I love these moments!

I think one of my favorite moments of having two kids is to watch them LOVE each other. I really think seeing them connect and want to play with each other is so precious. Alayna has been sick and Jake would say, "My Alayna...Layna" then he'd go over to the couch and say, "Up...Up!" He wasn't content until he was laying right next to her and sharing a blanket. I really love having them like each other. It is so fun!

Something to make you laugh...

Okay, this is really funny! I was glad I just happened to have the camera right there. Jake decided that he wanted to wrestle. I'm sure after playing dress up with his sister and only have princess stuff around, he was ready to do "boy stuff!" This honestly is hilarious! Enjoy...

The "Neighb's!" Annual Christmas Party

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY MINI-REUNION

Roon, Sarah, Stevo, Tracy and Di...

The ladies plus all the hubbies and kids!

For those of you neighb's that missed the party! Too bad. As expected it was great fun and tons of yummy food!!! This year was extra fun because we realized how we are growing OLD!!! We all met when we were freshman at Utah State University. That was NINE years ago! Since that point we have all married and started our families. Of those of us there we had SEVEN kids between us all and TWO still baking in the oven! How times change. I will be posting some really fun pictures of us 9 years ago...when we were single, wild and having fun!!

It really is exciting to think of all the fun things we did and have continued to support each other in during the past 9 years. I'm going to get a tad sappy here...that night even though it was 2:00AM I knelt in prayer being so thankful for meeting such WONDERFUL friends. Jared and I have really been so blessed to meet so many great friends. WE LOVE YOU ALL. We especially missed those of you who live to far away (like NC) and those of you who couldn't make it! Until next time...

Sledding

My little marshmellow man! Yes with all this lovely snow we had to brave the COLD and go sledding. As a kid I used to think it was a lot of work to go sledding. Ya, know gathering all the gear, getting dressed, getting boots one, gloves, coat, etc. And you can't forget making sure to go to the bathroom before you got all dressed up and left the house!! But now as a mother of two (and my hubby was working!) I had to do this three times. We got all dressed and loaded and then the phone rang to say sledding was off! I said, "You have got to be kidding me!" I told them I was still going after an hour of preparation! So off we went!

Krista and Riley ended up joining us after all! Thank you for humoring us.

Here in this picture Olivia and Alayna are going down the hill. Little did Aunt Krista know that Alayna thought Krista was going with her! So off they went! Alayna had a lovely crash at the bottom of the hill and was screaming, "I thought...Kista...was coming with me!" We all laughed pretty hard. Alayna calls Krista, Aunt Kista!

Our sledding fun ended when Jake sat up and said, "All done" and walked towards the car. He had had enough!! After a good hour of freezing I was also ready to go home for lunch! It really did make for a fun outing. I now see why I send Jared to take the kids sledding!

The morning after Christmas

Alayna has been in heaven playing dress-up and baby with her cousins. They all try their hardest to get their jobs done so they can play together. They really are having so much fun!

So many babies! You would think the kids would get their fill of all the "real" babies in this family!

This BIG smile is after Jake completed his 1st bowl of his "cookie" cereal! He couldn't be be more happy!!!

Christmas with the Sukers

Following the long morning of opening presents, playing in the snow and relaxing. We braved the weather and drove to go and see Randy and Danette. Luckily the roads weren't bad until we had to drive home.But our time spent there was so wonderful.

Little Jake loving his new Thomas the train toys.

Alayna was thrilled when she saw that Grandma Nettie had given her the remaining request to Santa..."I want a doll that needs EVERYTHING!" She was given an 8 in 1 play set. Highchair, porta-crib, swing, etc. It was so fun to see her get so excited.

Grandpa Randy enjoying Jake LOVING his new sports balls. I loved it! All night long Jake would say, "Granpa...come here!" He was just loving spending time with "Granpa...Granpa!"

They also gave Jake this darling little basket ball hoop. He LOVED it! He did a little dance of excitement every time he would make a basket! It truly was the highlight of the night.

Christmas Morning...

Santa brought 4 little dolls for all the four big kids. Yes, even Conner got a doll. Let's just say, he was just as excited as Alayna. Alayna's is the darling purple one on the left it happened to be the only one with brown eyes. So Santa knew exactly what one was just right for her. She has since named her doll, Rose. (I don't know where she got that from?) Olivia named her yellow doll, Crystal. Conner named his Dallin. Kierra named her doll, Sarah. It was been so much fun to watch all the kids play so well with each other. I love it!

