Christmas

Okay, so it is officially February and I am just getting to Christmas. Here are our two little sweeties in their Christmas best. Except I lost Eli's pants that go with this outfit after the trip to Utah. I just found them today. (They were hung up. Who would've thought?) Eli wasn't so sure about this photo shoot.

Lydia was all over it.

Elijah warmed up after awhile.

Here is the annual picture by the stockings. You just can't see the stockings these days.
All ready for the mad dash down the stairs.Samantha sporting her new blue tooth.

Lydia with her new purse and jewelry from her cousin Eden. She filled it with all her new lip glosses and had it with her all the time.

As always Dallin loves his new Ohio State gear.

Garrett with the headphones Bridget gave him.

Eli opening another light saber to add to his arsenal. After opening the Batman mask he didn't take it off for days. He still wears it much of the time.

Bridget wearing her new Twilight shirt. She's obsessed with all things Twilight.

We had the missionaries over on Christmas Eve for our Traditional Prime Rib. On Christmas we always make toasted cheese steak sandwiches. Low key and Yummy! The best part of Christmas is laying around the house all day doing nothing guilt free! And Todd is even home all day.

Snowmobiling

We had enough snow that we could go snowmobiling out at the land. With ours and our friends on our road there are over 40 acres. Luckily some friends have snowmobiles and are storing one in our shop. So we put a heater in the shop with some hot chocolate and enjoyed all the snow. Here is Todd with Bridget and her friend Shaylee.
Bridget and Shaylee took turns pulling each other on the tube.

Lydia and her friend took a ride on the tube too. Lydia only tolerated it.

She much preferred just playing in the snow.
Here is Todd, Garrett and Dallin on the snowmobiles too.
Garrett took Eli for a ride. He loved it and wanted to go faster and faster. But it was pretty cold.
Elijah was covered with snow when he got off.
It was a good time had by all. And we didn't even have to go up to the mountains to find enough snow.

The Very Big Snow

While we were in Utah it started to snow. When we got home there was a lot of snow on the ground. After that it kept snowing and snowing and snowing. I have never seen this much snow in this town. The icicles were huge. They went from the roof above to the roof below. It looked like we had bars on our windows from the inside.

We were buried.

Garrett and Dallin went outside to play one day. Dallin was the photographer.
Garrett decided to take a bike ride. He didn't get too far.This is how the snow piled up on the mailbox. I'm not sure how it stayed like that. It looks like something out of Dr. Seuss. The snow was almost up to the mailbox. We got about three feet. The kids ended up getting out of school three days early for Christmas Vacation. They were happy and sad. No school but also no Christmas parties and lots of the concerts were cancelled.
I loved the way the Christmas lights glowed through the snow.
Garrett says this is how his dad wakes him up in the morning.

And this is his audition for the scary guy next door on Home Alone.

It is kinda a nightmare trying to get Garrett out of bed.

Aunt Cindy's house, Temple Square, a shopping mall and a Funeral

Todd's Grandpa, Everett Anderson, died. He was 97. He was a great man but we were so happy that he was able to go be with his wife whom he missed very much. So we made an unexpected trip to Utah. As we thought about his life it was amazing to think about the changes that have happened over his lifetime. Here is Todd being a pallbearer.

It was fun to see all the relatives. Here is Todd with his two closest cousins in age to him. They all three happen to currently be serving as Bishops.

While we were there we stayed with my sister Cindy. It was so much fun. She took such good care of us and her house is the cutest ever. Thanks Cindy!

Here is Eli chillin' and watching one of the many flat screens.

There are gorgeous quilts hanging everywhere and a quilters dream room in the basement.

This is the present wrapping room. Yes she has an entire room for wrapping presents. If you are lucky enough to get one of her presents, they are always gorgeous. Those are all spools of ribbon on the wall. And there are tons of wrapping paper and dried flowers etc. in cute containers around the room, functional and cute.

Here is Todd sitting down watching one of the flat screens. This is not a sight we see too often.

This is the adorable princess bed that Lydia and, well okay, Bridget loved. There is a bed on top and one in the window with stairs going up the side. Too bad as soon as we left Cindy ripped it all out. I guess it just didn't go with her office decor. And maybe the color was giving her a headache.

