Holiday Tradtions

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted anything here.  We were in Idaho Falls for an internship all summer, which most of you know.  I was not excited about this at all and the first part of the summer went so slow.  But as I came to realize what a blessing it was to be there and how the Lord was truly doing what was best for my family I started to enjoy my time there.  We learned a lot and are glad for our experiences this summer but hope that we won't have to repeat it.  And then when we got back, between school starting and me being down because of my back for more than two weeks it has been a little crazy.

So to start out a new era of posting I want some input from you guys.  What are your traditions that you do as a family every year?  I really want to make this Christmas more Christ and family centered, so I need some ideas.  I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving, and I hope you all know how much I love and look up to you.  You are all amazing people and I'm glad to be a part of this family!!

Happy Birthday: Sarah!

Happy Birthday Sarah!  She is turning nine today.  We just love having Sarah around, and love that we get to see her so much now.  She is such a sweet girl, always ready to help out and serve others.  Such a great example.  We love you Sarah!

Edited to add pictures:

We were invited to celebrate Sarah's birthday with her on Saturday, which included swimming!  It's always  refreshing to get in the swimming pool on a hot day.  Thank you, Robert and Norine for sharing your pool!  It was a blast!

 

Soup Recipes from the Family Reunion

I posted a link on the right to my blog that has my favorite recipes on it, but thought I'd put the direct links to the soups I made at the family reunion in a blog post to make it easier for anyone who wanted to find them.

Cheesy Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Also, Heather, .... so glad you changed your mind about making waffles at the reunion ... I just made a double batch of your sour cream waffles (which were SOOOOOOO yummy!), and it took me about 1 1/2 hours (with a yield of about 25 +/- waffles).  :0)

Movie Ratings

My friend just told me about this site and I thought that I would share it with you all. It is a movie rating site that tells you detailed about violence, sex, language, and drugs. You can also look up music as well. This has become my favorite site. I make sure that I look up the movies before we go to anything, you never know what you are going to get now days!! Here is the site......commonsensemedia.org

Happy 20th Anniversary

Last night we took the Gomezes over to the Allen's house for a day of fun and realized that on Tuesday Robert and Norine celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary!  We went to the store to get some things for dinner and Norine saw this cute little Snickers cake and decided to reenact the cake eating done at their reception.  Both Neen and Rob said that they didn't have to courage to shove the cake into each other's faces at their reception, but LOVED doing it last night!

We feel so blessed to be so near to the Allens now, and love visiting with them.  Rob and Norine have such a great relationship, and their home is filled with that love from wall to wall and door to door.  They are so cute together too.  For their anniversary, they worked together to declutter and rearrange their bedroom.  (Which looks awesome, guys!)  It was so wonderful to be a part of their "mini" celebration.

Happy Birthday: Isabell

We are so glad to have you in our family!  It was great to see you and our girls LOVED playing with you at the family reunion!  You are such a big help to your mom, and I know you bring your family such joy and sunshine.  Hopefully, you have had a great birthday.  Love you!

Family Reunion Pictures -- Unedited

Here are a few of the pictures I took at the reunion.  I know I didn't get everyone ... sorry!  These are SOOMC (straight out of my camera), I haven't done any editing yet (except changing the size to post them on here).  Enjoy!