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Tarin's Santa gift for Christmas was a cat.  She had gotten all the "goodies" like cat litter, toys and such on Christmas day, and the next day we went and let her pick out the cat of her choice.  She was so excited!  It was priceless to see her excitement.

Leona was the cat for our family.  She is 1 1/2 yrs old and good around kids, house trained and such a beauty.

As you can see she is our explorer.  The shelter mentioned it could take up to 2 wks for her to adjust to our house, but by that same evening, she came out of the laundry room to hang out with all of us.  Her favorites are drawers--climbing behind them--and mom and dads closet.  She is a real sweetie.

Christmas Time

Christmas Eve 2012 we had my brother Jeff and his family and my sister Tana and her family over.  It's so nice to get together with family.  This is what I love about the holidays.

We had a great dinner together and nativity program.  So cute to see these guys altogether.

Then afterwards, we had PJ's and ornaments to open.  Also the kids loved having Secret Santa gifts to each other.  That was a real treat to Ammon this year.  He's fully aware of how things work now.

       Ammon's train ornament                             Jarom's BYU football player ornament               Raegan's fashionista ornament

                         Rian's soccer ornament                                      Tarin's snow globe ornament 

A beautiful Christmas Morning.  Snowed all day yesterday, but today was sunshine and winter wonderland.

Kids traditionally sleep all in one room Christmas Eve, and know that they can't come get us until 7am.  This is what they saw this morning.

After all the fun of gifts, we skyped with my parents in Ghana, Africa.  It was good to talk with them and see their faces.  We love them and cheer them on.

Afternoon was the time we headed over to Gma and Gpa Wardwell's house for food, fun and hanging out.  Gma came up with this brilliant idea to tie the sleds to the ATV's.  The kids LOVED it!  It was a lot of fun.  Cold and wet when they got off, but they wanted more....Ammon was so cute holding on and not wanting to let anyone else have a turn.

I had fun on the other ATV from Gpa, dragging the cousins around.  I like swinging them around and doing little jumps.

Rian                                                             Jarom

Raegan was so adorable.

Tarin is my little snow bunny!

Seriously, family is the greatest gift of life.  We love you all and thank you for so many fun and memorable experiences.  Merry Christmas!

Nativity Sunday

I team teach the CTR 4 class in Primary. This was a very special day. The kids had the chance to act out the nativity. Of course there favorite part was dressing up. But I know they enjoyed learning about our Savior Jesus Christ.

Baylie Olsen was Mary and Molly Gygi was the Angel and Preston Crawley was a shepherd 

All together...Molly Gygi, Leah Wood, Kaeden Giles, Tyler Finch, Sawyer Ramey, Baylie Olsen, Allissa Laing, and Preston Crawley.  Missing Coba Shaw and Stratton Gormley

These were the gifts I had given to the class.  The ornaments were so easy and fun to make and I think they turned out really well.  I also made tie tacks for the boys and hair clippies for the girls for bringing their scriptures to church for the last few months.  They did a great job and I loved teaching them.  Who know where next year will take me in Primary.

Salt Lake Temple Square

 A cold, but beautiful night.  The three younger kids have never seen this temple except in pictures.  So this was pretty cool for them. 

 

Ammon and one of his many faces.  

Told our kids about this tabernacle, that conferences use to be held there.  Of course that just reinforces how old we are getting...according to our teenager. 

 Loved this reflection pool

Getting warm in the visitor center.

Snow! Snow! and More Snow!

 We have had two dumpling's of snow in the past 5 days.  Monday wasn't good packing snow and harder for me to shovel off (after everyone walked all over it and made it "one" with the sidewalk).  Last night it dumped excellent packing snow for snow forts and sledding (easier to shovel).

Heritage Park

Our neighbors, the Browns, have been so great taking our kids and other neighbor kids to the nearby park to go sledding.  Here is the bunch that went today!

Tarin and Abby were trying to find creative ways to head down the hill...

Always had to climb back up...

Rian

Tarin my little snow bunny

Raegan and Elizabeth making their mark...poor Elizabeth had wet boots and thought barefoot would be better...

Joseph Brown attempting to snowboard down...looks pretty good, til about halfway down...

Abby and Noelle were really funny trying to stay on the board.

More snow forecasted over the next few days...hope I can survive.

Shops At The Riverwoods

These shops down in Provo, by the mouth of the canyon were pretty spectacular.  Over 10 yrs ago as BYU students we were here, but it has changed a lot.  The lights were amazing, there was a Santa Clause (which my kids will never do) and hot cocoa, Llamas, and horse drawn carriage rides.  Pretty neat, but very cold night.

Spent time with Gma and Gpa, and Missy and her boys were in town for a visit.

Llama...Alpaca...don't know, but kids loved it.

Finally we got to ride the carriage.  These horses are beautiful and it was a great ride.

New Glasses

After many years, I was finally able to get some new glasses.  My last pair had been chewed up by our Charlie dog...so this was nice to finally have a good pair.  They are a bit heavy, but didn't realize that til after wearing them around all day.  Either way, they are nice to have.

GingerBread Houses

Nice thing being closer to family, we are able to participate in more family traditions. Every year Trent's family builds "ginger"bread houses.  Gma Wardwell is amazing for all the work she puts into such family events.  Missy was also in town with her two boys, so it was nice to have almost all the family here.

 Little ones at one table and the older ones with their own imaginations for creating... 

 Raegan, Ammon, Jarom, Tarin, and Rian

Their creations to bring home and pick at for the next week (or less)...