11 inches

That is right, we woke up to 11" of new snow that fell while we were sleeping.

This is a view from our front lawn, it is so pretty after a new snow fall.

Here is another view from our driveway. Drew going to town snow blowing everyonesdriveways. He was out there for over 3 hours.

My new camera

I got a new camera for Christmas and was just able to down load the pictures so I had to blog more about Christmas. I still need to work out all the kinks of the new camera so some of the pictures are not the best but still worth sharing.

Drew has forever been our Christmas Day Chef, and what he cooks up is pretty yummy and we look forward to it all year. We have made it a tradition to make omelets for breakfast and we have carried this on for quite a few years.

Here is Rylie trying very hard to enjoy hers, though she keeps eyeing her new toys.

And Nate, enjoying himself as well.

This is Derrek's ship he got for Christmas that he is working so diligently on. You could hardly get him to do anything else until this was completed.

A little over 5 hours later, here is the finished project.

Nate waiting very patiently for Drew to get his gun in working condition.

Watch out!

Our first try with Rock band, it was so fun.


you go Drew!

The Big Day!

The boys were so excited for Christmas they just couldn't wait to go to bed on Christmas Eve. It was all they could do to stay awake, but time was crawling for them. They did pretty good this year as far as not bugging us all night. Last year it started around midnight and we finally caved in around 6am, much to early for me. This year we told them we were not going to wake Rylie up that early and they had to to stay in their rooms but could play around if they wanted. Well we didn't hear a peep from them until we finally went and checked on them at 6am, and they were just in Derrek's room waiting patiently. We ended up waking Rylie out of a dead sleep to get the action in play. They had so much fun.

Christmas Day!

The Big Day is finally here. After waiting patiently since 4am, the kids finally get to open their presents.

Nate loves K'Nex and for Christmas he got a combo set of a roller coaster and a Ferris wheel.

Nate had his sights on this huge Nerf gun, and guess what Santa brought? He played with this all day, it was by far one of his favorite gifts.

Our kids are really big football fans and Nathan has committed to one team for more than a year. He has received things every year according to his favorite team at that particular time and is starting quite the NFL collection. This year his team is the Buccaneers and his room was decked out in in thanks to Santa. We will be painting it and will update all the pictures then.

Derrek is our big Lego builder and he has been wanting this particular set for a long time but it was way to expensive to buy. Well thanks to Santa (and Black Friday), he got it and he worked all morning to put it together. It had almost 2000 pieces and he finished it in just a little over 5 hours

Derrek is a huge Green bay Packers fan and he is all decked out and ready to go. He too will be having a room make over that we will be doing this week.

My little princess finally got proper attire to wear and she loves it. She has pranced around like a princess in these fabulous shoes since she opened them. Quite fitting.

This is the doll house she got from her grandma Corry and she is so excited to have one here to play with. Her other favorite gift was a Kitchen from Santa.

And the ultimate gift had to be Rock band, from Grandma Corry and Guitar Hero from Grandma Gillespie. The kids, (parents too) have been rocking out ever since.



Though Drew hates his picture taken I had to at least try. He loves AC/DC and since they released a new album we had to set him up properly. The CD was actually a gift from Nathan and I just had to throw in the shirt.

Christmas Eve PJ's

Every year since I can remember it has been a tradition to open up Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. Since getting married and especially having kids I have tried to keep that tradition alive. Even though the kids know that they are opening up pajama's they still get really excited. I try to make them really fun pj's that I might not normally buy.

Rylie really got into the present thing this year, I don't think she understood Santa but she was so excited that she had this present to open.

I rarely buy "character" items but I did put away my silliness and bought Rylie a "Dora the Explorer" nightgown. She actually thought it was a new dress, but either way it was actually really cute, and she loved it. What more can you ask for.

This year I got Derrek and Nathan Super Mario jammies and the funny thing about them is that they have a built in wii remote pocket on the side, they thought that was pretty cool.

Even Drew tries to keep the tradition alive and got me a pair of pj's. He does a pretty good job and this year he let the 3 kids pick them out.

Here we all are, Is it bed time? The boys are wishing it was.

Last night we were given two tickets to the U of U vs. USU basketball game. We couldn't figure out how to go on a date at the last minute but knew our ute fan would love to go. So Drew took Nate last night to the game and they had a really good time. Drew said they got quite the laugh from the crowd around them, coming together as father and son, Nate was decked out in UofU stuff while Drew was decked out in USU stuff each rooting for their team. They went 45 minutes early and stayed for the whole game, which for those who didn't watch it ended in a win for USU by a last second shot. Thanks Amber for the tickets.

Derrek's Day of Fun!

Derrek is 10 and has a little trouble loosing his teeth, with out the help of a "specialist". Last year we had tooth number 5 and 6 pulled because the two permanent teeth were growing in behind them. Needless to say with the help of that "specialist" it was a bad experience for him. We knew that this would probably happen again, and it did. Wednesday we took him to the dentist for a cleaning and told him beforehand that if the dentist offered we would have him assist in getting the 7th and 8th tooth out. Going into the appointment he was just shaking and so nervous and anticipating the pain of getting 2 more teeth pulled. Well the dentist let him off easy and pull them at the appointment but told him he would see him tomorrow, which sent Derrek to tears.


Here we are after the matter and I don't think he looks as if it were a bad experience this time. He said it was 20 times better than last time and he loves this dentist. So Derrek has now lost a total of 8 teeth and soon we can start the orthodontic process, though I am okay with delaying that as long as possible.

I was glad that they really doped him up with shots and laughing gas. It made a huge difference and he walked out of there with a new experience to think about the next time we are faced with this again.

Gingerbread Houses

Last night we went to a neighbors house for family home evening. We had dinner and then let the kids put together gingerbread houses. They had so much fun, though I think one of my kids (Rylie) was far more interested in eating all the different candies than making the house. It was a lot of fun and the kids did such a good job. I don't think any of the pictures really did it justice but Derrek's house was really cool and he did it all by himself. Then on the way home it fell apart, with the help from mom and some water, I think we have it back together again. This is the first time I have ever made gingerbread houses from homemade pieces. Thanks to Mindy who baked all day long we had the real stuff.

Drew's Hair Do!

I had to post this even this is not the best picture, it was taken with Drew's phone. While I was away Rylie insisted that Drew do her hair and he took a picture of his work of art to prove to me that he at least tried. Hey she looks quite happy with the outcome. Way to go Drew, you are dad of the year.

Sledding down Old Main

While I was away for my girls weekend it snowed pretty good for the first time here and Drew took advantage of it and took the boys and Rylie sledding down old main hill. The kids had a blast, though Rylie didn't love it when the fresh powder was flying in her face on the way down the hill, I think that pretty much ended it for her. It was fun for the boys and they went again with some friends later that week.