December 2009

Decorating the tree. No real tree this year. Crew is too, "into everything," this year so we opted for the little fake one that we could put out of his reach. Brilliant. Tom is a bit obsessive about the outdoor Christmas lights, but this year he only had time to put up about half of what he usually does. On most of the days that he got home early enough to put them up it would be like 5 degrees out with tons of snow. At least our penguins made it out. They love the snow!

Conor & Kya helping me wrap carmels. I made these at Chrismas time with my mom when I was a kid and they truly are the greatest carmels in the world. My mom even sold them for a while and got requests for special orders. So while we were wrapping Conor asked why you can't buy carmels this good at the store. I told him it was because it was our secret family recipe. He asked what the secret ingredient was because my kids know that I always have a secret ingredient in my cooking. Kya covered her ears and said, "don't tell me because I might forget that I can't tell anyone and I might accidentally tell someone." She was completely serious and begged me not to say it. Finally after much pleading from Conor I said, "the secret ingedient is LOVE! He said oh like in that book when the kid and his grandma made cookies and their secret ingredient was love. I love hanging out with my sweet kids. They are so entertaining!

Briley turned one and we got to go to her party. She was so sweet to share her cake with us and share her sleds at the park. It was so fun. We love having a cousin close by.

Conor and Kya's school Christmas program. It's easy to spot them. Just look for the two cutest kids up there. It's was so cute to see how excited they were about their big performance.


We figured out that the little space between ours and the neighbors house is the perfect sledding slope. Now the kids spend hours with the neighbor kids sledding down it. What a great discovery! Watching my kids play in the snow reminds me of when I was a kid and my siblings and I would play in the snow for hours and not even realize we were cold until we came inside and started to thaw.

We had four families over to make graham cracker gingerbread houses. There were 20 kids in all! Thank goodness for our big fun basement! It was so fun and the kids now want to do it every year.

Tom had to have surgery on his thumb for the arthritis he has been suffering with for a couple of years now. Poor guy. He had a bad reaction to the anethesia and they didn't let me see him for a couple hours after because he was dry heaving and they were trying to get him stabilized and comfy. Finally we went home and he stumbled to bed. But the next morning he went to work. Crazy I know. I tryed to talk him out of it but things were crazy at work so he felt he had to be there. Stupid work! It took a couple weeks for him to feel totally normal again. He slept whenever he could.

Briley and Auntie Krista reading a Christmas book together. I love her and she totally loves me.


The Hardy's came over for Christmas Eve Dinner. We had a Christmas story and then went to see the cool Christmas lights house in our town. When you are parked in front of the house you tune your radio to a cerain station and the lights dance to the music. It's amazing! We went there several times a week the whole month. We are huge fans! We love that Kindy and Nate live close enough to hang out with us.


Christmas day was simple and fun. The kids got a ton of gifts from their parents grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins and that sweet old Santa Claus guy. Thanks everyone for loving them and helping them to feel the spirit of Christmas. I love having the opportunity to make Christmas magical for my kids as my parents did for me. I feel that our anticipation of Christmas gives us an idea of the anticipation that people felt long ago waiting for the arrival of our Savior. We prepare for Christmas by thinking of others through service and gift giving and finding ways to help those less fortunate than ourselves. This reminds me of the people we read about in the scriptures preparing themselves for the birth of Christ. It's such a beautiful time of year and a beautiful story that we are celebrating. I feel honored to get to teach my children the story and try to help them feel the importance of it.

Sadly, Grandpa Kennard passed away the day after Christmas. So the following Tuesday we headed over to Utah to be with family and attend the Funeral. But not before bringing the van to the shop on Monday for a problem that Tom couldn't fix. Usually he fixes the cars. So of course we found out that it had a major engine problem and would cost more to fix than it was worth. So since we'd had that van for 6 years and knew that one major repair would only lead to more, we decided it was time for a new van. At 9pm the night before leaving for Utah, we left the dealership with our new, well new to us, van.

We of course got to see lots of family and I only got a few pics but I think they are great ones. Tom said a beautiful closing prayer at the funeral. Tom and I and the kids loved getting to hang out with our cousins and family. We're glad we were able to be there.


Hanging out at the pool with some of our fun cousins and of course Gramps, who is the biggest kid of them all when it comes to swimming.


Conor making cousin Mina smile. So sweet.



Conor and Kya holding Uncle Danny's chickens


Gramps and Grandma with 9 of their 12 grandkids. Two more will be born this year and that will make 14 in 8.5 years. Cousins are so great!


All of us at Danny's house on New Years. Except Aunt Brenda, Gramps' baby sister, who was taking the picture.

We went over to Uncle Ster and Aunt Mels on New Years Eve to hang out with them for a couple days. We love getting to see them when we're in Utah. We went tubing with them and their two youngest. Then we met up with the rest of the clan at Costa Vida for dinner and to watch the indoor surfing and indoor skydiving, which was awesome to watch. I love all my cousins! They are the greatest. The saying that says, "Cousins are friends for life," is so true.

Cute girls, Conlee and Kya were inseperable.


Raysh was so sweet to carry worn out Conor up the hill when it was time to go.


Crew loves Raysh and Conlee. They are so sweet with my kids.It is always fun to hang out with them.



My cousin Daniel's baby Caprilee and Crew are about 4 months apart and were so cute to see together. She badly wanted to attack him and take his binky and pull his hair, all out of pure love of course. But Crew wanted nothing to do with it and would run the other way and hide. This was the only pic I was able to get of the two of them together while they were watching the indoor skydiving.


On our way home we stopped at Little America for dinner and of course 50 cent ice cream. CHEERS!