Day 365

So today's picture is a photo of my family. As I said on day one, our year begins and ends with family. I have often thought that this has been an awful year, one that I would not be sad to see the backside of. Looking back on the past 365 days worth of photos I realize how incredibly blessed we have been this year. It hasn't been the easiest of years, but it has been a really great year. We have spent more time together in the last 365 days than ever before. We have grown closer as a family, and Kevin and I have grown closer as a couple. We look forward to the new year for new opportunities, but we will look back fondly on 2011 as the year of family.

Day 364

Today as we were driving up over Suncrest, the sun was hitting the top of the Timpanogos mountains. In a rather gray and drab day, the sunlit peaks were gorgeous.

Day 363

My boy Keaton shared the top goal scoring honor for the entire U9 boys league for the past Futsal season. His coach voted him the MVP for the team as he was the top scorer on his team as well. He is one happy boy today! The team also went undefeated, so he was awarded a gold medal for their efforts. His collection of awards has officially started!

Day 362

Today Kevin and I got to be the ones to deliver Jordan to the MTC. We picked him up at the airport, and then drove him to Carrabba's for lunch. We then took him up to the Provo Temple to take some pictures. The drop off procedure is different than it was when we went with Nathan. Now you drive up to the curb where there are missionaries waiting to help unload luggage, a final goodbye hug, and then you drive away. A quicker good bye for sure. Good luck Jordan, we know that you will be a great success!

Day 361

Today our house smelled divine! I made Kevin's absolutely favorite cake in the world - Gingerbread, and then we made a pumpkin french toast casserole for dinner. Yum!

Day 360

Tonight I was the lucky one to try Gabrielle's new soothing spa filled with Orbeez. She has wanted one of these for so long and was so happy when she saw that she had received one. It was a pretty cool feeling dipping my feet into these little balls that had been soaked in HOT water!

Day 359

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! We have had a great day today, and we have loved what we have given and received. We had church at 11:00, so we decided to open just Santa's stuff before church, and then finish up afterwards. I think this will be a new tradition for us. It allowed everyone to enjoy Christmas at a slower pace. We were lucky enough to have the ward choir putting on the program today which means that we got to listen to an hour and 10 minutes of Kevin playing the piano. It is my favorite meeting of the year. What a way to set the tone for Christmas!

Day 358

Christmas Eve! We love this day almost more than Christmas Day. We have some fun traditions including decorating a gingerbread house and getting new pajamas!

Day 357

One of my favorite sights to see is my kids reading together. This is the reason for owning all of the Christmas books that we do!

Day 356

I didn't take this picture today, but we were invited down to the Christensen's house tonight for their annual Christmas Eve Eve buffet. They are a great family, and they are great friends to us. They would do anything for anyone, and we are grateful to call them friends.

Day 355

One of the great benefits of being a library card holder is that they have some DVD's that we wanted to watch, but didn't want to pay to see. In this nights case it was The Legends of the Guardians. Kind of a weird show, and after we had seen it we all came to the conclusion that we love the library. We would have been rather disappointed if we had paid for this one!

Day 354

Time for another picture of one of my favorite Christmas decorations. My Grandma Robins had a set of choir boys that she put out every year. I have always loved choir sets because of her, and so when we were in one of the Christmas shops in Germany we saw this set and had to own it. Every year when I put this out I think of my Grandma and smile.

Day 353

As we were driving to Costco, we passed this huge flock of birds. It was the freakiest thing I have ever seen. It brought Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" come to life!

Day 352

As Monday is the only day of the week that Haley doesn't work, we went to the Gateway to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie with the kids, we then grabbed some dinner and then went to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. I was expecting mobs of people being as it was family night, but it wasn't too bad. It was a little chilly, but we had a great time.

Day 351

We may have started a new Christmas tradition. We made pretzel rods dipped in chocolate and drizzled with lots of yummy toppings. We really had a great time, and made some terrific looking pretzels:)

Day 351

Today is Haley's 19th birthday! I can't believe it has been 19 years. The time has literally flown by, and I am grateful every day for the gift of Haley. She is such a great girl, who is hard working and smart, and I am so blessed to be her mom. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for her dinner where we ate well as we celebrated.

Day 350

Tonight we saw the movie Sherlock Holmes: The Game of Shadows. It was an awesome movie:) One of the best movies that we have seen in 2011.

Day 349

We received an unexpected surprise today. There was a knock on the front door, and when Kevin answered it we found this money tree sitting on our step. First thing that I did was burst into tears, and then we showed the kids. Keaton was so amazed at the kindness shown to our family. He kept asking over and over "Who would do something like this?" We told him that we didn't know who our secret Santa was, and he said "Whoever it is, Bless their hearts!" I have to be honest in saying that being unemployed has been a very hard and lonely road to travel, and we cannot wait to get off this particular road. It was so nice to feel that someone was thinking of us, and cared enough to give us this tree. Their generosity will never be forgotten, and this will be a Christmas that my children will always remember because of someones kind act of love to our family.

Day 348

Today is the day that Haley has been dreading for about 9 months. Shad entered the MTC today. She is going to be so sad because they have been nearly inseparable for most of those 9 months. He is really a sweet boy who has treated my Haley like a queen, and we wish him the best of luck on his mission to Roseville California. Good luck Shad.

Day 347

As we were driving over the Suncrest hill today, we totally drove into a massive cloud bank. Weirdest thing ever to have it be clear and high visibility to foggy with very little visibility.