Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa B's.  The cousin's open their gifts to each other.





























And this year Grandma B and Jana planned a fun game of bingo with prizes! We had a blast!

The traditional picture by the fireplace showing off new Christmas jammies. Davis and Haylie were out of town and Sadie and Madison were at their Mom's but these cute three faces are irresistable! Can't wait for Santa to come :)

The House That We Built

Gingerbread house that is!  Every year we buy a gingerbread house kit and build it together for famiy night at the beginning of December.  It has been a fun tradition!

Here is our finished product! What a creative bunch we have!! We actually got as much candy on the house as we did in our mouths this year :)

Merry Merry

The Sweet Smell Of...

I have recently added the smell of sawdust to my favorite holiday smells :) ...pine bows, peppermint, cookies baking, wassail and gingerbread!

Jeff and Shawn worked hard last weekend and Matt and Shawn were busy all day Saturday working on our kitchen remodel.  We put up the plastic again to minimize the dust - we are excited to have Shawn back in town for a while - the added bonus is he get's to work on the kitchen ;).

One of my favorite books as a child was "The Sweet Smells of Christmas". My Mother would read it to us every Christmas and let us take turns doing the scratch and sniff.  My children have a copy and we always make sure we include this in our holiday reading. 

I love how a smell can take you back, even years, or bring you comfort or bring back a special memory.  I hope you are all enjoying this magical time of year and taking the time to enjoy "The Sweet Smells of Christmas" what every your favorites may be.

A little Update

Shawn had a little time over Thanksgiving to work on the kitchen.  He and Jeff were busy bees down in the shop.  Here are a few pictures of our latest progress.

The fridge cabinet.

The cabinet that will hold the microwave, wall oven and warming drawer. 

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

For Nat

Aida

Kristen has been playing her cello with the orchestra for the West Jordan High's performance of Aida and they had their last performance tonight. I had the pleasure of seeing the broadway performance years ago and I loved it.  I popped in my cd and we listened to the soundtrack all the way down there :)  The kids loved it like I new they would.  What a fun night! (The hunky senior playing Radames didn't hurt much either - ha ha.)   Kristen always does such a great job and it's so much fun to get to see her play!  If you haven't been to a high school play or musical lately....you are really missing out!

Special Day

The Sunday after Matt's 16th birthday he was ordained a priest.  It was a beautful sunny day and

Grandma and Grandpa S and B were there to share this special day with us.  Matt has had some very great leaders over the years and I can't thank them enough for their support and friendship towards Matt.

We love you Matt.

Back in Business

With our "carpenter" dad out of town alot lately...the remodeling updates have been few because there hasn't been much to update on...but our hard working pop was in town for a few days so we quickly sent him to the shop and here is a little update.  (Don't worry....I sent food in underneath the door ;)

Matt and Shawn brought up the base corner cabinet. This guy did not want to come up!  Shawn had to remove the whole door, casing and all, downstairs and let's just say there will be alot of patching and repainting the stairway when we get done :)

Here are some of the other cabinets.  Some are getting face frames and the huge fridge cabinet has been upstairs for a few weeks but I keep forgetting to take a picture of it but it's pretty impressive!!

Shawn is town for a few days again so he is hoping to get time this weekend to work on the kitchen.  We have played around with a few colors and finishes we like and that was kind of fun.  So despite my recent bouts of murmuring...I am so glad for the talent Shawn has to make such a beautiful kitchen for us.  Do you think his work will believe he has been "snowed in" if I keep him here?  Flight's been cancelled?? And there is that problem of the no door thing now...hmmmm.....on to plan B.........

For Katie

Our local "Ace of Cakes"

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!

We celebrated Matt's birthday at Grandma and Grandpa B's and part of the fun celebration was a cake made by our wonderful neighbor Holly.  I new she made cakes and had heard what a wonderful job she did but I have never had the pleasure of seeing any of her cakes.  She is Kenna's beehive advisor and Kenna has talked about her cakes before and she has shared this talent with the girls many times.  She offered to make Matt a "car" cake and this is the amazing creation she delivered to us on Sunday........                                               

Wow...AND...it tastes as good as it looks!  Chocolatey moist goodness! Thanks Holly!

Happy birthday Matt!!  We love you!

Age

"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter.  If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."  -Jack Benny

This is one of my absolute favorite quotes about age :)  Who can argue with Jack Benny??

I thought I would share a few highlights of my BIG birthday :)
My fabulous birthday breakfast table compliments of my delightful children..thanks guys :)

Work is always a fun place to be on your birthday because our office is so great!  My friend Jody made my favorite peanut butter cup cookies - yum!

This happy balloon bouquet greeted me as I came in - from my friend Mike and his cute fam...notice the Sesame Street balloon as to celebrate my youthfulness ;) great choice Mikey!

My sister Shelley decorate the house up so darn cute - who could have a bad day with this on your garage door I ask you?????

AND...I get to share my special day with my neice McKayla who turned 20 and never let's me forget how old I am on our birthday =)
our great family made us a lovely dinner with these cute pumpkin breadbowls..................so bring on the 40's.....so far so good :)