Merry Christmas

We have a tradition at our house that all the kids sleep in Amanda's room in their Christmas pj's. In the morning they sit on the stair (lucky we have had stairs in all of our homes) and sing songs until Bob and I get up. This morning they were so good, they didn't start until 9:30. After the late night fixing the water line it was nice to sleep a little. You can see in this picture Zac still isn't too excited about being awake. This year Zac and Taylor wrote some original lyrics to some old Christmas tunes. It was really cute, they had copies out for everyone.

Zac's lookin' alive now. We have the kids line up by age, which until this year as also been by size. This year we got a picture by size, Amanda was passed up by two of her bothers this year.

by age....

Jake

Taylor

Amber

Zac


Ty (I couldn't figure out who was more excited about this gun, Ty or Bob)

Amanda

We had a great Christmas day. After presents we drove up to Salt Lake and handed out clothing items to homeless. We started doing this four years ago with some friends and it is something that the kids really look forward to doing. We were handing out things and Jake was in the back of the truck handing socks out. He looked over at me and said, "Mom, none of these guys are paying for their stuff." We had a little talk about why we were there and he was good. We have been doing it since he was small and I guess we never really explained to him.

Are you kidding me!

On Dec. 23 there was a knock at our door. It was Highland city water guys asking me to shut our water off because they were checking for a leak. Our water bill was already over $500 and our meter was spinning out of control. I got our water turned off and the meter was still running like crazy. Bob started digging thinking maybe our stop and waste had gone bad or something. They dug a hole and found the stop and waste was fine but there was a break in our main water line. The water was draining straight into the ground, not filling the hole at all, that is why we had no indication that we had a leak. Bob dug some more and found six, yes six holes. He replaced three feet of pipe, turned the water on and the meter was still going nuts. Long story short, there was some chemical reaction going on and the entire pipe was full of holes. It looked like a copper soaker hose. On Christmas eve we had to dig up our front yard. No plumbing supply places were open, finding parts was a nightmare, thanks to Steve Phelon, who had parts and Brad Jeffery who came and hooked up the new fittings, some of our guys, Bob and the boy's, we had water at 2:30 a.m. Christmas morning. Bob, Ty and Zac stayed out and buried the line so that it would not freeze. What a crazy few day's. I'm so grateful for my wonderful husband that was able to take care of us, I don't even want to think of what it would have cost to have a contractor come and fix the water line on Christmas eve.

Amanda's Birthday

We still celebrated Amanda's birthday. 18!!! Oh that makes me feel old. We had about 40 of her friends for dinner. Holy cow! After the accident last night (another late night, Bob and Ty got home at 2 a.m.) our furnace went out, so we had no heat. When it rains it pours!


Her favorite gift was this sculpture from Preston. It's a fountain, the water bubbles up the center and pours down over the other stuff. It really is pretty cool.

Lots of food and fun!!

So Great to see Ashly...We sure miss her!

Visiting Santa

We have some great neighbors, the Carson's that have Santa come to their cabin for the kids in the ward. The have a little train out side to take the kids around the yard and treats in the garage.

Jake was so cute.... he had a Target add folded up in his pocket so he could let Santa know exactly what he wanted for Christmas

Ty's first date

I love this picture of Ty and Amanda. No, Amanda was not his date....they doubled. This was taken when they were leaving to pick up Emily.

Ty, Emily, Amanda, Preston and Emily's friend at the Thornton's. I wish I would have got a picture of Ty walking to the door with the flowers. He looked a little nervous, which is funny because he and Em are buds.

At dinner.....

At the dance

Amanda and Preston having fun until......... Ouch! So the weather was really bad so we had the kids take my Excursion to the dance in Salt Lake. All went well until they were on the way home from dropping Emily off. They were even on time. Amanda slid off the road at the bottom of View point at 12:02 a.m. Dec. 14. Two minutes into her 18th birthday. Happy Birthday Amanda!!

This foundation is where the Rocky Mountain power box in the picture below was. Ty said when they hit sparks flew and they thought the car was going to blow up. Some of the people in View Point saw the flash, just before their power went out. She took the power out in about 125 homes. All in our ward and the part that just split off. She got lots of attention at church on Sunday. To her defence, the hill has a very steep grade and the power box is right at the bottom before you turn. They missed a 25-30 foot drop off by 18". I couldn't believe when I saw the tracks how close they were to getting really hurt. I'm hoping to get my car back to day, Jan. 6.

Jake and Amber taking a snooz

I thought this was so cute. Anyone that has slept with Jake knows, he doesn't sleep with you he has to sleep on you.