Look at me all "Johnny on the Spot" with my new layout. I was tired of being cold. I'm ready for spring already. Too bad it's months away still:(

Grandma and Grandpa

I think the best part about Christmas this year was having all the grandkids together. My mom and dad are REALLY good at being Grandparents. Connor calls it being "playish". There were many hours spent reading and playing in the 12 days we were there. And little Benjamin who is only 10 months old just LOVES his Grandpa. Whenever my dad would come in the room Benjamin would start trying to get to him. I know it's hard for my mom with her hurt arms but she never turned down a "soft" hug from one of the grandkids. And somehow even the younger ones were so gentle around her, always careful not to bump or hurt her. They all had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa.

I'm less than a month late.....

I'm finally getting some pre-Christmas and Christmas stuff posted. And because I'm too busy to re-arrange the order - they are out of order. Too bad, I'm sure you'll enjoy them anyway.

One day we made Christmas cookies all day long. Each Grandchild was allowed to choose their favorite recipe and we made it. This one was Tasman's. They are John's mothers icing cookes. Much better than I thought they were going to be. Strangely addictive in fact. We're making more at our house this weekend:)

This was Connor's recipe - snickerdoodles. Ralph stepped in and helped because Mom and Dad had gone to PT and Alicia and I were frantically trying to finish her birthday present while she was out.

This was for Benjamin's chocolate chip cookies. Grandma and Connor chopped up all the chocolate by hand the night before. And kept all their fingers....

Dad taught us how to make German Stars. Part of our heritage. The kids actually enjoyed it a lot. Breanna even made several more in the following days.

More star making....

We (really I) didn't put up a tree at home since we weren't going to be there for Christmas so Grandma and Grandpa saved an entire tree for my kids to decorate. They did a good job. My parents have all their trees (yes there are 3) hooked into electrical thingies with remotes so there are little remotes to turn on the lights. (Yes I'm getting one next year) Anyway - Hillary just LOVED being able to turn them on and off every day. She was always the first one up and would go down and get the remotes and turn on the trees every morning.

FUN WITH FIRE

One day while we were at my Mom's house we cooked hotdogs and marshmallows over the firepit in their back yard. The kids had fun.

HE HE HE HE HE

One of the blogs I read/stalk is done by a lady I met through a Favorite Things Swap. She lives all the way on the other side of the country and we were matched by a stranger who I've never met. For that matter - I've never met Erin. I have discovered through reading her blog regularly that she too is LDS. Small world, eh? Anyway she likes to post lots of "flair". They always make me laugh. So I borrowed one from her. If you'd like to see more - visit her blog. It's on my side panel. It's The Jordan-Bergers. If not - just enjoy a small tribute to one of the BEST movies ever.

New Year and a New Start

I'm officially off Christmas break. The kids headed back to school today and I'm facing a full week of work. So back to semi-regular posts. Unfortunately I left my camera at home today and Bre has mistakenly taken my picture disk from by bag so the Christmas pictures will have to wait till later this week. But know that we had a fabulous time in Virginia with all my family. The pictures I do have are from when we went sledding last week with my neighbor friend. The kids had a blast.

There is a person in Springville who brings new meaning to the word Snowman. Last year he did Shrek and this year it is Madagascar 2. Yes they are all made of snow. We always love driving up and checking out their work.