MERRY CHRISTMASwishing you the best and sending our love!

Christmas Sevice Project

Lizzy decided to do a service project this year for Christmas and before we knew it the whole family was involved. She decided that she had too many stuffed animals and would like to share them with children who might not have as much as her. Our first thought was to give them to the children in the hospital on Christmas eve. Then Lizzy found an article on the children at the local Crisis Nursery.

The decision was made on December 3rd to collect teddy bears and stuffed animals for the Crisis Nursery. Lizzy decided that she could get her friends involved and collect 500 stuffed animals for these children. The project began slowly. Here the girls are pictured with 34 animals on December 7th

Here is a picture of the girls with 64 stuffed animals on Dec 10 2008.


By December 15 the girls had over 150 stuffed animals

The first batch of 253 were delivered to Bank of American Fork. We were amazed at the amount of stuffed animals there. They were on the floor, the desks and chairs, the shelving, and even perched from the ceiling ledges. Lizzy and Hannah were interviewed by KSL news, that was exciting for Hannah but nerve racking for Lizzy. All the way back to school, Hannah and Lizzy talked about the possibility of being on the news. The girls were briefly shown and mentioned on the 7 o'clock news. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5110352

Congradulations! They collected over 275 stuffed animals for the Project Teddy Bear

We did it!

Tonight we finished the Book of Mormon again. Hooray for us!! We have been reading it together every morning and every night just for a few minutes right after family prayers. This routine has worked well for the children. Also, starting in September we decided to memorize a scripture each month. So far we have Helaman 5:12 and Ether 12:41 memorized.

Wedding Cake Done

Halloween This Year

Halloween at our house was lots of fun this year..oops we werent at our house, guess the Jack-O'lanterns were having fun at our house. Hannah and Lizzy had a great time tick-or-treating the neighborhoods with their friends while Mom ran between the two groups making sure everyone was safe and having fun and occassionally checked in on Chris who was hanging with the youth at the bishop's home. By the end of the night we met Aunt Deone and Uncle Jay at our home and compared candy stashes.

Great mask Chris purchased, mainly to scare the dog! And get a few jumps out of Mom and the girls.

Giselle (from WaltDisney's Enchanted) tried to find her hansome prince, but he was nowhere to be found!

Hannah is dressed as "Pebbles." Finding a bone for her hair was not as easy as you think. After looking at every possible store we went to Pets Mart and bought a $10 dog bone. Considering that I made the whole costume for $10 that was quite the purchase.

Hannah says this is her favorite costume so far.

2006

2008

Here is Lizzy as a pirate. It was a redo of a costume from a few years ago. She was going to be a fairy until her friend anounced she was going to be one too! So at the last moment she was scrambling for ideas. Hope you love the comparison! I am amazed at how much she has grown in just two years.

Hannah and Volleyball

Hannah decided to play volleyball this season. She says it is her new favorite sport. It has been a lot of fun to see her learn how to play. With a great couch and lots of practice with her friend Emily, she has become quit good. These are some shots of her second to last game of the season, the only game they lost this year.

Way to go Hannah!

Baby Blessing in Idaho

The first weekend in October, Ben and Mom got to go to Idaho to see the blessing of Dehn and Ashley's newest addition, Parks.


It was very special for me to hold baby Parks, since Dehn had lived with us and been a part of our lives for so long, Parks felt like he was part of me too.

The day was filled with lots of family and food and good times.

Ben and little Parks fell fast asleep after a good meal

Yellowstone Weekend

Let me tell you about our wonderful weekend up in Island Park, Id. Aunt Denell and Uncle Jason invited us to spend some time at their Groberg Family cabin. It was the perfect fall weather and crisp air. We had a great time. It was so nice to get away and spend time outdoors. Always brings back memories from my childhood camping and hiking days. I loved being with the 3 young children, Denell's family, Daniel's family and Aunt Donna.


