A very cold night...

We had a family night at Temple square before Christmas. It was very cold, but we wintered through it and enjoyed the lights around the square. There were also lots of other people enjoying the scenery and out of all the people around us we ran into some old neighbors of ours. It was such a delight to hang around together. We also stopped in the new Deseret Book downtown and saw their pretend gingerbread cookie machine and they were handing out real gingerbread cookies. They were delicious!

We liked the new nativity sets that were placed around the square. Not sure if they were new, but we have never saw them. So they were new to us.

Speed Stacking

The kids school participated in the 'Stack it up' Guinness World Records contest. They participated with other schools country wide to beat a record. I am not sure if they made the record, but I did want to point out that this sport (yes it is a competitive sport) is one that Carter is really good at.

He was introduced to the cup stacking sport last year in PE and he kept telling me that he needed these cups that stack and so that he can show me how fast he is. I tried to give him paper cups and I guess there are special cups you use. So we hopped online last year and bought him is own set with a professional mat with a timer. Every time he walks in his room he runs through the cycle and over the last year his speed to run through the whole cycle has improved. So during the school contest he was the 3rd Grade Champion and came in second for the whole school..yay!

Since, then his PE teacher came up to me at school and told me that Carter should try out for the state cup stacking team. I guess they have a state team that plays against others. There is a boy that is 11 that is from our area that competes on the state team as well. I was just surprised that there was even a team out there. So, the tournament is this Spring. We will see what happens in the Cup Stacking World.

During the contest Ashlynn liked to make castles with her cups. She likes to show her creative side. She is so funny!

Fall Basketball

Carter just finished up Fall Basketball. It is amazing how much skills you remember from one year to another. I think it also helped to have his own hoop at home to practice with. He mostly played point guard, so he passed the ball alot and only shot the ball a few times. He still had fun!

Beware..lots of pink and pictures...

My niece had her wedding on Friday and it was such a fun and beautiful day. Ashlynn loved being part of the wedding as a flower girl. She had been looking forward to this day for months and the day had finally come. She even skipped school because she wasn't feeling well so she hung out with us all day before the other kids got out of school. Silly girl..she just couldn't hold in her excitement. We loved being able to share this special day with Jessica and Anthony. I just had so many good pictures that I wanted to document.
The sealing in the Bountiful Temple was such a amazing experience to be apart of. It brought back memories of our wedding.

The reception was full of excitement as well. We got to mingled with people that we haven't seen in a while since moving to Layton.
The poor little boys just wanted to get away from all the wedding stuff. You would always find them playing some electronic device away from all the people or getting food.

Congratulations to the new married couple! We wished them off on their merry way with a line of sparklers.

Our "Elf " tree

Last year the kids and I hit the after Christmas sales and decided that we wanted to put together a "elf" tree for this year. We all forgot until we opened up our Christmas buckets last week and saw all the new stuff for the tree. It was such a nice surprise since we have had the same snowman tree for the last several years. The tree is very fun and crazy, but we like it! Let the Christmas season begin...

Idaho Thanksgiving

Our family spent Thanksgiving 2011 in Idaho. We had limited time, but we managed to see most of our families. We enjoyed visiting and spending the holiday with all of them. We first had Thanksgiving dinner at Tom and Frankie's which Craig did an excellent job preparing. Then, Tracy, Gail and I headed out for some crazy Black Friday shopping that started at 9pm on Thanksgiving night, Crazy! We had such a great time that we kind of forgot that we stood in so many lines. We ended our shopping spree at 5am and ate breakfast at Ihop then we all took a nap. It was great!

Then it was off to my mom's place where we had another dinner and got caught up on life. My mom had all the her Christmas gifts together so we were sent home with them. We then visited Great Grandma and my Dad. We all were very thankful that we could fit in to see everyone. Our suv was so full and packed tight that we had to leave a few things behind to be brought down in a few weeks. We felt like we were driving Santa's sleigh with all the Christmas gifts inside plus our luggage.

I like the sign that says "Line forms here" because we got to that point after waiting in line for about 2 hours getting ready to check out. It made us chuckle. Tracy had to snap a photo of the animal crackers because this was toward the end of the line and we had to stand in front of the snack aisle. We saw these two buckets of crackers just sitting there with a sign that said buy one get one free so, we had to get them. We then dove into them in the car because we were a little on the hungry side and had to refuel for more hours of shopping. Good times!!

What's the girl up to...

Ashlynn has been her social self these days. She was invited to a "Fancy" party where she had to dress in her fancy clothes. The picture below is what she came up with. She then wanted photos taken of her with her "Fancy" outfit. She is so funny! We also included a picture in her Indian get-up that she made at school from her "Pow Pow" party.