kooky cookies

We had our own little Christmas night with our good friends the Stoeckles...We had a Christmas family night lesson decorated Christmas cookies, exchanged gifts, and had dessert. Simple but so much fun!

Dalen & Noah

Sarah & Lexi

tahoe 2010

we LOVE going to Tahoe...

...and SLEDDING in the snow

{Bambi and Thumper are for real}

Snow Happy

Lexi and Deveon enjoying the snow on nice warm CA day...

Building a Snowman can be fun!

This girl loves to eat snow...she's only been to the snow a handful of times and every time she goes she eats the snow like an apple!

Daddy wanted to build a snow castle with the boys...by this point I think he lost his help...they did finish it though...but the snow was so bright that the picture just didn't do it justice...

Noah and Adam - Snow buddies...I love how Noah uses Adam as an arm rest...

Noah eatin' some snow, literally

Finished Snowman...

Me and Honey...

The Cuties...

Noah, Adam, Sarah, Lexi, Deveon, and Dalen (who was in pain the whole picture shoot- "just one more, Dalen")

SLED HAPPY VIDEOS

Utah in 28 hours

Our walk with the dinosaur bones...Here we ate lunch at a little cafe and then explored the museum with G&G Miles, Uncle Jesse and Uncle Jason...Our favorite was making dams out of the sand...our least fave--3D movie about dinos...headache...

Here's some vids of the dam making...and a snowball fight in the parking lot

Jase gets Death for getting Noah...

Moving on from Lehi UT back to Salt Lake UT. Here we found our way to Temple Square...very beautiful...

Now to drop our Missionary off at the MTC in Provo UT...Uncle Jesse became Elder Miles reporting to Alberquerque NM in 3 weeks...well now 2...

Our family with Uncle Jesse, Uncle Jason, G&G Miles

We are so proud of Uncle Jesse and his choice to serve the Lord for 2 years in New Mexico...We know he will grow and learn so much and it will change his life forever...

Once there was a snowman

Frosty came our way...

(Friend Sarah with Frosty before coming to our home)

One night we had a visitor on our doorstep...before I could capture a picture the kids decapitated him, bit him, and snow balled him into an oblivion...he sure was cute though...

...from the Stoeckle's house to ours...Thanks for the cute snowman!

Temple Lights

On Saturday we went to the Los Angeles Temple and did a session while Josh's younger Bro Jesse received hie endowments...Josh and I were married at this Temple 8 years ago and were excited to see it all lit up this evening...It was beautiful...

Me and Josh

Josh, me, April, Eric, Jesse, Kent and Pam Miles

Me and April

Let it Snow...

Today's Forecast: Snowflakes...

Deveon, Lexi and Sarah made beautiful snowflakes today...

And a few more of my favorite things...

My Christmas gift from BFF, she knows I have my eye on the big willow tree nativity so this will tide me over...I think I might like this better, so sweet...she also found the Mother and Child statue from the nativity viewing! see here...good old ebay...see here

A few of my favorite things...

So this year, we did not get a tree because we will not be here for the Christmas week but we did get some of our Christmas decorations out to be cheery...Here are some of our favorite ornaments we placed around the house...

This is our newest family ornament...my mom usually gets these for me...actually, I think she has gotten me every one so far...

This is Dalen's snowy, that my mom got him one day while shopping at Beverly's in Stockton CA...we have the cutest video of him looking for it one day in the backyard (in the summer) as he refers to it as "Where my Nowy, where my nowy?" Dalen was 2yrs old

This isn't an ornament but my BFF Tami gave it to me last year...it's baby Jesus and you place a piece of hay in the crib every time you do an act of service and by Christmas he should have a nice pile of hay to nap on...I did my service by buying a crib for a family and giving Christmas presents to a Family this year...I love Christmas...

This ornament is from our Relief Society Christmas Dinner...I have a few of these ornaments from various wards and they do remind me of the wonderful bonds I have made with people in the different cities I have lived in...

This was Dalen's first school ornament he came home with in Kindergarten...Since Deveon is off track during Christmas he and Lexi will be decorating snowflake ornaments tomorrow...

This gold butterfly I just love, but I cannot for the life of me remember who gave it to me...any takers?

Auntie April gave this to my little Noah for his first Christmas last year...it's been in his room all year long...

My BFF Tami went to DLand this Fall and brought me back a cute gingerbread house ornament...

I also love to make my own Christmas Cards every year...I have to limit my list to 26 or I will go crazy making them, but I do love coming up with something bigger and better than last year...This year's card came with a magnet for your fridge so you can have us all year round!

...and I love receicing them as much as I love sending them out!

I love Christmas and all that comes with...the decorations, the shopping, the stories, the Nativity scenes, and the food and family...I'm so esited, as Lexi would say...to see our family and friends this Holiday season...Merry Christmas

Silent Night

Last Sunday our family and the Stoeckles went to a special viewing of over 600 Nativity scenes from around the world. It was held at one of our churches here in EG and they were beautiful...some were made out of tin foil, widdled out of wood and some were set in a coconut shell...Every room had a theme or country it was reppresenting...It was a great way to get into the spirit of Christmas...here are some of my favorites...

This one is from Italy...click on them to see the detail...

This one is from Tonga...very cool...

The one behind Dalen's head is from Germany...Tami's other BF has one too...

This one was my absolute favorite...just gorgeous...keep trying to find it online...

I thought this one looked cute scrapbook stickers that came to life...

...And Croatia...since I've been there I just had to include this one...

Here is a slideshow of all the pix...