Christmas with the McEntire Family

I don’t know why I don’t have pictures of this, but for this year’s McEntire family service project we tied fleece blankets for the Christmas Box House.  I can’t remember how many we tied, but it was A LOT.  And everyone participated, even the little ones as long as they knew how to tie a knot.  We did this during the weeks that led up to Christmas.

Christmas Eve started out with a McEntire word search for the kids and crossword puzzle quiz for the adults…

Ali’s middle name was a tough one and Dave’s new job “Maintenance” took most a little while to figure out.

Then on to the annual Bingo game for prizes, of course!

 

The it was on to the annual grandkid Nativity

Brooke & Lilly were the narrators; Anna the angel…with London a wandering shepherd (I think)

Tawny…another little shepherd 

Bryson, the Wise Man, with the other 2 Wise Men and their “Gifts”

Adrey, Ian and Demi played the part of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.  I highly doubt Jesus wore such bright clothing, but I didn’t have much notice that Demi was to be baby Jesus.

 

Some of the favorite gifts of the evening

Bryson gave Adrey this castle to be colored.

The coveted butterfly purseAnd a necklace other than moms.  Yeah.

3 little girls in red…already the best of friends

Nana with Demi

 

Just for Fun Pictures

 

Our sweet, happy Demi!

Anna and her Nana

Bestest Cousins

London and Anna

Anna

Silly Colton!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be grateful for this year.  We have a 4th beautiful and perfect child.  Ben has a good job with an excellent company—a company willing to take care of our needs during this difficult challenge of moving and trying to sell our Idaho house.  The opportunity to be near family in the beautiful state of Utah. 

This Thanksgiving we spent with some of the Petzingers – James, Joshua and Alecia, Joseph, Hannah and Myah.

At school, Anna made a cute little Indian headband where she wrote what she was thankful for…it had to be posted.

First of all…Ben?  Not Dad?  Then, Sandwiches?  She won’t even eat sandwiches…she just eats what is inside and leaves the bread.

Colton was given a school assignment to ask everyone else to write down what they were thankful for.  Here are the notes…

Hannah:  I am thankful for families, extended family, the church, the Gospel, the book of Mormon.

Bryson: I am gratfl for mi cuzens and for thankggeving

Colton: I’m thankful for anybody that works

Jelina: My beautiful, smart, talented hard-working kids and husband.

Josh: Thankful for health, school, family, dad, sleep, food, friends, a home, holidays, mom, socks, sister

Ben: I am grateful for my wife and family.

Joseph: I am grateful for Jesus Christ.  Through him I’ll have my family forever.

James: I am thankful for good health, growing up learning the value of hard work, family.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went bowling at Bonwood Bowl (Cam and Erin White Thanksgiving tradition), then on Pat’s BBQ for lunch and finally to Temple Square to see the lights.

These pictures are courtesy of James.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween

I got the kids in the mood for Halloween by putting Chewi’s costume on first to greet them that morning.  I can’t believe I got her to hold still long enough for a picture.  She immediately tried to paw it off…so it ended up being a 30 second costume.

One of the fun things about being in Salt Lake for Halloween is the Okland Construction office trick-or-treat party

I don’t think we’ve ever been able to attend, but this year, it was all of Pop’s “little” grandkids…all 9 of them!

 

They score some SERIOUS amounts of candy walking the 3 stories of that office building…

Treaters above are Sailor Cru, Cowboy Colton, Monkey Ali, Ladybug Tawny, Anna Cinderella, Demi Fairy, Ladybug London, Sailor Carter and Indian Bryson

I was the only adult who dressed up (some may disagree with that…BRENT!)

 

 

 

     

And it didn’t stop there…after the office was the ward Trunk or Treat. 

Car Decor courtesy of Colton!

 

And it didn’t stop there, either….on to House to House Trick or Treating for the FIRST time ever in their little lives.  We’ve never lived anywhere that made door to door trick or treating possible.  I was quite surprised, though…they were done after the first street!

That may change with age, though.  It was a fun year! 

New Friends and a New Vacation Spot

We met a couple in our new ward, Lisa and Carter Smith, who are our age with about the same age kids.  They invited us to join them in St George over labor day weekend (their family has a vacation home there).  They had extra tickets for the final night of Little Mermaid at Tuacahn Outdoor Theater, too.

Sebastian (Hazel), Prince Eric(Anna), Ariel(Addi) and Colton and Bryce as the characters from Grease.

The play was amazing.  The stage turned into an ocean, the mermaids and other sea creatures used heelies and rolled around the stage instead of walked so it really did look like they were swimming.  This is the first time I’d ever been to this theater and it was every bit as spectacular as people described.

Carter is an excellent photographer and took a lot of pictures of our kids during our weekend. 

Thanks Carter for capturing the memories for us.

The kids played on their bikes and scooters around the vacation home.

 

We did some hiking one day in Snow Canyon

 

 

 

      

 

 

 

The kids enjoyed an evening throwing rocks in a nearby pond.

 

 

We also toured the art community of Kayenta 

   

And Sunday we toured the Jacob Hamblin home and cotton plantation.

 

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