"Holidays, Oh Holidays, the best time of the year"

So there hasn't been a post in awhile...and I probably won't be making any promises to be posting again soon, but every three months isnt too bad right?

In August we moved out of our house and next door to some friends. Literally..we share a wall to the townhouse. It has been quite the blessing for us ( I won't speak for them :) ) . It has been such a blessing to share in the love of their family. The parents, Shauna and Sam are good friends and let us "borrow" their kids for adventures. And it seems during the Holidays we borrowed them a lot!

Shortly before Halloween we took them to Jacob's parents place where the oldest boys ( sometimes with Jacob's assistance ) got to drive around the lawnmower.

Then wel built a big bonfire and roasted those mini smokies instead of hot dogs, and of course made smores. Some of Jacobs family came out for it, and Jacobs brother let Jacob take us all on midnight rides on his four wheeler.

It really was a beautiful clear full moon night, and just the right temperature!

Somehow I don't have a single picture of Thanksgiving...I'm not sure how that happened! Because it was wonderful! We went to my parents and spent it with My mom, Dad, Tim, Becky, and her Fiancee', Hyrum. we sure missed Peter, Melanie, and Zach though!

A week later I flew up and spent the week with my mom shopping for her dress for Becky's wedding. It is always so good to spend time with just her and I, we have so much fun together. The older I get the more I realize how much we are alike.

After I got back we took our friends children out to cut a Christmas tree at the local tree farm. We try to support them every year. However this year not only had their prices gone up but also their selections were terrible. We ended up buying a 20 foot tree and cutting and trimming it down to 8 feet. We still loved it though because of the memory we have with our friends.



Here is Kordin making the first cut on the tree.

See how GIANT it is? ( Chayson, Jayden, Abby)

Never a dull moment!

While Jacob and Kordin cut the tree down Abby wanted to take pictures with my camera, and Chayson wanted to try out his fighting styles :)

And then Jayden gets in on the action.

Jacob and Kordin take the tree down to the trimmer and the needle shaker.

Chayson Jumped on the back of the tree for a ride...the extra weight made Jacob turn around in suprise...and gave me a good laugh.

Good memories.

The next three pictures are contributions from Abby Hatch.

I liked this old Tractor.

And when I walked to the back of the Tractor I saw Jayden laying down. I said, " What are you doing?" " Snowangels" was her reply. Too cute.

And here is Chayson using the bottom half of the tree we cut off as a machine gun....Sure loves these kids.

Sweet little angels all on their own.

And this brings us to Christmas Eve. That afternoon we spent it with the Hatch's and another family the Winder's The food was amazing, and so was the company.

We then went home and finished decorating our treats and took them around to people we felt might have been forgotten on Christmas Eve.

When we got home we found out that our neighboor had an emergency and the two parents left while we were able to go over and take care of their last minute Christmas stuff and serve our neighbors. It really was a wonderful gift to us to be able to do that for someone else that night. The forcast called for some snow..but at 4:30am when we went back to our house. There was DEFINITLY no snow. And not a cloud in the clear blue sky.

So when I woke up and looked outside to THIS

It was quite a suprise...and 10:00am.

And this was how the rest of our Christmas looked.


Our stockings left full by Santa.

The Dogs and their Christmas sweaters :)

Christmas Crepes and a Breakfast casserole. ( The cookies we took to his parents house later)

( Here on the far left is the carmel I reheated in the microwave the next day and burned my hand so badly with)

Jacob and his gifts
Leisa and hers.

And then we went on our usual 2 mile walk...but this time in 6 inches of snow. It's the first time that the dogs really had been in snow and they sure loved it.

It was so beautiful and quiet. We loved this walk this morning.

I decided to shake a tree....

Ella

Luck

And that was pretty much our wonderful white Christmas. Later we spent the afternoon with his family too. We sure are looking forward to 2011!