Grandpa Murray's 60th/New Year's Celebration

New Year's Eve Grandpa Murray turned 60 so we headed down to Utah for parties and celebrations!  The weather has been so nice for us to drive back and forth in, ya we miss the snow but it has made traveling awesome!  We were all excited to go celebrate Grandpa's big birthday and ring in the New Year with our family. Grandma Kathy made an awesome video celebrating Grandpa Murray's life, we all enjoyed watching it.  We all wrote Grandpa a letter and presented him a book from us.  We love you Grandpa Murray and appreciate all you do for each of us!

The adults all played Rock Band for several hours and the kids ran around the house.  We had a lot of fun ringing in the New Year! 

Bray's New Plane

Brayden received a remote controlled airplane from Grandma & Grandpa Mecham and he has been patiently waiting to test fly it.  It has been a lot of fun!  The boys enjoyed spending time flying it around the yard.  It even takes pictures, the pictures on the bottom of the post are aerial photos of our yard from the plane. 

Merry Christmas 2011!!!

Merry Christmas!  The kids all slept in Brayden's room - a tradition they have been doing the past couple years.  The excitement of Christmas morning is always so much fun.  They were all happy and excited to see what Santa had left them.  Brayden got a ripstick, Wii Game, tool set, and a tractor.  McKenzie received new bedding for her room, Wii Just Dance, Nutcracker, and a little dog.  Max had new legos waiting for him, a Wii Game, Tractors, and a tool box.  Our elf Chance even left us a Wii Game.  Thank You Santa!  Thank You Chance! We had a wonderful Christmas morning!

 

What a wonderful day to go to church!  We were so excited to have all of our Grandparents, and Great Grandma Glenda go with us!  It really helped us as a family to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas.  A wonderful spirit was felt as we listened to the choir.  Nothing better than sharing this spirit with our family!

After church we came home and opened up presents.  It was a very relaxing and enjoyable visiting with our family and enjoying our new gifts.  We had our traditional Breakfast casserole for brunch and later on had roast beef sandwiches.   We love our family very much and we are thankful we were able to share this special day with them.

Christmas Eve Celebration & Traditions!

We considered ourselves very blessed this year to have Grandpa Murray, Grandma Kathy, Grandma Mecham, Grandpa Mecham, and Great Grandma Glenda join our family for Christmas this year--not a lot of kids get both sets of Grandparents and a Great Grandma to celebrate with.  Our Christmas was truly special and will be treasured by each of us this year.  We started off Christmas Eve by building our Gingerbread House, the kids did a great job and built quite the masterpiece.

We had 15 people for our Christmas Eve dinner, along with our family The Anderson family joined us for dinner.  Dinner was delicious:  ham, dutch-oven potatoes, salad, jello salad, rolls, veggie tray, relish tray, and lots of appetizers and snacks.  We had two tables this year the adult table and the kid table.  We had a nice dinner and really enjoyed the company-we consider The Anderson family, "family" we are glad they were able to join us.

After dinner we continued on with our Christmas Eve traditions.  Justin read from Luke and the kids placed the flannel board nativity on as he read.  Next, Justin read "The Night Before Christmas" and we had our "Coke- A-Cola " toast.  Finally, we bid farewell to Chance - left him with notes and thanked him for bringing so much fun to our home.  We left our notes for Santa and left him:  cookies, oranges, and milk.  The kids all slept our tried to sleep in Brayden's room.  Christmas Eve was very nice and we were thankful we were able to share it with family and friends.

Party with Kit!

 

 Before Ann and Kit headed to Malad for Christmas they spent some time with our family, we are grateful we were able to visit and celebrate the Christmas season with them.  The first evening they were here the boys all watched the Boise State bowl game, had pizza and enjoyed visiting.  Ann and I visited and looked at each others pictures of the year.  The next day the kids were all able to play and enjoy spending time as cousins.  Thank you Ann and Kit for spending time with our family!

Memories with our Elf - Chance

The Holidays are a lot of fun with Chance in our home.  He was a very busy elf this year we found him everywhere from hiding in our tree to hanging off our ceiling fan.  We took pictures of some of our favorite times with Chance one morning we woke up to hot cocoa ready  for us, one day he took bubble bath in marshmallows all day long, our school was having a food drive and Chance even brought us some extra food for our food drive.  Chance truly makes December magical for our family!

Happy 16th Wedding Anniversary!

 

Happy 16th Wedding Anniversary!  I could not ask for a better a husband!  We enjoyed a little mini-vacation for our anniversary.  We spent the night down in Pocatello - we were able to finish our Christmas shopping and enjoyed a delicious dinner at Red Lobster and then were able to go to the Idaho Falls temple the next day.  I am grateful to be married to my best friend!  I love you Justin!

We LOVE Chance!!!

December 1st Chance came back from the North Pole and is with our family again.  Everyday Chance is in  a new location in our home, as soon as the kids get up they can't wait to go find what Chance has been up to.  While we were in Utah - Chance was busy reading Christmas books.  Chance sure makes the Holidays around here a lot of fun!  We love our elf Chance and glad he gets to visit us during the Christmas Season!