I am so lucky to have such a great family! I mean, how many almost 16 year old boys can you get to sit on Santa's lap just for the picture? Man, I must be the most special momma in the whole wide world!
We always have a fun time at the "Santa Symphony". I am so happy that my kids are learning to love music the way I do. They are always such good sports about going to things like this with me, it never hurts that they get to dress up in costumes (Halloween) or see Santa. Vincent is always great about sitting on Mr. C's lap. One more chance to relay the message about the skate board he wants so badly. Raeannen is a little shy about Santa still, but will always flash her smile at the camera. The last picture was after church on Christmas Sunday, just had to throw one more of them together in.

Raeannen and I have been all excited the whole year about the Nutcracker. She has been practicing her whispering and manners just so that she could go.

We were lucky enough to have Rae's best friend Bailey come with us. (One of my dearest friends, Michelle, is Bailey's mommy). The girls got dressed in their nice new Christmas dresses and got their hair done up and were ready to go! We had a delightful dinner at the Garden in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building before the show, and then we were off to the main event. The girls were so cute, they were acting as though they were princesses, holding the corners of their dresses as they walked and almost tiptoe-ing as they went along. The show was fantastic and the girls loved it. Rae especially liked the wind up bear and doll. I just loved the whole thing. I am excited to start this tradition in my own little family.

Christmas

This has been an interesting Christmas season for me... usually I am so happy and excited this time of year and this year I just haven't caught the Christmas bug. I don't know if is because our tree died, (huge bummer... it was beautiful), or because Jo and Justin are gone, (big bummer... but will be worth it) or what, but I in spite of my odd mood the kids had a wonderful Christmas. We all did some fun things, we did the 12 Days of Christmas for an older couple in our ward, we went Christmas caroling with Michelle, Bailey and Grandma Candy, Grandma Doris and Grandpa Brian and also Jessica Ercanbrack came along. Mom and Rae went to the Nutcracker and Jason and Vincent went to the Hale Centre Theatre's A Christmas Carol the Mom and Dad. And of course, we got to see Santa at Abravenel Hall when we went to the Utah Symphony's Here comes Santa Clause. Jason stole the show at the Grantsville High's music program. His solo in the Jazz band was really good and got him a lot of applause. Rae rode in the Tooele Christmas parade with her ballet group and had a little performance at the December craft fair. It really has been a fun month, even if I'm a little bit of a Grinch.

I knew the boys would be excited about the Wii, but I never thought they would be this excited. It was pretty funny... and then when they found out we were going to California in February, all they said, "Oh cool.... Disneyland." Hmmm...

Family Christmas party

We held the annual Christmas party at the Erkies again this year. It was a good time for all.... we enjoyed great visits, a freezing trip to the res for some iceskating and a very fun party with lots of good food and an awesome nativity complete with Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, 3 wise men, angels, shepherds and even a sheep. Baaaaaa. Thanks Cindy for a fantastic time. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful family.




My children experienced iceskating for the first time. Jason picked up on it immediately. He and Wes were all over the place. Vincent did really good too, he was just a little more timid at first. Rae was lucky to have beginner skates with 2 blades, so she did pretty good herself.... until she got to cold and had to go potty. That was that.

Thanksgiving

We had a great time up in Idaho over Thanksgiving. Of course Cindy made a wonderful turkey dinner complete with mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and her ever famous orange rolls. Jenni provided a perfect brocolli salad and I just whipped up Dads favorite salad and some sweet potatoes. Mom brought up 3 pies and Cindy had another 8 pies. I wasn't quite sure if we'd have enough.... as long as I had plenty of pecan pie it didn't really matter.
We ate way to much food and then played games way to late in the night. It was great. Of course tradition sends us off hunting for the Idaho grown Christmas tree the day after. I don't mind missing Black Friday. I'd rather trapse through the snow looking for our tree than battle a million people to save some money. We had such a fun time this year. There really wasn't much snow, a little disappoining to the kids, but better for us to search. We got off pretty early and all had our trees cut and loaded before dark! A record for sure. We had a lot of fun and now are looking forward to getting the tree decorated for the rest of the
holiday season.

Happy Halloween!!!

Boo!!! We had a great Halloween. The boys decided back in July that they were going to be missionary companions this year. I loved the idea, easy easy costumes. They did a fantastic job. They obviously wore white shirts and ties and dark pants and then the took their scripture bags as trick-or-treat bags. Then, they carried their backpacks so they could empty the scripture bag in it when full. They looked really good. I wish I had taken better pictures of the two of them, but they where in and out of their costumes so fast! So , I hope your imagination can visualize them.

Rae started out as a zombie. She actually makes a very cute zombie. Then she decided she was the corpse bride... (good idea for next year)... and finally ended up telling every one that she was a spider? Whatever.... anyway, Rae and I went trick-or-treating together. She was awesome. What a little trouper. She didn't want to stop. House to house. We made up Halloween songs and had so much fun looking at all the costumes and watching for friends. Finally, she decided her feet were hurting too bad to walk. So, of course she wanted me to carry her from house to house. No Way!
Needless to say, we were soon knocking on our own door and staying home. Ben did a wonderful job of handing out candy. Go Dad. The boys came home shortly afterwards and we all agreed it was a fun and successful Halloween night. (We have enough candy to open a small sugar store). Hope you all had a great holiday as well!

Hunting season

Ben got one! Ya-hoo!!! We have enjoyed venison steaks and some mighty tastey jerkey. Now that deer season is over, he is excited about feeding us pheasant. I can't wait.

Lagoon time

We went to Lagoon yesterday... we had a great time! We always go at Frightmares. Obviously Rae loves the monsters. We watched all of the monster shows at least twice, followed the monsters around and got lots of monster pictures. Vincent loves the rides. He went on all of the important ones. Jason liked the girls.

Here are some random pictures. Vincent had an awesome mohawk this summer. It was pretty hard to let it go when school started, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. We also had to get a picture of our "other" family members. Max the dog joined us last Christmas and Morris the cat has lived with us for the past 5 years. Also, Rae started ballet lessons a few weeks ago. She's the cutest thing we've ever seen in tights.

Idaho camping

We had a super fun time camping with the Erkies and Mike & Jenni & Claire up near Lava. Rae loves riding horses. It's always good to spend time with family.

Happy Birthday Vincent

Vincent turned 11 this past August. He had a "survivor" birthday party. We made grass skirts out of plastic tableclothes for each boy. They played an oyster toss, water balloon volleyball with giant water balloons, tied spaghetti to make ropes, body painted with chocolate pudding and had a soda spray. The boys had a great time and obviously got very very very very very messy..... and Rae was right there with them.

Here ya go....

Okay... here I go on my first attempt at anything like this. I thing our blog will be fairly simple, mostly pictures with a few comments. So, for all of those who have patiently waited, and those of you have have not been quite as patient, enjoy.