NEW YEAR'S TRADITION

Leslie & Me

Me and My Curt!!

Tyler-he's single if you know any girls!! hee hee

Everyone havin' a Blast

Chandler had to come, they tried to talk him out of it, but he couldn't be left out of the fun.

This was Brylee and Bodies way of skating

Nelson doesn't he look like a pro.

Brinley, Isabel, & me all bundled up

Brylee, Tanner, & Me

(Jason stayed at Darla's & hung out he had enough of the cold working in it all day)

All bundled up and ready for the 4 degree weather

Every year for New Years Eve we head up to Huntsville to Aunt Darla's and Uncle Curt's to bring in the New Year. We Eat, chat, play games, the kids play outside, and the last two years we went over to the park where they make an ice skating rink and we skate. It was 4 degrees and it was really cold, I guess the skating around didn't make it seem so cold, it was really fun. We were prepared, but Darla helped out by giving us some hand warmers. Tanner did really good and didn't even need help. Brylee lasted not even 5 minutes on her skates and ended up just playing around on the ice with her snow boots and crawling around with Bodie. Then Nelson had the kids hang onto a hockey stick and he slid them around on the ice. The kids had a blast and I did too. Leslie didn't skate so she took the video/pictures

December Fun

My HOT Husband

Pouting
(Better watch out, Better not pout I'm tellin' you why. Santa Clause is Comin' to town)

Sleepover and just being Lazy
Brinley, Brylee, Dylan, & Tanner

Cuddling my kiddo's
(This is usually how we end up if we are watching a movie or TV together and I LOVE IT!)

All I want for Christmas are my TWO front Teeth!

Loves to rearrange the stickers on the window of the manger & look at all the Christmas Cards we get.

Getting the kids involved in the cooking. Caramels, dipping pretzels. Chocolate covered Cinnamon Bears, Chocolate covered wafers, etc.

Visiting the widows or elderly is a tradition
Mom & Dad Bowen & Dave & Betty (Grandpa Shurtleff's Brother)
We also visit Jason's Aunts (Lois & Arlene)

Tanner made Breakfast one morning for us, Daddy had to work. :(
We like to set up a picnic in the living-room on Sundays after Church while Dad is at meetings.

Our attempt at our gingerbread village, Daddy had a meeting. :(

The Cute Ray Girls

December is always a busy month. I try to have all my shopping done so we can make sure we have plenty of time for the TRUE meaning of Christmas, the Birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ! My favorite is the Christmas music and things to bake this time of year and I get the kids involved at focus on giving rather then only getting. Seems like we did a lot without Jason, I guess we just do a lot of little things when he is at work or in meetings that I caught on camera. We spend time as a family a lot and are lucky to have such a good provider and devoted husband/father to his calling. He works hard in both and we are very proud of him.

Our Christmas

Tanner took a picture of us so we were in at least one picture

Cute Kiddos Christmas Morning

PJ's and Buddies

Brylee's gift to Tanner the truck guy!

Tanners gift to Brylee the artist!

The kids were very wound up and excited on Christmas Eve, and yes I do PJ's and let them open them on Christmas Eve, and this year we let them exchange their gifts from each other that night as well. They were so excited to give their presents to each other. I am so glad they are the best of buddies.

We had a Great Christmas the kids got spoiled as usual, I still enjoying that they like toys and are fun to shop for, because I know the older they get the more expensive they get.

Jason did good he got me some good stuff one of my favorites a Superman shirt, I guess because I am Super Mom, Super Woman, Just Super!! hee hee I also got a jewelry stand, I don't know what you call it a big jewelry box that stands by itself, I love it. He got me a fire extinguisher too, which I thought was funny, very practical thinking. I love you Jas.

Brylee that night I asked her "Did you have a good day?" She said "OH YES!" I said "What was your favorite part and she said "MY PILLOW PET AND KITTY!" Ok so I put it in caps because she yelled it with excitement. The pillow pet was a cute lady bug, and the kitty was NOT real, it was a FurReal Kitten that walks and meows. Jason and I have pinkie swore no real pets. Of course my favorite thing for her are her cute pink cowboy boots.

Tanner loved his remote control car the best I think, and new DS Games he got as well. Tanner lost his two front teeth this year just in time before Christmas so you know everyone was saying to him "Oh I know what you want for Christmas, your two front teeth." Tanner was so excited he woke up at 5am and came into our room and said "Mom, do you think Santa came?" I said I am sure he did go out and see, but we are not waking up yet, so just go look." He came in and said "Mom, I got a remote control truck and Brylee got a FurReal Kitty!" Santa doesn't wrap the two gifts he gives, everything else is from us. He was so excited he couldn't go back to sleep right away, so I said go take a shower and see if that helps and lay down again for a bit. I don't even remember him getting in the shower then just remember waking up at 7:30.

We had a very good Holiday and Jason is glad that December is over because he doesn't have to conduct Sacrament meeting for three more months. He did a great job as worried and stressed out as he was worried he would mess up.

TIS THE SEASON WITH THE RAYS

The Gang-Christmas Eve (We missed you Jarom, Rochelle, & Kids)

Lots of playing the Wii at the Foits

The Adults in on the fun playing Tetris on the Wii

Ty looking at the Traditional Calendars I make each year

Chocolate Fondue-YUMMY


Just a cute picture!!


Grandma and Grandpa Ray & the Kiddo's Christmas Morning.

Chef Alex at work (Breakfast Casserole, Fried Potatoes, Scrambled Eggs, Pancakes, Bacon)

The kiddo's enjoying the grub.

