Beauty and the Beast!

Tracey and Tristyn had a girls night out they'd been planning for about a week, so I had a fun night planned for Ty and I. A night full of wrestling and watching the Jazz and any other sports program we could find. As I got home I found out that Tyler and Carrie needed a little help with the kids until they got home, so plans had to change a little. Ty was more than excited that his cousins got to come over, and I was excited that he was excited. I wasn't quite sure what to do for entertainment so we pulled out the ol' karaoke machine which turned out to be a great decision. Ty and Kailee kept themselves busy with that for a while, so that meant two kids down only one to keep an eye on. That is when I captured this little gem of a duet. It ended up being a lot of fun, and later we even added more kids to the party as Tera and the twins stopped by. Ty had a blast playing with his cousins and the Jazz lost anyway so it all turned out good!

What the heck, Santa?

We recently had our ward Christmas party. It was a lot of fun as there was music, dancing, good food, and of course Santa. Ty didn't enjoy the Santa part so much. He sat on his lap just fine, but as you can see from the picture he wasn't too excited about the results. All the kids got a little package from Santa, with some candy and a couple other little items in it. We asked Ty why the sour face and he said he asked Santa for a sword and when he opened his package, fully expecting a sword to be in it, he was a little upset to find it missing a sword. We tried to explain that Santa doesn't give it to you right then, but he's still a little ticked off at him. So other than Ty not getting his sword, we all had a good time.

Ty loved dancing with the ladies!

Tristyn and her friend Paige

Say cheese....

We finally took time to go and get some family pictures after two years without doing it. Amber Togisala was our photographer and we felt she did a great job. The kids were great and the whole experience turned out a lot better than some of our past photograph sessions. Here are some of our favorites.

Momma's girl!

Daddy's little buddy!

The hardest part about the session was keeping Ty from smiling too big. He's a natural cheese.

Tristyn's growing up a little too fast for our liking!

We wish they got along like this every day!

It's the most wonderful time....

Thanksgiving night we watched "Christmas Vacation" at my folks house which in turn inspired all of us to go decorate the house for the season. My one or two hour project (sure Tracey) of hanging lights ended up being closer to 6 hours. That head lamp Tracey bought me for jogging came in handy. It all worked out good though because Tina, who was staying with us a few days, put up our tree and even decorated it. That is usually my job so I didn't mind hanging the lights to get out of that (thanks Tina). Now we're all set for cousin Eddy to show up in his RV.
Merry Christmas!

"All the stockings are hung by the chimney with care". Who's bringing the marshmallows for roasting?