Ringing the New Year In

Like many other years, we spent the New Year in Afton, Wyoming. It was Chelsea's first real road trip and she did fabulous---sleeping the whole way with only a wake, feed and diaper change once in Evanston. We were ahead of the storm so that was comforting, but we also drove at night so the creatures were out and about. We ran into two separate groups of deer (thanks to our answered prayer for safety and Mike's quick reflexes we didn't hit them.) We also saw one billion white rabbits hopping along the roads in the snow. I'm not kidding there were at least fifty separate little fluffy bunnies that we must of counted during the trip. We just kept saying "There's another one," over and over again. Made me sort of feel like Alice in Wonderland chasing the white rabbit! (Just as a side note on our trip home, in the daylight, we saw three bald eagles---they were BIG birds.)

Above are pictures of the kids next to a bear statue in "downtown" Afton. The snow was lightly falling. We had gone into town to eat at Rocky Mountain Seafood, one of our favorites in Star Valley. I had a yummy halibut parmesan this time. It was so cold, -10 degrees or more, that the power sliding doors on our van had frozen shut! Mike had the heater going and tried to get the doors to respond, finally it took a hair dryer to defrost them!! That was a first.

Here's a pic I took of the temp outside (-8 degrees) at about 2pm in the afternoon as we drove home. And it was even sunny out! To say it was cold outside really is an understatement. We spent most of our trip cozy indoors. (The kids got in their snow bibs and ventured out to go sledding or play in the snow only a couple of times.)

The kids love helping grandma in the kitchen---especially when she is making Spudnut donuts.We went bowling on New Year's Eve and ate pizza. Then we munched on caramel corn and had sparkling cider as we watched the ball drop in Times Square. During our stay we watched lots of college football bowl games and also rented the original "Tron" movie.

Stuffing grapes into their mouths at midnight. A Spanish tradition is to eat one grape for each of the twelve chimes of midnight. If you can get them all in, then your wish for the new year will come true. Maddie was so proud because she did it this year. Way to go, I think it helped to hear the chime of Grandma Judy's clock. Both Alyssa and Josh almost made it. Notice the clock hands are pointing on the 12. At this point Josanna and Chelsea had already gone to bed.Another year and another traditional picture of the children holding homemade signs. This time I have five kids in the photo---amazing. What a blessing. Hope your New Year of 2011 is also blessed.

Christmas Joys

Isn't this shot priceless? If I could sum Christmas up in one pic, this would be it. For Josanna her joy was over receiving a Disney princess playdough set. She just started jumping up and down and I happened to snap her during the "up" part.

Here's another smile of joy from our Chelsea girl. Uncle Tommy was playing with her on the floor Christmas afternoon. Nothing is so sweet as a baby's smile and laugh.We started the Christmas season with a trip to the Festival of Trees. It was Mike's and Chelsea's first time.Thanks Melanie for the idea of using a placemat to make a quick and easy stuffed pillow. Alyssa made this one for a Secret Santa gift exchange in Activity Days.We also enjoyed Temple Square with my extended family. It was a pretty cold night. We bundled Chelsea in layers of blankets in her stroller and she slept peacefully through the whole evening. We loved the lights and the luminaries. The kids usually love going through the Beehive House, but it closed before we made it in this year. Alyssa and Josie stood for a picture outside it, though. Maybe next year, kids.On December 19th my extended family came for an evening of appetizers, soup and desserts. Then the grandchildren dressed in costume and acted out the nativity. Chelsea was baby Jesus.My two youngest in their Christmas dresses the Sunday before Christmas---Sleep in Heavenly Peace!

Cheerleader Sisters

The picture of these two darlings above reminded me of a picture taken several years ago of these two darlings below!

I have my BYU Cheerleader sisters again!

Birthday Hairdo

I told several people that I would post pics of Madelyn's fun hairdo she received for her birthday. Maddie turned thirteen and I now have a teenager! She invited some school friends to The Chocolate in Orem to celebrate and we did a mall scavenger hunt with them. We had a great time. But, we also wanted to invite her Beehive class (neighbor girls) for a party, too. I didn't want to do the gift thing again, so I figured if they each just brought a dollar I could have them fold it into a bow and tie it into her hair with curling ribbon. I let each girl decide where to style the bow into Maddie's hair. It made us all smile and it definitely gave the birthday girl an outstanding hairdo! We had pizza, played improv games, watched Toy Story 3 and had ice cream sundaes. Another fun night.

Halloween - I've been meaning to blog!

I really have been meaning to blog a whole lot of things---Halloween was one of them. So here we are in our costumes. Mike and I were a royal king and queen along with Chelsea as our precious princess and Josie as a Queen of Hearts. We had Josh as Robin Hood and Maddie as Joan of Arc to protect us. Then if we were in the mood for a spell, our lovely witch Alyssa obliged.

I made a good portion of Maddie's and Josh's costumes and really had fun doing it.


As tradition we visited Don and Jeri's place for chili and clam chowder. Josh was happily satisfied in the picture.

Then there is always the day after to deal with---in this case it brought me two little green teethed Fun-Dip goblins!!!