Eric & Alejandra

After their whirlwind few weeks - funeral in Germany, Christmas in Portland, Skiing in Utah - Eric & Alejandra spent a day with us before heading home to Dallas. We just hung out at the house, then went to dinner in SLC. We sure enjoyed their visit - they're such a cute couple!!! Love you guys!!

The weather's been crazy. The cold temps have left an inch layer of ice on the road, making them down-right treacherous. These pix were taken on Hwy 89 in Layton on our way home from dinner with Eric & Ale.

Military Performance

One of my BESTEST Christmas presents was a new camera!!! YAY!!! Now I can take AWESOME pix of my kids - YAY!!! Well, I'd only taken pix of the kids & the cats so I was excited to take pix of the girlzies before their b-ball half-time performance! Oh, and were they ever happy to pose for the camera too! They are so stinkin silly! I love you, you silly girlzies!

Mikaela helping Karlee apply the fake eyelashes.

Cheridyn & Morgan - the caged animals!

Stready

Even freaky, these girls are gorgeous!

What is so awesome is that my camera takes a bazillion pix per second, so I took like 200 pix of the dance. AND 95% of them were perfect pix! YAY! Can't wait til Garet's B-ball games now!

Karlee - 3rd from left

Karlee - middle back. Karlie Rupe - standing.

Karlee - 2nd from L. Notice her foot in front of her face! (Ouch!)

Karlee - right rear

Karlee - right rear

Karlee - middle back. In this pic, the girls are "yelling". Military routine is a severe dance that concentrates on military type precision & seriousness.

Karlee - middle back

Karlee - left rear

Christmasness

What a wonderful Christmas! We were spoiled like we'd been good this year - & I know for a fact that we weren't!

Our traditional Christmas Morning Line-up before we go to the great room to see what Santa brought us!

The kitten right in the middle of things!

Christmas Eve @ B&B's

For the past million years, we've had Christmas Eve at our home, but this year we went to B&B's. It was awesome! The ham was warm, the potatoes were raw, & the ice cream was bought at Maverick late that night - the ONLY place open. B & I laughed ourselves silly over the meal, but I'll tell ya that the snacky foods were delish!!! We coudda cared less about the dinner. The toasted baguettes, cheese dip, chips, salsa, candies & nuts & brownies & hot fudge were heavenly & we were all sickingly stuffed out of our gourds...before dinner.

While we were fixing dinner - or attempting to, he he - the boys (Jeff, Garet, & Brad) went to the shooting range. They came back with stories of shooting Garet's 22 & Brad's SKS Assault Rifle, 9 mm & 10 mm Pistols. Garet said the 9mm was funnest to shoot because it was most comfortable. While they were there, someone was shooting a 50 Caliber Sniper Rifle. That's the gun that's mounted on a tripod & you lay on the ground to shoot it. They could not believe the noise & wind that gun made.

After dinner, we went to see the movie Tangled. That was a cute show, one I'm sure will be in our DVD collection one day.

Opening presents with B&B

Green Belly seems to like the Flight Simulator B&B gave Garet.

Kaiser zonked across his Pa Pa's chest.

Mom's cat that B inherited: Green Belly (Confetti's sister). Aka: Bella.

Started Wrapping Presents

Garet's Christmas Piano Recital

Garet did awesome playing Winter Wonderland at his Christmas Piano Recital this afternoon. The recital was held at The Family Tree, an assisted living facility in Morgan, and the residents really enjoyed hearing the kids play their Christmas pieces. Even though Garet HATES praciticing, he really has a great talent for the piano. You did awesome, Bud! I love you!

Garet - practicing at home before the recital.

After the recital, the piano students handed out the cards they made.

Gabrielle Cox, Garet's piano teacher. She is so good to put up with us & our busy schedule! Oh, & don't you love Garet in his Grinch tie???

Jr. Jazz - We Won - YAY!

What an exciting game! We were within 2 points the entire time! After last week's game we were really concerned about our team. Last week we lost by like 30 points. And we were told that the teams were evenly manned this year... Garet is the only 8th grader on the team, and we happen to have quite a few of the shorter 7th graders as well. Ugh!

We were nervous going into today's game because we knew we were up against a really good team. But even though we only had 5 boys show up - they did it! They WON! YAY!

Boys L to R: Jacob, a Fry twin, Jared, another Fry twin, Garet #24, & the Coach.

Garet on defense against Tanner- at the right.

One of Garet's free throws.

WE WON!!!!! YAY!!!!!

P.S. Thank you, B, for letting me steal your camera. These pix turned out MUCH better then with my camera!

Christmas Choir Concerts

The last two nights were spent attending Garet's then Karlee's Choir Concerts. Only one pic turned out from Garet's concert, but it was a good one. This year Garet is in Advanced Choir and they actually sound really good.

Garet (center) arm & arm with Miss Maddi Russell.

Karlee is in the girls Millenial Choir, and boy are they beautiful singers. They did something fun for the song Santa Baby. A few girls ran into the audience & grabbed this fella to be their Santa. Then about 4-5 girls at a time, they gathered around him and "flirted" with him as they were singing the song. It was darling.

Karlee is the tall, beautiful brunette in the center back.

Morgan, Ayana, Karlee, & Mikaela.

Such awesomest friends of Karlee's. They came to see her & Ayana sing tonight. Awww, I do love these girls!

Karlee & Mikaela

Gway & Pa were there & they LOVED the concert.

Miss May. Our MOST FAVORITEST choir director!