Christmas 2008

We were very blessed this Christmas. We spent the entire day with family and it has been wonderful. We opened presents first, had brunch with Tyler, Christi and Cameron.



Then I had the best Christmas nap ever! When I woke up we had dinner with Hans, Tasha, and the kids. Now we are just winding down and getting ready to crash.



For Christmas my big gift was a beautiful new camera! It is a Canon EOS Rebel XS. Now that may mean nothing to you. I know it did to me. But Dennis did the research and from what I can tell I love it! There is so much this camera can do, I don't even know where to begin. But I am hoping to find a local photography class and see what I can learn. I am also going to read the entire owner's manual, which is something I have never done. Even with my limited knowledge, it takes beautiful pictures. I am going to love this camera. Thank you Dennis!!

Dennis' big gift was a recliner. He has wanted one for years! This was finally the year. Although he found the acutal gift anti-climactic.



I gave him a fake recliner. But if you know Dennis well, you know for an item like that he has to pick it out himself. He has a very picky butt! So, now he gets to go get one. I wished I could have had one there, but I would rather him get one he loves.

Dennis also got a few Nightmare Before Christmas items. It isn't Christmas without a few Nightmare items. It is our favorite movie after all.



We got my mom a cashmere sweater for Christmas. We hope that she likes it.



And for Dad we got Weight Training for Cyclists. They do the MS ride every year and hopefully this will help them prepare even better.



Hayley's favorite gift was her gift from Bryan. A Southwest giftcard! Thank you to Hayley for wrapping every single solitary gift! What a gal! I despise wrapping more than anything. Well, except for moving. We are so grateful for her.



The one thing we missed this Christmas was the few people missing. Russell, Jodee, Lisa and Bryan. But they were with family and I am sure they had a wonderful Christmas. But we sure did miss them!

Dennis took a few pictures with my camera. This one was a test shot and I just loved it.



He even snow plowed a bit...



And it's a little blurry because it was a timed shot and we didn't know how to focus it yet. But here is a pic of the gang.



Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends!!

'Twas the night before Christmas...

Wow! How time flies! We have not posted in a while and are hoping to get back in the swing of things. We have had a wonderful holiday season. Dennis is still fishing periodically. Yes, you heard me right...fly fishing in the Provo river in December. I have just been busy working and with the occasional winter cold. Marlene is not with us this Christmas. But she will be coming for a few days at the beginning of the year. Natasha is spending the holiday with her mother's family in New Castle. We are planning on heading to Cedar City the day after Christmas to see her. I will post again tomorrow but wanted to post a few pics from Christmas Eve.

For as long as I can remember we have always had a family dinner with my Dad's family at my Grandma's. They are getting older and decided not have it this year. So we are starting our own traditions with the immediate family. We had Hans and Tasha's family over. We had soup that Dennis made in bread bowls. Yum! Here is a picture of the whole family.



Then we read the Christmas story in the scriptures. We usually do that Christmas morning but are mixing it up this year. Last, we made cookies and the kids frosted them.



Now it is the last minute scramble of wrapping presents (THANKS HAYLEY!!)and Dennis is making his delicious breakfast casserole for the morning.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Putting up the Christmas Lights

Who knew that putting up Christmas lights would be so much work!?! We decided that around 2 pm on Saturday that we would do the lights on the house and the tree. So we pulled out the lights and they are the old school C7's. There were a lot of lights burned out and fuses fried. So we decided to go to the store and try to get replacements. It used to be easy to find bulbs. Dennis wanted to go to Shopko and I wanted to go to Target. So off we went. Target had the bulbs but the were 4 for $1.00....what a ripoff! So we decided to try Home Depot..no luck. Then tried Lowe's..less selection than Home Depot. And I also decided it is the White Trash home improvement store. Finally we went to our last resort...Wal-Mart. They did not have the replacement bulbs. But they did have lights for $6.99 per strand. That is cheaper than replacing the old bulbs. So we bought those. We finally make it back to the house and it was already getting dark. We used all of the boxes we purchased and still needed a few more. So we had to go back to Wal-Mart on a Saturday! We got what we needed and decided to stop for sustinence. So we went to Mimi's Cafe. We are sitting there waiting for a table and who walks in but Lisa and Bryan. So we decided to make it a double date. We had dinner with them and it was a lot of fun. So after dinner it was back to the lights. Dennis finished putting them up and managed to not fall off the roof. This is Dennis towards the end. You can't really see his face, but lets just say he isn't smiling. Well, technically he is, but it is totally fake.



After everything we decided to go to Shopko to get timers for the lights since it is the closest. And what do we find....replacement bulbs for the original lights we had. This is great but we would have still had to find fuses. So I think buying new lights was the right choice in the end. But next time I should probably listen to Dennis. Sometimes he is right. And here is the final result....

TADA!!!



Thanks Dennis for your hard work!

I did it!!!

I have been trying for a few weeks to reach my 50 pound weight loss. So I weighed myself this morning and I was pretty sure that I would get my 50 pound weight loss. I was excited. But I try not to get my hopes up because you never know until you get on the scale. So I went to Weight Watchers tonight and walked up to the scale and told Tracey (my counselor)..."Let's do this." I was not in the best of moods. When I stepped on the scale I almost died! Not only did I get to my 50 pound weight loss...I exceeded my goal! As I was standing on the scale my sister Lisa walked in...she came to weigh in herself. It was a big celebration with lots of hugs. It has been a long journey but well worth it. I would like to lose an additional 10-15 pounds. But I have come so far and am proud of my accomplishment. Weight loss to date is 51.8 pounds.

Lights at Temple Square

We went the Friday after Thanksgiving with my family to see the lights at Temple Square. They were amazing as always. The funny part was going from the Spaghetti factory to Temple Square. We got our transportation messed up and ended up with 6 people in my Mom's car...squishy!



But again, the lights were amazing. If you are in Utah...check them out!

Thanksgiving

We had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving. My dad's whole side of the family came over for Thanksgiving dinner/lunch. My mom made an amazing turkey, potatoes, and loads and loads of pies. Janny made sweet potatoes...yum. Tasha made homemade stuffing...yum. Mer brought her famous relish tray. There is something about a relish tray that I love, probably the no chopping part. You can have broccoli, cauliflower, 3 different kinds of olives, sweet and dill pickles, and my favorite pepperoncini peppers. I swear I had a dozen of them. Grandma brought her super delicious Clam Dip. And Grandpa made his homemade toffee...yum! Tammy made fruit salad and Karla made pasta salad. Lets just say we had a lot of food and a lot of people. I think we had 37. Needless to say the meal was wonderful. After dinner/lunch we had a baby shower for my sister in law Jodee. They were leaving first thing Saturday morning so this was the only time we could all get together. It was so fun to see her opening all of her presents. She has waited so long to be a mother and she will be a great one! Those are going to the luckiest twins in the world. Congrats Russell and Jodee! After the shower we had pie. Lots and lots of pie. The rest of the night we relaxed. I did some cleaning. I mopped the floor...it was very dirty with all of that foot traffic. I have so much to be thankful for and it was the perfect day. Happy Thanksgiving!!!