Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to go over to Nate's parents home in Layton. We eat good food, read the Night Before Christmas, read the account of Christs birth in the scriptures, exchange gifts, sing carols and have a good time. We have spent every Christmas Eve there for the last 12 years. It is always a fun time.

I took about 8 pictures trying to get a decent shot of Nate with his brothers. This wasn't the best one (once I finally got them to behave) but I figured it showed the best why he is the way he is. You can't tell very well but Janet is actually mid-slap with Daniel.
(Janet, Larry, Daniel, Mya, Nate and Matt)

Years ago Janet and LaVere started putting up a stocking for each member of the family. She then hangs them up by family all around her living room. The family is actually so big that it atually goes around the entire room almost. She always leaves out tiny stockings and safety pins for those of us who are expecting to pin it onto our stocking. We have enjoyed that tradition twice, although those days are long since over for us. So I thought now that we have a complete stocking set I would document the traditon once again.

Christmas Morning This is the older kids anxiously waiting for us to let them down the hall into the great room Christmas Morning. I always love these shots...they are always so full of anticipation and emotion. I especially love Tiny Mans face in this one....what a moment!

Tiny Man loves his new MP3 player

Ladybug loves her new Super Secret Spy Gear


Chub loves his new Star Wars Lego Star Cruiser

(note Cincess in the background with bag of gummy frogs, more on that later)


For the main family gift we had each of the kids open a present that related to it so they would all figure it out together. When they opened up Wii games they were confused and wondered if they were opening up presents meant for other extended family members.
Once they figured out that it was a Wii meant for them..........

the hunt was on! Too fun!

Tiny Man declared "WE opened the Wii", it was too cute! See the return of the crazed Christmas look in his eyes? Needless to say it was a hit!

Cincess woke up and warmed up to the idea of opening presents after she had her morning cup of milk and rock with "MY DADDY!" She LOVES her Ariel barbie doll. Actually love is not a strong enough word. I have about 35 pictures of her holding her while she tries to do other things. However, all of that changed once she dug into her stocking and found....

HER VERY OWN BAG OF GUMMY FROGS! Notice Ariel forgotten on the floor!

If you remember her in the previous photo with Chub this photo is just further proof of how high on the list gummy frogs are over Ariel . She was hilarious. She was quite possesive of them and she sat there a loooong time eating and protecting her stash!

This year for Christmas we decided to try giving Cincess a strategic present. For months she has shown that she is basically ready to be potty trained except for one major problem. She is AFRAID of the toilet. So we figured a Betsy Wetsy and a small princess potty that sings a song when you tinkle on it would do the job! She has enjoyed playing with it but it is mostly used by Ariel as a spa. So, so far no dice!

This year was also the first year Ladybug has not had a doll under the tree. I didn't even notice until Christmas morning. I felt a little sad about it but figured her days with those must be truly over since she didn't even mention a doll of any sort this year. It all seemed okay until Cincess opened up Ariel AND Betsy Wetsy. That's when I noticed my "Big Girl" commandeer them the moment Cincess forgot them. I was secretly thrilled that beneath the "Big Girl" facade my "little girl" was alive and well.

Black Ice

What a night! I was headed to the church for a Primary Presidency Meeting, just as I was turning into the church parking lot I slid a bit. So, I slowed up and proceeded with caution. Just as I came upon a stall and started to turn into it I hit another patch of black ice and slid. Unfortunately I slammed into Brother Albiston's parked Durango. He was apparently parked on ice as well because he slid atleast a foot. Our Corolla obviously sustained the brunt of the damage. Over $3000.00 worth of damage to our car and just under $900.00 to the Durango. What great timing too!

We need to replace both headlights, the hood, the bumper and grill as well as the radiator and a/c just to name a few. Oh boy........

Brother Albiston's Durango

From what I hear I wasn't the only wreck of the night at the church. Gotta love black ice.

Hard Core

Yesterday was a CRAZY foggy day! When I first woke up and looked out the window I thought there was a blizzard outside....but it was FOG! About a half hour later I could see a little bit better so I took off on my run. It was a very surreal experience running along and not being able to see houses from the street sometimes. When I got back home Nate and I joked about how

"hard core" I was to go running in this. I had a slow time but it was still an amazing run.

It was definitely the first time I craved hot chocolate after a run!

Once I went inside my hair was dripping wet from the frost.

I was really glad that I wore a second pair of gloves over my running gloves.

I noticed my eyelashes frosting over pretty early on. It was so cold out that my eyes were watering. I wiped them off quite frequently because I couldn't stand the feeling of my eyelashes frozen together. Of course wiping them off with frosted gloves proved to be
counter-productive.

Family Christmas Photos

Marketstar brought in a photographer and did free family photos with Santa this year. Other than Ladybug's hair looking like her finger got put in a light socket I think they turned out great. Much better than the ones I tried to take when we took the kids to Christmas Village. We even got Cincess to smile. She was not pleased with having to be that close to Santa. However, once I told her she could have a candy cane if she smiled she threw on a cheeser. Thank you Cincess!
Chub was also pretty good for the photos, although I will admit I think it had to do with the stern warning I gave him on the way into Ogden that "he had better smile or there would be consequences!" What is it with getting kids to behave for photos?

