Family, family, and more family!!

All of Heath's family were able to make it out to Utah for Grandpa White's funeral and they all stayed in our house! We had 9 extra people staying here Thursday & Sunday nights and 10 extra people on Friday and Saturday nights. I spent all of last week cleaning and making room for everyone once I heard that Grandpa had passed away. Amazingly I think that everyone had a good time and enjoyed themselves while they were here. (Unfortunately we don't have our new sectional for the family room yet - we finally picked one out and ordered it just before New Year's, but it's going to take about 2 months to get it in.) I think the only problems we encountered were lack of sleep from staying up too late talking, watching movies & playing games and Clark taking a few spills down our stairs (luckily they are short flights of stairs and are carpeted so I think he was more scared than hurt). All of the kids played well together - and the adults did too. It was fun to see everyone again despite the sad circumstances and see how much all the kids have grown. I also enjoyed catching up on everything that has happened recently and hearing everyone's plans for the near future. Take care everyone until we see you again!

P.S. - I think I'm ready to veg out on the couch in front of the T.V. for the next week...

Grandpa W

DH's grandfather passed away last week. He was 86 years old.
Obituary: Colonel Boyd Barnard White
Grandpa W was a really special man whom I got to know when DH & I were dating. We used to meet at his house for weekends while DH was attending BYU and I was finishing up at Ricks College. He would wake up early in the mornings and have a pancake breakfast waiting for us when we finally crawled out of bed. I always enjoyed hearing his stories about the wars he fought in and about growing up on the farm. He definitely lived a very different life than any of us do today. It's been sad to see him lose those memories over the last few years and to deteriorate health-wise.

The funeral service was very nice and he was buried with military honors. This was the first military funeral that I have been to. There was a gun salute, Taps was played by 2 buglers, and a bagpiper played Amazing Grace. It was an absolutely FREEZING day and the kids were all crying from the cold by the time we left the cemetery. We all felt sorry for the bagpipe player who was wearing a kilt and no gloves!

More fun in the snow

January 4 & 5, 2007
My kids absolutely LOVE playing out in the snow. When Kitty sees the older kids getting their snow gear on, she rushes to the closet to try and find her things as well.

Making a snowman with Dad.
The kids think it's fun to make snow angels while laying on your stomach. In the picture above, their cousin B is joining them.

The lip

December 31, 2006
Kitty has perfected the pouty lip - where do they learn these things?

She was being told that she couldn't
have any more chocolate in this picture...

Rolling over

December 28, 2006
DH rolled the odometer over in his car just after Christmas. It went from 99,999.9 miles to 00000.0 - it's an older odometer which doesn't go up to 100,000. He was on Bangerter Hwy on his way to work.

Christmas pictures!

It was a tradition in my family growing up to take pictures of each kid with the presents that they got for Christmas (we also did this for birthdays). I have tried to carry on this tradition because it's fun to look back and remember the things that you got and enjoyed when you were younger. So, here are our Christmas pictures. Thanks everyone for your fun & thoughtful gifts!! We know a lot of time and energy (and money) was spent on us and our kids and we appreciate it!

Santa visits!

December 25
We started out the day by opening gifts from Santa which were left down in the family room. Then we ate a breakfast of sausage/egg casserole & oranges and then we opened the family gifts under the tree.

The first thing Kitty found in the morning was candy left out for Aunt T by Santa...

Luke's favorite present was a design-your-own lightsaber kit. You can change the handle and the noise it makes and the color that is emitted from it. You can even make a two-ended lightsaber like Darth Maul's. He has been playing with this toy almost non-stop since he opened it. Luke & his dad had fun figuring out how to put it together...
The kids (and dad & Aunt T) have all had fun with M&M's big present: an interactive puppy. It looks pretty real and some of it's movements and interactions are pretty realistic. Kitty has been absolutely enthralled with it and keeps hugging & petting it and calling it Molly (which is the name of my parents' dog).
The big present for Kitty & Blondie was a play kitchen set which Santa cleverly hid beneath a blanket right next to the couch where everyone could see it, yet none of the kids did... The blanket wasn't even completely covering it - we adults all thought it was pretty funny...

Another fun toy from Santa was a marble run where you can build different paths for the marbles to travel from the top of the maze to the bottom.

Aunt T

We enjoyed having DH's sister T stay with us over Christmas. She drove up Christmas Eve and stayed with us for 2 nights. The kids had a lot of fun playing their new games and reading their new books with her and DH & I enjoyed talking and watching movies late into the night with her.

Christmas Eve

Dressed up for church...

Blondie asleep at the bottom of the stairs after delivering cookies to friends & neighbors...

Kitty imitating her siblings as we were getting ready to watch a church DVD about the Nativity.
The kids were also able to open one present on Christmas Eve which were new pajamas. I didn't get any pictures of the kids in their new pajamas that night, so look at the Christmas Day pictures. M&M, Luke, & Blondie really liked their pajamas (Luke's were a little too big though). The only pajamas that didn't work out were Kitty's which were WAY too tight. I had even bought a size bigger than she wears & she is tiny - what's up with that Carters???

Finished projects!!

Here are some projects that I was finally able to finish this year:
This WINTER sign I made last year but didn't get the snowman finished until this year.

For this snowman pillow I finished the stitching part 2 years ago and I was really proud of myself for getting it finished in a short amount of time, but actually finishing the pillow part of it took me a lot longer than it should have...

Laura's stocking - I cut it out last year but never got around to sewing it...

Since we don't have a fireplace to hang our stockings over, I made this sign for them. (And I finally wrote our names on the stockings with fabric paint so Santa won't get them mixed up...)

These are the presents that I made for the kids this year. I will hang them up in their rooms once I get them painted and the bunkbeds set up.