Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This is one reason why we love our van! Before Christmas, we went to see the Lights at the Zoo!...and each of our kids was able to bring one friend (except Brooke)...the 9 of us plus 6 friends = 15! Every seat in our van was filled...and we had a GREAT time :) Here's photo of everyone in the van, followed by the photo with Santa at the zoo.

I think Santa may have been a bit overwhelmed by all of us. Sorry Santa....

We had Christmas "just us" this year for the first time since Brenden and I have been married. Although we missed being with extended family, we sure enjoyed our time together without too many "places to be." We went carolling to Brenden's coworkers and several of our neighbors (The weather was a very nice 65degrees that evening!) We enjoyed lights and "snow" at the Zoo. (Chet discovered when he tried to catch a snowflake on his tongue that the "snow" was made of some sort of bubbly soap stuff!) And, we had fun making Gingerbread houses and playing games and watching WALL-E. I'm afraid amid all the fun, we didn't remember to take our traditional family photo by the tree....so, here's one of the tree :)

This was Brooke's first Christmas! She has been such a blessing in our lives this year! Her sweet smile and calm personality have brightened each day. She's beginning to laugh a lot now...and that keeps us smiling too! She's doing well...still figuring out her hands, but can sit up all by herself now!

We hope everyone has had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! All the best to you!

Chet recently participated in the Christmas parade. He is a member of the KKids Club (service organization sponsored by the Kiwanis Club) which had a float in the parade. The camera man got a great couple of shots of Chet :) (5:01, 5:21 and 5:42 roughly are the times when you can see Chet on the following link...which is about in the middle of the video clip.) Enjoy!

http://static.mgnetwork.com/jbf/media_path/images/xmas_parade/081207_aik_parade_4.html

Happy Thanksgiving 2008!

We enjoyed a beautiful Thanksgiving day here in the sunny South. It was our very first Thanksgiving with just "us". We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a lot of yummy food! Before dinner, while the turkey was cooking, we went to Hopeland Gardens for a family photo shoot and some outdoor fun. It was a gorgeous day! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, too!

Red in the Morning....

You've heard the saying, right? Red at night, sailor's delight. Red in the morning, sailor's take warning. Well, this morning the sky was quite "red". Actually it looked very orange and made everything look like it was glowing. The colors were so rich and vivid, it was simply breathtaking! So, I grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos. Shortly after that, the rain came in earnest. It has been raining all day today, up until just now....when I snapped a few "normal light" photos just to show the difference. It's amazing! (Just remember these are SOTC...straight out of the camera....photos.) I'll post the "normal light" first....

So, you can see a bit of color in this photo, but now look at the next shot that was taken earlier!

Ok, so the photo is definitely recognizably different....but, it just doesn't do it justice. It was so amazing. Everything seemed to be glowing. One of those "you just had to be there".

Halloween 2008

Halloween has come and gone....and finally I got a snapshot of our clever jack-o-lantern. In years past, we have gotten each of the kids their own pumpkin to design and carve, but this year we decided to do something a little different. We had most of the kids draw up their own jack-o-lantern design, then Elise selected something from each design for a totally new design! It was a lot of fun...and it turned out great! This may be a new family tradition!Here is the Royal Family :) Plus our poodle skirt gal and a very sweet pea!

Here's the whole of us...just in case you weren't sure, Chet is a Rubik's Cube and I am not in costume...maybe next year.

So...in answer to Bekka's question...All of them, except Brooke's. I sewed all the Royal family costumes (four years ago when we were in Utah....Chet and Quinn were the two knights then, Kylie wore the dress that Savannah has on, and Elise and Brenden are wearing the same costume they wore 4 years ago). Kylie's Poodle skirt I sewed 3 years ago...and, bless her heart, she's still wearing it :) I'm glad she like's it! The sweet pea outfit I bought in Utah before moving here....anticipating the birth of Brooke, actually. She just barely fit in it! Shewweeee. Chet created his own "Rubik's Cube" costume this year.

Marathon Runners

What an accomplishment!

Chet, Savannah and Quinn all participated in a Kid's Marathon. They have been running a mile at a time for the last couple of months and this was their last 1.2 miles to complete the marathon. We had been down to the beach on Friday visiting with some friends and ended up staying overnight there due to the tremendous down pour and gusting winds. It was pretty messy!...even back at home, where we discovered later that a tree was uprooted in our back yard during the storm. Happily it didn't fall on our house, or anything else important. The kids were troopers...rising at 5am to drive back in time for the race.

Here's a photo from the start of the race. I love Quinn's focus and determination captured here.

Chet was too speedy...I didn't capture the half way picture of him. I did manage to capture Savannah and Quinn. I love Savannah's smile. She's looking to Brenden and all the "cheerleaders" on the sidelines.

Here's Quinn. He was quite a speedy little guy!

All done! With medals to show for their great accomplishment. Yea!!! Great job kids!

Fall is here!...or coming soon, we hope :)

Fall is here....I think. It's sunny and in the 80's here, but we are "setting up" for fall! My sister-in-law inspired me by posting a photo of a fall wreath she recently made (thanks Natalie!), so Brenden kindly got our box of fall decor from the attic and today I put together a wreath to hang on our front door. Ammon and Brooke sat in the bright sunshine...notice the closed eyes :)...while I took a photo. I made pumpkin pie, too. Oh, the aroma is just heavenly! Now we just need the leaves to change color. It's supposed to cool down this weekend....maybe we'll see some fall colors soon!