Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken by the talented Kimmy at Photos by KW at the beginning of December.  It was our first time going "on location" somewhere and we chose Murray Park, just because it is close and has tons of variety.  These are some fun ones, and there will be more on my new blog that is coming!

This is the picture that was on our New Years card this year:

Radio City Music Spectacular featuring...The Rockettes!

Because of my blog My Kids' Eye View, I got the chance to buy tickets to see the Rockettes for a super sweet deal.  So I took my parents for their early Christmas present.

This is a show I have wanted to see for years!! Every year when we go to New York, I wish we could also go see them perform at the Rodio City Music Hall, but of course tickets are outrageous.  It's funny that the only year we didn't get to go to New York, we did get to go see the Rockettes perform!  It was the first time they have come here to Utah.

It was such a fun way to kick off the Holiday Season, and our seats turned out to be really good!

Plus my sister and her husband came with us, so we got to go on a triple date.  We went to Applebees before the show.

This funny picture was taken in front of the bathrooms after the show but I edited out the background on this website that I found.  funny :)

Visit with Santa

I was sooo sad that this year we were not able to go see Santa in NYC.  It is the first time in my 5 years of working at Jetblue that we haven't been able to go.  But this year the only opening that our photographer had for family portraits fell on the week that we would have gone.  We tried to go the next weekend but by then the flights were too full.  Anyway...these are the only pictures I have of the kids visiting with Santa, and it happened while Jonas' mom was in town.

Jasmine's Dance Performance

Jasmine was in dance this year for the first time.  This is her at her Christmas performance.  The outfits.  Cute but totally skimpy right?  I so was not a fan.  Lesson learned, when your child is in dance, apparently you have to find out what the recital attire will look like, ahead of time. Shayden kept pointing out how immodest she was being.  Oh well, that's over now and she had fun.  On a side note, she has turned into such a little poser in pictures, funny girl.

Visit from Jonas' Mom!

I surprised Jonas with an early Christmas present this year:  a visit from his mom!

It was such a wonderful time, and she hadn't been here for over 3 years, so major catching up and sight seeing to do.  We went to the aquarium.

I love this picture!

Shay was so cute, he took a notebook and wrote down everything he saw.  It was his idea.

Grandma Dorothy loved touching the sting rays!  But she was also very skeptical.

Another night we took her to see the live nativity at Liberty Park, called Echoes of Christmas.  If you have never been to this, put it on your list for next year...amazing!!

That same night we took her to walk around Temple Square.  Don't let this picture fool you, the woman was freezing!! We didn't get to see too much because, well, she was freezing!

I love this picture of the kids kneeling by the water.

The kids had never spent so much time with their grandma.  They totally fell in love with her.  She spoiled them, but also taught them good life lessons.  She was perfect.

Another day we walked around the grounds of LaCaille.  I hadn't been there since Junior High!  It was beautiful and had lot's of fun picture taking places.

She was absolutely enamored of the mountains!  She wanted to take a zillion pictures of them, especially on the freeway when we were driving.  She kept asking me to pull over!  I would say "I can't pull over here!"

It was so funny.

Having her here, it was just what our family needed.  I really didn't know how much good it would do for us until she was here.  I was able to get to know my mother-in-law in a way that I had never before.  Besides, she cooked up a storm and did so much for us around the house, I got to eat so many amazing things!

For example, check out the menu for the one Sunday dinner that she made for the whole family:

Red Beans and Rice

Spicy Corn Bread

Pot Roast

Gumbo

Potato Salad

Sweet Potatoes

Crazy yummy huh?  She was really disappointed when she realized that our 12 people were not even going to eat it all in one sitting!

Oh, and she came to church with us too.  It was so funny, she almost started clapping after the musical number in Sacrament meeting.  She was so embarrased.

I am really looking forward to her next visit, which she assures me will be in the summer.  (When it is warm)

Thanksgiving 2010

Somehow I only managed to take a picture of the "kids table" at Thanksgiving this year.

And a couple of the kids' program.  It has become an annual tradition and the kids go all out each year.  They did an awesome job!

And this year little Taye had to get in on the action, he was hilarious.  He danced around all the kids as if he were the star of the show, and he had us all rolling with laughter!