Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was really great! After the shopping is done and all is wrapped and loose ends tied up, it is so wonderful to spend time as a family and reflect on the wonderful blessings we have enjoyed during the year. We are so blessed as a family and are so grateful for the abundance we enjoy each day... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I put all my pictures in backwards and I'm too tired to re-do them all so....they go from bad to good! :-)

Alec's Gingerbread House on it's way to the trash!

Pre-Garbage - He did a great job!

Sterling, Tim and Brian eating on Christmas Day

Tim snuck away to take a little cat-nap at

Mom & Dad's on Christmas day

Brian and Dad playing Backgammon - as always!

Yummy, yummy food - cracker anyone?

Brittany, Tyler & Brad

Matthew on my Shiatsu massager

Tim making the Yummy Patotoes!

Getting ready to film Santa's delivery....

Tim, taking a turn on the massager

Courtney's pile - Good morning Sweet-pea

Matthew made the "nice" list

Alec did too....

Annual SLC Christmas Trip

Twenty years ago my Mom started a tradition during the month of December. She takes my sister Cynthia and me to Salt Lake City for the weekend to Christmas shop. It started out as just an overnighter but grew into a full weekend event. We leave early Friday morning and return late Sunday afternoon. We always go to the Kurt Bestor concert on Saturday and then to Music and The Spoken Word on Sunday morning. It is a treasured time for us to re-connect and spend precious time together - without kids or husbands. The past few years we have invited our daughters to join us for dinner and the concert and then they are quickly sent on home. :-)
I truly love this weekend with my dear mom and sister. It is really the only time we spend time
together with just the three of us. It becomes even more dear as the years pass and our families change - as life gets busier and children grow up, sadly we spend less and less time together. Mom puts us up in a beautiful hotel - it was always the Inn at Temple Square until it was torn down a couple of years ago, now it's Little America. Momma Char treats us right and we have the greatest of times, laughing, eating out, shopping, movies, the concert and we finish up with a wonderful spiritual morning on Temple Square. I so love and enjoy this weekend each year!


Cynthia & Mom

Kamie, Melissa & Courtney

We stopped at Mike's swim meet while on our trip

Macaroni Grill before the concert

Me and Mom in our room at Little America

Courtney & Grandma waiting to eat at Macaroni

Grill before the Kurt Bestor Concert

Me and my Sis

Cynthia and Mom - what a lovely room!

Me, Courtney, Kamie, Char, Melissa, Tiffany,

Cynthia at the concert

Jonas Brother's Concert

Several months back I decided I wanted to surprise Courtney with an early Christmas present and take her and a friend to Las Vegas to see the Jonas Brother's in concert. Courtney has been begging to see them for a couple of years but I just kept telling her she was too young to go to a concert. The day I was on the computer buying the tickets she came into the room and I told her I was Christmas shopping online and that she couldn't see the screen. I told her she was going to love what I just bought, then she said "well unless it's Jonas tickets it's probably not that great." I then said "Oh you're probably right, it's not quite as good as that - he he he."

We told the kids we were going to California the day after Thanksgiving for a little trip, but actually we were headed to Las Vegas. I thought that if I told them the truth Courtney would figure it out. We told her she could take a friend and she invited Bethany Holmgren. So off we went and stayed at the Planet Hollywood Hotel - the newspaper's were full of news about the concert, so I tucked the tickets in the newspaper and handed it to Courtney and told her there was a great article about the Jonas Brother's in it. When she opened it (or actually when Bethany opened it, because Court was messing with her Ipod) she just stared at the tickets and and "WHAT THE HECK!" Then she said "I need a new outfit!"

I took them to the concert after nearly getting squished to death in the t-shirt line. 12,000 teenage girls is quite the sight! It was so much fun to surprise her and come to find out, Bethany knew all along (she was going to back out of coming when their basketball coach called a practice over the Thanksgiving break. Her Mom had to tell her of the plan so she would still come with us) but didn't spill the beans. Way to keep a secret Bethany! The only one that felt ripped off was Alec, he really wanted to go to California! All in all it was a fun trip, the girls also had fun going to Madame Tussaud's Wax museum while Tim took the little boys swimming. They took lot's of fun pictures and definitely made some memories.


At the MGM Grand right before the concert

Right after we surprised them with the tickets

Bethany and Courtney watching TV in the hotel

Courtney watching the Jonas Brother's

on TV on Thanksgiving day...little did

she know, she would be at their concert

2 days later!

Need I say more...

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

Another sighting...

Hey there cowboy...

Zac Efron - High School Musical

Cameran Diaz, Bethany & Courtney

On our way to the wax museum

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was delicious and wonderful. We spent the day at Cynthia & Sterling's house. There were 24 of us. It is noisy, a little chaotic, but great to spend time as a family... Something we rarely do these days.

Jason, Amber and their boys came from Idaho. It is always delightful to see the twins and how they have grown and changed, as well as see how much Jaden has grown. We miss them and wish we could see them more.

I am truly blessed with an abundant life - full of family, friends and wonderful blessings!

Sterling "The Turkey"

Mom making the gravy

Digesting the fabulous meal!

Melissa & Courtney

Matthew found a costume in the toy closet...

Still my dress-up boy!

Michael - don't worry be happy!

Jaden

Dad and Tim

Tyler and Brittany

Jason & Logan

It's a fight to get some skin off the turkey! Our favorite!

Mom & Cynthia

Amber, Jason with Brigham & Brighton - I can't tell

you which one they are holding because we can't

tell them apart!!

The kids end of the table

What a crowd!

Halloween

Oh Happy Halloween! I am always very happy to have this holiday over with. I know the kids love it, but I find it annoying to come up with costumes and spend money on such nonsense! I know, I know, I'm no fun! But the kids had a great time and we got a few laughs at the trunk or treat. You will see our friend Sean Weight dressed up like Jack Black in "Nacho Libre." We were making jokes about how real men wear their "stretchy pants." If you haven't seen the movie you won't appreciate this joke, but I swear he was the spitting image! Oh so funny!


Courtney & Kiley Williams - isn't she a dainty
little thing?

Alec and his friends - Jacob Anderson and Kayson Oss

Alec as a "Goth Skateboarder" at his school parade.

Karen Weight and her "Nacho in stretchy pants!"

Matthew as the "Hulk"

Alec & Kayson

Alec, carving his pumpkin - why this is the only

picture we took I don't really know...who was in charge

here?