The last two events of the year! (12/08)

Finally, I am getting to the last two events of last year! I just know that one of these days I will catch up to the present... hopefully it's not too long from now!

Anyway, we are very lucky to be pretty close by to both of our families. Because of this, we are able to spend a little bit of time with them all during the Holidays. As it has worked out, we end up going out to my parents house every Christmas Eve, and then we are with Ryan's family either on Christmas or whenever we can (depending on what day it falls on - with two cops in the family it can be tricky sometimes).

We went out to my parents on Christmas Eve afternoon and after eating a fabulous meal, we retired to the family room for gifts and visiting. My Grandma Pitchforth (used to be Booth) was helping us make a batch of her famous fudge. It required a ton of stirring! Good job Booth boys! It turned out great! Here's Kaitlyn making the pass off of fudge for stirring turns:


We were hoping to be able to hear from Elder Booth (Randy) as he was flying to the Philippines (on a layover somewhere) but he couldn't get the phone card to work and he ended up calling on Christmas (not Christmas in the Philippines though). :( Oh well, there's always Mother's Day! Here's a picture our family by the tree:

Here's me with my awesome sisters. I love you guys!


On Christmas, after opening up what Santa brought and relaxing, we headed over the Nate and Vicki's for another awesome meal and some Wii competition. (Thanks Santa!) While I did well with the bowling game (only because I don't have a fancy spin) I didn't do so well with golf. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get better :) Here's the boys enjoying Mario Kart:

Here's Willaim trying to stay away from the tree...

For New Year's, as most of you know, Ryan has to go with every other cop in Vegas and work down on the Strip. It's definitely not his favorite part of being a cop, but I guess it's something we'll just have to deal with. Anyway, this year we decided to get together with another "Cop widow" family and have our own little New Year's party. We ate pizza, watched a movie and the older four even stayed up to midnight for some Sparkling Cider and messy confetti fun. Before the movie started, the kids decided to dogpile on Zach!



We had a great time with the Becks! Happy New Year! Bye 2008!

Christmas Fun (December 09)

So I'm getting there... Slowly, but surely, I'm getting caught up to the present. In this entry, I'm going to try to capture some of the Christmas festivities of December. We had a busy month and for me, it seems like there is never time to enjoy the season because there is so much to do. I wish I could sit down and play and sing Christmas music, read a few more Christmas stories, spend more time with those I love, and have more time to contemplate what Christmas is really about. Maybe I'll get better at planning and preparing, or I'll just leave some things out that aren't as important. We'll have to see what I can do to change things. Anyway, back to the fun activities (and they were worthwhile because for all of them I was with people I love).

First of all, we were able to take the kids for an early viewing of Santa on the 13th. Our Elementary School has an annual "Breakfast With Santa (and the Grinch)" and we eat pancakes, sausage, and fruit and stand in line for pictures with Santa and the Grinch. Here are the kids enjoying breakfast:They did a great job with the backgrounds this year (we have an awesome PTA) and the kids did pretty well. William and Caleb were fine with Santa, even though Caleb looks like he's ready to hop down.
However, the Grinch was a little scary for them. William wouldn't even go up to sit by him and Caleb was NOT happy that I put him on the Grinch's lap!


The weekend before Christmas, we were able to head up to St. George and visit with Chad, Ulma and Jen (who happened to be there for work that weekend). On the way up, we were able to capture some of the snow left in the Gorge. It was really pretty.


While we were up there, we did some shopping (I love St. George shopping for some reason) and we were able to go over to Tuacon (for those of you who don't know or who have forgotten, it's an outdoor theater really close to St. George) and see the Live Nativity. They did a great job and it was just the right amount of time (not too long for the kids, but long enough to get a feel for the events that transpired so long ago). I loved the music they used. It was a nice to show the kids, and remind ourselves, why we are celebrating Christmas. Here's a picture of the Nativity:

Here were are trying to keep warm in our seats: (from left to right: Aries (Ulma's cousin), Ulma, Chad, me (holding Caleb), Zach, Jen, Kaitlyn, and Jen's friend Jori is holding William. Ryan is taking the picture, of course)

Here's another picture of the whole group enjoying the lights and the grounds around Tuacon:

The kids were able to see Santa one more time, this time individually. We told them to tell him one thing they wanted most. William asked for chocolate!

It was very cold that night and we were able to go sit by the fire and warm up:


I made Ryan get a picture of the entrance to Tuacon as we were leaving. I loved the lights and water together:

On the way back to Chad and Ulma's, we stopped to get a night shot of the St. George Temple. This was taken from the hill on the North end of town...

We had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves. Thanks Chad, Ulma and Jen!

A December Birthday... (December 08)

The older I get, the less "to do" I want about my birthdays. It's hard enough for me to digest that I'm over thirty (yes, I'm still in denial) and each year brings me closer to the big 40 (really not looking forward to that). Anyway, Ryan still wanted to do something with the family, and it is fun to see everyone and get together (and of course, eat and not have to cook). We ended up going to the Macaroni Grill - yes, I love Italian - and we had a good time. I still can't believe I'm moving farther from thirty, but my kids will keep me young (I also can't believe there are four of them now). Here's the long table (lots of family!) with everyone. The only bad thing was that the table was so long it was hard to talk to everyone. Sorry about that!


Here I am trying to blow out my only candle. That thing didn't want to go out!


William also made a bee-line for my seat as soon as he saw the piece of cake. He wasn't going to miss out on that!

Before...


After...



And NO, I did not eat all of it myself. Although I think I could have :) Thanks everyone for a fun birthday and for the great gifts!