Christmas 2015

This Christmas we had our family celebration a few days early.  We got together on Tuesday the 22nd for our annual "Christmas Eve" party.  Gary had to work that night so he wasn't able to make it:(  We started out with out traditional foods that include tamales and homemade chicken and dumplin's.  And if I may say..... the dumpling's were super scrumptious!!  Even better than last years'!  After dinner we had (or attempted to have) a spiritual program.  Generally we sing hymns and share thoughts of the Savior and what He means to us.  It was very chaotic though, this year, with Rafe and the 3 one year olds.  We might have to do things a little differently next year!

After the program we went caroling to three different families and then came back home to put together a couple of boxes with Christmas dinner for two families in our area.  Then while Rick tended the kids we secretly delivered them to our neighbors' doors.

Afterwards we came back to the house for pie and opening of presents!  It was a great night with good feelings and joy in being together as a family:)

Rafe, Scout, and Haivyn,  Henry was sleeping

Sarah and Skylar

 The Boman Family

Rick and I

 The whole gang

Kaitlyn and Alyssia

Rick and John

On Christmas Eve, Gary joined us for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings!  It was a little strange having a huge dinner for just the three of us but we had a very nice night.  We read some favorite Christmas stories and ended the night by watching Christmas Vacation.  Brach and Kendra came by late (from having Christmas Eve celebrations with Brach's family) and set up camp in the basement.  They didn't want to make the late night trek to Pleasant Grove so they stayed with us:)  We loved that thought because we got to see the delight on the kids' faces with all the gifts Santa brought the next morning!

We watched them for a little while and then let them have some family time while Rick, Gary and I opened presents by our family room tree.  We all took turns opening gifts and it was very nice!  We had a wonderful Christmas breakfast of baked orange french toast, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, juice and hot chocolate.  It filled us up clear til dinner time!  Skylar and Sarah joined us later in the afternoon and we had a nice ham dinner with games afterwards.  It was a whirlwind kind of a day with a lot of time in the kitchen baking, cleaning, preparing, baking, and cleaning again.

A wonderful holiday week:-)

Max the pup

Grandpa and Scout

Rafe with his John Wayne gun

 Grandma and Grandpa!!

PHELPS FAMILY

Saturday we had our family pictures taken by my niece Serenity.  (Thanks Ren!)  We haven't had pictures taken for 3 years.  The last time was just after Rafe was born so it is nice to have some updated ones.  I wanted to have some Christmas photos as well as some winter ones so we took the first ones in our backyard under my favorite trees (our willows) and some more in the music room by our Christmas tree (not shown).  For the winter shots we drove up South Willow where some fresh snow had just fallen:)  These are just a few of them.  I will post some more later.

BOMAN FAMILY

Here are a few pictures of the Boman family photo shoot.

They are such a beautiful family!!

Just had to share:)

A Christmas Night Out

Thursday night Rick and I had our annual night in town.  We had dinner at Elevations Restaurant then walked around to see some Christmas lights and the Macy's candy windows.  The theme for the windows this year was "Peanuts" and the artists had some fun ideas.  It's always amazing to me how much candy is used to create these pieces of art.  

After taking a few pictures (in the pouring rain which actually made the night even more magical except for my soaking feet....that wasn't so magical:(  we walked over to Abravenel Hall where we found our seats for the Kurt Bestor Christmas Concert.  I was excited to see who his guest artist was going to be and was pleasantly surprised to see it was Lexi Walker!  She is only 13 but has an incredible voice!  If you don't know who she is you should check her out on you tube. Another  guest group was the Wesleyan Bell Ringers and I'll tell you, THAT was fun watching those teenagers go to town ringing all those bells with the full orchestra and band!  What a great concert!  I look forward to it every year.  This was Kurt's last year performing at Abravenel Hall.  He will be in a different venue next year.  

After the concert we headed back to our room at the Anniversary Inn:)  We stayed in the Country Garden Room and had a round bed in a gazebo setting.  I've never slept in a round bed before.  Other than the bed being a little hard it was a fun room.  I enjoyed a piece of complimentary cheesecake before falling asleep:)  We got to sleep in and that was great!

I love Christmastime and this special tradition!

Bundled

Last week we got the kids all bundled and took them out!  It was a cold day and we weren't out very long but had a good time taking some fun pictures!

Miss Scout and her gorgeous smile....not to mention that cute hat:)

Rafe giving me a good smile!

I could absolutely NOT get Haivyn to smile but she sure is a cutie!

Henry chillin' on the swing!  

