Blue and Gold

Reuben had his second Blue and Gold Banquet this year. The theme this year was Knights of God. Reuben dressed up in his Halloween costume, as robin hood and many others dressed up too. There was a magician, lots of games and great food. Fun was had by all!


The Father and Sons were in charge of making a cake for dessert. Ryan and Reuben take this very seriously and did another excellent job. If you look closely you can see the sword in the dragon. I like the "burnt marks from where the dragon had blown fire. Here is a link to their cake from last year. This year everyone really stepped up the game. It was fun to see all the edible masterpieces.

Reuben and two of his besties.

Pre-dinner coloring

Globetrotters, Disney on Ice, and Hugo

For Christmas my grandparents have generously sent a check every year for us to by the kids a gift from them. Last year and this year we have used it to buy each of the kids a ticket to an event. Normally we would not be able to do these things, so it is such a fun surprise! The kids love to see on Christmas day what kind of tickets they receive. This year the boys went to see the Harlem Globetrotters. They loved seeing all the tricks that the players were able to do. Reuben and Lincoln were really excited to get their picture with Too Tall, who is actually shorter than Reuben. Unfortunately our computer has given me problems and lost the photo :(

Kaitlyn's wasn't a surprise this year. I asked her ahead of time if she'd like to go to Disney On Ice or go see Hugo in the "real" theater. (normally we only go to the dollar theater). She picked Hugo, she had read the book last year and was really excited to have the opportunity to see the movie in 3D no less. I was lucky enough to go with her to this. I loved seeing it in 3D. I think the last 3D movie I saw was a Michael Jackson one when I was a kid. Kaitlyn loved the movie and we both enjoyed having one on one time together!

Eve was surprised with Disney On Ice tickets. Eve and I were able to go together to this event. She is my chatter box! She talked my ear off on the car ride there. The show did a brief overview of The Frog Princess, Cinderella and Tangled. Tangled of course was the show stopper. The skaters even twirled up in the air holding onto fabric which looked like Rapunzel's hair. The second half of the show our friends invited us to come sit with them because they were only 5 rows from the ice. During the show I would lean over and say to Eve "isn't that cool" after a couple of times she asked a matter a factually , "Mom, could you please stop asking me questions". It made me smile.

All of the Disney princesses came out at the end dressed in white and gold to welcome Rapunzel to the princess club. It was very magical. Eve was waving to all of them the whole time :)

Gingerbread Houses Throught the Years

Making a gingerbread house at Christmas time has become a tradition in our house. Ryan and I both love to make these. So I think a competition might be in order one of these years. Boys vs. Girls old school style :)

2011

2010

2009
We took a little break...

2008

2007
(That is not Lincoln next to me. I am 7 months pregnant with him in this picture. Can you tell they are brothers?)

2006

My wonderful mother at my childhood home

2005

We were still living in married student housing

Nutcracker

On Friday the girls and I went to see the Nutcracker. We went with a couple of Evie's friends and their Moms. Kaitlyn brought her best friend, Lauren. It was such a fun night, just us girls.

Grace and Eve
(Grace and her Mom gave all the girls a locket. They were a huge hit!)

We are so lucky to live near such beautiful theaters. We were in the last row of the top balcony but it wasn't too shabby for are awesome deal we got on the tickets :)

Kaitlyn and Lauren
(it was hard to take normal pictures in the theater because it was dark in the room and the flash was blinding us)

All of the little girls

Happy Halloween

On Saturday night we carved our pumpkins together. I love how they turned out this year!

Lincoln - ghost, Eve - Hello Kitty


Kaitlyn - panda, Reuben - four ghosts

Mount Rushmore

On our way home from Utah Ryan asked if I wanted to take a detour and see Mount Rushmore. I said sure but was a little hesitant because I didn't know how much time it would tack onto our already long trip. It ended up just adding a few hours and was a fun little break in the long drive. We arrived around dinner time and let the kids run around a little and took some pictures and then we were back on our way. I've always wanted to see this landmark! I am glad we were able to make the stop!

Natural Water Slide

On my Dad's birthday we all went on a hike in Alpine to a natural water slide. The hike was a hot one without shade, but it was fun to cool off at the top. The natural water slide is a waterfall made from granite rock. The water is all glacier or snow melt from the mountain which made the water really cold! Two of my nephews were brave enough to go down the huge slide and a couple of kids, including Reuben, went down a smaller one. Most of us just had fun wading in the pools of water, while all the Mom's there had their blood pressure going through the roof that their little one's wouldn't get hurt or fall down the drop-offs all around us. I am really glad we all went, it was really neat to see.

Salt Lake City

We were able to take a trip out to Utah this summer. It was a family reunion of sorts for us. It had been eight years since my siblings, our spouses and children had all been together! And five years for Ryan's side. It was SO good to see everyone, watch the kids play with their cousins, and meet some nieces and nephews for the first time.

Our first Monday there we visited Temple Square.

The first stop was at the Conference Center

Next was lunch and we got to see the cubicles my parents work in for their part time mission.

At lunch we ran into one of our favorite Sister Missionaries. She is serving on temple square but was able to come out our way for a while and serve at the sites next to us.

Then we went to see the temple up close

These girls cracked me up! They wanted pictures of "just" them, everywhere! I didn't post all of them though

Can you find the hiding, pouting boy?

The last stop was the Church History Museum

There was a wonderful exhibit geared towards the kids. They had fun trying to lift the gold plates.

Dancing! They could have done this all day!

There were a bunch of other centers which is didn't get pictures of. If we lived closer I think we would definitely spend more time there.

The exhibit next to the children's one had quilts! Of course I had to stop and look at these.