What we woke up to Christmas morning! Keep in mind this is 5 families combined! It took us several hours taking turns to open presents. It was wonderful to all be together and sharing in this wonderful memory. I just LOVE my family! Earlier that morning I felt so overcome with love and appreciation for having them near by. I truly love living so close to them and having them all inner-connected with my daily life. We truly are so blessed to love each other so much.

Christmas Morning...In no particular order!

Santa got it right on when he brought Jake, "Cookie" cereal in his stocking! All morning long he said, "cookie...cookie!"

Santa brought Alayna a doll. But her request was, "a doll who needs everything!"

She was so excited when she opened her new favorite movie...Tinkerbell!

The great snow storm of Christmas 2008!! The men spent about 4 hours or MORE shoveling to get everyone out so we could go and visit more family members.

Merry Christmas!!

They are the reason we are all here and LOVING life! Our families motto:

2 Nephi 5:27 "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness."

Lovin the 9 grand kids!

The original 4 Perry girls!

Merry Christmas!!

Are we the only family that takes a Christmas morning picture on the stairs? Well, please endure!

Riley, Kennady & Krista

Grady, Angela, Sawyer (red) and Logan (white)

Me, Jared, Alayna and Jake. (Some how our family had the worst picture!)

The Madsens..Shandra, Todd, Isaac, Olivia, Kierra and Conner (He's into posing like a model lately??)

Christmas Eve Traditions...

Three little girls who are anxiously awaiting to go to sleep so that they can wake up to see what Santa has brought. They left two cookies for Santa to enjoy!

After the kids opened their new pajamas it was the parents turn to start our "mommy & daddy traditions."

Shandra was given "peace" pants and a great "light up" kiss me shirt! (go Todd!), Angela...well her pj's took the cake this year. She matched her husband and two boys. It was hilarious!! Krista got to be red and green and I lucked out getting a new bath robe! So fun!!

The husbands were refusing to pose this year for another picture...especially in their pajama's! But do you notice Grady's great outfit! I love it. Oh, and the best part about the night was we were able to open up our sibling gifts to each other. I got the BEST thing a "Skookie" kit. It was given to me by Riley...two cast iron pans that you bake cookies in them. Ringing a bell anyone...Firehouse "Pizz-ooki" (I don't know how to spell it!) Either way I am so excited. I LOVED the gift idea.

Last but not least we were able to open up an envelope that contained what Angela and Grady's 3rd baby is going to be...drumroll....It's a BOY!! Way to go!! We are so excited to welcome yet another BOY into our family!

A Long Standing Family Tradition...

We love to do service! The family rule is every person must drop off at least one present on the door step. The tradition continues on...

We just wanted to take a picture of the original Christmas Eve drop off to a family in need. It was again another heart warming experience to give so much to a family who has so little. My parents are serving a mission in the Inner City Mission in Salt Lake City. Being there they are surrounded by such humble and loving people. For the past few years we have been able to learn more from these sweet people and to share our abundance with them. It was fantastic to hide on the side of the house and listen to their joy and excitement. The young children exclaimed, "Presents...it is Santa!" Over and over again we could hear squeals of joy and jubilation. I LOVE this feeling of listening to their joy. It instantly brings tears of joy to my eyes and heart. I love that we have been taught this blessing of serving and giving to others in need, and most importantly I loved sharing it with my children and my nieces and nephews. What a wonderful gift, to give to others. I love it!

Joy School Christmas Party

This month was Joy School's Christmas party. It was adorable. They had the children act out the Nativity. Alayna was SO excited to be able to be Mary.

So happy to be Mary.

After the skit they were able to make ginger bread houses. Oh, goodie I thought, because just that very same morning I successfully dumped her other one in the garbage can with out her knowing. But here we go again with more requests to eat treats from her gingerbread house. I assume I can handle it once a year!

Oh, this was my favorite part of the day. After they did the skit they sang Away in a Manger. The line of "Lay down his sweet head." I loved how baby Jesus' head was squished down. All the mom's were laughing. It was so great!

1st Annual Nativity Play...

