Matt and Erin

Zach & Sarah . . . and Logan

Late Christmas Photos

Over Christmas Break, minutes before the kids had to leave for the airport, we ran down to the historical society and snapped as many photos as my camera battery would allow. Unfortunately I didn't think to charge it before we left. That's OK, it was very cold and by the time these shots were taken, we were all fairly chilled to the bone. These are some of the best.

Of course the very best shot of the entire family had me with my eyes closed. Like I sleep through life. HARDLY!! Enjoy!!!

Time Warp

For any of my kids who may be feeling homesick. Or anyone who might be missing New York at this time of year - EARLY Spring. Or to anyone interested in revisiting OLD B&W movies. This was our world today. Enjoy - - - anything Sunny! Which is obviously not here!!!!!!!

H O T Popcorn Ouch!!

Joel volunteered to make caramel popcorn balls for the ward Linger Longer last week. Caramel Popcorn is one of Joel's favorite things - and it's been years since I made it. He was so excited to be making popcorn. He had the boys helping him (in the kitchen I had just made spotless - of course!!!).

I had cub scout meeting to attend. So I left the 'boys' in the kitchen with their pots and pots of popped popcorn. They had a large pan of syrup bubbling on the stove on it's way caramel stage.

Though boys can be good cooks - and the caramel popcorn turned out great. I have learned over the years that you can't always trust them in the kitchen. I think I finally have all the popcorn tidbits, kernels and sticky sugar finally cleaned up. But poor Remington, Joel's little helper, got some horrible burns. They are healing up nicely. He said they never even hurt that bad. I hope they fade away and don't scar at all. He keeps them well ointmented and covered. You better have strong stomachs to view these photos.

Belly Laughs . . . New Pajamas . . . Santa . . . & Logan!

Here are a few more photos.

Belly laughs - you can tell how much fun the Christmas carols were at our house that Christmas eve.

A few years ago, I made brand new pajama pants for everyone at Christmas time. Now it's become a Christmas tradition. Some of the kids have every pair and as they wore them throughout the week, we heard - these are from last christmas when . . ., and these were the first pair I got . . ., and, I stole these from Mathieu so I could have a pair. . . . and now Erin has her own, and I promised to teach her how to make some more if she wants to learn.

Joel has a Santa suit that he wears at various times of the year. He has a ball at the Holloway house restaurant during a special Christmas brunch they hold. He refuses to get paid, but asks for a box of their delicious orange rolls instead. He wears it during the yearly memorial day parade and throws blow pops to the kids. He also wears it while the rotary hosts the salvation army red kettle campaign every christmas eve. They get quite a few donations. But here, I don't think Logan was enjoying any of it at all; he did make out quite well on Christmas morning though. . . Logan that is.

Our first Christmas as grandparents. What a wonderful experience. We are truly blessed with the best kids, the best daughters-in-law, and the world's best grandson. Probably the best memory of all of Christmas was when 11 of us attended the temple - as a family!! We did baptisms so all the kids could join us. What an awesome night. Next year Hunter will be old enough to go with us. We should make it a yearly tradition.

Christmas Eve . . . and the gangs all here.

Christmas Eve was fantastic. We had 7 kids fly home on one airplane - it took 2 cars to get everyone back to the house. It was so nice to have everyone 'home' again. We didn't all fit into the house anymore - a few stayed with Grandma and Grandpa - thanks! So, we had Bert & Anna, Alex & Stephanie, Grandma & Grandpa, and all the rest of us under one big roof. We had a simple dinner and really enjoyed each others company. Matt & Erin planned a little program to get us into the 'Christ'mas mood. It was excellent. Joel has to add his own flavor to everything - you can see how his singing had the kids doing belly laughs. Here's a little taste of our Christmas Eve at Home.

Procrastinat. . i . . . o . . . n!!

So, I had this fabulous idea to make a cute little homemade book for my adorable grandson for Christmas. I was going take pictures of all the kids, laminate them and bind them into a small book. One that a 6 month old could manipulate and chew on; one that would be about indestructible; one that he could get to know his aunts and uncles, grandma (that still sounds weird) and grandpa. And like some of my great ideas, the better they get, the less likely they are to get done.

I did get some last minute photos and thought I'd share them with you. I WAS going to include all kinds of ideas into the book. Each child was going to feature a certain color, so that Logan could learn colors. Each page was going to have a little 'toy' hidden somewhere in it so Logan could play 'eye-spy' and identify things - hats, balls, 4 wheelers, monkey, shirts, socks, etc. Hunter was going to be the 'brown' page and we did get some pictures of him with our brown dog, Jessie. Madison of course is our little pink princess, with her pink webkinz horses. Hunter and Madison had fun posing, and these are a few photos from a last minute attempt to still make the book happen.