We had a very nice Christmas this year. This is our tree after Santa came to visit. I just love sitting in the living room with only the tree lights on. There is something so relaxing about it. And, during this season we all need something a little relaxing!
We spent Christmas Eve with Jeremy, Rochelle, and their kids. We also had Rochelle's cousin, Tresa, with her boys, and a new friend, Marla that we met at church. Tresa's husband is deployed to Iraq this year, and Marla's daughter was with her dad for Christmas. A special treat was to have Jeremy's dad, Lane here too. He got to play everyone's grandpa for Christmas:)
I made the kids line up on the stairs for a picture before all the madness began...it's funny how they all have their "blankie's" in this picture. I think Maika's is hiding under the blanket that actually keeps her warm...you can see what's left of Logan's hiding behind her back. NOTE: I switched to the video camera at this point...
Here are the highlights of what everyone received.
Bronson: added to his collection of GeoTrax trains and Transformers.
Nalani: A vanity, dress-up make-up, a Barbie head that she can put make-up on and comb her hair, clothes.
Maika: A Nintendo DSi
Logan: An iTouch
Aundrea: two pair of boots, one pair black, one pair brown, both comfy!
Kelly: A Camelback for his bike rides, a gift certificate for 1 1/2 hour massage.
We are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and hope everyone felt love during this season!
Maika's basketball season is almost over:( We are absolutely loving watching her play! She is a little hustler! She drives down the court, shoots and scores! She is NOT a ball hog and happily passes to her teammates under the hoop. When Maika is dribbling the ball she has her tongue sticking out in concentration. I'm afraid she might bite it off one of these days!
Kelly signed on to be the coach this year. I think he was dreading it when I talked him into it, but now he really enjoys it and likes spending time with Maika!
We will enjoy these last few weeks of the season and then in 2010, start up with Logan's volleyball and basketball. We'll see how Bronson handles sitting in a gym ALL day...should be fun times!
Here are Logan and Maika making the "U" We were pretty-much surrounded by Utah fans, so it was fun and loud. I thought Logan's trash talking would get us into some trouble...she takes after her daddy.
Here are the three of us, decked out in our red and white....Hey, I wonder where Kelly is?
Oh, he had a field pass and was hearing some major trash talkin' from the Duck fans behind him. He said it was fun to be down there...actually I think the Ducks were still pretty embarrassed by the whole "Incident" with Blount, so they were pretty mellow.
Jer, Rochelle, Talon, Layne and Jared came to the game too. We had a lot of fun, even though the U lost. In the past four years Kelly has spent a small fortune buying t-shirts for the teams playing against Oregon: Oklahoma, USC, Arizona, Utah...I told him it must be bad luck because "we" always lose. I think he's still getting an Ohio shirt for the Rose Bowl. I sure hope it works. It will be a long New Year's weekend if Kelly is moping around because Oregon won!
Last week was crazy! Three of my four kids were sick, we just got back from Utah, and we needed to prepare for out of town company coming in for Maika's baptism. I have some of the best friends in the world! They came and cleaned my house for me before I got home so that was one less thing to worry about. We had some delicious meals brought in, and that helped too! Now, I could just concentrate on getting my kids better so we could enjoy our big weekend. 
(Logan, Dad, Maika, Nalani, Bronson, Mom)
.JPG)
On our recent trip to Utah for Kelly's family reunion, we took a little detour to Monticello to see my dad. While we were there,we (meaning I,) wanted my kids to experience one of my favorite childhood memories...cutting fire wood. I thought it would help my dad out too, since that is the primary source of heat for his house during the winter time. 
Okay, back to the nice hot summer weather! Besides cutting wood, my dad brought a few guns for us to shoot while we were there. Here is Maika. When she got the gun in her hands her arms just fell, I don't think she was expecting it to be so heavy. 
Logan was all business, I think she even hit the soda can she was aiming for, after taking awhile to figure out how to see through the scope.
Kelly had a go with the chain saw. I think he had a good time, too. We were cutting some huge trees that had fallen during the winter snows. All our backs were pretty sore for the next few days.
Nalani had fun riding the tree-horse we made. I used to love doing this when I was little, too!
Here's my dad with my kids. In the quakie trees. Quakies (Aspen) are my absolute favorite tree! I love hearing the wind blow through the leaves!
Logan and Maika.
Our family picture.
I decided to start off with our attempt at a family photo. A week before we were at these falls, some college kid jumped in to show off for his friends and was killed. I'm thinking he had a little "liquid courage" in him, because the only way I would jump in those falls would be to try to save one of my kids!
As the only grandsons, Bronson and Spencer stuck together. "Bence" is sporting a butterfly bandage in most of these pictures, because he ran into a BBQ stand while playing Frisbee. He cut his eye pretty good. The next night, while playing baseball with some kids from the condos, he got hit in the head by the bat...poor kid! He's a tough one, though!
This momma moose and her baby were right in our backyard two or three mornings, nibbling on some leaves. One night the kids were playing at the park and these two came running through the field and actually stepped on Spencer's bike and broke the hand-brake. Not too many kids can say their bike was broken by a moose:)
We spent the majority of our time at the pool. Every day we would pack a lunch and spend hours over there. This is Spencer, Macy, and Logan.
And, here are Bronson, Maika, Nalani, and Hannah in the hot tub.
Quite the action shot of Bronson jumping to Kelly. That's Nalani's head...she just finished jumping in and was getting ready for her next turn.
Auntie Rachel with all her nieces and nephews.
Grandma Marcia with all her grand kids.
My mom and Gary in front of some geysers.
Nalani's "boom-boom fire power!" pose.
Beautiful Logan!
We saw some other "wild animals" sticking their heads out of the truck while stopped for road construction in Yellowstone. That's Maika and her huge smile. All the kids fought over who would get to ride with Grandma and Gary.
This huge buffalo was about five feet from our truck.
No, this isn't a lake. The morning we left was super cold and foggy. We loaded up the truck, said teary good-byes to Logan and Maika (they rode home with Uncle Jesse and are spending a few fun-filled weeks with Kelly's sisters in Utah...more on that in another post), and started the drive up the mountain. At the top we started seeing blue skies and sunshine...we pulled over at a lookout point to take a picture. Jackson is buried somewhere beneath all those clouds, you can see the whole valley was covered and the mountains sticking out on the far side. It was so beautiful.
