forever families

My Grandpa's funeral happened while we were still in Utah on December 29. It was great being with all our cousins and seeing everybody and for the most part it was pretty happy day with a few tears. My grandpa's life was pretty amazing with all the things he did until his old age. I want to live a healthy life just as he did. The burial was in Provo.

THE PALLBEARERS

MY FAMILY with my other 91 year old Grandpa Earl

STEVE AND ME

MY MOM WITH HER BROTHERS AND SISTERS

LATE LUNCH AFTERWARDS

LAST MINUTE RIO RUN before changing and catching our flight to ATL

john mayer's take on Lovestoned

color of choice = brown

We had family pics over the break and the chosen attire was brown - hence all of us in brown in these pics. We had a good evening later eating appetizers for dinner, and who doesn't love a chocolate fountain. mmm

some enchanted afternoon

The day after skiing we went to the movies, those that had seen "I am Legend" already went with the kids to see Disney's Enchanted. Olivia was so excited she got all dressed up for the movie in her Disney Princess costume. Liv was a little scared of the wicked witch lady and the dragon but overall we voted two thumbs up - very cute.

kelly's mountains

...as Steve liked to call it. I was correcting him everytime that it was Kelly Canyon but he thought he was so funny (guys think they have the best jokes sometimes). So we had a ski/snowboard day at Kelly Canyon the day after Christmas and had a blast. The snow was great from the Christmas Eve dump and it was continuing to snow the whole day there.

homage to prime rib

Christmas dinner was DE-LI-CIOUS. My dad knows how to do a prime rib right! Stuffed with garlic cloves and rubbed with a salt crust and cooked medium rare - that is some good meat!

Kristopher's family made it up to the house finally Christmas afternoon and we all hung out all day. As you can tell from these pics we never got ready (classic). Christmas day started and ended too fast but was great.

it's christmas!

Christmas morning is always so much fun, opening presents, eating yummy breakfast, being with family. Fun was had by all.

christmas eve pj's

Many of you have this tradition as well to get new Pj's on Christmas Eve - well this is us modeling our new duds.

eve party at the v's

The annual Christmas Eve party was held at the Valentines as usual. It was all the families "christmas on" so we had a great time hanging out with everyone, seeing the new babies, and enjoying good eats. My parents were missed due to family phone calls with news of my grandpa but we were able to have fun with everyone there. The scriptural Nativity was read (not acted since we are all adult kids now) and we sang carols. This party is one of my favorite parts of Christmas when we're in Idaho.

This is all the snow that came Christmas Eve, it was nuts! But I was loving it...

bittersweet christmas eve

GRANDPA LEWIS AND US ON HIS 90th BIRTHDAY
My Grandpa Lewis passed away on Christmas Eve. It was good news for him to finally be freed of this life and his health trials but still sad news. He was 90 and had had Parkinson's disease for about 15 years. He had been in an assisted living center for the past 4 years and had become a small frail man. It was finally his time to go and I know his reunion in heaven is great. The cool thing was his first wife (who had died of breast cancer after being married only 5 years) and him were married December 24, 1942, so he returned on what would have been their 65th wedding anniversary - he went home for Christmas.

christmas sunday dress

Steve flew in late Dec. 21, we stayed over at gramps and then got a ride with Kurt up to the Falls. We were so excited to be there for Christmas. It was fun going to church Sunday and seeing all our family friends. I sure miss them.

3 years ago we wed

We celebrated our 3-year anniversary December 22. It's been a sweet three years, being married is the best!

couldn't wait to see us

Kate-O was supposed to have a cheer competition December 15 in SLC but the squad backed out due to some cheer coach drama. Kandis and me were super-excited to watch it and have the fam in town over the weekend. Even though there was no competition the parentals couldn't wait to see us (well probably mostly kenedee). We had fun hanging out with them over the weekend before we went back to work.

The view from my grandpa's house in Bountiful

Kenedee loving Grandpa-Great!

i4 christmas party

DECEMBER 14, 2007
i4 flew all their remote employees in mid-December 1) to attend the office christmas party and 2) make some semi-annual face time with the team. The party was a blast with a hypnotist and games. I worked at the office for a week before heading to Idaho Falls for Christmas.

This is me and my bosses
The Canadians and Atlantans.

real winter

I am a fan of having 4 seasons in a year, not just 3 and a partial fourth. It definitely cools down for Georgia winters but when you have cold without the snow it kind of blows. I have been here in SLC for the week for work and I am LOVING THE SNOW! I couldn't wait to see it and as I flew into the valley last Thursday night it was a gorgeous site seeing a blanket of snow covering the city. I am all for TEAM SNOW.
(this image is from two years ago driving up to Targhee for some boarding)

39º to 76º

This is really what we wore today.

This weather is OUT OF CONTROL. We have record highs right now and I can't stand it. I miss the cold and the snow and the coats and beanies (the snow is rare but the rest is true). It is abnormally warm right now but luckily I am headed to Utah in a few days to get back to the REAL winter weather.

holiday party excuse generator

Any parties you are looking at avoiding this season? I can't really imagine any...lol, but you have to try this thing just for fun at least, it is hilarious...Holiday Party Excuse Generator

dinner divas celebrate christmas

It was my turn to host dinner divas and this month it was Christmas dinner. We had a great menu and everything was delicious:
Dana: Sausage Balls Appetizer
Kandis: POM Spinach, Tangerine and Fennel Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette
Specialty Drink mix of Cranberry juice and Fresca with floating cranberries
Kim: Homemade Rolls
Kellie: Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Delicious Artichokes with Pesto Butter
Loin of Pork with Fig, Pomegranate, and Chipotle
Marissa: Cherry Chocolate Cake

baby Jesus @ 2am

I was recently called into Primary as the Secretary and with that calling I am supposedly in charge of the Monthly Bulletin Boards. The procrastinator of projects that I am and working best at crunch time I started drawing these 2ft x 4ft images of The Nativity from a book I bought for 99cents at 11pm Saturday night. I finished up around 2am and ended up with this:

guitar hero amateur

While perusing Wal-Mart for some Christmas shopping we strolled through the electronics section and had ourselves a game of Guitar Hero. It was my first time and I was IN LOVE with it. Too bad it doesn't work with our hand-me-down Xbox from Steve's bro or I would be purchasing that game for Christmas!