Jill Dana is here

We are so excited that Jill Dana has finally arrived. Born 11/18 at 3:18 AM. Weighed in at 8 lbs. 2 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. She looks somewhat like her big brother Ryan. Mom and baby are doing terrific. On my way to see her soon.

The Wii

Richard and I visited Dustin and Abish recently and played a little Wii. This was my first time on the Wii and it was really fun. Here is Richard playing golf.

Lindy was way better at the games than I was. She must have been practicing. We sure had a good time. Love you guys.

My church buddies

This is my friend Elliot. He, his brother, baby sister and Mom share Sacrament meeting with me each week and I love it. He is at the ward trunk or treat and he's just about done with the whole business. He refused to put on his hood and kept trying to shoo shoo me away. I was just trying to get him to smile for me. Sooooooo I kept trying.

Again......

And again....(maybe if I hide my eyes she'll stop!)

Oh my....she's never going to stop :(

Okay already....Here is my smiley face. (This really is his camera smiley face these days...just ask his Mom)

Here is his dinosaur of a brother. He didn't mind posing for me.

Well....he didn't mind THAT much.....

There we go...a true Owen smile. Love these boys!

Tyler turns 25

Tyler turns 25 this month and we had a dinner celebration for him a couple of weeks ago. (I am in a holding pattern waiting for Dana to have her baby) Kaila made this yummy chocolate banana bread cake with white chocolate peanut butter frosting. It was yummy. It is so fun to have Tyler and Becky come over. We miss Tyler living here and it is good to spend some fun time with him. We love you Tyler.

After the dinner and dessert we retired into the living room. When Jordan comes I pull out a bag of toy animals that I use for church. When Jordan isn't looking the BIG "kids" take them over and play their own games. They role play scenarios where the cow is....well just mean! Then they have stacking games to see who can stack the highest. In the midst of all of this Jordan realizes she can't get to the toys. Next thing we know she is picking them up as fast as she can and hiding them in the chair. Too cute!

See, Tyler was the master stacker for the night.

Everyone got into the fun!

My (not really) FAMOUS Chili

The missionaries had a great booth at our ward trunk or treat party. You drop a ball down this maze thing and which ever slot it falls into you get that candy. Here are a couple of pics of The Banana Guy playing and winning the BIG prize. For the record the missionaries were dressed as Samoan missionaries with their traditional wrap (not in drag like another ward thought!).

I won....I won.

For our recent ward trunk or treat party on Halloween the Relief Society "personally" asked me (and every other sister in the ward via a sign up list) to bring my FAMOUS "chili con carne". Well what is a girl to do? When they crave good chili they come to me! Ha Ha

Kyle turns the BIG 21!

Kyle turned 21 in October and that was cause for celebration for sure. Over conference weekend we celebrated with Nat and family, Jimi and family and Tyler and Becky and Aaron. He had is requested Sunday dinner and Tres leches birthday cake. Then...the night before his birthday Aaron was with us so we decided to have another celebrate again! We made peanut butter rice krispie treats and he opened his presents. Then on his actual birthday we took him to a little Thai restaurant downtown. All in all he was able to party hardy for this milestone day.

Dad lighting his birthday candles, 2 on one side to represent 20 and 1 on the other side to represent 1.

It's hard to open presents when you have sticky treats in your hand.

Happy Birthday Kyle. We love you. You are a good man.

My randomness

I haven't posted in forever because my computer/camera set up keeps timing out when I try to load pictures. I now have a handy dandy disc reader that helps so much. But the awful truth is that I have several memory discs with tons of pictures that span months and months. I will be blogging these events but am afraid there will be no rhyme or reason to the events. I will take them as they come on the discs.

8 is GREAT!

Richard and I flew up north for Carter's baptism on October 10th. Here is a cute shot of the family as they are going out the door to the church. After the baptism we all returned to Dana and Michael's home for some wonderful lunch and treats. There was a huge crowd on hand to witness this milestone in Carter's life and fun was had by all.

