Christmas/New Years...late

Collage time again. I know these pictures are way late and most of you are probably so over the holidays right now... but I just couldn't not blog Christmas...so here we go.

We spent Christmas in Logan this year. We had so much fun visiting with family and doing all sorts of cool things that we don't get to do here in Vegas. We went sledding for the first time in probably four years (sad, I know) and the kids had a total blast. Justin especially loved it, which was great because he is usually really afraid of fast, scary things (like roller coasters.) I was so glad that he was so fearless when it came to sledding. He couldn't get enough of it! Emily and Eden thought sledding was pretty fun too. :)

p.s. I love Dave in his awesome snow boots...


Of note in the following collage: Dave's awesome snow boots (again), and poor Emily chasing her sled down the hill. She had the hardest time getting it up the hill for some reason and kept losing her hold of it. It was sad (and a little funny) to watch her chase it down again and again. Oh, and Eden looks just adorable in her sled.



Ice Skating! One of our favorite yearly traditions. Thank you Grandma!

The Annual Gutke Christmas Party and Nativity...
Dave's Grandma and family put on an awesome Christmas party every year that includes lots of eating, singing, chatting, and dancing around the Christmas tree. We always have so much fun. I included lots of the dancing around the tree pictures for some reason. It's one of my favorite traditions. :)

Another thing we do every year is a Nativity play at Dave's parent's house. The kids love participating and look so darling in their costumes. Emily was an angel, Justin a wise man, and Eden a shepherd. Eden was a kind of naughty shepherd though that liked to steal the baby Jesus from a very distraught Mary. It was sad, but funny...(sorry Ada!)
Of note: Protective Mary (Ada), Mischievous Shepherd (Eden), and the cute cousins reading Christmas stories with Grandma. Another favorite tradition.


Present Time! Here are a few pictures of the kids opening their presents from the cousin gift exchange and Christmas morning.
I also threw in some other Christmas pictures taken before our trip to Utah which I meant to blog earlier but never got around to.
Of note: Our new Christmas tree (remember how much I disliked our old one? Well we finally broke down and bought a new one during the after-Christmas sales last year. It was so hard to buy something we couldn't use for 11-months, but so worth it when we pulled it out this year. I love it.) Justin dressed up as the funniest elf ever, and my kids with Santa at our ward Christmas party...


New Years Eve Party! This year we had family in town for Emily's baptism so we had an especially fun party for New Years Eve.
Of note: Dec. 31st is also Dave and two of his brother's birthday (most of you know Dave is a triplet, right?) so it was really fun because they were all together on their birthday for the first time in a few years. It was awesome celebrating with everyone.
The kids had a great time banging utensils together to ring in the New Year with the Eastern Time Zone on CNN (9:00 p.m. our time.) :)

Welcome 2010!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

A Special Day

I have so much to catch up on right now. We had such a fun Christmas and a very happy New Year and I have so many pictures to sort through and post. I really hope I can find the time to do that soon. But for now I wanted to make the time to write about the most wonderful and important event that has taken place in our family over this holiday season. Emily's baptism was just a couple of days ago...and we are all still glowing from that special day.

Before:

After:

She looks the same, but she kept telling me all day how different she felt.
We know why.

There is so much I could say about Emily and her baptism, but most of it is just too personal for this blog. So I just want to say it was a beautiful day with so many beautiful moments. My heart is so full of gratitude. Words could never express it. We love you Emily!

Emily is 8

Emily celebrated a very special birthday a couple of weeks ago...our little girl is 8. Her baptism is in just a few days and every time I think about it I get all teared up. I feel so overwhelmingly thankful to have this little girl in my life, and so very thankful that she is so ready to take this big step in hers.

O.K., before I get too emotional, here are some pictures to document Emily's 8th birthday. This year was an off year for throwing a full out party...but we did have a few of her best friends over the Friday before her birthday for a special late-over. The girls had so much fun, and even though it wasn't an official birthday party, we still had cake... :)

Here are some pictures from Emily's actual birthday...
We let her open one present before school...a little pink CTR ring just like I had when I was a little girl. She loves it.

My parents were tending my sister's kids that evening so they all came out to open presents with us and to go out to dinner...

Emily and her new set of Scriptures...

