Adam turned 4 and David and Gaylene had an anniversary

We barely get done with Christmas and we have Adam's birthday on December 28th.  We had cake with candles and of course.... presents!!!  It's like another Christmas all over again.  

Think of a wish before you blow out the candles.

BLOW!

Then on December 29th David and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.  WOW!  I can't believe it's been 20 years but it's been great and we hope for another 20 years.

David made it a wonderful anniversary.  He started celebrating a few weeks ago with little surprise gifts (i.e. chocolates, flowers, etc.) and a few love notes too.  Then he took me away for a night to Salt Lake City where we saw a couple of movies, had a nice dinner and spent the night at the Hilton.  We even got to sleep in!! It was great!  He also surprised me with a beautiful pair of diamond earrings.  Isn't he romantic?  I love him.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Hope you enjoyed some of our moments caught on film.

Christmas Fun Continues....

Gngerbread Houses and Trains - Adam made the train (with Mom's help)

Rachel decorated the house all by herself.

Rebecca got to do her own little one at a Primary Class Party.

David and I got to go to a fun Christmas Party for his work.  Here we are all dressed up and ready to go.

The boys and some friends from the neighborhood went out caroling... one the boys even accompanied them on guitar.  Yes, just boys went and it was totally spur of the moment, "let's go caroling"

We enjoyed seeing the lights on Temple Square but it was so COLD!!!  It was in the 20's and so we would go outside for a little bit then find a building to go into to warm up.  Very beautiful!

Rachel built this cute little snowman.

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In the back, behind Rachel, you can see a snow cave that Joshua and Tanner built.

Yes, they are playing in the snow at night in the dark.  They just can't seem to get enough and they tell me that t is very warm inside their cave.  I guess it probably is once you get 2 or 3 boys in there.  They have even mentioned sleeping in it but I'm not sure they really want to give up their warm beds for a whole night.

Finally Got the Tree Decorated

Well, we were a little late this year but we finally got the tree up and decorated.  It's always fun to put the ornaments on with all the good memories that come with them.  One ornament is a large gold ball with ribbon from my wedding bouquet on it.  Another one is a pine cone from the tree in England under which my great, great grandparents are buried.  I could go on and on because so many of my ornaments have stories behind them but I think it would bore you all. Nonetheless, I love reminiscing and decorating with my family.

We even got to visit a couple of Santa's reindeer.  They are in the area for a visit before the BIG day.

The Farm

I took Adam and Rebecca to The Farm at Thanksgiving Point.  It was kind of a cold afternoon so we were the ONLY people there.  We had the whole place all to ourselves.  I thought it was great.  We saw cows.... now Adam knows where milk comes from.

We saw horses and Adam spoke with a goat.  

They got to ride ponies and Adam said it was very bumpy.  Rebecca agreed but would like to now ride a "big" horse.

Those are some very big horses.

We also saw lots of chickens.... now Adam knows where eggs come from.

We saw some turkeys too.   Adam couldn't believe that that is what we had for dinner on Thanksgiving.  

Welcome Everyone

My blog is public once again.  It's just too hard to make sure everyone who I want to be able to read it has an invitation, accepts the invitation, then actually goes through the steps of being able to view it.  So, welcome to all and I hope you enjoy being a part of our life.

Thankful For:

On Thanksgiving Day I put up these papers on the wall and during the whole weekend our family and all our visitors added to the list. The Thanksgiving ABC's. I wrote across the top the standard "thankful fors" like Family, Friends, Gospel, Country, Home, Clothing, Food, Health and Work. Here are some of the other things people thought of:

A - Apples, Airplanes, Art
B - Books, Beds, Birds, BYU, Bikes, Bible, Book of Mormon
C - Computers, Coordination, Cougars, Colors, Cameras, Commute (that's short), Chocolate, Caramel Apples
D - Doctors, Doughnuts
E - Elephants, Earth
F - Football, Flowers, Fire
G - Games, Green, God, Gravey, Grandparents, Gordon B. Hinckley
H - Hugs, Ham, Holidays, Heavenly Father, Heaven
I - Ice Cream
J - Jesus, Jumpropes, Joseph Smith
K - Kisses, Ketchup
L - Lobsters, Legos, Lullabys
M - Music, Medecine, Mountains, Moon, Moms, MRI's, Mashed Potatoes
N - Neurosurgeons
O - Octopuses, Orange
P - Prophet, Piano, Pioneers, Pilgrims, Pools, Pillows, P.J.s, Priesthood
Q - Quilts, Quizzes
R - Red, Restoration, Rocks
S - Slippers, Swimming, Snow, School, Smiles, Santa Claus, Soccer, Salad, Sun
T - Turkey, Trampoline, Technology, Thunderbirds, Thomas S. Monson
U - Umbrellas, Utah
V - Vacations
W - World, Water, Warmth
X - X-rays, Xylophones
Y - Yellow, Yes
Z - Zebra, Zoos

WOW!! - We are thankful for so much!!

We are so glad that our friends from San Jose came to visit. Nathan and Bobby spent the night so my only picture is of the boys in the morning just after they woke up... aren't they cute?

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  The day began with a great neighborhood turkey bowl.  David and the boys always look forward to this event.

We are so thankful for our children!!

The table is set and the turkey is ready!

We are glad to have Grandma Ginia here with us for the week.  Dinner was delicious and it only took 5 people about 7 hours to prepare.  Thanks for everyone's help.  We ate it in about 30 minutes but we will enjoy it for a few days since we had lots of leftovers.

Adam got all tired out and we found him asleep under the futon.

FUN Times

So the big BYU vs. Utah football game was yesterday. Sad to say that BYU lost but all you Ute fans are probably pretty happy. Jared came home to watch with us and we had a great time. We figured out that everything started with "F" that we were enjoying.... Family, Food, Football, Fire, Foof Chairs and Futon. Is it a coincidence?

A Fabulous Birthday Gift

I had a wonderful birthday, relaxing and being pampered by my family.  I got some great gifts all of which I loved.  The picture of the apple peeler, corer, slicer is one of the gifts I got.  My niece got one for her wedding and when I saw it, I was amazed.  I love apples but many times pass up the snack for something more junky because I hate slicing them and peeling them (my kids don't like the skin much).  Tanner and I tried it out this morning.... very slick.  We finished one apple and Tanner looked at me and said, "let's do another one" (we hadn't even eaten the 1st one, it was just fun).  My husband may come home tonight to bowls of sliced and peeled apples everywhere.  Hee Hee

Mud Pies

It was a beautiful day on Saturday so Rebecca and several other kids decided to play in the mud. It was supposed to be just a little bit in a cup but before I knew what happened, they had a whole river and tons of mud. It was everywhere... all over their shoes, clothes, legs, sidewalk, etc. It's a good thing mud washes off! Oh to be a kid again.

The Skate Park

The sun came out so we went to the skate park which is around the corner from our house. Rachel, Rebecca and Adam are getting to be quite the pros at it. I, on the other hand, watched while I froze to death. I am not kidding. It was so cold and I had a scarf, coat, gloves, hat, etc. I was still cold. Rebecca and Adam were in shorts and they kept saying, "it's not cold". I must be a wimp.

Gaylene's New Blog

Gaylene has started a new blog where she can discuss politics without it interfering with my family happenings.

If you are interested in politics, please visit http://www.gaylenepolitics.blogspot.com/