A fun Family Christmas Party

Griz looked pretty much just too dang adorable that night and we couldn't stop taking pictures of him. I couldn't narrow it down, so here are four of them.

The girls sang and danced for us. They did an awesome job and look so cute in this picture.

Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Simon gave the kids all striped shirts.

And we took pictures of them all. I had my long lens on and didn't feel like getting them all to look at me because Christa and Ellen were doing that. My child has had his finger up his nose quite consistently lately. (pretty embarrassing during tithing settlement, Bishop was nice about it though) ANYWAY, here's the whole group:

And here are the youngests (the kids in the front weren't focused in this picture) I liked this one a lot, they're all so cute together.

Cute picture of the boys wrestling. And bonus, Chico's finger isn't up his nose!

My Crazy Idea

I had this vision of my mind of a big snowy field with beautiful pine trees everywhere as being a pretty backdrop for a family picture. I enlisted my parents who were willing to come to get above the yucky inversion and drive up the canyon in search of such a scene.

We found one that kinda fit my idea but not really.  The boys were so cold and it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. But it made for a fun Holiday card (yeah, I didn't get it done by Christmas so it was a New Years card instead)

No one has commented on the scrapbookey pine trees on the actual picture. We thought it would be funny but maybe not? What was all y'all's reactions to it? Be honest, did you even notice them?

Thanks for your help Mom and Dad!

Annual IKEA Christmas Trip

We headed to IKEA to get our Swedish food supplies after Brent got off work. Of course the boys slept on the way there and were grumpy when we got there. We were hungry so we ate first and this is pretty much how the meal went:







Oh well. :)


Then we got caught in the store's trap and wound our way through the maze, being sorely tempted to buy several things. They're so tricky!!! But luckily we made it to the swedish foods area with our hands empty so that we could buy what we ACTUALLY came there for. Farmer Cheese (best cheese for cracker bread), and lingonberry sylt (a must in our home). They've sure changed things in the food market and not really for the better. Except for the new addition of lingonberry soft serve frozen yogurt. That was surprisingly yummy! We sure enjoyed that Farmer Cheese this Christmas Season. Nothing reminds me of our trip to Sweden more than Farmer Cheese on Cracker Bread!

Gingerbread Houses

After Brent's finals were over the fun began! Unfortunately we don't have tons of pictures that we did as just a little family because usually we were busy with the kids and didn't pull out the camera or forgot to bring it.

This is one of the first activities we did. The Gingerbread houses turned out pretty well! Thanks to Brent being patient with the boys and helping them while I made my own house. They turned out great!

cute

Chico amazes me with the skillfull and creative things he does. Lately he is really into tying knots. over and over and over again on the same string.  The intricacy is amazing. Brent was amazed when he came home and discovered Chico had made a perfect half hitch.  I guess being in Scouts his whole life has rubbed off ;)  Anyway, this was the first of many experiments with rope that he has done lately.  It's on our bunny's cage. Let me tell ya, that was hard to get off!

I came into the front room one day and found our Nativity had been re-arranged and added to....

Sure do love my boy. And then just the other day he put the baby Jesus right into Mary's arms, so sweet. (we won't mention how many times it's been thrown on the ground and I just looked back there and noticed baby Jesus is currently on the roof of the stable....)

Meeting Santa

We went with my parent's to their neighborhood Christmas party. Santa AND Mrs. Claus were coming. Chico seemed excited.

Grizwald wasn't so sure about all the hullabaloo.

I was trying to prep Chico for Santa and asked him if he wanted to sit on his lap. He said no, so we decided to write his Christmas list and just hand it to him. Chico seemed okay with that.

Grizwald freaked.

Chico wouldn't even walk up there to give them the letter.

Didn't want to even look at him.

But my dad read the letter to him and tried his hardest.  

Chico peeking a look...

Overall he didn't enjoy the experience but I don't think he was traumatized or anything. He's talked about it since then.  Maybe next year. :)

Our "Hurricane"

Yes, I know. I'm way behind on our blog. This was over a month ago but you've got to start somewhere so, I'll start with December 1, 2011. 70-100 mph winds tore through most of Davis County and Ogden causing damage right and left. Trees down, siding and shingles torn away, fences down, business signs blown down, people in Ogden were literally picked up and thrown down by the wind. Brent drove around and took a few pictures. I wish I had taken more.  It was crazy I tell you.

Our neighbor's tree fell right on their house. So scary!

This was funny because the people who owned this tree hooked up a rope to a truck and pulled it back upright and it is still standing I think!

It's so weird to see this tree gone, I grew up playing in this yard:

What a mess!

Our power was out for most the day and so I was hanging out at Christa's place because she, for some reason, had power.  Right after dinner the power went out at her place and my grandma called and said my uncle Steve had rigged up the furnace to a generator and had that going so it would be warm.  Well, with Christa and Nate's power out there really wasn't any reason to stay so I headed home right then instead of waiting an hour or two (when Brent got off) like I had been planning. I got home and walked in the door and immediately a terrible smell hit me and I heard my carbon monoxide detector going off.  I ran upstairs and grandma and grandpa were just chillin' not noticing any problems. I feel bad that I had to unplug the generator and open windows and doors (because they were just getting warm).  But it stunk SO bad and my throat was getting itchy and the detector was still going off.  So, I talked to Steve and we decided I should just move it out of the garage. I couldn't get it started after that on my own but luckily I have really nice neighbors that are always so willing to help. So my neighbor got it going and I LEFT the house with the kids and went to my parents (their power had just returned). Grandma and Grandpa seemed un-phased by it all and they stayed. Then Brent and I were back at the house getting some things for bed and the power came back on (around 10:30) but the kids were already settled at my parents and we didn't want to risk if there was still any harmful chemicals still floating in the air (the detector was still going off) so we had a warm (but somewhat miserable night) at my parents. Uncle Steve came over and got my grandparent's all straightened out after that and he re-set the detector and it stopped beeping so all was well.  I'm just grateful that I got home when I did and that we had a working detector. The Lord is always blessing us.