Christmas

For the first time in three years we decided to stay home for Christmas and not go to Utah to be with family. I was worried Christmas wouldn't be the same, and it definitely was not. But all of us agreed it was the best Christmas we've had together!

Christmas eve, the kids are all in their new pj's that Grandma sent.

Daddy read The Night Before Christmas even though Danielle was protesting she had to get to bed so as to not cross the big jolly man in the bright red suit.

Danielle gave us fair warning that she was going to wake us up early...but I wasn't anticipating 5 am!

We made them go back to bed but could only hold them off until 6, so we headed down stairs and sure enough Santa came.

The one thing Danielle was really counting on was a violin so she could start her lessons and Santa did not disappoint.

Rayce in an over-sized cardboard pirate ship.

Christmas breakfast to be followed by church and a whole day of no where to go, pure heaven...although we did miss our families.

And what does a family do after an amazing Christmas?

They enjoy the beautiful weather, together! Merry Christmas!

Double Digits

My sweet Danielle turned ten on December 12th!

Here she is at 4 years old which seemed like yesterday.

Now all grown up at her dance recital!

And posing for a picture with Santa (Avie opted out).

And eating with her volleyball team after their last game, go Royals!

Whew, beside turning ten she's had a busy month, we love you Danielle, welcome to the double digits!

The Biggest Boy

On December 3rd, 2006 after a short labor we welcomed a happy, content baby Rayce into our family and he's been nothing short of an awesome kid!!!


Now that five years have gone by I can say with surety that he's pretty much the same personality as he was as a small baby, happy!

He was always smiling!

And was lucky enough to have a sister that adored him! (still does most of the time).

He loves to ride his motorcycle

He loved his birthday cake and the attempt by a loving mother to make it (she's a cake amateur!)

He loved all the new birthday gifts he received including a new big boy bike! He couldn't wait to change out of his church clothes to ride it!

We love our Rayce!

Deck the Halls

We got our Christmas decor up this year with relative ease. Only one sibling fight and one broken bulb! I know I should jump on the shatterproof bulb bandwagon, but I really love glass bulbs.

Usually Dan ends up putting the tree up mostly by himself (because most of the time we start too late at night and all the kids crash out), but we all hung in there this year.

Danielle decided we should have a red, green, silver tree this year. Here's the finished project sans silver ribbon that I went out and bought the next day.
I can only hope the rest of the holiday season goes so smoothly! It gives me a lot of encouragement that I can respond to any of my kids missteps by singing "you better watch out, you better not cry...", if only we had something that possessed this leverage all year long!

Thanksgiving Break

Good friends, family and weather combined to make this Thanksgiving break one to remember. We crammed an awful lot into two weeks:

Dan and I finally made it to the temple. I won't say how long it's been since we last went (mostly because I can't remember) don't judge.

Dan was able to get many a project done around the house including fixing something or other on his car, in the process breaking something else that now needs to be fixed! Maybe over Christmas break?

We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner in part to a smoked turkey provided by a local BBQ joint, talk about taking the pressure off! I must have been too busy in preparation to take any pictures, but here's our family's grateful chain.


We took our family to the wildlife world zoo just down the road from us. The weather was perfect and surprisingly so were the kids

This bird made itself at home on Dan's head and kept biting his ears!

After some coaxing and a bit of patience Rayce finally got a bird on his arm and then wasn't sure about it. Avie wasn't having any part of it!

Here's my one good picture of Avie Jo, the rest of them looked like this:

She thought most of the animals could of used a good scrubbing!

We had a wonderful break, now back to school and work and looking forward to Christmas break!

Turkey Trotter

Rayce had a Thanksgiving feast with his pre-school class at the big city park.


I got there right after their turkey trot but I made it in time to watch their cute relay race.

We stayed up a little too late the night before, can you tell?

His teacher taught them all the proper way to set the table before the feast, it was so cute! Then it was time to dig in, Rayce decided he likes pumpkin pie!

V-Ball Diva

She's small but mighty!

Go Danielle!

The Midwest

We're moving to Nebraska!!!
Dan just received his orders for his Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency. We'll be moving in August of 2012!

The Candy Round-Up

Just a few pics from our Halloween this year~





Homemade marshmallows dipped in chocolate, yum!

The three trunk r' treaters



Ninja Rayce

Happy Halloween!

A Weekend in Boston

Our weekend came and went in a flash, but it was a great trip. Boston is an amazing city! Dan has been touting it since he interviewed there nearly 4 years ago, so I knew we had to make it out there sometime. I wasn't going to get excited this time until we were actually on the plane and I knew there were no hurricanes in sight. It's so nice to spend time without the kids but the older they get, the more I want them to experience these adventures with us, maybe one day we can afford to take all of us!

Making our decent into Boston. Continental had an hour delay with our first flight so we missed our connection from Newark, luckily we were able to get on standby on the next flight in.

The city from our hotel room across the river.

Sitting on the steps of the Harvard library. It's a beautiful campus, although I've never mentally compared IQ's with so many people in my life. It's a bit intimidating knowing everyone around you is much smarter than you!

Look, it's Hawvawd yawd.

Darn it, one of the students must have dropped their book!

Harvard Square

It was refreshing to be able to wear jackets because you were actually chilly and to see trees with no leaves on them!

Walking through the streets of Boson



One thing about Boston is all the old graveyards, I have a morbid fascination with graveyards! Dan thinks it's funny that I could take a considerable amount of time checking out headstones.



Paul Revere's grave







Bunker Hill Monument

Cool, old church in Bunker Hill neighborhood.



If I moved to Boston, I would want to live in the Beacon Hill neighborhood! It's beautiful with it's old brownstones and brick sidewalks and cool shops. I'm sure it comes with a rather hefty price tag as well...but it could happen!

Bundled up and loving it!



Boston Public Garden

It's hard to see everything in a weekend so hopefully we'll get the opportunity to go back sometime.