Everyone wanted pictures with the birthday girl...

My Aunt Julee and Uncle Steve were visiting from Idaho, so they were able to come too! It was so nice to visit with them...

I wish I had some fancy program where I could cut and paste a picture of Justin into this picture because I think it would make a really nice family photo. He was way too busy playing with his cousin Josh to take one more picture. Oh well, here's a really nice ALMOST family photo...

Here's just one last shot of Emily and I from her Christmas dance recital. She looked just like a princess and danced like one too. :)

We love our Emily-girl so much. She is sweet, smart, and full of creativity and I am so thankful to be her mother.

The end.

Our Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Utah this year. We had a wonderful time visiting with all of our family there. Thanksgiving day was spent with my family at my sister's house in Layton. Dinner was awesome and we had such a great time together.

These kids LOVE turkey...

The spread...

The fam...

My mom making her AMAZING gravy...

We spent the day after Thanksgiving in Logan with the Gutke family. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins...

Eden and Ridley enjoying ice cream cones together and Justin meeting his newest cousin, Holland... (Justin's really not scared in the picture...that's just his camera smile. We're working on it. :))

Emily and her cousin Jessi had a lot of fun putting on puppet shows for everyone. The show consisted of some pretty awesome jokes, like.. "Why did the cow cross the road? To get to his friend cow", and "Why was the math book sad? Because it had so many problems."

Justin thought the jokes were so funny he kept falling off of his chair laughing...



Eden and Ada in their matching jammies...

We love visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Thanks for having us everyone! We had a great time!

Snow and Lights

Snow!

The kids got the chance to play in the snow while we were there. Personally, I can't stand the stuff, but they had a lot of fun!

The snow was really powdery, and not the best for making snowballs...but the kids made them and threw them anyway...

Eden loved stomping around in the snow.

(Until her hands got cold, then she cried.)

Lights!

We went to see the lights at Temple Square with my sister and her family. We hadn't been in years...so it was really fun for all of us...the kids really loved it.

So, I actually did it...for the following picture I stopped a friendly looking stranger and asked if she wouldn't mind taking a group photo for us. It killed me to do it, but I really wanted a shot of our families together. We made like 50 people stop and wait to go by us while our picture was being taken, which I felt really bad about...but it was worth it to get the shot (even though Eden isn't looking.)

Emily and Justin were excited to see the Temple where Dave and I were married.

So beautiful...

Off to see the lights...

Gabe and Justin...

Eden loved it up on Dave's shoulders...

A family photo...

Halloween 2009

We had such a great Halloween this year! Seriously, I love this holiday and this time of year. The weather was gorgeous (77 degrees) and our day couldn't have been more fun or festive.

So here are the kids in their costumes...all ready to party.

Emily dressed up as Hermione...

(note: when Emily told me that she wanted to be Hermione for Halloween this year I was totally surprised. I am actually a huge Harry Potter fan, but I didn't know she was too. She hasn't read any of the books (not yet at least...I think they are a little too scary for her still) and she has only seen the first movie. But upon reflection I decided Hermione would be just perfect for her. I have had the opportunity to observe Emily during school, during primary, and during FHE and she is totally one of those kids who raises her hand for every question and usually has her hand up before the teacher has even finished asking. She's funny like that. So Hermione stuck. :) )

Justin was Cowboy Woody...

(after two years as Buzz he was ready to move on, but not too far. :) )

And my sweet little Eden was Minnie Mouse.

(she had no say in the matter. :) )

I just wanted to mention here that we borrowed all of our costumes this year (and lent out a couple of ours as well.) :) It was totally a great way to go...it was so nice not to have to spend the money! I want to say thank you so, so much to Cortni, Cheryl, and Lisa for being so nice and lending us your awesome stuff!

Cutest. Mouse. Ever.

Finally time for Trick-or-Treating...(actually Trunk-or-Treating.)

Trick-or-Treating was SO much fun this year because it was Eden's first time ever. She was so funny...

Sometimes she would take the candy being offered...

And sometimes she would only stare at it...

And other times she would just plop herself down in the middle of the parking lot and stare at it some more...

My parents drove out to go trick-or-treating with us which was so nice of them and so fun for the kids!

Almost done...yay for candy!

Our happy family...

We love you, Halloween!!!