Christmas Letter

This year with everything that has gone with me. We just did not get christnmas cards out. We did make and send this card/letter to friends and family that we had an email address for. If you did not get it then I am sorry and I need your email address. We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Snow

Well winter has finally hit. There is snow every where. The kids are so excited and play in it every day. The first storm hit on saturday. Brielle kept saying that she wanted to go plow. Marc told her to wait a little bit. I few minutes later we found her all dressed and outside pushing the snow in the drive way.

She did this all by herself. I quess when she wants to do something she does it.
The next day we had even more snow. It was time to get the snow blower out this time.

Brielle thought she was being a big help by following her dad with the shovel.

Zack came out later and got his frist class on how to work a snow blower. He really liked this and thought he was so big now.
I am glad that he liked to do this and I didn't have to.

Santa picture

A tradition that I have, is that I love to take the kids to have their picture taken with santa. I had it all planned to go last weekend, before the santa train but Marc was sick and I didn't want to go near the mall on a saturday without him. So I thought I would take them down on monday, but it snowed all day and I didn't want to drive the canyon in the snow. Now I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to take them to see santa before I went in for surgery on wednesday because it was suppose to snow on tuesday. But we lucked out and tuesday ended up being sunny and nice. As soon as Zack got out of school we ran down to see santa and grab a few last gifts. Now I was ready for surgery. I was happy that I was able to do one last christmas thing with my kids. Merry Christmas.

Santa Train

On saturday I took the kids for a ride on the Santa train/Heber creeper. We ran into our friends the Muses and the Anderson's. Connor was so excited to get to ride the train with two of his good friends, Ethan and Gage. We rode the train to Soldier hollow where Santa gets on the train. He walks through the train handing out candy canes. Then we ride back to the station. The kids had a lot of fun.

Me with the kids waiting to get one the train

Zack Connor and Brielle

The Muses, Andersons, and Ellis's all riding the Heber Creeper

After that we went over to Swiss Christmas in Midway. The kids got to see all the ginger bread houses people have made and Zack found the one that his piano teacher had made. They got to frost and decorate ginger bread cookies. They love doing this every year. Then we went to look at the boths adn went to see the ne grocery store. It was a fun day to send with my kids.


The kids working on their cookies












Zack showing his finished cookie off

Holidays

This year for thanksgiving we had it at our house with Marcs family. Not everyone could make it, but were grateful for the ones that could. We had a turkey and a ham and all the sides. No one went hungry. The guys got to watch all the football they wanted while My sister in law and I planned out our black friday shopping plans.


The kids bar. All the cousins got to eat here togher.

All the family gathered togehter

Pie, pie, and more pie. Marc thought that the three pies I made wasn't going to be enough for the whole weekend so I bought 2 more. well ten Marc's brother thought he would make a pie and Marcs mom decided to bring 2 pies. So we ended up with 8 pies. Surprisingly there were doubles of anyhting.

Connor and Jenna sent most of thanksgiving exploring, and collecting acorns from the pond area next to our house.


My sister in law and I love the deals of black friday , but are not dye hards like the people you see on TV. We left around 6 am and started shopping around 7am. We got everything we wanted and didn't have to wait out in the cold and in the lines. we were tired and ready for a nap once we got back.


We had a BYU football party at Jared and Jaimes. The cougars won, Yeah!!!. Marc didn't join us because he wen tto the game with my dad and saw the game first hand. we knew he had fun because he had no voice left when he got home.

Sunday night Marc and I took the kids down to temple square to see the christmas lights. Every year we want to go, but don't always get there because of weather or timing. So we went early this year. I love the lights, and the feeling on temple square. Brielle was so cute we said, "look there's the temple" and she said, "No, that's a castle". Later she told me it was Jesus's castle. She is so cute. It was great to explain the christmas story and teach the kids about the true meaning of christmas. We went down early so that we were there when it got dark. Good thing because after an hour and half the kids were cold and ready to go home. It was a great way to kick off the christmas holiday. I am definitely in the christmas mood now.

