Happy Birthday, Erica!

We started this month celebrating Erica's 4th birthday. She & I had a night out just the 2 of us. I took her to Build-a-Bear and grab some dinner. She was so funny! So many of the animals caught her attention and it took her a little while to choose. She went from a pig, to a penguin, to a purple dog, to a pink poodle and finally settled on a blue monster. Go figure. He is cute though. And silly me, I didn't have my camera with me and my phone was out in my car!

Her parents had a party for her the following night at Chuck E Cheese. She was in heaven!! She had family on both sides attend and it was really fun. Great Papa Conder bought her a birthday crown full of tokens and she burned right through them.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY, ERICA!!!! We love you!!!

January 2010!

A big month for us! On January 15th we welcomed a new granddaughter, Reagan Leigh into the family. This is our daughter Jennie's 3rd child and 1st girl. She is beautiful!!! It was really hard for me to be so far from her during this time, but she had great support from her ward and neighbors. Her husband was able to take about 10 days off to be at home with her and help the boys with the transition. However, those little guys had no problem welcoming their new baby sister home! They absolutely love her!!

I flew down to spend a few days with them and meet this little girl. :) It was great!! I didn't have to share Jen's time with anyone but the kids (& Patrick when he was home). It was so nice. She is such a great mom and I'm so proud of her. We are so grateful for Patrick, too. I sent Patrick and Jennie out on a date night so that they could have some "alone" time. It really was selfish on my part since I got to have "movie night" with the kids and spend the time with just them.

Having them so far is hard. But they have made a great home for their family there. We look forward to many trips down this year. Time went by WAY too fast and it was time for me to come home. I love them and miss them so much!

Happy 2010!!!

This is a tad late getting posted, but.......

This was the first year in I don't know how many that Brent & I spent New Years alone. We went to dinner & a movie. It was really fun! Then we watched the ball (that doesn't fall anymore) in New York.

This was also the night of the "blue moon". Apparently it about every 28 years. It was really foggy out, but I was still able to get a picture.

We are very grateful for making it through 2009! It was a difficult year for so many. We have been so blessed as a family this past year & don't take that for granted.

We hope this year brings all of you joy, peace, health & happiness!

Christmas 2009

Twas the night before Christmas.....




It was a different year without Jennie, Patrick and the kids. Jennie called during dinner and we were all able to talk with her. We ate, opened presents and sat around talking. Another great Christmas Eve.



Christmas day we headed over to Cameron's to see how the girl's did with Santa. I played bowling with Sammy and Erica on the Wii (almost lost to both of them!). Then we went back home so that they could spend the afternoon/evening with ReyAn's family. Jake and Whit spent the day with her family. Christmas evening, the Beidler's came up for eats and a visit. We had a great time with them. And as usual.....Christmas ends WAY too fast. Merry Christmas everyone!

Gingerbread!

Christmas brings so many traditions. One of the ones that we started last year was building gingerbread houses with the kids. We weren't able to do it while Jennie was here, just not enough time. This year I found trains to build, so ReyAn, Sammy, Erica & I started building. Cameron & Brent sat with us and visited. It was fun.

A visit from the Swains....

December started out the best way possible. My whole family together again. Jennie and her family came to spend a week with us. They arrived late on Nov 30th and stayed until Dec. 6th. We had to share their time with many people, but it was so great having them here. And it was fun to see the "cousins" all back together again. The one thing that the little kids all wanted to do was go to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. So, Jennie, ReyAn and I packed up the kids and off we went. They had a ball!!!

That evening, the whole flam damily, including Eric & Cris Beidler and Kenny Swain, headed to Salt Lake for a cold, but festive evening of food and lights. We had a great mexican dinner at the Rio Grande Restaurant and then caught Trax over to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cold. About 17 degrees!!! We made a quick trip around the grounds, then back on Trax to get into our cars and head home. We had a great time. It was a terrific day and evening. Nice to have all my family together after so many months.

The next night, we were able to get together again to play games and just hang out. The next day was a quick one getting Jen's family packed up to go home. My parents made it home from their cruise Saturday night and came straight from the airport to see them before the left Sunday morning. Hard to see them go. However, they weren't too unhappy about leaving the snow behind! We had good times, made great memories. I love my family!!!

Home to Snow.....

Friday, Dec. 11th, we took a trip down to Elsinore to check on Grandpa and our home-away-from-home. We left with the sun shining and a balmy 50 degrees. By the time we got down there, it was in the low 30's. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. We thawed out our little home and spent the evening and Saturday with Grandpa. The weather got much colder through the weekend. But, when we headed home Sunday (Dec. 13th) we had no idea what awaited. The roads were good, no storms until we hit Farmington! Then it just got worse. Needless to say, we had much digging to do when we got home. (Good thing we had the Christmas lights up already!) Welcome December!!