Emmas first ballet recital and first snowfall

Emma has been taking ballet since August and has really liked it. For Christmas they tuaght the girls some fun dances and invited the parents to come watch during their class, it was super cute to watch them warm up and stretch.
Emmas the one with the white sweater on.




Well I should say first and last snowfall so far. It is nearly Jan and there is no snow here in Utah. But the last time it did snow, prest couldnt wait to take them sledding. Emma was all about the snow, Grace on the other hand is like me and would rather stay inside where its warm.

Welsh Halloween through Christmas

Thanks for the motivational post Lindsey. It got me excited to show my pics too! After this post I am caught up to date (minus Christmas Eve pictures)... Here is our visit with Santa Claus. He was great and knew our kids names off the bat. We love Santa. There was no fear here.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY LILLIAN!!! This is Lillians Barbie Birthday Party (Alan, I know what you are thinking:). Steve dressed up as Ken and served all the girls at the tea party. He seriously had their attention and Lillian referred to him as Ken for the rest of the party. When all the girls got there we had them color Barbie pictures while we got them dressed up in their tea party stuff. Lindsey and my sister in law were life savers (as was Ken). We gave them the down low on what their manners should be like at fancy tea parties and WOW those girls were on their BEST behavior. It was adorable. Watch out Barbie.....


This Barbie Cake was a snap and totally awesome. Made of Rice Crispies. It put together lickity split. Next time I'll find a modest shirt to dress Barbie In. Lily loved having friends over.
Emma glammed up.
Henry and his cousin Grant also attended the tea party.

Last of all is Texas. This was our Halloween. Adelaide was the cow. Because every good cowboy needs a steer. Right?
Mom helped with the chaps. He was a crazy cute cowboy and loved his guns.

Matt and Lisa's neighborhood was awesome. It was like trick or treating in the movies. Kids were EVERYWHERE. Walking down all the streets. I thought we had lost our kids a few times. Peoples houses were totally decked out and it was like a giant party. Seriously it was just like a book or movie that you see of Halloween. We had such a good time with them.
We went to see the long horn drive down in Dallas. Was it Fort Worth Lisa? It was pretty fun as you can tell by Hanks face.
Matt and Lisa were great hosts and Lisa went places with us and they made us feel right at home. I would highly recommend visiting and can't wait to plan another trip of our own. Lillian really loved being with you Sydney, Nate, and Spencer. Thanks for sharing all your toys and giving up your bathroom for a week.
The Zoo was awesome!!! They had this netted area where you could walk in and they had tons of parrots and canaries that you could feed with these seed sticks that cost a quarter. The birds were everywhere and it was absolutely incredible to Lily and Henry. At one point the birds got spooked and they all flew up in one huge cloud and circled around everybody. It was fun to watch and hear everybody inside saying (ahhhh!)
This one thought Steve smelled very nice and tried super hard to get into his shirt too...I don't know, take a whiff or something. Steve successfully blocked him out...but it took great effort.



Thanks Matt and Lisa for making Texas so much fun! We love being there with you! So sorry about the chicken soup thing Lisa:) whoops. It was fun to laugh with you.

Lilys Birthday Party

I had to post these pictures cause they are so cute, Im sure Amanda has more and I hope you put them on here. She did such a great job with this party, Emma had a blast!

Damage Report

Sorry, I am just figuring out this blogging thing, but just wanted to report about the storm we had today. No rain, no thunder or lightening, no hurricane or snow or typhoon in Utah....just wind. However it has done enough to cause a lot of work in the area. Many trees have fallen and been uprooted. We are all safe, and everything is okay. We have working power in our house, though our power lines lay strewn across the back lawn. The power poles in Carol's and Hal's backyard were blown over and have left the wires dangling from the tree's in our yard. Walking around, wires have been broken and severed, so I do not know how we are still receiving power, but we are not complaining.

Centerville and Farmington have been placed under a state of emergency, but we are all in high spirits and everyone is doing fine. The tree's were down when Dad went to work today, but Preston stopped by after seminary to check up on me, and noticed all the power lines everywhere. He called in the power company they said it could take up to 10 hours for those who do not have it, to get it reinstated, however they just announced on the news it could take up to 48 hours.

One of the girls in Preston's seminary class got out of her car to enter the seminary building and the wind blew her car door open so hard, it hyperextended the door and broke it. We are grateful that everyone is okay though and that we are all safe. It is a real blessing to be indoors and hear the howl of the winds and be protected. We are very blessed and are doing okay. Just wanted to give you all a look at what happened in our neck of the woods today.

Love you all.

Mom.

Uh Oh! Damage Pre 2012

Matt's office

I never put pictures of Matt's office on the blog. These are pictures of the front waiting area.

Thanksgiving

We had a GREAT dinner with AWESOME people! Ang & Jed graced our presence and David & Jana Coreless joined us as well.

While we were playing games, we noticed it got really quiet. Little Mary was helping herself to some vegetables, but mostly dip :). She needed some white gloves to go with her princess dress. Mom, look at the dress she is wearing. It is the dress you made Sydney for Amanda's wedding that is now in our costume box. It is always a hit with the little girls.

The kids were patiently waiting for their Thanksgiving dinner. We had 11 kids there that day.

Matt and Charlotte chilling after dinner. Looks like Matt is searching for some great Black Friday specials. He and Jed stayed out all night shopping. They even slept in sleeping bags at Sports Authority. I heard Matt had a mighty snore. They got some great deals at Wal Mart and Sports Authority.

All of the kids the night before Jed and Ang left. Tears were shed that they were leaving :(.

One of many games of Beans that were played. We also played the name game and charades with the kids.

Notice the sly smile on Jed's face. He must be working one of his many deals in Beans.

While we were playing in one room, the kids set up their own game in the next.

We really had a great time! It flew by way too fast. Ang & I were able to make a quick stop at Sam Moon and catch Breaking Dawn (which we really liked by the way, but we really were missing Amanda's cat calls). Matt and Jed were able to play some rounds at Top Golf and literally shopped till they dropped during the wee hours Friday morning. We took the kids to a couple of parks and they just played, played, played!! We really put in the good word for Dallas hoping that one day they really will move here. I told Angela though that if she moved close to us that we would get nothing accomplished :).

I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving. We sure missed you all and extend an open invitation to any and all who would like a Texas getaway.