A week in Utah...where to begin? Lets just start off by saying that there was NO snow! Of course, for me that was a dream come true! Unfortunately for my two boys it was a bit of a disappointment. One of the big highlights was we got to take Cody on the Polar Express train ride. It was his first time on a train and he really liked it. Not to mention the hot chocolate, the chocolate chip cookie, a visit from Mrs. Claus and Santa himself. They gave out little bells, sang lots of songs, the conductor came around and punched the tickets and we read the story "Polar Express". Not too shabby!
Cody was very happy to get some Polar Express PJ's and kept his ticket.
After the train ride we hit up McDonald's and they had
FREE air hockey, video games, and a two shooter basketball game. Cody had a blast and I think my Dad enjoyed the free games also. I'd like to know why we don't have free games here!!
Another fun activity was playing Wii. My Uncle and aunt (Alan and Rendi) came to my parents for a few days and brought their Wii system. I must say I was amazed that I did really well bowling (I usually not good at the real game) and even beat my aunt Rendi at 3 rounds of boxing (which I think was pure luck) and was pretty sore the next few days. Cody even liked playing it. Daniel loved every minute of it has now decided that he would like the Wii but that will have to wait until a money tree grows in our backyard!
Daniel boxing with my cousin Spencer.
One of my highlights was craft shopping and attending a card making class with my Mom, aunt Rendi and aunt Laura that my Aunt Kathy taught. I am such a newbie at that stuff but I love it. My Aunt Rendi and I saw some really cute paper flowers on display at the class and decided to take on the challenge. After a lot of frustration we managed to whip out a few.
Cody, Brendan and Spencer had fun with the paper cutters. Cody loved having kids to wrestle and play with.
Another highlight of mine was getting to know my nephew, Lincoln and his new little sister, Amelia better. I truly love having nephews and nieces! Lincoln has to be the happiest little boy I've seen and is at such a good age to play with. I was so happy to meet Amelia and get such a cute picture of her smiling. She's such a sweetheart! And just so my sis-in-law knows, I didn't mind her crying one bit!!!
We also got to spend more time with my crazy and funny brother Colby and his girlfriend, Emily. Colby was also such a good sport and hit the mountain with Daniel one day to try for a day of snowboarding even though all there was up there was ice and both Daniel and Colby ended up getting a bit sore. Thanks for being a trooper Colby, especially with all the reading and homework that had to be done that week!
We got to visit my old college roommate, Kim, who recently had a little baby boy. I love keeping in contact with my college friends who live all over the place. We got to catch up and I got to hold the baby and enjoy that new baby smell since it's been so long for me.
My parents arranged a date night for Daniel and I and we got to see the play "Savior of the World" which was nice. We were able to make a quick trip to Provo to see and wish Daniel's sister a happy birthday.
We had a great visit with all of the uncles and aunts that came by and stayed, and the Great Grandparents too. Cody loved great Grandma and Grandpa Bell. Thanks to my Mom we got to have an early Thanksgiving dinner and it was yummy as usual! We got to watch BYU's football team get destroyed by University of Utah which was a bummer. I got to enjoy shopping with my Mom (she says I wore her out) and enjoy my Mom's cooking once again which I always look forward to. My Dad is a fun guy and I enjoy our talks about life. We had a good time and maybe next time there will be snow for my boys and Daniel can take Cody snowboarding.
Cody made out pretty well this Christmas and has been pretty entertained with all the toys. Lets just say that Cody's gifts this year took up half of the couch. Unfortunately he left his much loved light saber in the shopping cart at K-mart today and by the time we got back to the store it was gone. He has been pretty bummed about that.
Cody with his gifts from Santa
Daniel also got a new pack for hiking since he, his brothers and Dad are going to be climbing Mt. Whitney this year. Good luck to them!
We thank our family and friends for the wonderful cards, gifts and time spent together this holiday season. As the economy has hit many of us hard, we've been very lucky this year not to experience the loss of job and our hearts and thoughts go out to the many who did and are in tuff situations this past year. We truly hope this next year will be better for everyone. 
Cody had fun taking pictures with me but when it came to a family picture...forget it! As you can see in the picture my hair started getting wavy from the damp air quickly
The Young Women's President at church was out of town for a couple of weeks and it was my month to conduct in Young Women's and teach the first Sunday of the month. I made some ornaments that I used for my lesson about doing good works this month.
Cody and I also made some other ornaments. Cody had fun painting his ornament but eventually dropped, and broke it.
We had a fun Santa visit at our ward Christmas party. Cody was pretty excited this year to tell Santa what he wanted. We are having a Wall-E obsession this year.
Daniel got the lights put up outside quickly and we had to find a tree, decorate and of course Cody had to put the star on top of the tree before any decor was put on.
We made our annual goodies this year. This is Cody frosting a sugar cookie and about to lick the frosting off his hand. We made about 4-5 dozen this year, along with fudge, chocolate dipped pretzels, and Daniel made his famous homemade salsa to distribute. 
One of my larger projects though this year was to make our 12 young women fleece, knot tied blankets. I did about one a day, some days two. I didn't get any pictures of me actually cutting and tying the blankets, but all of the work was worth it when the girls opened them up and really liked them.
Other than that, it was just the final shopping details I had to finish for the family and try to stay dry (from the rain) while doing that. It was great getting people's Christmas cards in the mail also! We can officially say that we are ready for Christmas. How about you???
After the train ride we hit up McDonald's and they had FREE air hockey, video games, and a two shooter basketball game. Cody had a blast and I think my Dad enjoyed the free games also. I'd like to know why we don't have free games here!!
Another fun activity was playing Wii. My Uncle and aunt (Alan and Rendi) came to my parents for a few days and brought their Wii system. I must say I was amazed that I did really well bowling (I usually not good at the real game) and even beat my aunt Rendi at 3 rounds of boxing (which I think was pure luck) and was pretty sore the next few days. Cody even liked playing it. Daniel loved every minute of it has now decided that he would like the Wii but that will have to wait until a money tree grows in our backyard!
Daniel boxing with my cousin Spencer.
