Christmas Eve

One of our family traditions on my side of the family is having a Christmas Eve gathering at my Grandpa Fuller's house. Sometimes it has transferred to another house but most of the time it is there. We eat, laugh, sing, share memories, and read the Christmas Story in Luke. Here is a little look into that night.

I thought it was fun to go around and take pictures of me with everyone. I got a picture taken with my Grandma Bates and my Grandpa Fuller. I think those two pictures I will cherish forever. I absolutely love both of them so much.

I also got some taken with my dad and mom. They are the top two pictures on the left in the collage below. One with Clarissa and one with Corey sneaking in behind me. :) I also got one with My Aunt Becky and Uncle Brent. Unfortunately, I started this after my Aunt Pam and Uncle Ron left or I would have snuck one in with them.

We have the kids all perform if they are willing too. Of course my "shy" or not so shy Braxton sang a solo. He sang, "We need a little Christmas". I think that is the title. Anyway. I was so impressed. He knew every single word to that song. He did awesome.

The rest are just photos from the evening. Memories that will last a lifetime.

I do want to mention one other thing. For as long as I can remember I have never known of my Grandma (my mother's mom) being here for Christmas. It was such a wonderful addition to have her there with us. She came originally for a week but ended up here for two months. It was so wonderful to have her here. I really hope that she comes back soon to stay for good.

Winder Dairy...I mean Winder Farms

I forgot I hadn't posted this as of yet. We went on our annual trip to Winder (Dairy) Farms with The Collins family. It was so fun. Of course we had the annual "spill the Hot Chocolate on Deanna" event as well. It was great fun with wonderful company.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Crafty Imaginations

We picked up Clarissa from Nursery yesterday and this is what they had done. It's a chocolate manger scene. How incredibely cute is that? I will be trying to hunt down this mold setting now. :) I shouldn't feel guilty about her eating the manger scene now should I?

When I came home from Ward Choir practice yesterday I found my children dressed up like this. I think they said they were spies or dectives or something. This was a 'must take their picture moment'. It was hilarious. At the same time it was really warming for a mothers heart to see them all playing together and getting along so well. I love my children and feel very blessed right now. I do need to capture these moments so I can remember that they do get along when things are not going the way I want them to. :)

Festival of Craziness

This weekend we decided to brave the Festival of Trees. Not only was there no parking but it was freezing cold. We ended up parking across the street by the Mayan. After walking from there to inside the Expo Center The kids had to be brave and walk through the crowded room to see the AMAZING trees. It was so fun, (except the fact that the two little ones were not the happiest to be there.) Anyway, there were barbie, carebear, camping, snowmen, chocolate, doll, Lord of The Rings, Cotton Candy, game, sports themed, and many other trees that I can't recall off the top of my head. The Star Wars tree was AMAZING. It had not been sold while we were going through. It was only $3500. Wowza! It really was amazing to see though.

After the Festival of Trees we went grocery shopping. We then debated on going to In N Out but decided against it. Sconecutter won out because of the scones and delicious fries. I think this was the first time we brought our kids there. As you can see Clarissa LOVED the fry sauce. A girl after my own heart. :D

It was snowing as we went out to the car and Samantha wanted to catch the snowflakes on her tongue. Brrr...cold.

On Sunday we had our good friends, The Collins, over to eat. It was fun to decorate the table and try to be all fancy. We had lots of fun and it would be a shame to not mention the delicious food we ate. YUM. Ham and cheesey potatoes. You just can't go wrong.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hosted Thanksgiving at my house this year. We had Corey's family over and it was so fun. I really enjoyed visiting, laughing, and eating good food. I feel sick now but at least it all tasted good. Hope your Thanksgiving was just as filling. :)

Just a few pics of the girls. The boys didn't get gathered unfortunately. I might just have to take one Sunday with the three of them just so I can see how handsome they all are.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving.......

Now, I want to officially wish you all a Merry Christmas! ;)

Happy Birthday Petra!

Petra, I pray that one day you will forgive me! lol

It is my dear friend, Petra's birthday! I can't say enough about what a great person she is. There have been many times where she has just sat there and listened to me when I have had a hard time about something. She encourages me and lifts me up. She knows how to make me laugh. I always have a smile on my face whenever she comes around. Her spirit just beams and she is in no doubt a great example to me. My life changed when I met her and I definitely am a better person because of her. Some of my favorite things I have done with her are dominoes, lunch/dinner (with a shot of sugar), shopping, and just hanging out. She is just so fun to be around and her personality shines through.....in a good way. lol :)

Happy Birthday Petra! Please don't stay mad at me for too long.

