Christmas Day

Our favorite gift this season... being TOGETHER.

Instead of sleeping in the fort that night, they slept in Mitchell's new play tent!

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas eve surrounded by people we love!

We spent most of the afternoon and evening at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandpa pulled the kids around on sleds with the 4 wheeler, and Mitchell decided to stay inside and do "brave stuff."

We celebrated Dallan's birthday

and hope all of his birthday wishes come true!

We also enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner together. When we were growing up, my mom would always set a place for Jesus with his picture on it. Since our family is so big now, we have a picture of the Savior in the center of the table.

Following dinner, we acted out the Nativity

Baby Jesus, who was wrapped in cozy sweats, even recieved a gift from a little raccoon (racoons like shiny things, too!)

Caleb held his special gifts for the rest of the evening.

Grandma played Christmas hymns for all us to sing, and we sounded just like the tabernacle choir!

Mitchell found a stack of magazines and looked for all of the pictures of Jesus. For the past several weeks he has searched for pictures of Jesus in all our magazines and books. He has reminded me that this is a season to find Jesus.

We had a wonderful time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Then we headed home to prepare for Santa!

We made magic hot chocolate with a drop of sleeping potion, magic marshmallows, and a sprinkle of Christmas cheer.

The boys left out notes for Santa

Along with some cookies, milk and a carrot for Rudolph.

We put them all in their cozy jammies

Then made them a Christmas Eve fort to sleep in!

HO HO HO!

Garfield County

Josh recently participated in the fourth grade county fair. He choose GARFIELD COUNTY
(can anyone guess why)
hint: comics

There are awesome places to visit in GARFIELD COUNTY:
Bryce Canyon National Park
Capital Reef National Park
Lake Powell
Dixie National Forest
Part of Canyonlands National Park
The Grand Staircase Escalante
National Monument
3 State Parks: Kodachrome,
Escalante Petrified Forest,
Anasazi Indian Village

Fast Facts:

Garfield County was named after the assassinated President
James A Garfield. The county is known as BRYCE CANYON COUNTRY

Garfield County was one of the last areas to be explored in the United States!
The Henry Mountains are home to the only free roaming buffalo herd in America!

The Kodachrome basin has a lot of petroglyphs!

The famous Outlaw, Butch Cassidy, grew up in the area!

Bryce Canyon is named after Ebenezer Bryce. He had a ranch near the base of the canyon and said that it was a terrible place to lose a cow!

Nice Job Josh! All of this Garfield talk is making me feel like lasagna!

Ahoy Matey!

(if you'd like to read Mitchell's birthday story from grandma, click here)

Shiver me timbers'- Mitchell is 3 years old! After he woke up early to plunder some presents, we took the Moody mateys to pirate island to celebrate! Our pirates raided the ship, walked the plank, and gobbled up some tasty pirate grub! They used up their booty in the arcade and traded their goods for some trinkets and treasure! On our way home we dropped anchor at the library to see the Grinch, then we sailed home to make the cake! We shared our loot with the Baadsgaard Scalawags, then ended our birthday voyage driving through the Christmas lights! It was a great day for the Moody scurvy dogs!
ARG!

A Christmas message

Breath of Heaven

Happy birthday Mitchell!

My Mitchell turned 3 years old on Saturday! He was put in a stocking after he was born, and he came home just in time for Christmas! He was born with Christmas spirit and has been a JOY to all of us. We love you Mitchie!

The Christmas Spirit

Christmas cookies

Christmas cookies and holiday hearts

That's the way the holiday starts

Goody goody

YUM YUM YUM

(remember that song from Elementary school?)

Matthew and the Brazilian Emerald

My mom started a special birthday tradition this year. For each grandchild's birthday, she writes them their very own story! She knew Matthew had been asking to hunt for emeralds in Brazil, so she wrote him a story with treasures in mind. On his birthday she gathered us all together so she could read it out loud. Please read his story here before you continue on the adventure!

After she finished reading Matthew's story, there was a knock at the door! It was a professor of rocks! He heard there might be treasure in our backyard!

He took Matthew outside

And they used binoculars and a treasure rod to scout out the area.

When they found the right spot, the treasure rod started wiggling!

So Matthew knew it was time to start digging!

He kept digging

Until his shovel hit something!

It was a container with something hidden inside...

A Treasure Chest

full of Emeralds!

Right in our own backyard
Thank you for the magic Mom and Dad. We treasure you!