Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Playing with Light Sabers

The other night Todd took the kiddos outside in the dark to have a light saber "fight" so of course I was right behind them with my camera. I had a lot of fun playing with the aperture to see what abstract images we could come up with. Even the kids thought this was fun! But even when I was done taking pictures they were not ready to come in, so the Light Saber Battle continued!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Our December

What a month December was! And I know it's January, but I wanted to let the world know what we've been up to anyways! This first picture is of the nativity put on by cousins and second cousins at the Young Family Christmas Party! I am very grateful to Grandma Young for putting on this party every year! It's fun to watch the kids grow, especially now that Gary boy will actually participate in the nativity!

On December 17th we headed up north for more family parties... another of my favorite traditions: Grandma Norma's Christmas Party! It just wouldn't be Christmas without it! It's getting
harder to put on the nativity with this family, but with three new grandchildren (great grandchildren to Gma & Gpa) in 2011 hopefully in a couple years it'll be much easier to fill the roles! This year we had
to use Brenda as one of our wise men! Then Santa AND Mrs. Clause came by! They were a hoot!




We were going to head home Monday the 20th, but a huge storm rolled in. After rolling our truck three years ago in December (on our way up for the Montgomery party) we are much much more cautious
about what conditions we drive in! So we decided to stay up and wait out the storm. What a good choice that was! Turns out, the snow is actually fun when you don't have to deal with it every day! I was grateful
to get this picture of Todd and Gary boy shoveling Grandpa Larry's driveway since I have one of my daddy and me in about the same spot and everything (although I was about a year and a half) AND I have
one of Liv and her daddy doing the same! I'm sentimental like that! Us big kids ended up having a snowball fight, I'm surprised to say I thought that was super fun! And we all worked together to make Mr. Snowman! Which Todd and Aaron helped the kids shoot him with their soft air guns, so he ended up covered in colorful little balls!

Also while we were stuck in Salt Lake we decided to go see the temple lights. This was my idea, but I don't know what I was thinking! Pregnant lady plus cold plus lots of walking didn't really turn out to be the best combination! But I think we all had a great time! Unfortunately Grandma Linda wasn't able to join us because she had been fighting an infection all week. But it was okay because she
was finally feeling better (because of all the rest) to join us for present unwrapping the next morning.








So Christmas Eve morning we were able to unwrap presents with my family before we headed home! I love actually seeing people unwrap the gifts I've picked out for them! The kids got all sorts of fun stuff
including a Tiana doll for Liv and an Iron Man action figure for Gary! But the best gift for Todd was ribbon candy! He loves the stuff, but it's hard to find! We were spoiled!

Before we headed home, though, we were able to go to the Dodge family party. I was happy to join them there since originally we were the only part of Gary and Karlene's family that wasn't planning on going. But since we stayed through the storm we were able to go without making a special trip. Plus, we finally got to meet up with Taber who came from North Carolina to visit for the holidays as well as Koby and Koda who came from Colorado!

We had to drive through terrible fog (but still better then white out snow storms) to get home Christmas Eve, but we made it safe and sound and with enough time to do traditions. It was a lot of
fun to have so many people around Christmas morning, but it was also craziness! But being with family is what Christmas is all about to me, so I loved it! Liv got lots of Zoobles and Gary boy got his Criss Cross
Crash race track, we were all spoiled! So in the end... it was a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!