Christmas Cookie Fun!

We had a ball making Christmas cookies after church. I wish I'd have thought to pull out the camera before we were done, but since I forgot I only got these 2 pictures. Can you almost taste them? Good job kids!

Christmas Greetings

Here is our Christmas card this year, in case I didn't get one out to you. Now, imagine it with a star at the top and little red circle ornaments after every sentence, because I couldn't figure out how to get them into this blog. :o)

Our

favorite

memories of

2008 are:

Scott singing with

the MoTabs. Shelly going

to the Miss America

Pageant in Las Vegas.

Skiing with cousins.

Riding Front Runner. Britney

kicking butt at soccer. Shelly running

the Ogden Half Marathon. Josh

playing baseball. Art Camp with

Grampa Ralph. Shannah flying to Denver

with classmates to do a presentation

at a Japanese-American Convention.

Marsh Lake. Loving our

French exchange student named Audrey who

stayed with us for 4 weeks. Shelly's

20 year reunion. Shannah teaching piano.

Josh loving his 2nd grade teacher,

Miss Wilson. Shelly, Shannah & Britney

finishing the Top of Utah Half Marathon.

Britney singing alto with the Lady Madrigals at

SJH. Brandon starting preschool

with Miss (Aunt) Vicki. Shelly becoming

a Regional Supervisor with Compass

USA. Starting a blog. Mandy taking an art class.

Watching our SHS football team go to State.

Our family trip

to Seattle and

Whidbey Island.

We

had such

a great year!

We are continually blessed with so

much more than we deserve.

We are grateful to have

family and friends like

you in our lives

and hope you have a

Merry Christmas and

a happy and prosperous

New . . . . . . . . . . . . Year.

Dec 4-5, 2008 - Kid's Christmas Activites

Just thought it'd be fun to share a couple of pictures of our recent Christmas activites.

The first picture is Mandy's school choir concert. Mandy is in the top left corner and although she doesn't look like she's having fun in the picture, I'm pretty sure she did. They did a great job. Josh is too shy to sing in the school choir, but I literally dragged him to the concert and was rewarded when he said, "It actually looks kind of fun. Maybe I'll try it." I'm hoping he doesn't change his mind before it starts up again after Christmas.

This next one is Britney's school play "It's a Wonderful Life". She is top and center. She played a towns person. She has a great group of friends and they had a lot of fun.

Here's Britney singing with the Lady Madrigals at her school choir concert. She's the fourth girl from the left. (The one with her hair in a bun.) It didn't turn out very good, but my neighbor took some, so if they're better I'll add those later.

The boys were feeling left out so here's a picture of their Christmas activity, being silly.

Nov. 28, 2008 - Mom Playing the Organ

What an incredible day! Scott arranged to have his mom learn about and play that incredible organ in the old Tabernacle. It was a dream come true for her and an amazing experience for the rest of us. All of Scott's six siblings and most of their spouses were there. Mom's brother and some of his family were there too. We were invited to sit up in the choir seats and listen to her "lesson". We learned about how the organ works, what the stops do and how the pipes make sound. She got to play several hymns while Bonnie, the organist, changed the sound of the music until it was just right. After she was done playing, all of Scott's brothers, sister's, spouses and Shannah and Britney stood up in the choir seats and sang "Go Ye Now in Peace" accapella in 4 part harmony. (One of our all time favorite songs to sing.) The sound was incredible and the spirit was so strong. It brought most of us to tears. This is a day we all will remember for a long time.

Oct. 31, 2008 - Halloween Night

I got it pretty easy this year. No sewing, yeah!!! How'd I get so lucky? I have no idea.

Here they are: Shelly - old granny, Shannah - ? (my old WSU Singers outfit), Mandy - her friends witch costume, Britney - Anamelia (Brit's fictional character from a book she's writing), Brandon - Optimus Prime, Josh - Alfalfa from the Little Rascals.

I have to share this funny. I dressed up as this old granny with my vest and stop sign for crossing guard. I would hobble across the road using my cane like I was going to fall over any second. My kids (the one's I cross) thought it was so funny! I'm glad I didn't cause an accident because I had people in cars pointing and laughing so hard. I've had several people I don't even know come up to me and tell me that was the funniest costume they'd ever seen. That's a keeper for next year!

Oct. 28, 2008 - Pumpkin Painting

Instead of carving pumpkins this year, we opted to paint them instead. Not because it was less of a mess, because I'm not sure that it was. And not because we thought it would be funner, although we did have a lot of fun. But because our pumpkins were rotting and we didn't dare cut them open. We had a ball. I don't have any pictures of the actual painting process because my camera was still broken and Britney's camera didn't have any batteries so I used Shannah's camera and the pictures were yucky. (Sorry Shan, we'll work on getting you a new camera.) Here are the finished masterpieces. Great job kids!

Top row: Josh's bat, Brandon's scarecrow, Mandy's ?

Bottom row: Shelly's mummy, Shannah's Edward (vampire), Britney's alien. We only had six pumpkins, so Scott unselfishly opted out.