Posers and Floats

My kids and the nieces and nephews are all the same. WHen I try to get them to pose for group photos, they groan and protest vociferously. But as soon as I snap a couple, they suddenly start hamming it up and I have a hard time getting them to stop!



Carolyn and Craig took the kids to see floats being built for the Rose Parade. Mike and I didn't go, because we were trying to find everything that needed to be packed for the trip home!

Christmas Day cheer

Merry CHristmas morning!!! Ok, so it's late January - but at least I now finally have pictures up! Here's a cute picture of Krista busily checking out all of her loot.
And here's Craig enjoying his treasures. Actually, I think he's unwrapping the present from us.
Grandma and the gand are checking out the calendar. We made them on iPhoto this year and it was so much more of a snap!
Christian and Colin.
Tyler and his stocking.
Mke and Craig received race car track from Grandma and the boys immediately appropriated it for their own use. Eventhe girls had fun with it later. I think Mike and Craig got a turn with it too.
Craig took the girls outside and pushed them up and down the street in the little red wagon. Of course, he also let them go and made them steer on their own too.


Christmas afternoon, Mike, Krista, Craig, Carolyn, corinna and I went down to the Strand and took a nice long walk. Well, the adults walked and the girls 'scootered". It was a lovely afternoon. Mike and I had a great time cheking out all of the houses that have changed over the years and the ones that have not. The property owners have started carving garden space out of the beach side of the Strand. Many o them are very complicated and expansive. Supposedly they are trespassing on city or county property, but that hasn't stopped any of them from making the gardens look like the are priate. Of course, that didn't stop me from freely enjoying them also.

Let there be lights!

Momwanted some pictures of Christmas lights - so here some are! I actually took these pictures in El Segundo - there were WAY more lights strung up there than in my part of SLC> There is a street in ES that changes its name the Christmas Lane or some such for the holiday and every house is decorated. Most of them are cool - very few cheap blowups - mostly things that people have made by hand. Of course my favorite is the penguins.

We bought new Christmas lights for nest year - actually, they will be going up at Halloween, because they are dark purple! It should be pretty cool. Of course I will post those pictures much later.

Smash Up Mike

I don't know if you can enlarge this photo enough to see it really well, but if you look at the very tip of Mike's middle finger, you might see the break.

Sunday after we returned from California, Mike was getting wood from the garage for the wood-burning stove. As he closed the door, there was an interruption and he slammed the doot shut and heard a "crack". He had smashed the tip of his middle finger in the door.

He and I spent about 2 1/2 hours at the emergency room - in a snow storm, of course. But that's a pretty good time for an emergency visit, I must say. And I have had some experience.

It hurts and keeps on hurting. Of course, he kind of likes the idea of it being his middle finger. If there can be any amusement out of the whole thing. And some guy really was driving very badly - Mike riased his hands and shrugged at him. At the next stop light, the guys gets out and wants to know why Mike flipped him off - Mike raises his hand and the guy just looks at him in disbelief! Nope - not flipping you off!

Sunny Christmas

Well - we are safely in California at Virginia's house, with cousins and siblings around. We arrived late Friday night.
By way of catchup, we spent the previous week in a fog of colds. I brought it home from school. Mike picked it up and got a worse version. Krista came next and missed a day of school. Tyler caught a very mild version that didn't even affect his appetite. I still have a runny nose, but I think that is allergies, bot the cold still hanging on. I don't think many people have winter allergies, but I seem to be so blessed.
The end of school is a big blur. I had one day where I was busy with the Faculty and staff luncheon and then the next was another day of busy work with the end of year drawings. Thursday night was surprise. As I drove home the sky was clear, with big black clouds to the north. I was going to have Tyler drive to his haircut appointment, but as he was set to depart, the hail started coming down. I decided to drive him and it was horrendous by the time we arrived. By the time we got out, the roads were icy and slick and covered.
The next morning I think there were 6" on the cars. Mike and I shoveled, blew and scrapped before he took the kids to school. I was so glad I didn't have to drive to South Jordan in the mess. I did venture out later in the day and several errands. Our plane was only slightly delay and we had a bit of turbulence. I was just glad we weren't trying to get into LAX, because getting around it was hard enough!
Saturday we slept in and relaxed. Then in the afternoon, Mike, Krista, Tyler, Carolyn, Corrina and I headed to Hollywood to see WICKED at the Pantages theater. It was fantastic. So much better than the book. I am so very glad we planned this long ago. The girls of course enjoyed it, but even Tyler said he was surprised that we haven't done things like this before, because he enjoyed going to the theater so much. Who knew!
Today was church with the Elders and Virginia and then Mike, Carolyn and I went to finish our shopping, we hope!

Gingerbread Evening

Monday night we went over to the Robison's house to make gingerbread houses. Last year was kind of a disaster, because the houses wouldn't stay together. This year we used a hot glue gun to get the job done right! Then we used frosting for all of the candies and decorations.

This is Cady, the Robison's daughter.


Krista wanted an all red house, just so that she could call it her Stanford house and annoy her father. She added a second story to her creation at the last minute.



Tyler's is the most elaborate of the group. He seems to have outbuildings with attached covered walkways. For someone who was orginally interested, he became the most intently active of us all.

Random Photos

We finally got a nice dumping of snow. Lucky Virginia - she got out of town the morning before this storm. It was actually very beautiful. The snow fell late enough that it didn't melt off the branches before night fell. So when we went out, the trees were bedecked with snow balancing on each branch. And if it were a partially lit tree, then it was very pretty.


Krista created this torn paper self-portrait at the end of last school year. Back when she had long hair and liked to brush it over one eye.












Heks seems to have finally ingratiated herself into Spelen's world. Spelen was actually cuddled up on the coach when Heks wormed her way next to her. Spelen licked her ears a few times and then resigned herself to a companion.





Heks has found her newest play toy - a box. Originally she was content just sitting in the box and occasionally chewing on it, but I turned it on its side and cut a hole in it, so now she likes to run inside it and bat at you from her hiding place.