Growing Up!

Where did my baby go? She is still my baby even though she is growing up. That is the role of the last child. She has that one covered! She LOVES to be cuddled. Rachel’s favorite thing in the world right now is Tangled with Cinderella at a close second.

Christmas 2011

This Christmas break has been wonderful and I'm sad to see it end. We drove to Utah to see family. It was very long drive but found it might be better to just get the drive over with rather than break it up. We did a lot while we were in Utah and really got in a lot of family time.
BYU Basketball - Jacob and I went to one game and Jacob took Allan to another game. I asked Jacob to take a picture. I realized the picture was more for me but I'm grateful for these memories.
Rachel is a Grandpa's girl when we visit.
Odyssey or Oddie as Emily calls her was fun to play with. The kids loved seeing her do tricks and playing with the laser with her.
My boys LOVE Tin Tin and have read all of their books so when they saw that they were making a movie of this book, we knew we had to go see it in theaters in 3D. It was great to have most of the family join us, although this is just a few people in the picture.
Next to the Tin Tin movie display was this Star Wars display. Allan as Obi Wan.
Rachel's has an amazing ability to find playgrounds. After the movie she spotted one so we headed there to let the girls play.
The girls LOVE to play dress up. They would model their different outfits at Grandma Dudley's and at Grandma Keith's house. We played a lot of new fun games this year. Dominion, Sequence, and Ticket to Ride. We also played some of the same games - Nerts, Scum, and O Heck. Table talk always makes games fun! Stephen received a lot of attention since we haven't seen him in over 2 1/2 years. It was great to have him around. Everyone admired the glow of Christmas lights. Thanks Allison for decorating. The house was festive! What's more fun than decorating gingerbread men with the kids during the holidays?
I was amazed at how much sugar each kid would fit on the cookie.
My kids spend many, many hours playing the wii at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Games of choice were Kirby's Return to Dreamland, Star Wars: The Force Unleased, and Just Dance. We visited Grandpa and Grandma Greer's house, but we MISSED them! I had so much fun telling my kids stories about growing up there. One of they boys favorite things to do was wrestle with Stephen and play two on two.
Have you eaten Rolo Cookies? Yum! We cooked 8 dozen rolo cookies for a cookie exchange party. Allan and Nathan started their Physical Fitness Merit Badge over Christmas break. It was fun running with them at Smith Fieldhouse. One of the kids favorite games to play was Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It is a tradition to play football on the X-box at every Christmas break. We did a bunch of hanging out over the holiday. The kids found a lot of fun things to do around the house including a puppet show. With no snow this year, the kids raked the leaves with Stephen. Christmas was being with family, lounging, watching movies, eating......it was good. I simply love Christmas!

Christmas at Temple Square

Salt Lake City is arguably the most beautiful city in the country.

With a mild winter temperatures, it was a great year to visit Salt Lake City.



On one side of the temple is a smaller reflecting pool showing the beautiful floating lamps.




After watching Elf, Joshua had to try running around the revolving doors.

On top of the Joseph Smith memorial building is a great view of the SLC temple.


It is always a must do to visit the North Visitors' Center with a replica of The Christus, a statue of Jesus Christ by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.



Being short on time, we weren't able to see everything. We walked past the Conference Center but we had a small tour of the new Church Library.

Temple Square was festive everywhere. As we were leaving the lights were being turned on.


The Beehive House was home to Brigham Young when he was President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It was interesting to see the rooms as they were decorated to appear as they would have during Brigham Young's life.

It was a sweet feeling to hear the Sister missionaries share their testimonies of family.
Of course, we weren't able to see everything so we'll be going back on our next trip to Utah.