Exercise Room!!

I was so proud of myself for inventing this thing where I could switch colors to see if I'd "like" them on the walls in my new exercise room. I don't know if the red would work, but it might.

For right now, the walls are white. This is what the room looked like before....

And then one day two weeks ago, I PAID Jessica to help me move in. It was worth every penny. Hyrum said he was going to workout, so I asked if I could get a few pictures of his amazing physique....actually I BEGGED him to pose for me. He grudgingly agreed :)

Any suggestions for colors? Decorating, etc?

Princess Ponytail

Riley's first ever pony tail. I almost didn't want to do it, because it made her seem so grownup!

Playing dress up.

Seven Brides....

I can't lie. This is one of my all-time favorite movies from when I was a kid. And Riley and Hyrum watched it with me. And they were GLUED to the tv. And the best was when this scene came on, Riley started dancing. Yep. Another fan.

Jen, THEE pioneer woman

The past few weeks, I've realized how dependent I've become on modern technology. The dishwasher broke. That was a sad day for Jen. So I went for about 3 weeks without one. I grew to love my husband more (he did a lot of dishes by hand), my children thought helping mom with dishes was a lot of fun, and I'll be forever grateful for the new one. I also didn't have internet for a week. I definitely depend on it a lot for EVERYTHING, especially out here. Shopping, my calling in church, and keeping in touch with people. I'm sooooo happy to have it all back :)

My first Ugly Sweater/Wassail Party

I've been wanting to have an Ugly Sweater party for a while and finally talked some people into doing it with me.
Janeen: I have a picture of my mom wearing this EXACT ensemble from about 15 years ago. Dad & Mom. Dad: " What if I think the sweater really does look good?"

Sara, Logan, Elliott, JC. Sara had authenic shoulder pads and JC was lacking a turtleneck. Sara won the grand prize.

And our family. Evan's sweater was a classic! Hyrum was trying to pull off the Chevy Chase look.

Janelle and Jessica promise to show up next year with some real winners.

Happy New Year 2011

We got to Malta for New Year's and we had a great time!!

We playe games and ate all the junk food we could before we started trying to eat "healthy" for New Year's resolutions. And we still got our Christmas stockings and then some jammies from PJ Elf.

So, even though we missed a fun Christmas in Sun Valley, we were actually able to do more because we came over New Years. We got to see everyone (except Jessica & Steve), meet Rick, go to Logan's baby blessing, and get spoiled by Grandmummsie. We had a great time!

Christmas morning

Riley and her "Aurora" Sleeping Beauty princess doll Hyrum and his cherry picker

Riley found Hyrum's new gun and suddenly became Rooster Cogburn!

Christmas 2011

This Christmas did NOT go as planned. I'm the type of person that likes planned things and I had been looking forward to Christmas in Sun Valley with the fam for a year. The day before we were supposed to leave, I woke up to this:There was time and I kept thinking "Tomorrow we'll go." Well, things kept coming up and it didn't happen. And I was ticked! I usually handle "ranch life" and the unexpected pretty well. I didn't and I almost ruined our Christmas. Luckily, I pulled it together Christmas Eve and we had a nice dinner and Santa even found our house. I'm so glad for an understanding and forgiving husband. And I'm grateful for these two little rascals that reminded me what Christmas is really all about. :)