We so appreciated that Dustin, Abish and the girls traveled in from Boise.

No matter how long it has been since Anna and Lindy have been together, they have an instant connection. Lindy cried when they had to leave:(

Anna, Lindy, Grandpa Ray (background), Grandpa Richard and Ryan.

Ry and Grandpa Christensen.

Michael's sisters, Sara (& 2 of the cutest boys you've ever seen), Rachel and Loni came in for the fun from Utah and Arizona!

The Bishop surrounded by Kami's cute Kylie and Quinn

Michael's mom Deb with Rachel, Sara and Sara's boys, Adam and Aaron.

The rest of the Primary Presidency (sans Dana) and Danielle.

A picture to prove I did attend.

Just been baptized and fresh from the dressing room. Here are Carter and Michael posing in front of the font.

All the wonderful Priesthood holders who helped to confirm Carter a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Uncle Dustin, Bishop, Dad, Grandpa Ray, Grandpa Richard
(Annie sneaking a peak at the right!)

Here is my sweet "BANANA" helping me at the grocery. Of course he wanted to pick out the little bananas. He is the
"TOP BANANA" you see. We had just attended our ward "trunk or treat" and needed to get the food for Tyler's birthday dinner. "MR. BANANAMAN" got a lot of second looks going up and down the aisles and one kid kept telling his parents. "Hey there's the banana guy" over and over and over. What fun.

Impromtu trip to Payson aka beating the heat

Richard and I decided on the spur of the moment to visit Rod and Sharla for Rod's birthday. We knew it would be cooler up north but had no idea how wonderful it would be. A strong monsoon storm had come through the area and cooled things off. When we left the valley it was 110 degrees. Within 1 hour we were to Mt. Ord and in a fierce rainstorm which dropped the temperature to about 65 degrees. Once we were through the scary part of the storm it was pure heaven. Here we are with Rod and Sharla after dinner at our hotel.

We took a little drive before we returned to the heat into the forest. Parking at the side of the road we hiked a little way to get a good vista picture of the rim area.

Here is one of the pictures Richard took. Breathtaking.

This is what my man did to get the picture.....risking his life over barbed wire. Thanks for the great shots honey.

Here he is trying to pull up a manzanita bush. My mom had one of these that she hung ornaments on. I wanted to do the same....only we didn't really have anything to dig it up with. Oh well, maybe next time.

Mistletoe growing in one of the trees. Yes...this warranted quite a little bit of smoochin.....

He was so sweet to sit on wet ground and let me try out my camera a little on him. Hmmm.....what a hunka hunka burnin love. Oh man!

Park City

Here are some pictures that we had done by Three Winks Studio out of Salt Lake City. We met in a park by our Resort in Park City and I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful setting for our latest family portrait. Above is Peter and you can take a guess what is dripping from his hand! The kids had just busted a pinata and he must have had 3 pieces of candy in his mouth. Needless to say....it didn't all fit and had to come out somehow. Priceless.

Sweet Bianca with her July 4th pin wheel

Anna getting her candy. How precious.

Anna and Lindy

Richard facilitating the pinata play. Cute lining up.

How sweet, Michael helping Peter with his turn with Levi on the right.

Kyle

Aaron

OOH La La!

Richard and I with our kids.

Richard and I with our kids and their spouses.

Tyler and Becky

Richard and I with the grandkids and their July 4th sunglasses!

Carter, Dana, Michael, Anna and Ryan.

Jimmy, Kaila and Jordan

Peter, Adam, Levi, Natalie, Reanna, Ben, Caprina and Sam.

Bianca, Abish, Dustin and Lindy.

Here are all 26 of us!(until Dana's new baby comes in November...it is hard to keep a current family picture with everyone in it!) I love the way Stacy, our photographer put it all together. We took these at 8 AM and it was chilly, the grass was wet and more than a few balked at not wearing shoes. I love the way these all turned out. We had a wonderful vacation, stayed at a fabulous place, and best of all enjoyed just spending time together.