THE HOLIDAYS

THANKSGIVING
For this past Thanksgiving we played it pretty low key. We had a dinner at our house with Matt's Dad and Cindy and his younger brother Nick. Dyllan had gone to Hawaii with her cousins and we missed her but we had a nice quiet day together. It was just the 8 of us and after we ate the traditional dinner YUM! the kids talked Grandpa Tiny and Grandma Cindy into watching Polar Express with them. We ate Cindy's yummy pies while we watched. It was such a nice peaceful Thanksgiving.

We had out traditional Thanksgiving with my family the following Saturday. The food was great followed by a short program for anyone who wanted to participate. My Mom and Dad gave each of the grandkids $5 and challenged them to use it to help someone during this holiday season. My kids chose to use it towards our neighborhood giving tree. We pooled all their money (along with some from their Mom and Dad) and we were able to get shoes for a little girl, a shirt for an 8 year old boy and diapers for a baby. The kids went to the store and helped pick them out. It was fun to see them find things they would love themselves and buy them for someone who is less fortunate. We are so blessed!



CHRISTMAS

We had a GREAT Christmas. Funny enough, our kids all slept in until 7:30, that was awesome! They got spoiled and couldn't figure out what to play with first. Madden got upset during the present opening because he wanted to be the one to open all of them. It was fun to see all their faces and watch the excitement through our kids eyes.
That afternoon we went to Matt's Dad's and visited. Aunt Dyllan always does the shopping for our kids gifts and she does a great job. Here she is (above)opening Madden's present with him. He got a train set. He LOVES trains. Mia got a Hannah Montana Backstage Closet for her barbies and Mason got a Mario Party game for his Nintendo DS.
We also got to see Tamaria and Tyson, that's Matt's sister and her boyfriend, and their baby girl Monroe (below). We don't get to see them very often so that was really fun.
We ended the night with a visit to Grandpa Rigby's where my kids put on an impromptu talent show. They sang Christmas songs and songs from the Polar Express movie.

It was an exhausting and fun filled day. Mia keeps asking when Santa is coming again. She's always disappointed when I tell her how long, while I breathe a sigh of relief.

To skip around a bit, this is a picture of the kids getting dressed for the Nativity at my Mom and Dad's. We got together Christmas Eve as always and had a great time. The kids put on the Nativity. Mia was an angel and Mason was Joseph. It's so cute! Then Joe did a dance from Napoleon Dynamite, great job Joe. Dan sang an song, a spoof on the song "Christmas Shoes" and read a poem he had written about he and Staci's adventures getting to Utah for the holidays. It was funny but oh so tragic! I'm just glad they EVENTUALLY made it here and EVENTUALLY made it back to NH. We were done and home by 6:00pm. We had a nice evening together opening our traditional pajamas from Matt and I to the kids, read the Christmas story and got ready for Santa to come. The kids were SO excited.

NEW YEARS

This is our 3rd year in a row that we have spent New Years in Idaho with the Whitings. Brent and Dana are gracious enough to keep inviting us back. Their daughter Addie was sick while we were there, which bummed Mason out pretty bad but we had such a great time. Us adults went to dinner on New Years eve and then we all stayed up playing games and chatting until midnight. The next few days we just relaxed. The kids played in the snow (the picture below is Matt and Mia going out to play), played the Wii, dressed up, played games and just had a blast. The adults took naps, laid around, read, played games, talked...you get the point. Dana and I even made some bead jewelry while our husbands watched the UofU bowl game. GO UTES!!

We love the Whitings! They are such good friends. Thanks to them and their sweet hospitality! We hope to do it again next year (if they want us back).

This is Dana and their daughter Paige. Paige and Mia are the same age and play so well together. Addison and Mason are a year apart and play together well too. My kids get so excited when they get to go to Aunt Dana's and Uncle Brent's. We love you guys!

HAPPY 2009!!!!!