Christmas Day '07

Christmas Day, right after Santa Claus came. We had a forest in the living room this year.
Ellie with all her cool gifts from her christmas sock!

Weston & Dad playing with Weston's new remote control helicopter!

Bekah with her new Littlest Pet Shop, a Fuzzy penguin!


Ray with his new Tranformer, Autobot Jazz!

Ray and Weston also got this new super fort builder, that you can build all sorts of forts with. I think Lyn and Klint had the most fun. Ray, also has his favorite gift, his new flashlight!

We had a great Christmas and the kids got spoiled, of course.

Christmas Eve '07

For Christmas Eve my family gets together and performs the Nativity.

All the children and some of the adults participate. My Dad reads the story from the Bible, and my sister, Annelisa plays the carols we sing. It is a fun tradition, and helps the kids remember the true meaning of Christmas.
My sister Camille, her husband Brad, and their baby Maylie as Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus!
"And she brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes..."..and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn." (Luke 2:7)
Angels- Bekah, Brieanna, and Ellie Jo.
"And an angel of the Lord came upon them, and said Fear not, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy..,for unto you is born this day, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11)

Shepherds- Andalyn, Krys, and Ray, and Sophia the cow.
"The shepherds said one to another, Let us go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass.. and the found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manager"(Luke2:15-16)

Wise men- Weston, Mason, and Brian.
"And there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him." (Matt 2:1-2)

Silent Night, Holy Night!

"And Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart."(Luke 2:19)
Merry Christmas!

Secret Santa

For Christmas this year we had a wonderful opportunity to help a family that wasn't going to get much for Christmas. So we teamed up with the Arnolds, who feel that they have been so blessed these past months and wanted to give something back!
Anyway, we split up the family and we all went and did our own shopping, then we gathered at the Arnolds house to wrap the presents.
We had a lot of fun! This is Ray "helping" with the ribbons.
Alyssa even took the time to show Ellie how to make the perfect ribbon bows.
Everyone got it to the act!

This is the pile of presents for the family!
After the wrapping we all ate choc. cake and cinnamon rolls. Teresa is the best cook!

Bekah found out about Ipod music from Alyssa(now she wants one)


Lyn and Shayla had a air hockey death match! Lyn only won by one point!

After that we got all bundled up and went to deliver the presents. It was so neat to hide and see the children jumping for joy, and saying "It's from Santa!" and then to feel the true spirit of Christmas in our hearts. It was wonderful and I believe our children understood the true meaning of Christmas! We ended the evening by singing the First Noel and joining the Arnolds in family prayer. They have such a sweet spirit about them, especially Andrew. They need our prayers and we need their example!

Finally Old Enough

Weston has been anticipating the day he was Old Enough to help shovel the driveway with his Dad. So this morning he got up and ready for school and he finally got the chance to help.
He did a great job too, and Lyn even showed him how to spread the ice melt on after. He was beeming with pride when he came in to eat breakfast.
I was thankful Lyn took the time to show Weston how to properly shovel the driveway. Weston just loved helping his Dad.

On Sat. it snowed a lot and Lyn was off hunting and I had to go to the store and the driveway was full of snow. So Weston says "Mom we need to clear the snow off the driveway. Come on I'll help ya." So we head out to shovel and he shows me how to do it like Dad does it, I guess Dad's way is the only way. When we were done He says "Mom you can go in the house, Dad showed me how to put the ice stuff on and I'll do it!" He was so funny about it all, and I was so proud!

Heather's B-day 29 Again!

For my birthday dinner Lyn took me and the kids to this new place in town called The Cobbler House. The food was excellent and the prices were comparable to the Hub. The kids all had breakfast, which is served anytime, and Lyn had their signature BBQ beef brisket meal. My dinner was great too. Then our waiter had the staff sing Happy Birthday to me as the kids requested and they also presented me with their Birthday Cobbler, so good! Cobbler with a big scoop of Vanilla ice cream topped with fresh strawberries and choc. sauce. Yummy! It was a fun night, and a great place to eat. You should try it!
These are a few of my presents, love the snowman stuff! Fav. is the black leather jacket that was a smokin' deal, and the candle Ellie bought with her babysitting money.
Thanks to everyone who called and left reditions of Happy Birthday on the answering machine! It made my day, some of you were so funny!

Gingerbread Houses

One of our family Christmas traditions is to make gingerbread houses for the Cottages For the Children, a silent auction/fund raiser for our local Children Justice Center. This year we made 18 family houses. Lyn's house won 2nd place in the Amateur Division this year. Way to go Lyn! We all had a lot of fun. The last few pictures on the slide show are of our favorite houses, and ideas for next year!

Ode to High School Class of '89

This post is for my fun friend Rachel, who has dubbed this week Hooray for High school! High school was not a fun memory for me. I wasn't a jock, but I wasn't a nerd either, and our class of '89 was very clickish and social classed, so bad that it was taboo to date anyone outside of your social class, my senior year was the most fun for me, cause I rebeled and tried to change all that! I was still clogging my freshman year. Our group the Heber Hoedowners( not the best name) even went to competitions.
For all 4 years of high school I entered the ZCMI table setting contest and won and represented Wasatch High in the State contest. It was fun!

