Every year at Christmas, growing up, we would get together at the church with all of my extended family on my Dad's side and play basketball, volleyball, and new games. We would eat and of course, have a talent show. This year, we spent Christmas here with Nate's family and missed the gathering at the church. So, here is Gage's talent. He can dance! These are videos from his Halloween class presentation at school. It's so funny. Gage was REALLY into it! The videos aren't very long because I pretty much had no battery left in my camera. Bummer.
I have Christmas cards all ready to send out. There are a lot of you who I would like to send them to, but do not have your address. I have not been able to find my address book since our recent move. *sigh* So if you have a minute, please email your address to me at
angster79@hotmail.com
I promise I will put them in a word document and not lose them!
After taking the baby's pictures on Monday, we decided we needed to take a family picture for Christmas. I'm loving this baby! Such a cute little family. The Dad is actually a second year in the MBA program at BYU with Nate.
I hosted Thanksgiving this year for the first time! I really enjoyed hosting and would like to do it again. My goal was to make sure everyone felt welcome and that I was happy they were there. So, I made a few things to accomplish this goal. I had every one's name on a cute place setting, and I made cute turkeys out of different candies that went on every one's place setting. I was going to take a picture of everyone as they came, but it got way chaotic and only the first few people got their picture taken as they came. We had seventeen guests. Nate's immediate family, his Aunt, Uncle, and two cousins, my two cousins, one of their boyfriends, and my two sisters. So 21 total including us. I set up the food all in the dining room and the tables in the living room. Place settings. View from the kitchen. View from the front door.
Sister Kylee
Cousin Shelby Cousin Rachy and Boyfriend Jesse.
And oh the food we had!!!!! Everyone brought something and I made 9 dishes! Well, I should say that Jana and I made nine dishes. Because Jana and the family spent the night Wed. so they could run the race with us in the morning, Jana and I made most of my dishes Wed. night. Jana saved me!! I don't know what I would have done without her help! Thanks so much Jana. And Kimm, thanks for helping get the house ready! Back to the food. I can not even begin to describe how much and how yummy the food was! With all 21 people, we barely made a dent. My dining room table was full with main dish stuff, my breakfast bar was full of appetizers, and every other bit of counter space was full of dessert! And I failed to take a picture. Sad huh. I did take a picture of my pumpkin trifle though.
I did have little pine cones that held cards that had the names of the dishes on them. However, there was so much food that the cards were not easily seen. It was a cute idea though, thanks to my downstairs neighbor Misty. She let me borrow lots of her stuff and gave me good ideas!
Anyway, we had a really great Thanksgiving. After we ate, we played games all night long and ate some more. I'll leave you with a picture of my cute family eating. And everyone else eating too. I'll post pictures that the kids took later.
We were lucky to have Jeff, Jana, and the kids spend the night with us on Wed. and then get up and run the Earn Your Turkey Race on Thanksgiving morning. Jeff, Kylee, and myself ran the 4 mile race. Kyah and Grace ran the 400 meter race, Payton and Gage ran the 800 meter race, and Josh ran the 1 mile race. We had such fun. Jeff actually did earn his turkey because he took 1st place in his division. I can not say the same for myself. I'm just happy I didn't walk. :)
Josh, Payton, Gage, Kyah, and Grace before the race.
Grace about to finish her 400 meter race. Jeff is with her.
Kyah about to finish her 400 meter race. I'm with her. Kyah liked the race, but we did have to use the run/walk method.
Payton just about to finish. He's wearing the dark blue in the front.
Payton after his 400meter race. Poor Payton got a nasty side ache during his race.
Gage right after his race. Gage was all smiles his whole race. No joke. I was worried about him and so I ran out to where the kids were suppose to turn around so I could make sure he didn't miss it. I was surprised, 1. to see him towards the front, and 2. because he was just smiling away having the time of his life. I sprinted back towards the finish so I could see him again and what do I see? Gage smiling as he passes a boy. Then he proceeds to cut the poor kid off the second he gets in front of him and is looking over his shoulder smiling. I guess I need to teach him some race etiquette. It was pretty fun to watch though.
Josh after his 1 mile race. He's pretty fun to watch. The kid can run a mile so fast!! His fast time ever is right around 6 minutes, 34 seconds!! He's nine.
Kylee and me about to finish.
Jeff about to finish. He's in the black.
After my race.
Here is a video of Josh finishing his race. Go Josh!!
