Winter Wonderland

There wasn't a huge amount of snow while we were in Utah.

But we took advantage of the snow we could find,


and sledded to our hearts' content!


This was our kid's first time.


That is so sad to me... but what can you do when you live in Oklahoma???

We capped off the old day outside with warm hot chocolate inside.

Emma... the 4-year-old!

Our kids don't usually get to celebrate their birthdays with lots of family around.
In fact, it is just mom and dad and the siblings most years.
This year, Emma was one lucky girl...

1 grandma and grandpa,
4 uncles,
4 aunts,
15 cousins,
1 mom and dad,
2 brothers,
1 sister,
and a Dora cake!

Happy Birthday, Miss Em.
You are a ray of sunshine in our lives.
You love to love people,
and we hope that you always have so much affection and such a caring nature.
Our home would be empty without you in it.
Now, if we could just get you to quit sucking your thumb...

Cabin Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we took a little drive to Idaho.

Destination: Grandpa Ken's cabin.

Luckily, the snow was too high to get into the cabin in our trucks.

We just HAD to use the "snow cat."

It is safe to say we all loved the adventure.

Cookies in the old wood-burner for Santa,

Hot chocolate on the stove,

Reading from Luke 2,

And 4 very happy children.


On Christmas day, we opened presents.



Grandpa and Grandma made waffles and eggs for breakfast.

And then, our poor snow deprived children played and played until their cheeks were pink and their toes were purple!



It was a, warm and toasty, lovin' our family, fun in the snow, magical little Christmas.

Temple Square

Dennis surprised me a few days before Christmas with an early present.

We were scheduled to go to Iowa around Christmas-time this year.

He said he thought we should go to Utah instead!

So, instead of his family we would be visiting mine.

What's more is that we usually don't go away from our home until after Christmas, but that this year we would go up a few days ahead of time and spend the entire holiday.

We drove for 18 1/2 hours to get there, but we made it!

On our first night, we rode the Trax Train down to Salt Lake City to see the lights at temple square.

One of my brother's families and my sister's families, plus my mom and dad, and our little six went together.

The girls for the night - minus my sister and I

Andrew just playin' it cool

Jared stayed nice and warm dressed up as a dragon and bundled in his car seat

My girls and me

It was a good night!

U-G-L-Y

Our fun friends hosted an "Ugly Sweater" party for Christmas this year.

Dennis and I thought it was fun figuring out who we knew that might have an ugly sweater lurking in their closet... a sweater just begging to be worn to a party like this.


And to answer the burning question... yes, those are three-dimensional embellishments on my sweater!

Family - December 2010

Marvin

He watches us during the day to see if we are naughty or nice.

He flies to Santa at night, reports on the day's behaviors, and flies back home.

He comes home a little later if we've been naughty...

But if we've been nice he is in a new place bright and early each morning.

So far, it seems to be helping us all be a little nicer.

Except Andrew doesn't want Marvin to tell Santa anything.

I guess he knows Marvin mostly has naughty things to report about him.


We better watch out... Christmas is coming!