Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Day began as usual the kids sooooo ready to go see what Santa brought and the parents trying to sleep in.  The kids were all so good though cause we told them they had to wait till 8:00am and they did. We were just so lucky to have all of the F cousins together for this Christmas.

There are few highlights of the things that Santa brought:

CR: Nerf Gun

G: Koala Bear Pillow Pet

 S: I-Home

 C: Just Dance, Stilletos, and Snuggie

 K: Sewing Machine

 Here are the awesomest kids ever wearing their PJ's that Grandma Judy sent them.

 We had breakfast burritos made with fresh tortillas and they were delicious!

And then we went down to the basement to open family presents.  There were four families so we each had a little corner for ourselves.  We took turns as families cause each individual person would have taken us until 2011.

This is my cute little sister Z and her family.

 This is my little brother J and his family.

 And this is my big brother D and his family.

This is part of our family.  What can I say? We either took up too much space or I didn't think to take a picture of us.

 After presents we got ready and went up to Park City where D&C had their timeshare for the week. It was beautiful up there with all the snow.

We were able to use the conference room in the lobby.  Lele made ham and we all brought other items to compliment our dinner.

After dinner, we went to the condo and did a white elephant gift exchange.  We did one for the adults and one for the kids.  The kids one was fine except for the little ones do not understand how the stealing of gifts goes and we had a few tears.

Then we all drove home.  It was a wonderful day!

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve morning we had to put together the paches since they have to steam for a few hours.  So we set up our assembly line and we got them going.

After we all got ready... the siblings wanted to go out for a little bit of bonding time.  Since it was almost 3pm we just drove around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go.  So we ended up at Paradise Bakery.  We were about the only ones there and they were getting ready to close.  They let us stay for a some time while they cleaned up and so that was nice to just be there and talk.

Family Picture.  Ahhhhhh.

G and her American Doll with matching Christmas dresses.

The enjoyment of the paches.

Most of the girls.

The Christmas program by the children.

The Nativity Story.  Always a special treat!

The cousins dancing including Malox!

The opening of presents from cousins.  What chaos but we couldn't do it any other way!

Pre-Christmas Activities

Ward Christmas Party:

I love to see K so happy!! We had a snowball fight with marshmallows! I think this is the most daring and fun thing that has ever been done at a ward party.

 G sits on Santa's lap. It was hard to get her to talk to tell Santa what she wanted.  Eventually she whispered it but no one could hear.  Oh well... Santa is magic so he knows what she wants right?

S's Christmas Band concert.

Christmas Concert at Temple Square with guest star David Archuleta.  It was a Lady's Night!

It was a wonderful concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and David.

After the concert we went to see David at Deseret Book.  The line was too long but after some maneouvering we got to at least get a few pictures.

And then Cat treated us to yummy "The Melting Pot".  It was a great night!

The Rockette's

We went out on a triple date with Z & J, my parents, and us.  We went out to dinner and then to see the Rockette's!  I have been wanting to see this for as long as I can remember.  Not in NYC but close second.  The show was AMAZING!  Here are a few pictures:

Thanksgiving

Serving the kiddos! How come the kids always get to eat first and they don't even help with the cooking??

The girl's table.

The program.

Great dance but T stole the show!

This must be the closing song.

I know I'm way behind on my blog and we are now in the new year but I have to go in order or I go crazy.  We had a fun Thanksgiving at our house with the M's, my parents and L & E.  I'm so thankful for my family and the blessing of living close to them.

Then on Black Friday Z and I went shopping for lots and lots of bargains.  We kind of left late and we thought we would be out of luck but we still found pretty much everything we were looking for!  We love this tradition.  But we are exhausted that afternoon!

Nutcracker Performance 2010

Fritz playing with the presents!

The Party kids with the maids

Fritz with sister Wal

Snow

Waltz

Finale

C & J (friends since kindergarten)

General Conference Tid Bits

October 2-3, 2010

“Spiritually Fed” is what General Conference is all about.  I wrote down my favorite ideas but I forgot I hadn't posted them yet.  So here they are.  It's better now anyways cause its a good reminder of the important things that I learned.


We are individually loved of God.

The world will teach our children if we don’t.

When teaching gospel principles it doesn’t matter how much experience teaching we have. What matters is our attitude to teaching and that we feel his Spirit!

The Spirit is not taught but caught!

Principles of good teaching:
1. Immerse yourself in the scriptures (personal scripture study).
2. Apply in your life the things that you learn.
3. Seek Heaven’s help (pray for those we teach, pray for inspiration).
4. Exercise agency and act on promptings received. Act right then!

SLOW DOWN! Do those things that matter most!

The most important relationships we need to work on are:
1. God: Learn of Him, need time alone with him through prayer and scripture study.
2. Family: Dinner, FHE, love is spelled “T I M E”
3. Fellow men: One person at a time, spend time listening
4. Ourselves: don’t criticize, we are God’s creation.

Make our homes holy places. Block out those things that remove the Spirit.

The road of discipleship is not for the spiritually faint!

We become what we want to become by acting in the ways that help us become.

Be grateful for trials that increase our faith.

We are in the middle of an important election. The Lord is voting for me, and Lucifer is voting against me, but it is my vote that counts!!

There are no perfect parents only perfect principles to follow.

Lucifer knows our weaknesses and faults and will try to tempt us in these areas.

Show increase in kindness.