The Blanket

My mother has periodically given me back things that she has found that were mine when I was younger. Some of the things that I have been given are blankets. There is a blanket that Clarissa loves to have. She actually rotates through a few but she has become our blanket child. Although she is not attached to a particular blanket she knows which one she wants and we have to bring her two or three before we get the right one. One of the blankets happens to have been one of mine. At least I believed it was. Now I have proof that it was. While I have been working on some stuff with Sammy, I refound some pictures of when I was THE MOST ADORABLE BABY! Seriously, can you argue after looking at these? Anyway, The blanket I am sitting on happens to be the exact blanket that Clarissa is holding in the second set of pictures. Yes, I got a little chocked up yesterday when this was discovered. I also added in another picture of me because I just couldn't resist.

Christmas Budgets

My good friend has an awesome blog that I would like you all to visit. She is going to help give us tips through the holiday on how to keep our holiday budget at a minimum without going too crazy.

Frugalityville

She also directs you to all sorts of money saving coupons and excellent sales going on. She is totally awesome and I just love her! Thanks for all your great ideas!

Halloween Cuties

The kids had a lot of fun picking out faces for their pumpkins. Sammy was the only one that was brave enough to pull out the guts. Maybe next year. They loved getting dressed up and showing off their costumes as well. We had their annual picture taken with their Great Grandpa and we were lucky to have Great Grandma in town to get a picture taken with her too. Trick or treating was a blast and very successful. ;)

Troy and Katie

What a cold beautiful day for a wedding. They're married! WOOHOO! I am so estatic to have Katie finally join our family. I like to officially welcome you to the family. I just threw together some pictures for your enjoyment.

Fall Fun

After a delicious Sunday dinner at my parents house the kids went outside and rolled around in the leaves. I loved it when leaves fell out our house growing up. With my kids playing in them it sure brings back a lot of memories. Here are just a few fun pictures with the kids in the fallen leaves.

Double, double toil and trouble;

fire burn and cauldron bubble.- - - Shakespeare "Macbeth"

We had such a blast with our 2nd annual trip, with our good friends The Collins family, to see the Witches at Gardner Village. This year we ended up having a delicious soup made by Petra. We ate them in bread bowls. It was sooooo good.

We had fun taking our pictures by the witches.....But where oh where was Kiss the Cook witch?

Instead of going for Hot Chocolate afterwards we went to Maceys and had ice-cream.

Fall Recess.....aka UEA break!

Timberlakes 2009

Thank you Janice for inviting us to go make wonderful memories again. For those of you that don't know where Timberlakes is, it is over by Heber. When we finally arrived to this place of Heaven we were unable to pull all the way up into the driveway up by the cabin. We had to park at the top and chop a big Aspen tree that had fallen across the driveway. Janice, my parents, and my family were the first to arrive. Corey got to work at chopping away at the tree. Braxton and Tayden were being great helpers on moving cut off pieces to the side. Everyone was working so hard to get it all moved. Clarissa supervised while eating snow.

One of our favorite things to do is go for lots of hikes. We were able to see quite a few moose this year. We saw lots of deer too but the moose are not always there when we have gone up.

Friday afternoon Corey and I were able to sneak away and go on a hike in the afternoon with just the two of us. The main road we decided to go up was all Uphill. We kept thinking we would stop but then kept saying "let's just go up by that spot up there." Next thing we knew we were are the end of the road. It was beautiful up there.

Feeding chipmunks from our hands was something that everyone wanted to try and do. At one point I was outside and got scared to death because I was paying attention to something else when I felt something run over my foot. It was only a chipmunk but it still took me a few minutes to calm down. And yes more moose. Just beware, if you are by me and a moose starts coming our way, Your life may not be spared. You may sacrifice your life for me......not on purpose either. If you want to see a reinactment you will have to ask me to do it for you. lol (Sorry Kyler).

Hanging out at the cabin. I am sure the chipmunks are plenty stocked now after our visit.

More hiking while the men were gone to the priesthood session of conference. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

More hiking, some modeling, and some goofiness. (I did not know my sil Sheri was behind me making a face while taking this picture).

Hanging out while the men were gone. (Sorry Braxton, you are not quite there yet). We popped popcorn on the stove top so we could have our Traditional Conference Caramel Popcorn.

The last day we were there it was raining....no snowing....no wait there was blue sky. O.k. so we had all of that. It was freezing. My niece Alexia and I were outside deer watching and decided we were really cold and try to huddle up to stay warm. Janice made a wonderful Chicken crockpot dinner for Sunday lunch. There was good food and fun EVERYDAY!

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.