The Kids Have Fallen in LOVE...

...with the new corn filled heating pads Miss J & I made. They love to warm them in the microwave and put them in their beds while they brush their teeth. Then their beds are nice and warm to crawl into. We have all loved "street sledding & snowboarding" with Nathan's quad.

Saroya and Jaleigh are still in love with Gymnastics

And we all think Ethan is a HERO on the ice. People I don't even know are screaming "COME ON ETHAN!!" during games. :)

Miss J fell in love with cosmetology. (EEK!!!)
Ethan just LOVES making Mickey Ear pancakes in anticipation of our upcoming trip.

Now hopefully all this love will start melting some of this snow....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

HA!! I got my computer fixed! The best part about it though, is that I figured it out myself! Yeah, I know. I am a techie genius. Anyway- so back to blogging!

Ok- so since the Tangren's were in town for the holiday and the Garricks were NOT, we decided to take ourselves out to New York to crash their party. :P

It was perfect driving until the last hour. Then it was like we hit a wall of blizzard that stayed with us the rest of the way. I called ahead and told Nikki to get some heating pads ready, because every muscle in my body was tense. Ouch.

We got there on New Years Eve really early, so we tried to sleep in as much as possible- but not the kids. They got busy making plans and catching up. I love that they all love being together.

The kids played downstairs and worked on a "JERKY*" Carnival event for the first day of the year. (*Jillie, Ethan, Reagan, Kobe, and SaroYa)

Oh yeah, and Hyrum fell in love that very first day! (Is he soo cute??)
I skipped breakfast so Greg treated me to the most amazing sandwich ever at Wegmans. Seriously- if you live anywhere near a Wegmans and don't eat or shop there... you should be ashamed. I even brought home some special sandwich sauce this time! A vacation started at Wegmans is always a very good thing.

Jillie had a bad thanksgiving because she had just started orthodontic treatment which made it hard to eat, so Nikki (being the amazing mother that she is..) decided to do "Thanksgiving Dinner II" with all the trimmings. It was nice because we were all there to help get things together, and we were all there to eat it! :) I don't usually make Thanksgiving dinner, so it was interesting to see what Nikki goes through.

YUCK.

We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls (Oh my- the ROLLS...),

green beans, salad, stuffing, pie, and I am sure there was more, I just can't remember. It was GOOD!!! Everyone was pretty happy about it.

The kids had been begging to go to the church to clean and play basketball, so we loaded them up and went to the church. Apparently the Stepford Wives go to church there, because there wasn't even a speck of chalk on the boards, no garbage in the trash cans, not even a smudge on the windows (until after we were there... :)! So not much cleaning, a lot of playing.

Derek got crafty showing us his ball balancing act...

After a much needed energy release, we went home for an illegal firework display, and watched the countdown in the same state it was happening in! :)

The next day I got a second chance to take some pictures of all the grand kids and thankfully- we may have a few decent ones.

We went to see movie (3 different groups seeing 3 different movies!), the kids ate the biggest pizza ever and the adults feasted on the best Chicken Scampi (oh I my mouth is watering just thinking about it!), and then it was time for the carnival. What imaginations these kids have!! They had 16 different activities (I think) planned and they were all fun. I didn't have my camera out, but Ethan caught some pictures with his. They quizzed Derek on everything from sound bites from different Wii games to the decor of Reagan's room. He did AMAZINGLY well. Then everyone had to get a costume on. I realized how REALLY uncomfortable I am with masks during this little ditty...

There was a bean toss game, a raffle for a sucker, a coloring contest, a snack bar and so much more. It was really fun for everyone. I love it when those kids put their heads together!

We spent the rest of the trip in Palmyra visiting the historical sites. It gives you a whole different perspective on things to be standing in a tiny log home where Joseph, and was it 11 others?, lived in the middle of the winter. Walking through the Sacred Grove in the deep snow, I loved it.

On our way home to Michigan from the Garricks, we stopped off in Kirtland to go through the temple, and the other historical sites. SUCH a difference not being there in the summer! The missionary couples at the LDS historical sites are always so great, not in a rush in the least even if you are the last ones for the night. They even opened up the visitors center for us so that we could have a potty break before hitting the road again. I will never tire of church historical sites. Even if you are not a member of our church, there is always a good reason to stop. What isn't to love about this???