This is where really yummy food appears. Every time we turned around there was something delicious on the counter. And she makes it all look so easy.

Samantha decided to move home for awhile so she packed up and drove her car to Utah. Although she and grandma had a lot of fun at the swingin' singles pad and they miss each other. After the funeral Sam drove up to Rexburg to pick up Garrett (oh yeah and to see some friends). He couldn't make it to the funeral because he was still taking finals. They came back to SLC and we all drove home together when the trip was over. Before we left we went to see the lights at Temple Square. They were beautiful.

Can't take credit for this picture because it was Garrett's idea but I thought it was kinda cool looking.

It was mighty cold out there.

We all went out to dinner at the Gateway Mall with Aunt Cindy. We drug her all over downtown and she witnessed the seizure Bridget went into when she saw all the stores she loves all in one place.

This was a cool Christmas Tree at the gateway mall. That is Samantha and Garrett pretending to be random holiday shoppers walking back and forth in front of the tree.

Christmas time in the small city

We went to the Christmas lights parade downtown. Here we are watching with some friends. It's a really bad picture but it is all I've got.

Yes they dress up the tractors for this parade. But the best part was Santa at the end.

Eli loved helping Dad put up the tree this year.

Both the kids loved helping decorate. It is so fun having little ones in the house at Christmastime. Everything was so exciting!

But the ladder was the best part. They hung out on that alot. Literally.
Here is Lydia in her Christmas program. All the kindergartners were dressed as soldiers. She is in the middle with the purple hat. This was exciting because previous to this she would have never have stood in front of all those parents. She was very brave and she even sang and did all the actions.
We also went to Dallin's Christmas Band concert. It was weird not going to the High School concert this year.We got lucky because most of the high school and other elementary school concerts got cancelled because of weather. They were rescheduled in January. That's even weirder- going to a Christmas concert in January. Glad we didn't have to do that.

Where do I BEGIN?

Well my little blogging vacation has put me very far behind. I could just skip ahead but that would just be wrong. So I will try to just do a little at a time. But lets face it, I have never told a short story. So here I will start at the beginning.
This is some of the cheerleaders at the cheerleader scrapbook night and sleepover. They were making a scrapbook for the captain and only senior cheerleader. They are all very nice and respectful girls. It was not anywhere near the nightmare that some people thought it might be. It was really fun. A couple weeks before this we were calendering as a family and Bridget mentioned that we would be hosting the cheerleader sleep over. Dallin groaned and said, "No waaaaaaaaa.....heeeeeey! It started out in a "you are ruining my life" sort of way then mid word turned into a "this could be great, can I have a friend over" sort of way. I think he hit puberty mid sentence. In the end Bridget made him spend the night somewhere else.

Over the river and through the woods

Well we didn't go to Grandma's house this year but we did go to Aunt Kelly's. It felt good to have the whole family filling up the car again. Since Samantha has been off track in the fall everyone has been home this time of year and for the holidays. It made me feel old to be looking forward to having my kids come home for Thanksgiving. Grandma and Grandpa Anderson were coming up here this year so Samantha got to come with them. We were so glad she was able to get the time off from work. It was so much fun to hear all of Garrett's stories about his first semester of college. They include some crazy stuff because well, it's Garrett. One has Garrett sitting in the refrigerator for hours so he could scare all his roommates and all their friends when they opened the door. (He hid all the stuff in the cupboards.) I'm glad he is having a great time. I just hope his grades are just as great.
Bridget recently went to a leadership camp for school. Since she is in the school leadership she helped run it. I think this leadership class has helped her grow and learn a lot this year and she is loving it.
The little kids are thrilled with everything Christmas right now. It is so much fun to have little ones in the house at Christmastime.
Here's the latest from Eli.
Eli: Mom, why are you so fat and squishy?
Me: Well, do you want the short answer or the long answer?
Eli: No Mom I mean REALLY FAT!
Me: Yeah I know.
The next day he sees Santa on TV.
Eli: Hey Mom! Santa is fat and squishy just like you!
Me: Yeah I know.