Pictures 2011

 Here are the pictures I had taken of the kids in December.  I know most of you saw them on our Christmas Card, but wanted to post all of the poses.  Isaac LOVES having his picture taken.  He chose most of his poses and suggested poses for Sarah.  Too funny.  It took Sarah a little bit before she cooperated and the big winner was bubbles.

Gary's Website

So  Gary has been designing his own website for quite a while and he has finally finished and published it.  If anyone wants to check it out go to www.foot-ankledoctor.com I am so proud of him and all he has done to make his own business up and running.  I am looking forward to things settling down so we can see him too!

2011 Goal

So I made an exercising goal last year to do at least 26.2 miles on the treadmill each month. It seemed very doable and was going very easily till I reached August.  When we went on vacation to Utah in September I slacked off and then when everything happened with Gary's job, moving and a growing belly I stopped keeping track of my workouts.  So I am happy to say I logged 245.27 miles on the treadmill this past year.  Who knows how many I actually did since I didn't write anything down for the months of Sept, Oct. and Nov.  I will have to come up with a new goal for 2012 but till the baby comes in February my treadmill time is slowing down.

Christmas Week

 Growing up my mom always made lots of different Christmas cookies and sometime in high school it became my job to make the sugar cookies.  Then as everyone got older I kept with the tradition and made them every year.  The last 2 years I slacked off and didn't make them when we came home from Washington to visit, SO needless to say I had several people request the cookies this year.  I only made a double batch, but that still turns out to be more than enough cookies.  I let Isaac help me roll and cut them out.  He loved it - hard for me to watch how slow he was, but it was fun having a new helper this year.  Of course he was able to 'sample' the broken ones.

 The next day I decorated all of them.  Sarah and Isaac are enjoying a cookie in the background.  They turned out delicious as usual and surprisingly lasted to Christmas.

 On Christmas Eve, my family always got dressed up and went to church, came home to dinner and opened a present before going to bed.  Since Gary and I got married we have combined some traditions and spend Christmas Eve at his parents with all his family.  I made sure to get Sarah all dressed up though.  I tried a fun new hairstyle on her and glad I took pictures of her BEFORE the end of the night.  Isaac was at Uncle Steve and Aunt Annie's house playing with all his cousins so that is why I don't have any pics of him.

 They always dress the kids up and read the Birth of Christ.  I think some of the older kids are learning how to enjoy getting dressed up in the costumes.  Sarah absolutely refused to put on an angel costume but Isaac didn't mind being a shepherd.  He doesn't have a cane because it was being turned into a weapon!

 Here is a picture back at my parents house AFTER Santa had come.

The next morning we get all dressed up in our Christmas clothes and head down to see if Santa had arrived.  The youngest gets to go first.

Running to see what is under the tree.

 Isaac left Santa some cookies and he is reading Santa's thank you note to him.  He was so EXCITED.

 My cute kids in front of the tree.                                                    Choosing their first present to open.

 Isaac discovered that Santa had brought new stockings and filled them full.

 Here is Isaac's big present from Santa -a Mega T-Rex.



     Here is Sarah's big present - a Rapunzel doll and dress up.

They both enjoyed opening presents and had a really hard time when it was someone else's turn to open a gift.  I love seeing how excited kids get at Christmastime.

 Sarah in her new dress with her doll that she had to carry everywhere Christmas day. And of course she had to wear the crown since she is daddy's princess!

That evening my family all got together at my parents to have Christmas dinner and open even more presents.  Here is a picture of all the grandkids (for now)!

Here is Uncle Ryan with Sarah and of course Kingston. 

Cabin Fun

 On Saturday evening we decided to meet Gary's brother and his family up at the cabin to hang out.  Usually in the winter time you have to have snowmobiles to get to the top but since we haven't had much snow at all we were able to drive all the way up. I have to say it was kind of nice to be able to drive all the way up.  Isaac had so much fun playing with his cousins and he was super excited to sleep in the bunk bed with the other kids.  On Sunday morning the kids were itching to go sleding on the trace amount of snow that there was.  So we bundled everyone up and let them have some fun.

 Sarah LOVED the snow.  She kept playing in it and of course trying to eat it.  She even laid down to make a snow angel - not sure where she learned that from, but it was cute nonetheless.

 On the side of the cabin is a small hill and it was perfect for Isaac.  I absolutely love his expression!  This hill was great entertaining for at least an hour.

Sarah and cousin, Skyler, had some fun too!  Thanks Skyler for helping me out.

 Once the big kids got tired of the little hill, Uncle Mike decided to get the 4-wheelers out and let the kids hold on to a rope behind it.  (Totally not safe at all - but so much fun!)  So Isaac was a little scared to go on the sled (at first) so he sat with dad.  He wanted to drive it all by himself.

 Miss Sarah had her turn too!  She wasn't so sure about the 4-wheeler either.

 But she loved riding with mommy!

 So the kids had fun on the sleds but kept falling off so Gary decided to hook the sleds to the rope and tie the sleds together so the kids only had to hold on to their sleds.  Wow that worked so well and they had a blast.  Isaac had so much fun once he decided to try it out.  I think Gary and Mike towed those kids around for 3 hours. 

 Sarah was just playing outside while I was talking and after asking several times to go inside she got tired of waiting and just laid down in the snow.  It was so cute - she makes me laugh!  Thanks for a great outing Mike and Tara.

Isaac's first gingerbread house

 So this cute boy has been begging me all season to make a gingerbread house.  Luckily Grandma L had one she wasn't going to use so Isaac and I put it together.  He was so excited to decorate it.  He helped me by holding the walls and when I told him we had to wait an hour to decorate it, you would have thought I told him he would never get to decorate it.  He asked every couple of minutes if it was ready.

He is so proud of his house.  I let him put all of the candy on and I only helped with the icing.  He even told me exactly what shapes he wanted for the doors and windows.  So cute!

Red Butte Again

 Since we bought a season pass to Red Butte Gardens you will probably see lots of pictures of us enjoying it.  The kids love to just run and play with all the fun toys they have.  We haven't had much snow this year so we have been able to enjoy the outside all through the month of December.

 We took a new path this time and let the kids explore a little area by themselves.  They made it most of the way back when Gary saw some animal jump out of the brush.  He quickly ran to them and they thought it was so fun to see an animal.

My 2 cute kids! 

Please note that Isaac now has a Utah hat from Grandma L. since Grandma O. bought him a BYU one!