Christmas Vacation In Orangeville!

It was a great five days in Orangeville. Cousins, fun and FOOD! Lots of food and just in case we got hungry...more FOOD. It all made up for a good time.

Mariah and Abby took great pride in fixing Kellen's and Cado's hair.


The hot game of the season was "Ticket to Ride!" If you don't have this board game, you probably ought to get it. There was always a group playing it! It only rested from about 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. when people were getting a little sleep.


Here the five youngest girl cousins try to get some privacy. Unfortunately, they found out that in a house filled with 25 people, there is none!

Grandpa and Grandma stayed up late with the best of us, yet they were still able to get up earlier than the rest of those sleepyheads to read their scriptures! What great examples they are.

Grandma introduced the group to the game of Fox and Geese. It was a lot of running around in the snow. The players soon pooped out and opted for kickball instead. At least in that game they get to take a rest!



At the end of it all, it was time for some great group pics. Our kids were sad to have to come back home to reality!

New Camera Pics!

Here's to trying out my new Christmas camera. It's going to take some professional help to learn how to use it, but for now, I'll keep practicing.

Even big kids like boxes. Mariah talked Dave into going down to the preschool Christmas morning to get some of the big boxes that were delivered with the preschool furniture. They lost a couple on the way, but finally got them all home and the kids made them a rocket ship. Even Bo and Cado helped and they all fit in!

We got two new Christmas games and Mariah is trying to learn how to play Settlers of the Catan. Her face kind of shows that she is not liking it too much yet. She did end up thinking it was a decent game, but I still think that she likes Ticket to Ride better!


Cado went out and braved the cold to through balls for Ellie. She is our first visiting female golden retriever and hopefully she will have cute puppies in a few months!

Christmas 2009

Here's our 2009 tree. It basically looks just like the 2008 one but you can see that cute Texas flag right in the middle. Next year Dayton will be with us! Yeah! We sure loved talking to him for 40 minutes today.




Here's Bo's stocking. Barbeque sauce, a new shirt and...a shotgun!






Here's Mariah's stocking. Some new clothes, a cute hat and some much needed boots. The item she wanted most was....a dogbed! Not for our dogs, but for her. So now our beautiful daughter sleeps on a dogbed that smells like cedar chips.





Here's Cado's Christmas. Hum, pretty much a dog Christmas once again. He didn't really find much to play with, but his dogs will sure be appreciative.

























I guess this is what you give your children when you live in the country. I'd really like to send this picture to Obama :)

Christmas Eve Luau

The beginning to any great party is some great food!





















This is when you know that your company is comfortable with each other. After the food, the singing, the hula hooping and the ping pong playing, there was still energy for some core training. Here they are doing one of three reps of some really painful exercises!

Christmas Eve Day Prep!

We spent the day getting ready for the Grand Christmas Eve Party! I knew that I better do a lot of cooking to keep those folks happy and Mariah knew that shew would need to do a lot of cleaning to keep ME happy! :) We both accomplished our tasks!

Looks Like They've Seen Santa

Here are pictures that Dayton sent of him and his new companion, Elder Sorenson. He is now in Houston and discovering that there are a LOT of people there.

How Much Is Dave's 1982 S10 Worth?

About $2300.00 after the garbage truck runs in to it! Yee Haw! We took the check, now anyone can take the truck :)

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