Christmas Eve, just the Girls!!

I love this time of the year and enjoy spending time with Family! I enjoy watching the kids excitement, family traditions, smiles, mistletoe, the TRUE Meaning of Christmas, Red, Christmas Movies, Poinsettas, Yummy Treats, Eating, laughing, Friends, The Elf that watches and reports to Santa, Service for others, Giving, Love, Family coming into town (It was fun to have Ty and Meet Mike), christmas cards in the mail, and much more. We did lots of fun things here are a few but not in any particular order:

*Dinner at Taggerts for Ty's Birthday-YUM YUM YUM If you have never been you have got to take the drive and go, it is very much worth it. I got teh Jalapeno Burger and had to take home a carrot cake for the next day.

*Fun watching home videos-Seeing Jason's Bug when he was younger, Jason's Mullet & Playing Basketball, Camping trip when they were kids on the Mopets/Raft, Some birthdays. [Seeing those video's I noticed Jason and Jarom were always together, Marci & Ty were best of buds and still are, Ty was quite a funny kid, Jarom was the quite one, Ty loved to be on video]

*Playing games and eating-Tetris on the Wii, the kids & adults fought over whose turn it was. I remember playing it on the Atari that is how old I am. I thought I would kick butt but Andrew still beat us all most of the time.

*Our Christmas Eve Dinner-At Our house, everyone brought finger food to eat (shrimp, guacamole, jalapeno Jelly, Meatballs, Smokies, Homemade Rolls/orange rolls, artichoke dip, and Chocolate Fondue with all the yummy stuff to dip. It was a lot of fun we ate, played Apples to Apples, ate more, watched Joy to the World, and had an amazing awesome discussion about the TRUE meaning of Christmas and everyones feelings about the Season.

*Christmas Morning Breakfast-At Marci's this year. I think Alex has found his niche in life, he is such a good cook and we got to all enjoy his Breakfast, he wouldn't let anyone help. I did get to bring the OJ

*Pizza and Bingo-We all made it save on that stormy night and it was so much worth it. Grandma and Grandpa got a bingo game and had wrapped prizes. We all played kids and adults and when we got bingo we got to get a prize or could steal the prizes from another person. A Omelet maker was the hot item, Ty ended up with it, and of course he had to text me a picture Friday morning since they made omlets when they got home :P (I still love ya Ty)

Tis the Season with the Bowen's

Grandma & Grandpa Bowen & The Grandkids (We miss Matt's Family in Iowa)

Navi was the most popular person this year, we had to take dibs on who got to hold her next. Needless to say she was not set down at all.

Day after Christmas, Jenna's Birthday we got together and had dinner, I made Ice-Cream Cake Roll at Jenna's request & played Grandmas bells. The kids had a blast doing them, well ok the adults had just as much fun too. Mom had music and someone never returned it when they took the bells to borrow, so Laura had taken the music Mom borrowed from someone else and copied and laminated it all, so that was a super nice surprise for Mom. And of course we made Mom cry again when we were such good bell ringers.

Me & My Bud Izzy

Jenna's Family

Nelson's Family

My cute Family!!

Spencer's Family (No he hasn't become a professional Mountain Man yet)

Not a dull moment when Spencer is in town, and always a lot of people at Christmas, it is loud and chaotic, but lots of fun. We go over early before the extended family comes and open presents together then the extended family comes over for for an early dinner/late lunch, we eat, hang out, and do white elephant exchange that is always lots of laughs. Every year I think everyones goal is to make Mom cry, and it was done again. This year instead of exchanging family gifts we started a new tradition. Jenna was defiantly inspired when she suggested this last Summer when everyone was in town and we were together. This is how it works, each family writes stories like a family history book. Spencer was in charge of the organizing this year and I will be in charge next year and we will rotate. Each family is to write at least one story, this year we all wanted at least one about Grandma Miner. We ended up with more then just one from each family we had I think 19 stories to start for the year. Spencer had Aunt Darla write one about her thoughts about my Mom and Dad taking care of Grandma and Grandpa Shurtleff when they lived with them. Yup Spencer was the winner this year to make Mom cry. This is going to be a family tradition I think we will all enjoy for years to come and we will all remember and treasure forever. I was so excited I put my stories in page protectors and bought a nice leather binder, I went home that night and read them all. Of course I cried reading a few and laughed reading some too. I look forward to next years stories. I had Tanner tell me what to write and I typed his story up on our trip to Colorado, and Brylee I asked her questions about a day at school and made a little story for her. I wrote just some random favorite thots/memories of Grandma Miner. Now the only dilemma is what will I write on next year?!?

Brylee's Christmas Program

Kays Kiddie Care is the BEST the do the cutest things with the kids. Evey year they do a Christmas Carol Program and each class including the infant class have a performance of course with a lot of help from the teachers. Brylee's class this year did Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer with the red noses and all. They were so cute and it is always a lot of fun to watch. Dylan, Brinley, Kaylor Tanner and I all sat in the front and watched together. Brylee was as cute as can be. She is so funny and loves to sing. She will sing and makes up her own songs all the time.

(PICTURES: Mrs Jodi, Brylee & Miss Katie. Three pictures of all the classes together, Infants, 1 -2 yr olds, 3-4 yr olds, 5 yr olds, & School Age kids all mixed up & Mr Will on the far right side. Taylor, Brylee, & Riley. Last picture Brinley, Kaylor, Tanner, & Dylan)