Santa Claus Has Come To Town!

What a wonderful Christmas Day we had! It was just so nice to have a day together as a family and see the happiness of our children. The girls were sufficiently spoiled between Santa Claus, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Santa Claus even brought a couple of things for Mom and Dad, too.

As a parent, the most wonderful thing about Christmas morning for me is seeing the looks on my sweet girls' faces when they come out of their bedrooms and see all of the magical surprises that were brought for them during the night. It's the best gift that I can receive.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful.....

Winter is my favorite season of the year. I know that most people enjoy the sunshine and the sun, but I prefer a gray, gloomy, snowy day. I'm so grateful to live in the mountains where the snow is plentiful and the surroundings are beautiful. We've had lots of snow in the past couple of weeks and we wouldn't have it any other way! Winter lasts about six months out of the year here and that's just fine with me! It gives me a good excuse to make a fire and cozy up with a nice blanket and a mug of hot cocoa.

As you all know by now, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passed away this past week. I always loved Elder Wirthlin. He had a very quiet manner about him. He wasn't always the most eloquent of speakers, but his messages were nonetheless inspiring. He had a wonderful sense of humor. His last talk he gave in the October General Conference was so memorable and I got a big kick out of watching him chuckle while telling his stories. He will definitely be missed.......

Happy Birthday Emma!

Last Wednesday we celebrated Emma's 6th Birthday! What a special day she had. We can't believe our little girl is six years old. It seems like yesterday when she was born and had to spend all that time in the ICU because she was so sick. Emma is a joy to be around and her mommy and daddy love her soooo much! We are very proud of the good little girl that she is.

The girls always look forward to going out to the pizza place for their birthday dinner. It's become a tradition with us. The pizza is yummy and there are games for the kids to play on.

We came back to the house to have birthday cake. I got on the internet and found a cute cow cake that I made for Emma. She really loves animals so I thought that this would be a fun birthday cake to have. It wasn't perfect, but Emma told me how much she loved the cake. She said, "I don't even care that there are mistakes on it."

Family Time

There never seems to be enough hours in our days or enough days in our weeks. Most often we are looking for more time to have that extra Church meeting or finish one more homework assignment. Recently we've tried to get into the habit of having a regular Family Game Night with the girls aside from our weekly FHE. It has been so much fun!! Each week we choose a new game to play and even though Emma and Samantha may not pick up on it right away, we have the greatest time just spending the evening together. We've learned that it's so easy to get caught up in our busy schedules and we definitely suffer from time constraints in our family, but if we can set aside an hour or two each week that is devoted to family and nothing else, life has a way of working the rest out. We are better parents and the girls know that their dad and mom love them and love spending spending time with them. These are a couple of pictures from our last game night - mom popped popcorn and we had an exciting game of UNO! Needless to say, the girls got a wee bit silly during our evening.....