Winter Fun

A few of the fun things we did this winter that I actually took pictures of.

We walked around Riverwoods with Grandma, and went into the coolest toy store ever.

Paul and Brig had a great time snowmobiling on the quad

Everyone built their own Gingerbread House (from a kit, of course) this year.

At this rate I might get the Christmas pictures posted before Valentine's Day...a girl can dream.

So Far Behind...

Should I even blog about November? It seems like forever ago, but I need to make an attempt to record all the great things my peeps are doing, so...

Our Disneyland trip in November was entitled "Let's do things we haven't ever done before." It was sort of rainy the first two days we were there, so the lines were blissfully short and Jake was allowed to go on all the rides that Paul had deemed unworthy in the past.

No comment necessary.

Brig got to have his pic taken with characters to his hearts delight!

The ponchos came in handy for the rain and also Grizzly Rapids. We spent a whole morning in Toon Town. The kids loved it, but I think it contributed to Paul's worst time at DL ever.

Ben always seems to get chosen out of the crowd to do fun things. He has talked to Crush twice in Turtle Talk and here he is trying out an awesome piano in Innoventions -another new thing that turned out to be awesome.

A ride down Main Street in the vintage car. The driver told us a lot of interesting things about Walt Disney, plus we were so tired of walking.

When the rain let up the crowds came, and Paul's good humor left, so we cut short our trip and went home a few days early. We did stop and swim in St. George on the way home which made the kids just as happy as DL. They were also excited to get home in time for Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma Keith and many cousins at Noah's. Paul swears we aren't EVER going back to Disneyland--we shall see :)

Keith Family Party 2010

There was singing...

...Dancing...

...asking and hoping...

...recital piece playing...

...visiting and general merriment.

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve

Margaret, Mike and Ainsley spent Christmas Eve with us. We ate a lot of good food, and watched A Christmas Story. Everyone looked very festive in their cracker crowns.

We made awesome gourmet hot chocolate-thanks for the recipe Tara.

I put all of the presents on the plant shelf this year to prevent any "accidental" openings.

Margaret and Mike set up these awesome luminaries to guide Santa to our house. I loved my tree this year. It was so fun to have it in the upstairs family room where I could really enjoy it.


Christmas Morning

Ahh...months of work for minutes of sheer joy. I love the look on Paul's face. I'm sure he's having a great time he just needs a Diet Coke.



I think everyone got what they wanted-thanks to exceptionally detailed letters to Santa and constant reminders for the last two months.

Here's to a wonderful 2011!

This is Halloween...Boo!

This year for the parade at school I didn't try to fight the crowds in the gym, instead I stood outside and caught each one as they were going into the school!












I didn't understand that when Brig wanted to be "Quidditch" Harry Potter for Halloween that it might have something to do with "Hermione".

















Ben wanted to be a phantom, but it came with a mask and flashing red eyes that he couldn't wear to school. So instead I applied his make-up in the car on the way to school. The dark circles are only partially make-up, since we stayed up way past our bedtime at Heather's fun party last night.

















Jake begged for this Luke Skywalker costume that we ordered online; I tried to talk him into Han Solo in keeping with his Harrison Ford tradition, but to no avail. It's a sad day when peace-keepers like the Jedi, aren't allowed to carry their lightsabers at school.













A group shot right before the boys went trick-or-treating. It was raining really hard, so they all wore ponchos over their costumes.

Rachel had a fun party with 15 of her closest BFF's. We ate lots of spooky treats, told scary stories, played games, and watched awesome Halloween clips from Youtube that I figured out how to stream to our TV (I'm so proud of myself for learning how to do this!) We decided to give out cotton candy this year for our treats. So Paul and I ran the cotton candy machine in the garage and the trick-or-treaters stopped in for a fun treat out of the rain. The cotton candy was a HUGE hit, but we were unbelieveably sticky!!! I think that is why I carried my camera in my pocket the whole night, and didn't take a single picture (I'm very mad at myself for doing this!) Anyway, we had a crazy fun Halloween and still made it to church the next day! (Thank heavens for the 1:00 schedule.)

Heather's Shower

I love the invitation that Lindy made. How many baby shower invitations do you get with a pic of the mom-to-be with her first kill!


















Heather and her live-in Nanny.














These two turned out pretty well despite my dire predictions when they were 3!













The cutest winter hat and boots for the baby so she can go out to build a snowman--girl clothes are so awesome!

















I finally got to meet Benson-what a cutie! (just like his mom).














Rachel had a great time playing with Henrie. She loves other peoples brothers!













It almost fits-just a few more weeks! Thanks to Heather for doing the hard work so that we could all get together and party.