Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas--one we'll never forget! Aunt Krisi took this picture for our Christmas card in Little Cottonwood Canyon, right above the Temple Quarry.

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma Kelley's house, with Scott and Heather, having a wonderful meal and playing Christmas songs on chimes. When we got home, the children opened one gift each. Pajamas!
Then the next morning:

Halloween 2011

Halloween was so fun! Everyone dressed up for Halloween except for Jameson and Dave. I was an eighties girl, Alex was spiderman, Aidan was a ghost pirate, Nate was a ghoul, and Sarah was Puss in Boots. I took the older kids trick or treating and Dave took Pirate and Alex, thinking he wouldn't be gone long. But as it turned out, Alex kept Dave out for 2 hours! He just couldn't get enough of trick-or-treating and Dave was SO tired when he got home. Needless to say, Alex ended up with a lot candy.

Things overheard during carpool

Sarah (after a bad day): I HATE school. It's so boring. They make us go for 7 boring hours! Class is hard and they make you do boring stuff, lunch isn't even fun!
Nate: Yeah, there's only recess to have fun and be with your friends!
Sarah (condescendingly): Nate! They only have recess to stop kids from boycotting school!

A Christmas Night, A Snowy Flight, One Year of Light, What a Sight!

We had a wonderful Holiday season this year. Our Christmas Eve started out at Grandma Church's, where we had a fabulous meal and went caroling around the neighborhood. When we got home, all the children opened one gift. Can you guess what it was?

The next morning was chaos, as usual. I think the kids were pretty happy with what Santa and Mom and Dad (and Grandparents) got them.
Alex certainly looks content in the aftermath.

Nate got much-desired sparring gear for karate! (Not to mention, matching PJ's w/ everyone's favorite baby)

A side-ways view of stocking time!

The next day, we took a snowy drive to CO and then NM to visit Aunt Jenni, Uncle Ken and cousins. The roads were bad the first day. There were four accidents along one stretch of road, we felt lucky we made it. We saw a cool rock formation with an abandoned house on the second day of driving.



We stopped at a very chilly four-corners. Dave made sure to get lots of pictures, since we figured we spent $3 for every minute that we spent there!

My sister, Jenni, (the genius) planned all the meals ahead of time and prepared most of them in advance so she wouldn't have to constantly be cooking. We had some great food while we were there. She had also made Alex his own little cake and a big one for the rest of us, since we got there on Alexander's 1st birthday!

Alexander brings such joy to our family. This has been a wonderful year with him being in the world. He is so patient, happy and accepting of all us. We are so grateful to have him. You may notice that he is getting his teeth. I certainly have! Whoever coined the phrase, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you," did not have a nursing baby that was getting teeth. You also might note that he has a "fang" on the upper right side of his gums (I did consider calling him Edward). Hopefully those front teeth will hurry and catch up!

My sister's house in Albuqurque is close to several Native American petroglyphs that are fun to hike and see. Some date back to 1000 BC. Here is a cat and and man in the next photo.

Besides going to the Children's museum, all the cousins had fun hiking Boca Negra canyon to see the petroglyphs. At the top is a beautiful panorama of the city of Albuqurque. What a sight! Thank you, Richardsons!

Santa's an alias

Aidan: (after visiting

Santa at the Children's Museum)

"Santa talks like a mad scientist."

Behind the Times?

This morning Nathan was looking at a map and said, "I want to go to Africa on my mission, Mom."

"Wow, you would probably see a lot of sad things but it would really build your faith, I bet," I said.

Nathan replied, "Yeah, I heard some sad things that happen there. Like people go there and take brown people and bring them back to the United States to be slaves."

Krisi's Pics

My sister took some fun pictures of my kids a year and a half ago that she just sent to me. They are so nice.