A Wonderful Christmas Day!

I finally got my wish to get my family together for a Christmas picture. This is Christmas morning as we gathered on the Norman side of the family for breakfast snacks. We have had another wonderful Christmas this year.

A December Sunset

A December Sunset
This fall and winter I have noticed some extra beautiful sunsets, I finally grabbed my camera and captured this one. We received about 10" of snow the day before and more is expected on Christmas Day.

A Garbe Groomsman

Cole's good friend Drew Garbe got married

today and asked Cole to be one of his Groomsmen.

This is taken during the reception at the

Northampton House on December 20th.

Our Scrapbook Christmas Lunch

Scrapbook Christmas Lunch

For scrapbook this time we had an extra nice lunch to celebrate the Christmas season. Kelly brought a delicious ham and I made Cheesey Potatoes. We also had macaroni salad, rolls, chips, a relish tray, cranberry salad and Marilyn's famous cinnamon rolls. It was all very tastey! Then we had a $2 gift exchange - there was some pretty fun things for $2. Kaleen brought each of us some yummy mint brownies to take home and Cindy had us all play Silent Night on the bells. We were a little rusty, but it didn't sound too bad the second time around. We all enjoyed visiting with each other and getting caught up on all the missionaries sons out there in the field. I so enjoy this monthly opportunity to see and visit with my wonderful friends from the 30th ward and getting some scrapping done at the same time. Cindy is very gracious to have us and our mess in her home each time.

O' Christmas Tree

We always put up our tree the day
after Thanksgiving and this year
was no exception. Jandie ending up
decorating the whole thing herself
because Cole and Lyndie were at
work. I think she did a great job!

Our Thanksgiving Feast

I started my Thankgiving cooking off by making 3 homemade pies: cherry, apple & lemon. Then put the 22 lb. turkey to cook stuffed with onions, carrots and celery, breast side down over a roasting pan to see if indeed it really is juicier this way. Made a triple batch of homemade rolls and stuffing. Then the big wait was on. The turkey took forever to cook, thank goodness for the next door neighbor's meat thermometer! We had 2 suprise guests show up, Rod and his friend Angela flew in just hours before the feast. Mom made the yams and a pumpkin pie and Shirley make some creamy mashed potatoes and some green beans with bacon. We were planning on eating at 4:00. Mom and dad showed up a half hour early and Shirley showed up a half hour late. The rest of the gang showed up about the time the turkey was finally ready. Lyndie and Jandie sat at the bar, Shirley's family at the family room table and the rest of us at the kitchen table. It was oh so good! Rod, Angela, Becky, Betsy, Cole and Jandie all went downstairs to play Rockband on the Wii. We could even hear Rod belting out the song at one point. Then we all enjoyed some yummy pie. It was a nice evening for all of us.

Sisters

Sisters

Each year I get the kids picture taken after their birthday. This year I was a bit late and ended up getting both girls taken at the same time, the good thing about that was we were able to get a few of them taken together.

Lyndie 19

Jandie 15

Carvin' Pumpkins

Lyndie and Jandie finally got a chance to carve their pumpkins on Friday afternoon. Both were partially dressed in costumes they wore that day. Lyndie was some Power Girl, but took off her sign when she got home from work and Jandie went "EMO" to school all dressed in black and heavy on the eye makeup.

Cards I have listed on ebay

One of my favorite things to do is make cards. For the past year or two I have made them and listed them on ebay. Here are a few I have listed.

Fall Colors

Fall is my favorite season and this year has been no exception. It seems that the fall colors this year have been especially beautiful or maybe I've appreciated it more as I know they will soon be gone and brown and white will be the dominant colors I see.

Jandie wins BEST COSTUME

Jandie attended her friend Ariel's Halloween party on Friday, October 24th where she won Best Halloween Costume. This is Lyndie's old clogging costume that she wore when they performed Alladin. It's great to get some use out of this pricey costume.

Lyndie's Halloween Birthday Party

On Saturday, October 25th Lyndie had her Halloween Birthday party. We made homemade rootbeer with dry ice and Little Caesars pizza, eyeball cupcakes, garlic bread and apples with carmel dip.
She had about 16 friends show up throughout the evening.

There were lots of fun costumes - Shawna Heppler won the best costume - she was a Jelly Fish complete with an umbrella and bubble wrap. It was a pretty creative costume if you ask me.

My Favorite Thing: Scrapbook Retreat

I had the opportunity to go on a fall Scrapbook Retreat with Terrie Card and Cindy Purvis. The three of us loaded up some of our scrapbook stuff and headed for Wolf Creek up Ogden Canyon.

We enjoyed great conversation, food and got lots of scrapbooking done.
Here we are at the restaurant waiting for our lunch.
I'm so grateful to have such wonderful friends who share the same passion for scrapbooking as I do.

Here is my favorite layout I made while at my retreat.