first half of January

There haven't been that many days of snow this winter, but the kids went out to play on January 5th and had fun.


They enjoyed some hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream in their snowman mugs to warm up.

Dusty enjoys tormenting Crumpet, but sometimes Crumpet still lets him snuggle her bum. Cute!

Faith had another Apple Village Retirement Center field trip on the 8th and sang some patriotic songs.

Faith loves reading to the "grandparents"!

After that, we went to Petco in Layton. The kids got to pet a gecko and hear all about their birds, rodents (the ferrets were a big hit) and fish pets for sale.

On the 8th, Christian peeped in the potty and I promised him a treat at the store. He found this giant cupcake on the day-old rack for cheap, so I let him have it. He enjoyed the heck out of that thing!

Later that day, the kids really got into the Wii Sports Resort game they got for Christmas. They were cycling so hard that they got hot and had to take their shirts off! :D

The Lowe's craft on January 9th was a pet treat keeper. The kids are loving all the building projects lately!

On our field trip to PetCo, I couldn't pass up the deal on this pet carrier bag. Marked down from $37 to $7!! We knew Crumpet might not appreciate it, but I think our stuffed animals will ;) Still, Crump let Faith tote her a bit on that Sunday to grandma's.

At Tony's parents' I was trying to get a cute shot of Faith snuggling her dad, but Buddy jumped into frame at the last minute. He looks like he just couldn't contain his mischievousness!

On January 13th, the entire second grade went on a field trip to the Treehouse Museum. Right after we got there, they started by having the kids act out an enhanced (by adding more characters and a bit of subplot) version of the Three Little Pigs. Faith was so excited to get picked! The hot pink pigs were the parents.

Faith was the Silly Little Pig and built her house out of straw.

The Big Bad Wolf huffed, and he puffed, and he blew her house down!

After the stick house bit it, Faith's friend (boyfriend, actually, according to her) Spencer, who was the Smart Little Pig, built his house out of bricks.

It kept them all safe and they managed to scare away the wolf!

After making cool scepters out of clear straws, sparkle pipe cleaners and model magic, they went upstairs and learned about royalty. They then got about an hour to play in the exhibits. Christian had a blast.

The cowboy dress up was his favorite activity!

He even got to milk a plastic cow by "squeezing a cow's bubs."

The kids had so much fun, we need to go back soon and spend a lot more time in the exhibits. It had been too long since our last visit!

Faith's Baptism

On January 2, 2010 Faith was baptized and confirmed by her dad. It was a wonderful day and an amazing experience. I can't believe that my little girl who I always call "Baby" is already so old! I was the chorister for the program and there were talks by the second counsilor of our bishopric, Brother Durham, and the primary president, Sister Kilgore. We then went to the font and Faith was baptized first.
There were three other boys from our ward getting baptized as well, so that gave us a few minutes to dry Faith's hair. Actually, we were still the last ones back to the chapel and they had to wait for us! Tony gave her the most beautiful blessing with her confirmation and Faith just beamed afterward.

We then invited all the family back to our house for a luncheon. Tony picked up a giant platter of Chick-fil-A nuggets for the main course and everyone else was nice enough to bring a salad or treat.

Setting up with my sister, Joy.

Faith with her cousins, Alaura & Celeste (my sister Sarah's girls).

Great food!

Chatting with Tony's oldest sister, Tina.

Tony, Joy's husband Jordan (in the background), my brother Eric, and Sarah's husband Brad.

Grandma Tesch (my dad's mom) and Faith, enjoying lunch.

Sierra and Lily (Joy's kids) starting with treats!

Christian got his fill of treats, too.

At least the kids saved some for us!

My mom, sister Sarah and her husband Brad (and the back of Celeste's head).

Tony's parents, Lana and Larry looking at the "Hello, Cupcake" book Faith had gotten for her birthday. Anyone up for a creepy looking red ant cupcake?

Lily, looking sweet.

Sarah's boys, Noah and Brendon with Tina's youngest, Zach. Boys always seem to be drawn to electronic games, don't they?

Tony's sister, Tammy, gave Faith a beautiful set of scriptures and a case.

My mom gave her the dress, some scripture stickers and a beautiful charm bracelet. Lana gave her a darling necklace and bracelet.

It was such a neat day for our family and we were so glad that so many were there to support Faith! The reason that her baptism was two months after her birthday is that the Saturday before November's fast Sunday was actually October 31st, and for the December date both Joy and Sarah's families were at Disneyland. Faith loved having her cousins there for her baptism and they were worth the wait!

A special thank you goes out to Tammy and my dad for the pictures of that day. I got lots of great ones, but accidentally deleted them when I was transferring files on my computer. Of course I was heartbroken!! My dad got many great shots, but not one of Faith and Tony before the baptism. Tammy got that one, but her flash wasn't working correctly and it was dark, so a thank you to Paint Shop Pro, as well!