Our family by the Christis


The temple with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus at the base on a pond.


The christmas lights at temple square


Zack by the luminary. They had all differnt kinds of luminaries going to differnt nativities from differnt countries.


Connor and Brielle with the lights in the back ground.

Trick or Treat

The kids were so excited to go trick or treating. This year being on a weekend we didn't have to wait for Marc to get home from work, so they went out early. They went out at 5. It was nice because the kids could see where to walk and it was still kind of warm. Marc took the kids trick or treating with someof our friends, the McCormick's. I got stay at home and hand out the candy. I like doing this because I can see all the fun costumes that come to the door. Zack was darth maul from star wars, Connor was an alien, Brielle was a fall witch, and Marc wore my Dads ape mask and went as an ape man. They were all so cute. They now have enough candy to last them a long time.

The kids with their friend Haley getting ready to go trick or treating.

Ape man

Darth Maul

Alien's have landed

too cute to be a witch

Carving Pumpkins

A couple of nights before halloween we finally let the kids carve their pumpkins. We grew all our own pumpkins again this year and the kids have wanted to carv them ever since we picked them. We let the kids do what ever design they wanted. I helped Brielle carve hers and then she changed it a little. They all had a lot of fun and did a great job.

All the pumpkins lined up an glowing

Zack with his pattern drawn on and getting ready to carve.

Connor did his all by himself. He said it was the 4 heads. A face on every sdie.

Brielle's pumpkin that she helped carve. I helped cut out the main face and then she changed it, so the piece is missing on the face and the guts falling out.

Brielle didn't like cleaning out the guts.

Fall Break.

The kids had a fall break (usually it would be UEA but it was later this year since we started school later) from school this past week so we headed to St. George to enjoy a the warm weather longer. The first day oncwe we checked in to our room there wasn't much time to do much so we took the kids to pirate island. It's a restuarant, but they have an archade area fro the kids to play in while they wait for dinner to come. It's was a great place for the kidsto get their wiggles out after being in the car all day. The place is all decorated like a pirates island. We ate in the tiki hut and the archades where in the skull cave. The kids liked that. After we got back to the hotel Marc and the kids went swimming at the pool. It was also a good way to use up that left over energy.




The next day we got up and drove over to Zions national park. There we met up with Marc's Mom, Jonathan,Jared, Jaime, Jensen, Jenna, and Jaxton. It was a fun day. The weather was great. Fall in Zions is so pretty. We got to hike, have a picinic and the kids got to play in the sand and get really dirty. Connor was so dirty his hair looks a gray red color from the dirt. The kids loved getting to see and run around with their cousins and getting to see Grsndma Ellis. We didn't do any really big hikes, with the little kids and me be pregnant, but we did the little ones. One was weeping rock. It wascool to see how much water was running out of the rocks. On the hike up we came across this taranchula, he/ she was so big and I hate spiders. The kids liked driving through the mile long tunnel and trying to hear the echo of their voices.





The next day went went over to snow canyon. Marc had never been there and I relized I had been there with a collage class many years ago. It was cool to see all the lava rock every where. The kids liked climbing on the rocks and in the holes. My sister Jen and neice Sadie came with us. We hiked along Jenny's trail and the petrified sand dunes. That day it was 90 degrees and so hot. We took the kids back to the hotel that afternoon and let them swim to cool off and take naps. That night Jen, Kyler and Sadie joined us for dinner at Chilis. We celebrated Jen's birthday because it was the next day and Sadies which is on the 24th.








The last day on our way home we stop and drove through Kolob canyon. We had never been there and wanted to see if there would be fun places to hikle for another trip. We found a couple of places we would like to come back to. Kolob Canyon is located at the north end of Zions. You get to it from I-15. Our trip was fun and it was great to get away and beable to see family. It was a nice way to start off fall.

Sorry this is long, but I thought it would be easier to do just one big post.