Christmas Eve Eve 2014

Since Dave and I are living in our very tiny townhouse this Christmas, Ashley and Jud volunteered to host our family party at their house this year.  We really appreciated it and it worked out so well, with plenty of room, great food, and happy times.

 

 

 

 

'Tis the Season, even without snow.

 

The weather has been so unseasonably warm this December.  We went to Farmington Station last week and the kids played in the park without coats and even took their shoes off at one point.

Logan usually doesn't want me to take his picture.  So when he asked me to take one of him by the fountain, I was all over it.  He's such a cutie, even when squinting.

 

 

And this face.  Mitt is such a sweetie.

 

Since the three older kids are in school, I seem to get most of my pictures with the four younger kids.

I really have to say I am loving the warm weather and don't even care if we don't have a White Christmas.  To heck with the drought.

Good bye, Hello

 

I know we tried this once before, but this time we really did move from this house.  I have lived here longer than anywhere else in my life - 15 years.  It was bittersweet, of course.  But we feel good about our decision.

We are renting a townhouse while we build a new home.  This is the view out of our townhouse window.  I quite like it.

 

 

Cozy is a good word for this place.  We crammed as much furniture in as we could.  And then, when we added a tree (a live one, that we really are enjoying) it makes for a crowded living room. 

I didn't want to be without a piano, so we crammed that in as well.

I went a little festive in every room, so it would seem a little more cheerful.

Even the two bedrooms got a little holiday spirit added to them.

 

We have been collecting ornaments from every trip we have been on since the first year we have been married.  This year we added four more:

 

Macinac Island, Michigan, when we visited Steph and Jared before they moved.

Then Scottsdale, AZ, after we visited them in their new place in Phoenix.

Here is one of several we got in New York City last month.  I got this one because the tin soldier dance the Rockettes did at the Christmas Spectacular was our favorite.

And in October we got this one in Jerusalem.  Is it an oxymoron to put this on our Christmas tree?  I don't think so.

Thanksgiving 2014

We had Thanksgiving for the last time at our home in Pleasant View.  We sold it and had to move out the day after Thanksgiving.

 

We had my mom and dad, Billy, Spencer, Dallin, Karlie, Andrew, Megan, Dave's Dad, Holly, Cody, Lily, Jack, Olivia, Mitt, Ashley, Jud, James, Logan, Brigham, Alex, and Dave and me.  We cooked a turkey on our Traegger grill.  It was so good.

 

Instead of our usual gingerbread houses, we made trees out of ice cream cones.  The kids enjoyed it as much as in years past and there were no tears as there used to be when houses would fall apart.

A wedding and a field trip

 

My very handsome nephew, Dallin, married Karlie Cook in the Ogden Temple.

All of our kids, except Steph who is in Arizona, came to the wedding.  Afterwards we went to lunch together at the Korean restaurant on 2nd Street.  (I was unable to edit the photo)

I was a lucky grandma and got to be with Olivia for her preschool field trip to the fire station.

Holly, Lily and Olivia came over one day and helped me clean up leaves in our backyard.  It really helped me a lot.