Christmas Time

By far one of our favorite holidays of the year. Christmas morning at our house always begins with reading the story of the birth of the Savior from the Bible. We then unwrap our gifts one at a time, so that everyone gets a chance to see what everyone else got and to stop and express gratitude for each gift given. It truly is the the most wonderful time of the year.

Miguel"s Hats

Always needing to find a new project to keep this little boy busy Miguel decided to learn to knit and completed this hat all by himself on a loom. I think he did a pretty good job! The second was given to him by our nice neighbor Joyce for helping to watch her elderly father, while she was out.

Easton the Elf

We had and elf named Easton come and visit us this
year along with a letter explaining why Santa had sent
him to our house from the North Pole.

Miguel and Mikayal both loved waking up each morning to
see what Easton had been up to while they were asleep.
They tried to be especially good so that Easton would give
a good report to Santa when he went back to visit.
As Mimi put it on Christmas morning when she saw all the
gifts..." I must have had 49 naughties and 54 nices."
(The nices just barely won by a small margin)

One morning he dove into a box of cheerios. He also was found
reading a Christmas book, hanging from the chandelier and
swinging from our ceiling fan one day just for fun.
The kids loved him so much they hope he'll come back next year.

Our Thanksgiving

This year Matt and I got to host Thanksgiving dinner.
Matt took charge of the turkey and I handled some of
the other dishes. Our favorite is Sweet Potato Pie, YUM!

Dad and Mom joined us on a walk afterwards

Heather and Brian

Aspen, Mckell and Mikayla all posing pretty.

More pics of Thanksgiving

Me and my Mom

Mimi and Uncle Brian

Miguel being very silly!

Alta's Senior Night

This was Caleb's last year playing for the Hawks.
They honored all of the Seniors and we felt really sentimental
about our Caleb. He's a great kid!

Brad, Pop and Nan came to practically every game
this year, which gave Caleb his own little instant fan base.

Here are the Hawks at Rice Eccles Stadium before the
playoff for the finals.

Halloween Dance

Caleb and Colton both got asked to Alta's Halloween Dance
Above Colton is with his date Taylor, it was his first date.

Caleb's date bought a gladiator costume for him so he loved
hamming it up for the camera. He had a hard time keeping a straight face.

Birthday at Boondocks

Miguel celebrated his eighth birthday at Boondocks fun center.
He is a wonderful son who keeps us on our toes. He is full of energy
and always has some new idea on how he can keep busy.
We love having him in our family.

Our Family at Thanksgiving Point Gardens

This is truly one of our favorite places to hang out once it is warm enough. We always buy a season pass. It is so relaxing to walk through these beautiful gardens and see how they change during each new season. It also gives us all the chance to just talk and enjoy each others company.

Matt and I

Our cute brood!

More Thanksgiving Point Pics

Our beautiful nieces Aspen and Mckell.

Mikayla and Mckell taking a break.

Tayler's Kitty

Tayler and her friend Ashley saw some people giving away kittens and decided it would be a great idea to adopt little "Studly". The thing they failed to think through was the fact that both Tayler's and Ashley's Dads are allergic to cats. Ashley tried to hide him for awhile in her room but he was soon detected by her parents. This was a short lived cat parenting venture!

Pics from the Bees Game

Family Night at the Bees Game

We all had a fun night out at the bees game with the Larsen Family. We sat out on the lawn where the kids could run wild and free.