All four of them FINALLY sat still long enough to take this pic!

I tended all four of them at once while their parents went shotgun shooting.  (thankfully Kaitlyn was there to help me for part of the time) Three one year olds are a handful!!

I sure do love them:)

Jazz

Last night was our first Jazz game of the year.  We share season tickets with Brad and Ruth and Darrell and DeeAnn.  Last year we just had two seats for each game but this year we got four seats, although they are up higher and more toward the end of the court.  Seats not as good but the experience is fun:)  Last night we played Oklahoma and they were really good.  

They totally outplayed us and we lost by 22:(

We enjoyed the evening with Skylar and Sarah so it wasn't a total loss!!

IFLY

Last night Rick and I drove to Ogden to use up a gift certificate from LAST years' Christmas.  Rick likes adventure so last Christmas I bought him a pass at IFLY, an indoor skydiving place.  I heard that it was totally safe and I thought it would be a great way to let him have some fun.  He went through a short class with the guide and then they let him try it.  His guide was in the wind tunnel with him both times Rick went in.  The wind speed got upwards of 75 mph.  The first time he went in Rick just tried to get used to staying on his belly which he did very well and then the second time his guide took him for a ride up into the wind tunnel about 30 feet.  I have it on video but I can't get it to load so you'll just have to imagine it:)

All suited up

Learning the basics

Here his guide is helping out of the tunnel after the first "flight"

Certificate of completion

Afterwards we stepped out to see the beautiful new remodeled Ogden Temple all lit up!

We had dinner at the Sonora Grill, which was a first for us!

And then walked across the street to Tailgators for a delicious brownie sundae dessert!

Smooching to stay warm on a cold night!

New member of the family

Meet Max the pup, the new addition to our family!  We have had him for three and a half weeks and it's been a love/hate (well hate is maybe a little strong) relationship since we got him.  He is a shitzu and is 6 months old.  Many of you know our last dog was killed when he ran out of the house and got hit on the highway back in June.  Right away Rafe was saying, "Gramma get new puppy??"  I wasn't too sure about the idea because it is a HUGE responsibility training a new pup.  But with encouragement from every single one of our kids and Mr. Rick too, I said it would be ok but "could we please wait until October?"  

Well October came and and so did our Max.  I must admit we have come THIS close to selling him.  First, Rafe and Scout were terrified of him because he is a very active puppy.  Then all the numbers in the house that we have to clean up.  (And even on my nice white carpet:-( The other day he even pooped right next to where my visiting teachers were sitting!  SO embarrassing!!  and then the fact that we leave home an awful lot and who to get to tend a training puppy for a week to ten days while we're out of town??  Anyway.........despite all of these things we have decided to keep him.

Despite all of these negative things we are learning to like him.  He is soft and cuddly.  He is fun to play with.  He already knows how to fetch.  He loves treats.  Plus he's pretty darn cute! 

 Welcome to the family, Max!!

Here he is sprawled out enjoying a nap!

Halloween Festivities

Before it gets to far into November I need to post about our Halloween festivities!  We had our family out last friday night the day before Halloween.  Most everyone dressed up in costume and we had a really great evening!  We had some fun festive Halloween foods with Dinner in a Pumpkin being the star of the show.  I had been anxiously awaiting October 30th to final make my dinner in a pumpkin.  The kids loved it!!  (They always do:)  We had quite bit of variety on the table from egg rolls, to chowmein , to hot wings, to a cheesball and crackers.  Rick, of course, made some root beer and I had made some pumpkin cupcakes earlier in the day for dessert.  

After dinner the toddlers had a short relay with Henry triumphing as the winner......crying all the way to the finish line:)  We also had the kids do a bean bag toss and that was super cute!!  Those kids are so fun!!  Afterwards some of us played a new game that John had brought called Wasabi.  Brach and Kenni came out on top for that one with Rick and I being dead last:)  After games we snuggled downstairs in the TV room, in front of the fire, with pine nuts and chocolate to watch Charade.  (Sorry that was kind of a weird sentence!)  We all fell asleep before the end!  What a great night!!

The Phelpses

Skylar--Barney

Sarah-- Betty 

Henry-- Bam Bam

The Ridings

John--Crash Test Dummy

Haivyn-- Princess

Kait--Cleopatra

Rafe--The Lone Ranger

Scout--Black Kitty

(Kendra had made a cute black tutu for her costume but left it at home:-(

Witches Brew

Bean bag toss....

The table looked great!

Sarah and Skylar bought the placemats for my birthday.  I was excited to use them!

A (small) group shot