Check this out!

I love a good Rube Goldberg machine and was amazed at how they set up the different functions in this one to go with the music. It really is awesome!!



Here's some information about OK Go and the video. It took over 60 takes to get a perfect run through!

Dress shopping and New Year's

Here's a picture of the caramel and chocolate dipped pretzel rods that I made with my mom and sister Joy to hand out as neighbor gifts. They took longer than I expected, so some neighbors got freezer jam instead. And some neighbors weren't home the afternoon of the 24th, so their pretzels probably got eaten off their front porch by the neighbor's dog. Anyway, I thought they turned out really cute! I love the sprinkles and gingerbread men (from the Peppermint Place). Maybe it's all a bit much, but isn't Christmas the time when it's okay to go overboard?


On December 29th we went shopping for a white dress for Faith to wear after her baptism (and, it turns out, every subsequent Sunday afterword for at least two months). We started out at Just Girl Stuff in Riverdale and found Faith's favorite dress, but it was too long and they didn't have her size. Also, my mom (who was buying--thanks!) thought it was a little too fancy for church. You can barely see me and my mom in the background of this photo and Buddy being an airplane in the wrap around mirror!

Next we went to Bliss in the Newgate Mall and Faith saw three that she liked. Here are the two that she didn't pick. You'll just have to wait for the next post to see what she got!

After two years of problems preempting the Braegger New Year's Party necessitating us holding a get together at our house and going to Tony's parents' several weeks later, it finally worked out this year! There was amazing food--Tammy always splurges on Chili's baby back ribs, plus we had funeral potatoes, barbeque beans, cole slaw, green bean casserole, jello salad and loaded brownies. We all love to watch Faith and Christian devour some ribs!

After many years of being absent from the celebration, we welcomed the old tradition of Windsor Hills WINGO! Lana played this at their ward (Windor Hills) Christmas party long ago and then we played it for years on New Year's Eve. It's just bingo but you draw pictures from a list of choices for each letter on your card. They're all holiday things like candy cane, stocking, wreath, mittens, candle, bell, etc. There's a basket of goodies from the dollar store for the winners, and we play until everyone has won once or twice. It was some nostalgic fun to dig out our old cards that we had drawn (and make fun of everyone else's) and the kids went wild for it!

On the way to grandma's house we'd thrown together some sparkly pipe cleaner 2010 glasses and Tammy had hats and party goods to complete the look.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

We played lots of Boggle and Faith did really well!

We were dying over the cuteness of how Buddy fell asleep holding this big, bubblegum flavored candy cane. It reminded me of the Who children in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, so I pushed the bottom of the cane up before pulling it out of his little hand :)

We rang in the new year with the ball dropping in Times Square on TV and headed home. After all, we hadn't seen Crumpet and Dusty since the previous year :D

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to us--the kids didn't wake up until 7:45! Santa had been here and left lots of goodies in the stockings.

Faith got the hot pink DSi she asked for,

and Christian not only got the requested Fisher Price Imaginext dragon castle, he also got the surprise of a new bike!

There were even gifts for the pets. Elderly Crumpet got some doggy steps to help her get up on our bed.

Here's an extra accessory to the castle, the dragon wagon which transforms and shoots!

Tony got Buddy this helicopter, but enjoyed it a little too much himself.

Helicopter in action:

Dusty didn't quite know what to think of the chaos.

We left all of it behind and went on to my mom and dad's. Here's how Christian felt about having even more presents to (legally) unwrap!

My mom & dad gave Tony a remote control airplane that you can crash and easily reassemble because the parts are held together magnetically. It's a dig at him because he bought a fairly expensive rc airplane a few years ago and terminally crashed it on his first or second outing.

Mom gave Buddy this cool book that has sounds for each page.

Faith loved this tiny Yorkie.

The biggest gift of all--Lagoon passes!!!

Next we went to Braeggers and continued the gift gluttony.

Lots of cute pj's, clothes and toys.

The pillow pets were huge hits! Faith got this bunny and Buddy got the bumblebee.

Faith also loved this puppy care set that included a dog stroller, dog bed and dog purse.

Here's one happy boy with Grandma Braegger.

We stopped by Great Grandma & Grandpa Quinn's to wish them a merry Christmas. They always gift us a very generous check and it's so hard to figure out something to give them!

By the time we made it to Great Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell's, Christian was asleep. I waited with him in the car while Faith & Tony visited a few minutes. Here's Crumpet in her Mrs. Claus getup waiting for them to get back to the car.

We had an amazing Christmas and were well spoiled!