Happy New Year

Rick and Doug went skiing/snowboarding today and the rest of us stayed home and played, decorated, and made lots of  yummy appetizers for tonight.
Heather saw this fun idea to decorate the Christmas tree as a New Year's tree. So the kids had a lot of fun working on that. I think it's a tradition we'll adopt as well.

Tonight we also finished The Book of Mormon again as a family for the fourth time. It was great. We meant to finish it at Temple Square, but forgot and it was cold. It was much better to finish in the warm house.
There was much playing of Just Dance Disney with all of the cousins. It was so fun to watch them have a blast.

But Eliza had to have been the favorite to watch. She cracked us up as she was bustin' moves left and right.

Then we popped the balloons on the tree which were filled with quarters and jokes. That was fun.

It was fun watching everyone try to pop the balloons. (Then usually give up and use the scissors.)

The party favors which were also on the tree.

Amazingly, Cheryl stayed up until midnight for the first time in years! Joseph did and Lexie woke up after a quick 30 minute power nap for it. And most of the cousins did too. I think playing cards helped. We had a really great time at Heather's house! Thanks so much for having us for a good visit!
Happy New Year!

Temple Square

Last night after the party, we headed down to Heather's house, one of Cheryl's other sisters. After Church and a yummy dinner, we headed down to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. We've never done that before and who knows when we'll be out this way for Christmas again so we all bundled up and braved the cold. It was worth it to us though.

Here we are watching the Nativity. It started to snow while we were watching. It was really pretty.

We loved this lone poppy that was still alive and kicking in the cold weather. Lexie's favorite part was seeing so many flowers still alive around Temple Square.

Inside the Tabernacle. It looks just as I remembered it. And it was nice and warm in there, too.

I remember going to General Conference with my dad here (& in the "new" Conference Center).

The beautiful Temple.

Our family. I love Andrew's face in each of these pictures. He really makes us laugh with all of his facial expressions.

And this one we liked because how the lights and Temple all glow behind us. Pretty neat looking.

Another thing we loved there were all of the Nativities and the luminaries. They were simply amazing. Too bad it was so cold or else we would have looked at each one. They were awesome.

We found some of the Russian worded ones though.

It was a great evening. We sure love to see the Temple. Then we went back to Heather's house and warmed up.

Rytting Get Together

We left Boise and made it to Providence just in time for the Rytting Get Together at Cheryl's sister's house. It was so great to have all of our Utah family together for a night of fun.
Barbara put together some fun party games with lots of candy and many more laughs!
We did an Art Sloan original reenactment of "The 12 Days of Christmas" to build up our appetite for dinner. These pictures aren't all great, but it was a lot of fun!

Joseph loved being a partridge in a pear tree again. He was really excited about the song.

Love the 7 Swans a swimming.

Yep, we all worked up an appetite! Good times were had by all.

Thanks Barbara for hosting! (Lexie loved the dessert. A lot!) And thanks Michael, Kiersten, and Heather's families for all coming up so we could see everyone! It's so great to see everyone-it's not often enough!

Bowling

Today we went bowling with everyone. If I can figure out how to put videos on here (Blogger isn't liking my uploading methods right now) I will post some as Andrew had some great reactions.

Lexie bowls like her mom. Kinda funny to watch. (Not that this picture shows, but one of the videos does.

Pulling on your ears helps.

 Here's Jace, Trais, and Alexis Grace.

Ice Skating

Today, some of the cousins went Ice Skating. Rick took Lexie, Joseph, and Andrew to join in the fun. Lexie did a great job from the start, and the boys did a great job as long as Rick was carrying them. Rick realized pretty quickly that his back wasn't going to last too long while trying to hold the boys up, so they got a "walker" for the boys to take turns using. That worked out well for the boys' skating skills (as well as Rick's back), and by the end of the skating session, Joseph and Andrew were cruising around the rink on their own. The kids had loads of fun and didn't want to leave, even after 3 hours of skating!

Once they got back, Aunt Lyndee painted lots of the cousin's nails.

Boxing Day

This morning, Cheryl got up early and headed over to Jason's office for a massage and then an adjustment. It was very cold and slick out. As she drove by this intersection she thought it must be just as cold here as it is in Tallinn. (We did have a White Christmas here and at our house, too.)

Then she went out with all of the girls for pedicures.

Lyndee, Stephanie, Joyce, Cheryl, Tami, Bergen, Chrissy.
The finished product.

Today was also family pictures day this afternoon. Here's our family.

Here's the whole crew that was there.

Rick with his siblings.