for Christmas, lots and lots and lots of snow!!!

Last year our snowblower kicked the bucket. So guess what our after Christmas purchase was? Yep, you guessed it, a new snowblower. We were up and out at Home Depot at 7:30 am purchasing one of the few snowblowers left after the big storm!

The girls getting ready to play in the snow

K's doing to Jon what Jon just did to her!!

Looking out our back deck door

Christmas Day

Christmas.......aaaahhhhhhh. Mom, dad and Richie came over and watched the girls open gifts (they have done this for quite a few years, they enjoy watching the girls open Santa gifts). Then we went over to my mom and dad's. We had lunch, snacked and played games. It was a lot of fun.

Lex with her new skateboard, yes she wanted a new skateboard?!?! Lex with her new camera

Kay's new mountain bike

Kay's new MP3 player

Richie video taping Christmas morning.

Dad and Lex, best buds they are!

Mom opening her gift, a picture of the girls at the temple. Richie and Jon playing the new Guitar Hero game.

The girls in their new pj's that my mom made them with their American Girl Doll in their new doll clothes.

Christmas Eve at the Lake

We spend Christmas Eve with Jon's family. We spent most of the day with them up at Bear Lake, seeing how we wouldn't be having our annual Christmas morning breakfast with them (this is the first time in over 15 years that I have not done this with his family, due to the distance and weather). So we had lunch, played games, and our traditional stories and pajama gifts! However, we started with Sam accidentally knocking out Makaylee's tooth. Tooth Fairy and Santa in one night???

The kids each sharing a story
Uncle Joe and the kids
The Kids and Grandma in their new pj's

girls cheer performance

The girls take cheer from Lisa Preece, Dance Illusion, and they had a performance on Monday. They are doing great and LOVE doing cheer. All we hear is, "ready, hey, get on you feet, help us rock out to the beat. Dance Illusion that's who we are cheerin loud the best by far, cheering loud the best by far". Jon and I swear if we hear it anymore we might just go C R A Z Y!!!! My pictures didn't turn out as good as I would have liked, the camera focused on the girls on the front row and not on them, so very few to choose from.

Temple Square

Saturday we went and spent the day in Salt Lake. First it was lunch at Chuck-a-ramas with Jon's mom, dad, and sam. After lunch we went and visited Grandma LaRae in Bountiful. It was fun chatting with her. Then it was off to temple square. We were a little bit nervous that it was going to be really crowded, but we're thinking because of the BYU game and the snow it wasn't bad at all. And it really wasn't too cold. I loved it, I love temple square!

Teri's Birthday Party

One of my friends from high school, Teri, was down from Washington visiting her family over her birthday. Her mom decided to throw her a surprise birthday party with some of her high school buddies. We had so much fun chatting and catching up......time flew! I am so glad that I have such good friends and that we ALWAYS have a good time when we're together.

And yes, Teri was VERY surprised!

Kelly, Teri, Sarah, Kelli, Shan, Me, Tams

Lisa, Jodi, Jenny
Tams being Tams!!!!

o christmas tree

So this year we were not too excited about the idea of doing our usual go to the tree lot and spend $60 on a tree. We did have the girls talked in to using "the three trees" kind of a forest theme because Jon was supposed to be back in New Jersey and I was positive me and the girls could not handle getting the tree home. He ended up not going to New Jersey (yet) so the girls wanted a real Christmas tree. Well Jon got a great idea from a guy he works with to go and cut down our own for a minimal permit fee of $10. Well let me tell you, I was NOT very hip on the idea. But.......... Here he is ready to find the perfect tree........

Miss Makaylee first loving that there is snow and second loving to eat it.

She has ALWAYS loved to eat snow :(
The perfect tree (which was not 1/2 as bad as I thought it would be)
O Christmas Tree, how lovely are your few branches!

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Then that night it was off to the annual ward Christmas party where the girls got to visit with old St. Nick (Makaylee got to clarify or I guess get more specific on the letter she wrote to Santa this year with the ending, and much more. She got to add more to her list!)

And Lex........

thanksgiving dinner at the lake

We went to Bear Lake to have Thanksgiving dinner with Jon's mom and dad and Joe. What would Thanksgiving be without Kathy's yams.....they are sssssooooo good! The whole dinner was awesome. We had a really good time watching football and hanging out!

The girls playing store (in the old store!) they found a working cash register and everything, they were set!

happy thanksgiving

Thanksgiving we headed over to grandma's. It was pretty low key until later that evening when Ralph's family and the rest of our family (Chris and Corey) came up. A lot of people and a lot of fun visiting with everyone. Lex had to have two plates.......mashed potatoes and gravy, her favorite!
Jani slept over and helped grandma prepare the meal, including her famous yummy stuffing.

My mom and dad and the girls made these cute place settings.

happy birthday kathy

It was Kathy's birthday on Wednesday. Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

the annual Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday

Every year the Sunday before Thanksgiving Jon's grandparents have their Thanksgiving dinner. We always look forward to seeing Jon's family. The girls with their favorite (ok only!!!) cousin.
grandpa ray's birthday was on Monday, November 24.

He turned 81.....Happy Birthday!!!!
The girls with Joe and his girl friend, Elle, from Korea. She went back home on Thursday (Thanksgiving day). The girls loved her. She was fun to listen to.
Aunt Leslie loading up on Broccoli salad, she's so funny!
jon, aunt june, grandpa ray and grandma roseann.