Valentine's Day

Family Valentine's Date to the Pizza Factory

Our little cupids... 

 

beauty and the beast

We enjoyed a really well done high school production (the best high school production I've ever seen of anything!) of Beauty and the Beast. There was a pre-show tea-party where the girls met cast members ... it was really fun. And for $5 a ticket - I would highly recommend supporting the Bountiful High theater.

New Years

While we didn't watch the final sunset of the year go down over the Pacific as we have for the past 5 years ... we did find an impressive natural body of water to be by as the sun went down for the last time in 2011.

 

(notice the buffalo in the background - we saw 3!)

Then we went home to a Chinese food feast!  

Christmas Day

Christmas morning can be so magical - you go to bed and wake up with a room stuffed full of new toys, and packages. It's especially magical when you are 5, 3, and 1 - and lucky for us, watching the amazement makes for some pretty great Christmas memories.

This year, since Christmas was on a Sunday, we were fortunate to take a morning present opening break to attend sacrament meeting. President Eyring spoke and it was a memorable experience as he shared his love for the Savior. A wonderful Christmas all around.

Top gifts: new iPhones, a castle, mini-mouse, music-jewelry boxes from Great-grandma, and a travel map.

Christmas Activities

Part of the fun of Christmas is all the wonderful activities building up to the big day.

1. Lights on Temple Square: what can compare?

Love the new temple model - I've always wanted to see inside those other rooms:

2. Attended the LDS Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center - thank you Amy.

3. Festival of Trees.

4. Downtown Bountiful Breakfast with Santa to benefit local food banks.

 Anne stole the show with "Jingle Bells"

5. Ward Christmas party - Ella was an angle (truly)

and Benj and I feel pretty proud that not too many other kids can say BOTH grandpa's have something special in common ...

 6. Making turtles and other delicious goodies ... delivering gifts to neighbors and devouring all the treats we receive:)

7. The LDS Christmas concert - it was spectacular! Thank you Amy.

8. Nutcracker - Ballet West. Magical and delightful!

9. Treasure hunt (and lunch) at the Grand America

10. A real gingerbread house you could actually live in - Grand America.

The Date

Date night is borderline sacred in our home - 

and with four lovely ladies to entertain, "Daddy"  rarely has a free evening. 

Before heading off to the Pizza Factory for dinner and some one-on-one conversation recently, Ella gave strict babysitter instructions to Mommy regarding Ashley - appropriate food and games, and her usual bedtime routine.

After dinner she informed Daddy that dinner alone no longer constitutes a date - a movie was requisite. So, Benj lovingly obliged and suffered through an entire Chipmunk movie to fulfill his date quota for the evening.

Fortunately Anne still thinks going to the library and checking out 10 books about sharks counts as a legitimate date outing, and Mary is even more flexible with her Daddy-Daughter outings. Meagan, however, follows Ella's school of thought.

Skiing

Benj took Ella and Anne each on their first ski outing ... Alta, free-after-three:)

Ella (five) was surprisingly brave and really enjoyed skiing with Dad.

 Anne (three) was less adventurous on ski's - she far preferred eating the snow than skiing on it!

Fortunately Benj did get one actual ski day in this year with his sister Sara. 

Of course, no one is too small to enjoy our favorite outdoor winder activity!