Christmas at Home

On Sunday, December 30th, we celebrated Christmas at home with Perry & Mitchell.  We started off the evening with a huge meal that included salad, pork ribs, cheesy creamy potatoes, macaroni and cheese, corn bread and more.  When dinner was devoured, we started to open presents.  As tradition has it, we always start with the stockings.

 Max went first and emptied his stocking.

 He quickly devoured his first treat.  I think Max likes Christmas.

 Perry was next, an Ulta gift card made her smile.

 Grant really wanted Lindt chocolate and an iTunes gift card.  He was noted disappointed. 

 Mitchell opened the contents of his stocking so quickly, he was even surprised at how fast he went.

 Grant likes the bike Mitchell built for him.  Grant is finally free of riding girls bikes.

 Time to open presents. 

 Grant can't help but look like a weirdo when he gets photographed.

 Time for a new wallet.

 Brent built Mitchell a computer for Christmas.  We gave him the computer a few weeks ago.  We followed up the gift with a color printer/copier/scanner.  

 The Shupe family had our family for the Christmas gift exchange.  The gift they gave Grant, a nose flute, was supposed to be a joke.  Little did they know how much he would love to play it ALL of the TIME!!!!!

 Not sure what Grant is doing in this picture.

 Mitchell & Perry (she is starting to look pregnant).

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!

Next year the family party will be at our house. 

Playing in the Snow

Snow was covering most of the yard when we arrived at Brent's parents home in Alpine, Utah.  Grant quickly got to work on building snowmen.

 Grant's first snowman wasn't very big.

 But the snowman had an evil expression.

 Grant built a much larger snowman in the backyard.  Matthew helped gathering parts for the face and arms.

 The next day it snowed all day.  The snowman's eyes and mouth fell to the ground and disappeared in the snow.

Max didn't like walking in the snow.  It was VERY cold on his skinny little legs.

With another day of snow, there was enough snow stacked on the snowman's head to give it a new hairdo.  Grant also started to light firecrackers where the snowman's nose used to be.  So many things you can do with a snowman.

The snow, Christmas morning, looked so beautiful decorating the trees and fence, just had to get a picture there.

 Brent & Grant went tubing/sledding down the hill in Barb's neighborhood.  Grant collided with a girl speeding down the hill and hurt his back.  This is a dangerous activity!

 I showed up long enough to see what the guys were up to.  I HATE being cold.

Look closely and you will see Brent's feet in the air.  Brent started going down the hill, Cody, the dog, went after him.  Cody attacked Brent on the sled (for fun) and Brent flipped over.  Ouch! 

On Thursday, December 27th we drove to Springville, UT, to go tubing at Jolly Ranch.  The drive through this canyon was phenomenal.  The fresh snow covering everything looks so peaceful.

 Unfortunately, Jolly Ranch wasn't opened and wouldn't open until the next day :(  So we got out of the cars and played in the snow.  Hannah is buried in the snowdrift.

 Grant checked out the cold creek running down below.  He is bundled up well.  It is snowing and windy.

 The ice cold creek.

Brent doesn't mind the cold one bit.  He just wants to have some fun tubing.

Since Jolly Ranch was closed and none of us had tubes or sleds, we had to change our plans.  We drove back north to Alpine, dropped off Grant (whose back was hurting alot from the day before) and then headed up Alpine Canyon to Mutual Del.

 Neil's family picked up some sleds on the way to Mutual Del.  Brent finally got his snow fix as he helped the kids pick up speed going down the hill.

Brent also took turns sliding down the snowy slope.

Once the cold got to me, I went back to the van to warm up and stare at the beauty that surrounded me.  I LOVE the snow from indoors!

Christmas in Utah

Our 2012 Christmas was spent at Brent's parent's home in Alpine, Utah.  We arrived Sunday, December 23rd.  There was already snow on the ground; however, it snowed all day on December 24th so we truly had a white Christmas this year.

 Brent received a nice TV for Christmas which was left at home.  Grant and I picked out his all time favorite Christmas movie along with a matching lamp for his office.  

 Grant has wanted the new PSVita ever since he knew it was coming out.  He finally received it!  

 Brent & I figured we wouldn't see him again for the rest of our Utah trip.  Grant proved us wrong.  He intermingled his video game time with playing in the snow.

 I received a new camera.  Hopefully, I will finally get some better quality pictures.

 Max wasn't too sure he liked being in this coat.  Once he figured out how warm he got while being in it, he had no problem bundling up in it.

 Christmas dinner was spent with Brent's parents, his sisters Barb, Lynda, and Sherri's families and his brother's family.  We ate turkey, ham, potatoes, and lots and lots of other yummy food.

We ate so much that we all crashed on the floor into a comatose stupor.

It was a fun filled day!