This is my favorite table setting of the 4. It was called a crisp country morning! The center piece ducks are still in my mothers front room.
I also loved to sing, and made the elite show choir called Sound Investment. This is a picture of us in Florida, performing at Disney World my Senior year. My brother Corey, and my cousin Tonya were in this group too. We had a lot of good times in choir!
This is my Jr. Prom. My Mother made this beautiful dress for me. We did the promanade thing and coming out thing where they annouce your name, my dress got a lot of ooo's and ahhh's. We also had the first dance with the parents. This is my Dad. He was so proud!

This is my best friend Wynn. We made a pack that we would go to the dances together, so we could always have a date. That only worked until he got a girlfriend, but this is my favorite picture of our date dances.
My Jr. year I decided that Heber boys were stupid. So I started dating out of town. This Rob Wirthlin, I meet him at a chior competition. We hung out/dated for about 3 1/2 months then the gas to SLC and Heber got to be too much of both of us. We remained freinds til after his mission. He was a lot of fun, but I was always so nervous around his Granfather, Elder Wirthlin.
This is the guy I liked all through High School, and never went out with til my senior year. We were both on the decorating committee for Morp, (girls choice) I wasn't "going" but Doug had to be there and I guess everyone assumed he had a date, but didn't. So the day before I asked him. I since I was the only one who did, I finally got my dream date. From the picture you can tell I was way more excited than he was. Cheesy grin! It was a great night, and we had a lot of fun. However the repreconsions (sp) weren't any fun for either of us!
Any way enough of my sob story. This is graduation! I was so glad to not have to go back again that I planned it, so that I was on my mission for my 5 year reunion. Cheesy enough they invited me and not my good friend Kim, who still lived in Heber with her parents.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Gramie and Grandpa took us to this Dinosaur track Museum
It was cool. Most of the exhibits were just to look at but this one you could touch, which was good for Bekah, cause she had a hard time not touching!
This is a big stone slab with footprints all over it!
This is the discovery center for kids, where they could make dinosaur rubbings. We had a great time. Thanks Gramie and Grandpa!

That evening we went to the lighting ceremony at the St. George Temple, It was beautiful!
This is the kids listening to the Christmas story.
This family picture is a requirement for going to the vistor center. It was even more special this year, because Lyn's cousin Bethany Anderson from VA. is a sister missionary, stationed at the visitors center. So we had a little family reunion and got to visit with her for a while.
Wise Men Still Seek Him!

Thanksgiving '07

This year we went down to St. George, for Thanksgiving with Lyn's family. The trip down wasn't too bad. The kids watched Transformers on the DVD player, and slept, we rolled in around 11:30 p.m. The next day we all helped to get dinner ready, the kids even helped set the table and fold the napkins.
We didn't eat dinner until 2 p.m. and everyone was sneakin' food by then.
Caught ya, Ellie!

Ray's favorite part of Thanksgiving Dinner! OLIVES!
Man that Turkey drug kicks in fast!

These are our after Thanksgiving Dinner traditions!

Above is Nap time, next is a walk down to the clubhouse to see the swans.
This is a bridge across the swan pond. It was such a nice day!


For supper on Thanksgiving Day we have pie, 4 kinds this year & apple spice cake too. Then we express the things that we are thankful for. Family is the most common thing. It's a great way to end the day!

Slumber Party!

My kids only get to have sleep-overs with their cousins, since all their cousins live out of town it doesn't happen very often. So when we get it have a rare sleep-over I try to make it special.

So I braided the girls hair after their bath.
Trennedy got to sleep on the cot in Ellie and Bekah's room. They went to bed at 9:00, but we had to tell them to stop giggling at 10:30 and go to sleep!

Trennedy went to church with us the next day. Bekah was excited to have her in primary with her, even if it was only for a little while before she had to go home. The girls had a fun time together!

Tiesha's Bridal Shower

Well after all the craziness of planning this bridal shower for Tiesha (my soon to be sister in law)It was a success and everyone had a great time!

This picture is of my Towel Cake. I planned the shower & couldn't be in the contest!
We had a room to room shower with a prize going to the most creative gift. This gift won the prize. It is for the laundry room with a basket full of supplies, but the kicker was how Gramie decorated it with the clothes pins hanging from the outside for the basket. Anyway, it had some stiff competition with a case of toilet paper and a bathroom reader book, and a box of cookie cutters with a rolling pin and a sugar cookie recipe. Everyone had a hard time deciding who should win!
The best part of the shower was the giving of the Something OLD, Something NEW, Something BORROWED, Something BLUE.

This is the Something Old!

Teisha's Mother, Carolyn gave Tiesha a beautiful white hankie that her Grandmother had given to her, when they were sealed in the temple as a family. so she passed on the tradition.

Something New!
Her girlfriends bought her pearl earrings to wear on her wedding day.

Something Borrowed!

I had everyone bring thier favorite recipe to give to Tiesha with this cute recipe stand.

Something Blue!

I had to find something for the Wedding Night. Poor Tiesha was throughly embarassed.

It was such a fun afternoon and the food was really good (Thanks Susy)