Sledding!

The kids love to play in the snow! And they really love the sled! We have been having a lot of snow this year! It seems to just keep coming! It sure is beautiful! We need to take the kids to a Hill where they can really Sled down!

Happy New Year!

Melissa and Jake and family came over to celebrate the new year! We had a fun time! The "boys" played War Hammer, and the "gals" played kid games with the kids! It was fun! We had a toast, with special glasses, and used noise makers as soon as we counted down with the ball on the t.v. I'm glad we did something to make it fun and special. The kids were pretty tired by the end, and Eli and Scott didn't make it to midnight, but the other kids thought it was really cool to be up so late, and to be making so much noise, and playing games. HAPPY NEW YEAR! May this year be a wonderful and a successful one for all of us!

Christmas Highlights!

Here are some random pictures that I took during all of the festivities of Christmas!

We always do a "Manger scene" and this year Breanne was the Angel, and Joshua was a wise man. It brought back a lot of memories of when I was a little girl doing the same thing! It was so fun. The kids are all so cute!

Grandma Jardine gave Joshua a sled for Christmas this year, and so we took it out, and had some fun with it on their driveway. Now the sled is the prefered mode of transportation back and forth from Grandma's house!

Me and Scott Christmas morning at out house!

Christmas morning at our house, as the kids were coming in and seeing what Santa brought.

Me and Jared at his mom's house. Or you could call this picture our "Sprite" advertisement!

I gave Jared some "Orange Crush", and he opened it as his Christmas Eve gift! He loved it!

The kids all opened one gift on Christmas Eve. It was so cute to have them all sitting in a row on the couch and watch them take turns, and be so excited for not only what they recieved, but also for what each other recieved. This was the funnest Part of Christmas for me! Before we opened gifts, we read Luke 2's account of the manger scene, with the aid of the pictures out that book Breanne is holding. (I can't remember what it is called.) And after presents, we sang some hymns. It was so great!

Another picture of Breanne, coming out to be the Angel for the manger scene at the Mortensen family Christmas party. This picture kindof got out of place. The party was really fun! We always do white elephant gifts, and have pizza. It was really fun to visit with the extended family. It is a good thing to get together every once in a while. Christmas is a good time for that kind of thing. I was really dissapointed that the Jardine family Christmas party was canceled this year due to the bad weather. I was looking forward to seeing all those great people! But Merry Christmas to everyone, and I hope that everyone has a great 2009!

We love to play in SNOW!

Here's Jared snow blowing for what seemed like all day! He went out like four times to try to keep up on it! Thank heaven for his hard work that day, and the aid of the snow blower!

My kids were thrilled with the snow! They didn't get to play in it enough though! Hopefully it will snow again this winter...pretty sure it will. Anyway, it sure was fun to see it all coming down so hard like it was. The kids had fun, but Eli had a hard time walking in snow that came to his waist! Maybe next time we will make a snow man. This snow would have been perfect for it, but it requires "Mom's" help, and Mom wasn't able to give it. I came out for pictures though!

Merry Christmas!

We had a good Christmas! We are so very blessed! I'm so grateful for all of our family and friends, and for what a wonderful life we have! I'm especially grateful for my little family, and my sweet husband! Christmas is so much fun with little kids around. They were so excited and loved all thier gifts! What a wonderful time of year! .......Now for all the clean up! :)

Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful gifts! I hope that everyone had a great Christmas!

I will try to post pictures soon!

Our Cutie!

Isn't he Darling!!!

WINTER WONDERLAND!

For the sake of our Family in Arizona...it is a winter wonderland here! Everyone who is here...

knows this! And we are all trying not to get into car accidents when we go out in it! There is a ton of snow, and just when we think it will be over, it snows some more! But it is BEAUTIFUL!!! And the kids are having fun playing in it! I'm just glad that Jared has a snow blower, and is keeping our path clear! I just hate driving in it!

The Gingerbread House!

Making A Ginger Bread house with Grandma!!

Because we went to Arizona this year, Joshua missed the schools, "Grandparents Day". They missed making Gingerbread houses as the activity for it, and so Grandma came over to make one at our house instead!

Me and Breanne made one also (because she wasn't to be left out of all the fun and candy!) It turned out to be really fun! We used Grahm Cracker though! And We had a hard time making "peaks" on our houses, but flat roofs are just as yummy! Thanks Linda, for a fun time with the kids! Joshua loved it!

And now the kids are eating bits and pieces off until Christmas, after which they will be able to go at the whole thing!

Setting up the Christmas Tree!

The kids and I, set up the Christmas tree finally! I love getting out all the holiday decor, and turning on the radio to listen to Christmas music! It really is "begining to look a lot like Christmas!" And oh what fun it is! The kids are especially loving the candy canes that we hand on the tree, and then eat occasionally through the season!

Chad and Janice invited us up to Snow Bird to share in their time share experience. This was a pretty tree that was in the front entrance, and we got a quick family picture! Merry Christmas everyone! And thank you Chad and Janice, for a fun time at Snow Bird. We wish we could have come for longer.

Thanksgiving with other family!

After we had dinner with Jared's family, we went to my mom's house for some more festivities! My sister bought a pinata for the kids! It was pretty funny, because it was so unusual! But was all agreed, that they should make it a tradition, and bring one again next year! The other tradition that we were actually able to do, was to watch this crazy show from the 80's (called "The Babysitter") that we would watch with my cousins every year on Thanksgiving growing up. It is halarious! And we were all quoting it, and everything! That was really fun! Plus it was fun to have everyone there! Usually we are missing someone, but this year, everyone came! So it was a really good Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving With Jardine's

We had a special treat this year of Seth and Caroline coming to visit for Thanksgiving! It was a lot of fun! We had a good visit! The kids all played so well together, and the adults had fun laughing and talking! Joshua and Luke played a lot, and all of the little girl cousins played well together, but the biggest surprise, and the funnest part of the whole week (for me anyway) was Luke and ELI! Eli loved Luke! And with his little Eli voice he would call for him, and defend him. One time, Ella pushed Luke, so Eli went up to Ella and while pushing her, said, "Don't push Lute!" (I know I miss spelled Lute, but that is kinda how Eli sounded.) It was so fun to watch Eli with his big cousin Luke! Good Thanksgiving! Good food, and better company!

On Friday, just the girls all went out for

lunch! It was fun! We had a good time

together!

Joshua's Wall-e Birthday!

Joshua had a really fun Robot (Wall-e) party this year! We had 15 kids there! And it was a lot of fun. The cake turned out awesome! Joshua doesn't actually turn 6 until December 22, but we celebrate early so that we can avoid it being crazy around Christmas time! It works out really well!

BASKETBALL!

So, I went to the ward's, ladies, basketball team practice tonight! It was awesome! I was so glad that I went! I can't wait until next Thursday! I wasn't as horrible as I thought I would be, and it was so much fun to get all that excersice in. Every one did a great job! We will be awesome come game time!!!

Almost ONE!

We celebrated Scott's first birthday a month early! Just because his birthday is right around the craziness of Christmas time, and all. We've done this with Joshua too, and it has worked out well, over the last couple of years. So even though he is not quite 1 year old, he had a great birthday party! I was a lot of fun. I decorated with "1's". And made his cake a "1". And everybody came. He got a lot of cute clothes and toys! Thank you to everyone, for all their cute gifts! Happy Birthday Scott boy! We love you!