Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year in a couple of hours!! We are finally home and ready to enjoy our last week of vacation. We had a great time going to New Mexico for Christmas. The kids were really surprised when we got to Denver the first night. McKay was the only one who knew where we were going. We enjoyed a week at my sisters and then came home via West Jordan and had a nice little visit with the family. We still had a few things to open when we got home, so Christmas has really dragged out this year. There is still one huge gift from my mom that the kids don't know about that hopefully we will get to Dad's house this week to retrieve. There is much to do, but we wanted to tell everyone how much fun it was to see everybody and thanks for all the hospitality. We especially enjoyed visiting all the cousins and being with family. I will post pictures tomorrow. That's one of my new years resolutions is to do better posting. I sure enjoyed getting everyones Christmas cards and catching up with old friends and family.

Cranberry White Chocolate Almond Torte

Here's a recipe that my sister made that is so good.

Cranberry torte Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes
1. 1 Cup flour
1 Cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix Well

2. 2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 Cup butter melted

3. 2 Cups cranberrys
1/2 sliced almonds
1 pkg white chocolate chips

Bake in a torte dish at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes

Christmas came a little early ..

Whew, we have spent all day getting McKay and Ryan's early Christmas present all ready. But, let me back track....First of all, we had a flood. We didn't think it was that bad, but when we were at church last Sunday, and we were in Sunday school, we were talking about the floods in the scriptures and little did we know, we were having a flood at our house. A hose had come undone from the washing machine and flooded that room, and our crawl space. Water ran for 2 1/2 hours straight, until my dad (who just wanted to come to our house and make dinner for us on Sunday), got there. He shut off the valve and came and got us out of church. It took over 3 hours to shop vac all of the water out of the crawl space. Our yearbooks, and home movies were ruined, as well as our luggage. We got through that ordeal ok, but then two days later, our flooring started curling up in our kitchen. So, we called the insurance , and they had us call Varney Clean care. They have been here all week, tearing up our flooring in the laundry room, kitchen, and dining room, and running big fans, heaters, and humidifiers all day and night. Cailee and I still taught all week, but it was a mess and so loud. They came again today, and it's still not dry in the wall behind where the washer and dryer were, so they are coming tomorrow to check. We really need get that washer and dryer hooked up!! Anyway, the insurance will replace all the flooring in the downstairs, because it's all the same and needs to match. They don't make this same color since we bought it at Costco 4 years ago and can't get it anymore. Well, we are going to put tile in the laundry room, even if we have to pay a little more. The one positive thing about it is, we will get all new flooring and trim, but what a mess and a nightmare. And we are out our $500.00 deductible, right at Christmas. But the reason Christmas came early, is our wall unit/TV stand thing came today, and we set it up with the new TV on it. Ryan and McKay walked in from the big Championship Game it was set up. ( I had help from the boys who do stunting with the cheerleaders) Of course nothing worked, but Ryan has been working on it for about 5 hours. With a little help from our Bishop and all of Ryan's hard work, the Tivo, internet, phones and cable all work. Ryan and I keep telling McKay, " Remember this feeling now, so when you wake up Christmas morning, just remember how you feel now..." Hope that works!! The bad thing will be we have to do this all again when we get our new floors. Plus, we haven't added the shelf above the TV because we will have to take it apart again.

Sydney's Dance Performance

Saturday, Sydney and her friends Vivian and Cienna got to perform at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center for their jazz class. They did a good job and it was a fun day at the museum.

Elf Dance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Got our Christmas Cards ordered!!

Whew, what a relief!! We ordered our cards from the http://www.thecutestblogontheblog.com/ this year, and I think they turned out cute. They are going to be huge (5X7), so I hope that won't affect the price of postage, but oh well if it does... why did we start this huge tradition? I think it's because we moved to Burlington and wanted to keep everyone up to date. It's been 13 years, I think everyone knows how we are doing... Poor Ryan is a little stressed about writing the newsletter this year, but he always does such a good job. We already got a card from Aunt Shirley and Uncle Larry, and they are anxiously awaiting to hear from us. It's good to know we have fans!!

Thanks to everyone that helped with choosing, but I had to pick the one where everyone was sitting close and where I didn't look as huge... it's not really fair, but I guess that's one of the perks of being the mom. At least none of the kids' eyes are closed this year. Can't wait to see a lot of you this season!!