First Snow!

This morning we woke up to our first snow storm of the year!! The kids were thrilled to have school cancelled! Out here they cancel school if there is just a small amount of snow. There is only about 3-4 ", but thats enough. I finally went to the basement to unpack all the snow gear and the kids were ready for fun!! Here are the little ones having their first taste of the snow! Jalan and Britton having snowball fights!

look out Jalan! Here comes Britton!!

He's hiding!

WEEEEEE

So last night we had Family Home Evening and made Valentines for our relatives far away!! The kids had a blast and it was nice to focus on loved ones and love! Here are the finished products, yes, I uploaded them backward again.

Macee making hers! She just woke up and was looking like a homeless child, sorry.

The family working hard, in front of the nice warm fireplace!

And yes, daddy on the couch..haha.

yes, we did it again

****update, Ok, her name is Chloe, not Claire..sorry!

yep, our 2 new boxer puppies..a boy and a girl:)

Meet Jonas and Chloe

Having fun with the Missionaries!

We LOVE having the missionaries over to our home, and we are so lucky, we have 2 sets..Elders and Sisters!!! We are so blessed here in our area! We love them so much. We had them over for dinner on Tuesday night, and had a fun game of Around the World Ping Pong, and had a blast. Here are some pics of our fun time!!

Here is some of our family with Elder Hooten
Elder Barry, Sister O (Osterhaut is too hard to say) and Macee

Elder Hooten, Elder Barry, Sister Smith and the rest of the family

Here are the girls..me, Sister Smith, Brooke, Sister O, and Disnee

Troy and Elder Barry for the championship..haha..I forgot who won though....

We had a great time with them, they are so fun and crazy!

What we've been doing since Christmas

So this is what the kids have been doing since Christmas. They have been loving riding their new 4-wheelers!! Since its been so warm, it has been really muddy in the yard, not good for mom, but loads of fun for the kids!!
Here is Brooke getting ready for her turn!

Here is Britton riding his and Jalan's 4-wheeler. Here is Disnee giving Macee a ride on hers and Brooke's.

Troy "acting" like he's trying to get it to work, but really he was just having a turn!:)

What a girl..such a cutie with her helmet!

J-boy on his, getting started and ready to roll.

Britton again.

Daddy trying to get them started up and going...yes these pics are backwards again.

The cute boys

Christmas 2008 Pictures

On Christmas Eve, our family decided to do our little nativity reading, and we had the kids dress up and act it out. Here is Macee practicing to me Mary and riding the "donkey". So daddy read the Christmas Story from Luke 2..

Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus...Macee had trouble with the towel and decided to let Brooke be her instead.

Here the shepherds were coming to see the baby Jesus

The one wise man that we had left came to bring gifts.

After the nativity, we did our usual tradition of opening one present, of course, PJ's! Here are the kids in their new pj's. Oh ya, so the kids were so excited, we ended up opening all the gifts from the kids to each other that night as well. It was a nice and fun time.

So about 4:47 am, jalan came in to see if we could wake up to open presents..."Go back to bed, absolutely not!" Then again at 5:15, then again at 5:30, when dad finally succomed and the "yes", which sent many squeals down the hall as the news was passed along to the rest of the kids. so down we went to see what Santa had brought. Here is Macee after opening a gift..she was loving it!

Brooke with her new Harry Potter series

Jalan with his new k'nex set!!

Britton with his new roller blades! yikes!

Disnee and her new Lurlene McDaniel books...we are so glad both girls asked for books this year!! yeah!!

Macee and her new kitchen! so cute and she was so thrilled!

Santa was so good to us this year, and we all had a wonderful time. Troy of course, got me some amazing presents, and spoiled me again. I think I might have done ok with his gifts, I dont think he will be returning them like usual! We sure missed all of our family at this time of year. We miss you all so much! Hope everyone had a great day and continue with this wonderful spirit throughout 2009 as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

More Pictures

another one

Merry Christmas

WEll, my wonderful husband got me a new camera for Christmas, that I have been bugging him to get me for a while:)!!! I have been so excited trying to learn how to use the thing. I took this fun picture of the kids, thanks to my photographer friend, Jill...thank you Jill for the idea...I copied her. Anyway, not too bad for a newbie. I cant wait to learn how to use this and take some good pictures!!