There was no way Cincess was gonna get that close to Santa again, so we had to opt for just the older three.

This one of Tiny Man and Santa is much better than the one I took. It was all blurry and his eyes were closed. For good measure he ran back and gave Santa another hug before we headed home. He must REALLY want that ipod!

Jazz vs. Lakers MarketStar Style

Nate and I had the great fortune to go to the Jazz vs Lakers game with a group from MarketStar. Talk about rolling out the red carpet and treating you like royalty. I have decided that this is the only way to go when going to see the Jazz play! We all met at MarketStar and literally took a convoy down! They got three Hummer limos for all 42 of us to fit in! I personally had never been in a limo before and I am sure there is a great difference between a Hummer limo and a traditional limo....atleast I hope so! If not....I will opt out of limo riding. We decided the limo company's initials (V.I.P. limo) stood for Vomit Induced Passengers. We weren't even 3 blocks from MarketStar when passengers in another hummer limo got violently ill from motion sickness! A few of us in our limo dealt with a little nausea ourselves but we prevailed. There is something about riding sideways watching the world go by while in a humid, uncomfortable, loud hummer limo. Quite the experience!

Our friends Justin and Stacy Swapp

Once we got to the Energy Solutions Arena we were taken down to the court to watch the Jazz players pre-game warm up. Then we were taken to a private corporate suite where we would be enjoying the game. It was AWESOME!

This is a picture of our suite. I am telling you this is the ONLY way to go! Private bathrooms AND food at your fingertips! MarketStar had Bajio cater for us. There was so much food! By the end I felt like I had just had Thanksgiving dinner all over again!

The night was made even better when the Jazz won!

On the way home we decided not to chance it and sit forward facing in the back! MUCH better!

THANKS MARKETSTAR! We had an amazing time!


----------------------------------------------------------------

This photo was taken two nights ago at Nate's MarketStar Business Development/Marketing Christmas party. We had it at Rickenbackers at the Ogden Airport Gateway.....SUPER YUMMY food! It was a great party!

Christmas Piano Recital 2009

This was Ladybug's 2nd year taking piano lessons . This year she played "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" and "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas". She did a GREAT job!
I got a kick out of seeing her bare feet crossed and swinging while she played her songs!

Tiny Man has been taking for three years now. He is doing amazing! He loves to just sit at tbe piano and play...whether he has practiced that day or not. He played "Merry Christmas" and "Candle Glow".
It was another great Recital!

Ogden's Christmas Village

We got the entire family bundled up in our snow gear and headed out to Christmas Village! It was FREEZING! Single digits! However....we made it through the ENTIRE village this year.....AND without a single complaint from the kids about how cold it was! It was AMAZING!

This was the best shot I got of Tiny Man and Santa....kinda sad I know! He asked for an ipod this year....is there a kid in the world that didn't?

LAdybug has been writing letters to Santa ALL summer asking for something that DOES NOT EXIST! We kept telling her that they don't exist. She would come back with..... "Santa and his elves make ALL the toys....he can make this!" We finally told her that there is no way Santa can come up with a custom toy this late in the game...there are just simply too many kids . She wanted a car that is her size that has walkey-talkeys, a candymaker, a/c, power EVERYTHING, a phone, a TV, etc. the list goes on and on! Fortunately for Santa she changed her mind just prior to seeing him. Now she has requested Super Secret Spy Gear! Alrighty then! :)

Chub asked Santa for a Star Cruiser from Star Wars

Cincess once again screamed her head off.......loosely translated we think that means Ariel Barbie doll.



Nate and I just want our Ogden house to sell! Hopefully Santa is checking his list more than twice to see if someone is on there that is asking for it!

Planet 51

Every Christmas my mom and her cute husband Bob take the family to a movie. This year since they were gonna be in Hawaii (lucky them!) during our usual time we decided to go the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We went to see Planet 51 and then to their home for an amazing lunch! Thanks Mom and Bob!

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving this year was a BUSY day! We hit both sides of the family.....which made for a lot of fun, family and running around! We hit Travis and Sarah's house for dinner, then went to Nate's parents home for dessert with his family. Although I had the camera the ENTIRE day I only ended up taking it out at the Burke family dinner.....unfortunately! Anyhow....here are a few highlights from dinner at Travis and Sarah's house.

Why is it so blasted difficult to get a decent family picture? This was the best we could do after several attempts......((((SIGH))))

Still in love after all of these years....THANKFUL for that!

Another difficult shot.....these two are almost impossible to get a decent shot of!

She was obsessed with this awesome horsie!

Joe and Shelley Burke Wedding

On November 20th, 2009 at the Salt Lake City Temple my older brother Joe wed Shelley Nelson. It was a beautiful day and we are so excited for them! Welcome to the family Shelley! We are glad you are here!

First dance as Husband and Wife