A big THANK YOU going out to Greg Nikki and the kids for having us ALL! See you guys in February!

THE Holiday Season

Ok- I have eaten a big piece of humble pie (and every other pie in sight apparently...) and have decided to just do one huge Holiday Season post with everything. I know it is lame, and late- but Miss J just had her school Christmas party today so I am still good. Right? Put your Santa hat back on- because we are taking a big ole' step back in time!

Aren't these cookies adorable? My neighbor brought them over for us!

We were super excited and happy to have Sunny & her darling family along for the whole sha-bang. We started out getting the all important Christmas tree..

Gosh- they eve helped us put up the tree and decorate! As quick as we decorated the tree, Hyrum un-decorated it. He is such a cutie.

A few days later, we were lucky enough to have some other visitors from out west. Grandma & Grandpa Avery came out to be here for Saroya's Baptism. They were such a help in getting the final preparations underway.

The Baptism was so great! We had family members there from all over! (Utah, Nevada, New York and GR!) Everyone braved the blizzard and joined us for that special night. So touching. Saroya decided that she wanted her cousin Jillie and Ethan to do the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. At first I wondered about how that would go, but then I got to thinking. Who better to learn from than someone that sees things so simply still and can explain things so she could understand them. Ethan forgot his talk at home so he had to do it all from memory, but both talks were short, sweet and absolutely perfect.

We had a quick meal for everyone after the baptism, took some pics of the grand kids that didn't turn out

and then went BOWLING!!! :) Random, I know- but we had everyone here so we had to have a party!

This is a picture of Nathan's dad... and if there are any Avery's reading this- you know EXACTLY what happened next. :) He is a trooper though and has a good sense of humor about it all. Thank goodness because it was pretty funny!

So after the busy weekend and many hugs and goodbyes, we took the Grandparents back to the airport (I think they had seen enough snow to last them a lifetime!! :) and wished them well on their next adventure on a mission in Texas!

After we dropped them off, we headed over to Grandma Old Ears to decorate for Christmas. I think it is something we all look forward to. Grandma wasn't too sure about the "pink flowers" in the tree and we took bets on whether she was taking them off as soon as we left, but when we went back after Christmas they were still there. :)

After Grandma's we scooped up Sunny and Hyrum and took them home with us for the rest of the week! We had lots of books read by Sunny...
and we saw lots of sleepy baby yawns.
and we were CRAZY busy as always, but we LOVED having them here.

The next week was spent quickly making and shopping for last minute gifts. The weather just got worse and worse- lots of watching this at night

and this during the day. Even got the last day before Christmas break off for a snow day!

Then the BIG DAY!! We got Derek back from Utah and we were ready to party!

Could you just eat this kid up??
We made sure to keep to tradition by doing the Christmas Caroling we all love! But we also stopped for some service snow shoveling along the way- and then helping ourselves up a driveway we got stuck in (we couldn't skip that house you know!)

We did finally make it back, just in time for a reading of the REAL Christmas story from a kids book this time, and then a quick visit from St. Nick before he headed out for the night. So nice of him...

The next morning the kids were excited to see what Santa had brought them this year. We tore open all the gifts- and can I just say this? My camera had a VERY good Christmas....The kids ran downstairs and spent the next little while like this... Before long the next party had arrived ready for our traditional Christmas breakfast and more present exchanging.

We went ice skating too but those pictures are on Ethan's new camera (!!) and we haven't downloaded them yet. It was fun and funny all rolled up in one freezing cold night!

There were of course other family and friend parties which are so good to connect with everyone you haven't seen in so long.
The party that we have with my Dad's family is always a rousing "White Elephant" type game with nice presents instead of silly ones. This year was no exception! We ended the night watching a DVD my cousin put together of pictures of my sweet Grandma Nellie in her younger years and even had her singing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" (I think it was). Such a treasure! Thanks Andy! You did awesome!

Next up... New Years in New York!!