(Yes, Uncle Jason positioned Chris exactly in that spot!!)

















Saturday we spent exploring and feeding the fish at Big Springs. Jason threw bread to the ducks to distract them so the rest of us could focus on the large trout righ under the bridge.

We also took the little hike to see the cabin made all by hand by the short man (can't rememer his name right now).

Sunday was spent in Yellowstone Park after attending church in Island Park. I thought it was so beautiful in the park. We all kept a look out for the wild life and ended up seeing moose, elk, buffalo, deer, coyate, and even a wolf, but no bear. Lizzy was our photographer of wildlife and enjoyed jumping from the car to get a picture now and then.

We ate lunch at Old Faithful and patiently waited to see the geyser blow. Aunt Donna was with us, and she doesn't ever recall seeing it as a child so it was lots of fun to watch her enjoy the spray.

The children had lots of fun fishing the stream just behind the cabin. Lizzy caught two little fish, Hannah caught one little fish and Chris got lots of bites from all the big fish. Mom had fun holding the bait and snapping pictures.

Monday after cleaning the cabin we traveled home. Just outside of Twin Falls we stopped and hiked to these waterfalls. The visitor's center there had a great display of bears and a movie about them in Yellowstone. So even though we didn't see any real ones we had our bear experience.

I asked Chris if he had ever climbed a haystack. He didn't believe me that they are really really spiky, so we pulled over and Chris and Hannah climbed the stack. Guess mom isn't just a whoose after all!

Just as Monday night was coming to an end we stopped at Dehn and Ashley's to see their new home.

Washington Lake Neighborhood Campout

Here is the trip we have been looking forward to since the beginning of spring. It turned out wonderful and I'm sure will be a trip we will always remember. The Hurst family reserved a group site for the neighborhood at Washington Lake in the Unitas. Camping began on July 31 and ended on Aug 3.

The group consisted of 15 adults, 12 youth and 16 children (Jones, Wright, Allred, Farrer, Hurst, Daniel, Criman and William (missing)Families)

The most amazing part was to interact with everyone and to have the youth be together.

The children kept us all busy as their personalities and ages were varied and unique!

Raeann's talent for hair braiding was a big hit with the girls.

Hannah and Elizabeth had their hair done as well as several other girls.

Every night we gathered at the camp fire and had fun. This was the last night at camp. We ate Jen and Bill's chocolate cherry dutch oven cake and sang lots of songs from primary favorites to the silly ones. My favorite being "A Child's Prayer." We all roared with laughter when the teenagers popped out of their seats for "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam." We had no idea Colten could jump so high! The night was not complete until Brother Criman entertained us with his famous rendition of "The Jaberwalkie."

Many hours were spent playing card games in the tents, in the trailer, and on the group tables. The kids even put together a kick ball game and a softball game in the meadow.

The group ended up with 6 trailers and 6 tents. Here Lizzy and Hannah with Cammie and Janna are standing in front of their tent. The older girls had a tent of their own too. The boys had one tent for the young teen boys and one for the older boys. We will all agree that the older boys won the prize for creativity (if there had been one). Their tent had a wind sock and two camp stools in front, with a stone fence surrounding the border and a small garden in back. Way to go boys!



Mom and Hannah had fun exploring the meadow. We also went hiking by the lake in search for frogs. We came home with 4 frogs.

One of the funnest activities of the trip was the time spent at Provo Falls. Mom forgot to take the camera the first day at the falls and then didn't have any batteries the second day. We all got wet in the freezing cold water. The girls had fun riding the rapids on their behinds and some of the bigger braver kids actually went into the rushing water and found coves to stand in behind the falls.

These pictures were taken on our way home. We will have to get copies from the other families of all the fun here.

The other highlight of the campout was the time spent at the lake.

The water was cold but it didn't stop the kids from jumping in.

The rubber tube was made into a boat ride and Lizzy made sure even the toddlers (not shown) got to ride the boat out on the lake.