Christmas 2008

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we went to Ian's parent's house for a yummy dinner.
Then Andree read the Christmas story and we sang some songs.



Malia and especially Gunner really got into dressing up, as soon as we got Gunner in his costume he said "Let's go trick or treating!" He was a cute little Joseph, he kept putting his hand on Malia's back saying "this is MY Mary"
Then everyone opened their Christmas Eve gift, of course new pajamas.



They were so excited for not only new pajamas, but their robes and slippers too. A robe is one of the things that Malia really wanted, I think she almost got more excited she got a robe, than for anything on Christmas morning.

They also got new pillow cases from Grandma and Grandpa.

They got to leave Cookies and Milk for Santa, and Oatmeal and glitter, and a carrot for the reindeer.


Then we had to try to get them to bed. They actually went to bed pretty easily considering. In the year's past, once we got Malia to bed, she didn't remember it was Christmas until we woke her up the next morning. Well, Gunner woke up starting at about 5am asking "Is Santa here?" I kept telling him not yet, go back to bed. We finally gave up about 7am, and went and fed them breakfast before everyone else got up.
It is actually really fun I think, now as parents to get to see our kids get so excited over all these fun traditions.
Christmas morning pictures to come later....

New Sunday Clothes

Here is the only picture that halfway turned out. They were being little cheesers that morning.

Here are a couple of the other ones.

Still Snow!

It's crazy, there has not been this much snow here for a lot of years, and snow that has stayed this long. We got about 10 inches on Sat. then on Sunday we got freezing rain so it made about 1/2 inch of ice on top of snow, then it snowed about 4-5 more inches on top of that. Crazy! They also canceled church yesterday.
Here is our cool icicle that has grown probably a foot since I took this picture. The kids love it!

Then here is a picture of the ice layer on the 10 inches of snow, before it snowed more on top of it.

Here is Ian cleaning off his truck last night so he could get to work this morning, but then had to clean off about 5 more inches this morning.


And here are the kids trying to keep from going crazy being stuck in the house!

We are starting to run out of things to keep busy. Anyone got any good ideas?

Grandpa Keith Pollock July 22, 1918 - Dec. 20, 2008

My Grandpa Pollock passed away today. He fell and broke his neck in November. He was too old to do surgery, so they had to put him in a rest home with a neck brace. We knew it was coming and he never wanted to be in a nursing home anyway, so we are glad that he is at peace now, and I am sure he is glad to be with his parents and my Uncle Bruce, Aunt Sandra, and cousins Bryson and Tyler. (they died in a car crash 6 years ago.)

It is hard being so far away, and not being able to see him for so long. But the last time we were down there this summer we made some good last memories with him at his 90th birthday party and then a little trip that my mom, Malia, Gunner, Treylon (cousin) and I took with him up on Kanara Mountain. He was so full of life then, and full of memories. It was such a great experience to hear him tell story after story from his younger years working up in the mines around there.


I have so many great memories of him growing up, he always had a positive attitude and everything to him was just "fine a ree". We lived just down the street from him and were in the same ward, I remember fighting with my sister to see who got to go sit by my grandparents during church. He used to tickle our faces with our hair, and then lick a piece and stick it up our noses. He always loved to tease us. He used to scare us by sticking out his false teeth at us, or grabbing us with his 3 fingered hand. (he lost two fingers in a work accident)
He was such a hard worker, and was always busy doing something, even after they made him retire at age 88.

We love him and will miss him!

Once there was a Snowman!

Well, it kept snowing and we not only got to build a snowman, but a huge fort too! It was perfect packing snow.





We got the snowman done in the front yard, and they kids went around to the back yard, and by the time I got around there, they had built this huge ball by themselves.




So we decided to make the fort.


So that when Dad got home early from work, we could have a snowball fight!