Some Black Magic

Naughty or nice?

The EQ and Primary were in charge of this year's ward Christmas Party. We had a yummy breakfast, Bingo, and decorating contest. Then we finished it off by visiting with Santa.

Brigham is usin ghis fingers as he goes down his request list!

Look at that BIG alligator tear! It took a lot of empty promises and Tyler donating his candy cane to get Christian onto Santa's lap. I think he will be much more friendlier next Christmas.

Kids Christmas Concert

Katelyn was tall enough for the back row this year and had a hard time staying out of the curtains.

Tyler wasn't "technically" old enough to be in choir, but he promised he would be as good as a 2nd grader and he was. He tried real hard!

Amy was the mouse in the corner. She knows all the words and actions, but likes to be timid.

Tyler, Katelyn and Amy were all in the school choir this year. They go to school early once a week and practice all fall and then finish with a Christmas Concert for the school and their families in December.

It was a great concert and we might just get one of our children to learn how to sing!

Downtown Christmas Lights

Our annual trip down to downtown Salt Lake City was awesome as ever! We added a few new traditions this year.

We parked down by the Grand America so as to not have parking issues and we rode the Trax where we needed to go. The kids love riding the train.

We went a did a scavenger hunt at the Grand America Hotel. It was a fun game that tooks around the whole hotel (which is huge). The kids had to read the clues and then find the symbol in the various pictures displayed. They had a gingerbread house all made of candy and food that was amazing. AT the end of our game the kids got a treat from the candy store.

Then we headed down to Temple Square for the lights!
Katelyn had my camera the most of the time and her photographs are amazing!

"Bountiful Hurricane"

Marcia and LeGrand were staying at our house taking care of Brigham and Christian when the worst wind storm in Bountiful's history happened.

They experienced upward of 100 mph winds. Serious hurricane force winds. LeGrand said it was pretty scary listening to the wind blow. He said he could tell something very different was going on.

The Sunday after we got home we had stake conference. Our stake president said that just in our stake alone we lost over 700 trees! The landscape of Bountiful really has changed. I have found myself just driving around every now and then still looking at all the damage. I don't mean to belittle the damage or the experiences, but it is amazing how many blessings were received. This storm brought service- lots of service. Just last weekend Mike was able to go out and chop up some more trees.

This is a picture of the line to the dump. People said they waited for 3 hours in the line to empty their debris at the dump. Because the line was so long they set up temporary dump sites at the high school and church parking lots all over.

The big pine trees were the hardest hit. Their root systems aren't as strong or deep so those strong winds knocked them down like dominoes. Luckily we didn't loose any trees and had no damage to our roof.

Our neighbor across the creek lost over 10 trees and a one of them fell across the creek onto our deck and hurt the railing.

haPpy biRthDay 5th bRighAm!

We finally had a birthday for Brigham! Good thing he was a 5 year old that was oblivilous. His one request was a pinata. We went to the store and he chose a flamingo- so Brigham!!

Thanksgiving in Blanding

We headed down to Blanding for Thanksgiving. We couldn't believe it had been a year since we had been down south. We had tons of fun!!

Marcia made delicious food the WHOLE week. We went on an amazing hike to Firehouse Ruin. Movies at C&Ks. Lots of Nurtz and games and COUSINS!!