For the Record

We did celebrate Christmas this year, despite the lack of quality photos!

Actually, it was a wonderful break and when real life commenced, I have to say it took us awhile to get back on a normal routine. 

The Andersens hosted us on Christmas Eve and it was extra special to have the Willis family (we missed you Ron:) and Howard and his boys here.

Jeanmarie and Jim shared a really nice message and had goodies for everyone.

 We celebrated (again) 20 years of marriage :) Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have him?!

Julia and Eva spent a lot of quality time together, along with Eva's Christmas gift...Molly.

Hilary and our favorite 4 year old boy...Will

And in full disclosure, I spent a whole lot of time with my head in a book or my face glued to a computer screen finishing up my ECON class. So grateful for my cheering section here at home who understands when I get a little frazzled trying to maintain this balancing act!

Sluffing for Skiing

Nothing better than sluffing school part of the day to hit the slopes skiing at Sundance.

Dan and Julia enjoyed their "ski date" and escaped the inversion in the valley.

Julia can't wait for ski school to start on Friday!

He's Back!

Last night we headed to Salt Lake International Airport to welcome Elder Andy Andersen home from Germany! A group of us met up at the airport with signs and anxious smiles as we waited for his 10:30pm arrival.

It never gets old watching young elder and sister missionaries return home. We were all crying before we even saw Andy just observing the returning missionaries greeting their families.

We finally spotted him and words can't even describe how awesome it was to see him embrace his family!

Obviously, Dan and I don't have any sons, but we truly love Andy like he is one of our own. It is so great to have him home!

Always the gentleman, Andy pulled out German chocolates for Eva. She talked about those chocolates all the way back to Provo!

Some of us stopped off at Denny's to continue the visiting. We got home around 2:30am and despite the lack of sleep, we loved every minute of it! Thanks Jeanmarie, Jim and family for sharing this with us!

Two More Drivers

Finally, after many weeks of parents procrastinating the inevitable...

we headed to the dreaded DMV and these two walked out with their legal drivers' permits in hand.

While I really dislike the learning part of driving, I am really looking forward to having two more drivers in the house. I am now pretty much guaranteed there will always be a willing driver to run errands on demand.

Congrats you two! And to the rest of you on the road... be warned :)

Family Focus for 2011

A few nights ago, we sat down with the kids and discussed what our family focus should be this year. We have done this the past few years and it has been a positive, fun thing for our family. After much deliberation, we decided to have our family focus be the same as the new mutual theme for 2011.

So here we have it...

The 13th Article of Faith

We believe in being Honest,true,Chaste,

Benevolent, Virtuous, &  in    doing Good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, & hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, Lovely, or of Good Report  or Praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

It's Beginning to Look (and feel) A LOT Like Christmas...

outside and inside.

We woke up this morning to about a foot of new snow! 

It is beautiful but no fun to drive in it.

Inside, we've had the snowflake motif going on for quite awhile.

(It looks like my windows need a good cleaning!)

 Our "Travel Tree" had a couple of new additions...

 Samoan fale

 I LOVE Christmas ornaments and most of them have special meaning...these are two of my favorites given to me by a dear friend.

 We are going to be busy tomorrow delivering baskets of goodies to the widows in our ward. This has become a family tradition and the girls were a great help in preparing them.

 This year all the Christmas cards we get in the mail found a new place to be displayed...the staircase. 

 Can't forget the Samoan nativity set made out of a coconut.

Another favorite tradition...buying the girls a new ornament every Christmas.

I think when they leave home they'll have a pretty good start to their own ornaments.

One Magical Christmas Performance

I cannot believe we are just weeks away from Christmas!

I am soooo behind right now on just about everything.

Julia shared the Christmas spirit this past week with her Youth Theater's presentation of 

"One Magical Christmas" at the Scera Theater.

She has loved attending class each week with two of her friends and her cousin.

The program was a culmination of weeks of practicing their songs and dances.

I was so glad that we all got to attend on one of the evening's performances!