The Wood Family 2nd Annual Christmas Party

We began the holiday season enjoying a lovely dinner at Darren and LeAnn Wood's home. We listened to Darren read the Nativity story and sang carols. We had a casual talent show where Tanner and Jordan each played a Christmas song on the piano. Amber brought Paige and Will the kids she nannies. They are so cute. It was a fun evening. All the cousins enjoyed being together. Thanks for hosting Darren and LeAnn.

Snow Angel

Jordan LOVES the snow. He played in it all day last Saturday. He was so proud of the snow cave he built. I'd have to say it was pretty impressive.

Casual Christmas Photo shoot

Amber was down for a visit and we decided it was a great chance to take some Christmas pictures. Braden is taking a photography class and did a great job on the photos of Tanner and Jordan.

Decorating for Christmas

We were lucky to have all our kids together for the Thanksgiving weekend. We decided it was the perfect time to decorate the house and trim the tree.

Old neighbors...good friends

When we built this house we had great neighbors next door. Their kids were the same ages as our younger kids. Amber babysat for them. We could borrow sugar and trade treats...it was a great situation for all. Then they had to move. We've kept in touch and talk at least once a year on our birthdays, (a day apart) but this was the first chance we've had to get the two families together. All 12 kids had a great time playing, (the two youngest had an infactuation with Braden) and the adults picked up right where we'd left off...Love you guys, come and visit anytime!

Sister's Weekend

At the last minute my sisters and I decided it was time for a girl's weekend. Megan had a free flight so she flew in Saturday morning. Becky picked her up at the airport and we all met at Ikea. After an hour of wandering Becky noticed her car wasn't parked to her liking, so she went to move it. The car wouldn't start and needless to say we (or should I say Megan) spent the next hour "fixing" the car with a tiny bit of help from a token male.















Let the fun began...
















What is Becky looking at? Hey, we're trying to take a picture here for posterity purposes.....

HEY, why are your eyes red?


















What's a girls weekend, without a six pack and a few howls. :-)















Thanks for the fun sistas...LOVE YOU!

I met Ree, aka Pionner Women

Some friends and I joined over 400 PW lov'en fans at the Kings English Bookstore in SLC last night to meet Ree Drummond aka Pioneer Women. If you don't know who she is...she is a blogger and now cookbook author that I have been reading for about a year now. You can find her at pioneerwoman.com

Ree first did a Q&A in a gallery two doors down from the bookstore. I happened to be standing right in her path as she came out. My first thought was how tall she was.

She was very sweet and waved and said Hi to everyone.

This is King's English Bookstore. There was a solid wall of people. The clerk told me they ordered 440 cookbooks and sold out. Many sad people left empty handed.


These were the girls I got to hang out with for 2 hours. They were sweet enough to share a peanut butter and chocolate doughnut with me. Terrilynn sacrificed her cookbook for me so I could get it signed since mine hadn't come in the mail yet. She's new to PW. Thanks TL!

Finally it was my turn. I was a little starstruck. She was just lovely and I'm sure exausted.

See how I can't stop staring and smiling? I totally missed my picture moment.

What a beautiful cookbook. Loads of photos of family, friends and FOOD...and cows, horses and dogs.

Braden in action

Grandma and Grandpa are in the stands...

The players are ready...

The coaches are ready...

The players come out of the pen...

FACE-OFF...

and he's off...



Did it go in?

DANG!

Replay...

Great game, Braden!!



Go UCI South!