It has become a tradition for us to take pics in front of the tree. I love it! My family-not so much! They are troopers though, so they did it. We had a nice low key Christmas Eve, just family, food, presents, cookie making, and fun! Here are a few of my favorite pics from this year!
Okay, so that is more then a few, but I really did try to narrow it down. How gorgeous our my girls!!!
I wanted to do something really fun for my mom for Christmas and I got this great idea from my sis in law Tamie. She did it for my mother in law some time last year so I decided to do it for my mom. Luckily, for my my mother is the proud grandma of 7 amazing kids and the word "grandma" has 7 letters, so it was easy peasy and it turned out so super cute that I thought I would share. Each kid got their own letter and frame... here are the pics.
She totally loved them so thanks Trav and Wick for helping out. I will post a pic of what they look like on the wall once we get them up!
I am in awe of all of the amazing things that my sister can do, she is the best crafter ever! But I have to say this is the one of the coolest things I think she has ever done. Recently, she lost her friend David to cancer, so in his memory she got together with some friends and did a tree for the festival of trees. Some of the ornaments were picked out and others were hand made. She made the tree topper and it is so beautiful. The tree sold for 2000 and was featured on KSL. So awesome J!
One of my most favorite books of all time is "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. It also became one of my favorite movies ever. Its very rare to find a movie that does the book justice and this is one of them. Recently, Rye has been reading it in her reading class and she loves it as much as I do! Seriously, this has been one of my favorite mommy moments. It was so fun to share these characters that I have loved for so many years with her. We discussed the book a lot, watched the movie, read all sorts of fun facts on IMDB. It was so awesome. I hope to have many, many more of these moments. .
I went with my BBW crew to my very first Quinceanera on the 19th of November. It was pretty awesome. I am a sucker for tradition and this was a night packed full of generations of just that. I loved the amazing dresses and the food, but my favorite part was the ceremony. At one point her parents removed her flats and replaced them with sparkly high heels. I cried like a baby. I had such a fun time watching everything around us and spending time with my girls. So fun!
Yasmine, the birthday girl.
The Cake
The amazing center piece. Oh did I mention I got to take this one home.
This is the very end of the ceremony. She is no longer a little girl.
My BBW crew
I love this pic of me and Kami so I had to add it.
Randy is off to school, once again, this time to tackle his Masters Degree! He was accepted to George Washington University and will be working on a degree in Program Management. I am so excited and proud of him. I know he is going to do amazing.
Good luck babe and we will see you in two years (he he)
Ryen has wanted to play volleyball forever and for the past three months we have had a blast watching her play. It's been fun to watch her grow, learn team work, endure cold and hot weather through practice (they practice at the park in the sand, so you never know what the weather is going to be), and take her wins and a few losses with an amazing attitude. We are just about finished with this season and will begin the winter season in January. I can't wait! We're so proud!
Number 27!
waiting for the serve!Halloween was crazy this year! We had the oppurtunity to do so many things and the girls were just not into it. I am not sure I really like this "kids getting older thing!" We were only able to talk them into going to Trunk or Treat and to spend about 10 minutes walking around the neighborhood. (I guess in their defense their bags were beyond full after ten minutes and the straps were starting to tear. Our neighbors are just as excited about Halloween as I am, love it!)
Anyway, I was able to get some fun pics of the girls in their costumes.
Her Royal Highness
Alice
Together
Being Silly!Randy and I have been looking for something new to do forever! Well, we found it at the Sahara in the form of a Roller derby! I have to say at first we were a little lost, but as the game went on and we figured out the rules-we totally dug it! It was pretty fun, well for Randy, Rye, and myself. I am not sure it was Ali's thing at all. She even made the comment "I rode on an elevator for this!" (she is not the biggest fan of elevators so it was a pretty big deal that she got on the elevator.
Somehow we managed to not get a pic of the family, but we did get this pic of the girls with one of the roller derby girls.
I don't know her name for sure but she was on the "freak" team. Sadly they were skunked by the "Geek" team.
Action shot-This was the first game. It was Super Heroes against Villians. The Super Heroes were victorious of course!
Action shot #2-Geeks vs Freaks. Check out the tights on 555. I so want her tights!The Saturday before last, Randy and I joined some friends and became Secret Agents. We totally rocked we solved the crime in like 3 hours. So much better then most agents ;)!
Actually, it was all in fun and we used these guys to do it. It was one of the funnest things we have done in a long time. I loved trying to solve all of the clues. I realized pretty quick that I was sort of the remedial kid of the group. Everyone was so much better then me at figuring out the clues and finding all of the "mystery marbles", but I had a blast anyway. We took some really fun pics that night and here are some of my favorites!
The group! Don't we look like amazing super spies! We totally were. PS we had to leave the weapons there.
Part of the group watching a video for clues.
Our next stop was a fortune tellers business/house. This was totally my favorite part. The clues here were crazy fun and even led to a dead body (which I will add later if I ever get the disc from Chris) and a secret room.
The four of us posing in the secret room. You can't tell, but there was a lot of really gross blood in this room.
Randy and I posing with the mask we uncovered. It was a little spooky!One of the kids favorite shows is Phineas and Ferb, so when we heard they were coming to Vegas we had to go.
The cast. I have to admit, the costumes were a little spooky. I think Ferb looked pretty good though.
This pic depicts it all-Rye was just happy to be there. Ali was beyond excited and even sported an Agent P shirt. Randy, well I don't think he was as excited as the girls.
The girls just hanging out until the show starts.I loved being in SLC. I always do, but this time I had some serious favorites. Some how I managed to get a pic of only a few of them.
1. Hanging out with the Weaver's.
2.Going to Hatch Family chocolate shop to have Frozen Hot Chocolate with the Tambascos. Two of my favorite people ever!
Scoring this super cute Frankenstein Candy dish at Cracker Barrel! (He is the tall one in the corner)Randy and I drove down to SLC for Taylor and Courtney's sealing and on the way down decided to take a little detour and visit Fort Cove. I was so glad that we did-it was totally amazing! Here are a few of the highlights of the tour.
The happy couple. I love that after 16 years we still love spending time together!!
One of my most favorite things there were the amazing beds. The very top of the headboard comes off and that is what they used to "hit the hay" to make the lumps and "other things" lay flat. That is where the term "hit the hay" came from.
Although the beds were my favorite thing, the kitchen was my favorite room. It was ridiculous! Such a testimony of how industrious this family was- I couldn't believe the stove and butter churn. Umm... no refrigerator either. Not to mention the fact that these were the smallest tables I ever seen. Did I mention that all of these years later it still smelled like apple pie?
Every piece of furniture was amazing, but this bureau was totally my favorite.
I loved this dress! Everyone back there was nice and short, just like me. Randy seemed really tall there.
This was in the little girls room, it is made entirely of hair. Do you see the woman's silhouette?
This is a pic of the outside. The Fort has a working garden and they were fantastic! The small houses were a black smiths shop and an ice house.
