we might not be going to church the next day if there was too much snow. Sure enough, the next morning at around 7:30 Gavin came running into our bedroom yelling, "It's snowing! It's snowing! Can I go out and play in it?" By 8am both Gavin and Chloe were out in the snow having a blast. The snow was to dry to pack into snowballs, so instead they slid down our hill on their tummies like little penguins. Gavin loved rolling around in the snow and pretending to fall asleep. When Randy and I joined the kids out in the snow Gavin decided it would be funny to throw snow at me even if he couldn't make it into a snowball. Chloe made snow angels all over the yard. Randy pulled the kids around on the sled until their cheeks and noses were bright red and they were ready to come in for some hot chocolate. We had a fun day together out in the snow. At the end of the day Gavin said, "I like snow days."