17th Wedding Anniversary and Temple Square

Dee and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary on December 19th. We spent the night in SLC at the Little America. We ate dinner at the Steakhouse in the hotel, took TRAX down to see the lights, slept late the next morning and had lunch at Cheescake Factory.
The view from the Joseph Smith building 10th floor

My sweetheart- how blessed I am to have such a wonderful husband!!!

More photos from the greatest summer ever!

Taking a nap with Aunt Emily in the Sacred Grove

Our family in the Sacred Grove

Grandpa and Carter in the Sacred Grove

Reagan, Wilson and Truman in the Sacred Grove
Two funny little kids afraid of rain...

With Jeremy and Emily after the performance

Grandma and Grandpa with Reagan

Me with Barbara and Mary Malcarny. They were in Pageant with us our first year. SO fun to see them again! All grown up now with our own kids!
Pageant scenes...

With the Ahern Family. They were friends 15 years ago when we were in Pageant. We lost touch and were SO happy to find them again.
Mom and Dad with the kids

A cute cast memeber with Madison

Grandpa with the kids

More cast members...

My dad as an apostle. He is getting a referral from this guy... very intently talking with him.

My mom with the kids...doesn't the wig look lovely?

Some other cast members

We got permission to go into the study shelter and find my parents. They were eating dinner and had NO IDEA we were coming. They were SO surprised!!! The kids just walked over and stood in front of them until they looked up from their food, and they both about fell over! Mom cried, of course. They were so happy that we came!

Newell K. Whitney store in Kirtland, Ohio

At the door of the Kirtland Temple. We were with a youth tour group and we all sang "The Spirit of God" together while we were in the temple chapel, and I played the piano. Neat experience!

Reagan with a swollen cheek from bee stings a few days earlier

Wilson and Lincoln

Beautiful Kirtland Temple

At the Little America in Wyoming-voted best pool of the trip, and we swam in a LOT of pools!

Truman

Truman and Lincoln

Carter

Wilson
Daddy and the girls

Christmas Joy

How I love Christmas! The music, the chocolate, the dear friends who so generously have their homes open to the many that attend their "Open Houses" (someday I will do that) and the excitement of my darling children. This year almost all of the gifts I am giving are handmade. Nothing too extravagant, but I am having fun sewing and crafting-one of my true passions that I never seem to have enough time for. (Not my season for doing that yet...) We are looking for a great deal on a cruise for the family as our main gift. We have done a family trip the past four years and LOVE it! I love that the shopping and wrapping are kept to a very minimum. The kids have all said they don't mind getting all the toys and junk, the trips are much more fun and we will remember them far longer than what we got under the tree. I still put a few things in their stockings, and a few gifts are under the tree, mostly that I have made. We seem to focus more now on the true meaning of why we celebrate- the birth of our Savior! We spend more time together as a family, and I really think my stress level is much lower. I need to download the cute photos with Santa- whose beard Truman ripped off at the Ward Christmas party. :S No, I didn't get a photo of it. I was standing two feet away but was too stunned/embarrassed to think! So, photos later. Maybe I can get Lincoln to do it tonight. He LOVES to be on the computer doing anything! And he is very good at it, and has been since he was about 3 years old!

More of our amazing summer activities! Life is beautiful!!!

Reagan loves to ride Urban. She is a natural and the horse just does whatever she wants him to.
Wilson is a little unsure of the whole horse thing. It took a while to get him on-it's a long way down!
Lincoln leading Madison around.
Madison loves Urban and is very excited whenever she sees him in the field, "Hi, Urban!"
This is Reagan's cowgirl outfit, complete with hat and boots. She wears it everytime she rides...so cute!

I'm so not finished posting our summer photos...you haven't even seen our 6 week vacation! I will find time to do that.

Meanwhile, I have found a new photographer that I am thinking could replace my dear Fiona, who has taken our family photos for the past several years and is now moving to Arizona. As great as she is, I don't think we will be trekking down there for the photo session. So here is the new woman, a fellow Savvy Shopper, and she is currently doing a giveaway (I am hoping to win). You can see her marvelous work and enter the giveaway (that I am hoping to win) here:jktphoto.blogspot.com
Cute stuff!

What a GREAT summer!

Getting ready for scout camp with the cousins troop-led by the wonderful scoutmasters, Uncle Perry and Grandpa Ewell. A meeting to go over info at our barn...
Each boy was presented with a beautiful staff made by Grandpa Ewell and his very kind friend. Here is Lincoln with his.
Grandpa telling the boys about their staffs
Carter and his staff. Each boy's was engraved with their names and their personal scout info.
Having fun... the whole troop minus one cousin, they had such a great week and earned lots of merit badges...made for a HAPPY MOM!!!!!
Lincoln and Madison
Building a bridge to go over the stream in the backyard.
Cousin Brigham came to help...
Lincoln, Brigham, Dee, Truman, Carter
Carter helping Truman with the saw
Truman and Reagan eating some seriously big and yummy strawberries.

Carter eating a bowl of bananas and other things... he has a very "interesting" diet!
Miss Maddie
My girls, being girls. :)