My family has come up with a new tradition, thanks to Shandra. We decided that Christmas Eve has become so busy that we wanted to take an entire night to focus on the Saviors birth. We also have 9 grand kids who are growing older each year and we wanted to get them acting out the nativity story. So Aunt Krista, compiled the script and we dressed the kids up in the best costumes we could find.

Mary (Kierra), Joseph (Conner), Cow (Sawyer), Sheep (Alayna)

Our adorable little Shepard was Jake! His costume was the hit of the night!!

Oh, the pink Unicorn was pretending to be a horse was played by Logan. Olivia was the Angel. The wise men were played by Kennady and Isaac.

The skit started out really rough and somewhat rambunctious but it was recovered shortly. They really did a great job for their first time around. Following the skit we watched The Nativity movie. My sister than had this cute idea to all write down our "gift" to the Savior for the upcoming year. It was so sweet to compile the entire families and then read them.

We then concluded the night with family prayer expressing our gratitude for our loving Savior and our love for Him. Because our little Jake is so adorable we had to take a picture of him participating in family prayer. I can't tell you how seeing him know how to kneel in prayer encourages me to have family prayer every day. The grumpy face is because he's trying to close his eyes! What a darling kid.

The Annual trip down to Temple Square...

Grandma Lou & Papi with 7 of the 9 grandkids. (Twins we missed you!)

Here are our two little snow bunnies. It was freezing cold. We did our very best to stay warm.

Thanks Todd for humoring me and taking a picture of Jared and I. I really do appreciate it.

Oh, here's another of our little family. It was cute because Jake can say, "temple" so no matter where he was facing he'd look all around and repeat, "Mom or Dad...temple!" It was so adorable.

Continued...

The Madsen gang...Kierra (age 8), Conner (age 7), Olivia (age 5) and Isaac (age 18 months)

The Peck Family...Riley, Kennady (age 15 months), Krista

This is my favorite picture. Because I hope to never loose this picture or memory I am posting this one. Our little Jake is very aware and sensitive when it comes to anything spiritual. In his sweet 18 month old way he is aware of Jesus, the Temple and the Prophet. In his attempt to say all the words his face just lights up when he sees pictures of any of the three. I LOVED this memory because we all gathered inside the building at Temple Square to show the grand kids the Christus statue. Jake wanted to be as close as he could by Jesus. During the little speech from the sister missionary he was trying to crawl or jump out of our arms to be "by Jesus" he'd mutter. It was adorable. As we were leaving he ran back to Jesus and just smiled so big. Alayna was equally adorable. She just said, "I just wish it was the real Jesus." I love the sweet tender moments that their little spirits have with the Spirit.

So much sadness...

For all you computer lovers out there. I am no longer one of them. Over the past year I have had TERRIBLE luck with hard drives. So the short painful story is back in May of this year our hard drive in our computer made a sharp piercing sound and slowly fizzled and vibrated until it stopped. For days I got an annoying blue screen. I made TONS of phone calls to the company and then gave up. I called my cousin you is the "Computer Man!" He saved the day and just told me what to do. Sadly, I LOST about 6 months of pictures. Disappointing fact, I know. But I haven't even let myself think about that. So I purchased a new hard drive for the computer and then I bought an external hard drive to hopefully solve the problem of loosing pictures ever again.

Let me introduce you to our My Book external hard drive...

This lived for a a few months...fulfilling it's purpose until one sad night. I happened to be using it creating a family video and it was safely stored on the computer. Jared then needed the laptop, I said, "Please remember all the cords hooked in!" We scooted the computer over 3 INCHES and DOWN came the hard drive while running....AHHH....I said, then came the piercing high pitched sound until the hard drive came to a silent stop. I had nothing to say...I was just hoping it really hadn't just died. I waited a day to plug it back in. The inevitable was true. It has died. Since it is under warrenty they will replace the piece itself, but I have LOST all my photos, (the ones not backed up on my lap top or DVD's) and all the family videos I have created and not burned. Oh, the patience computers have required...

Now on a happier note Santa came early and Jared got me the NEW external hard drive that does not require another power source other than the USB. This SMALL little guy is about the size of a check book. I LOVE it. It also holds as much memory as my other external hard drive. So going forward we will keep the new My Book on the desk and NEVER transport it anywhere. And this little new friend of mine can go anywhere I want! It has already been wonderful. I think Jared felt so badly that when he saw the extra $20 off coupon at Costco he felt it was his one way of replacing all those hours and hours of hard work.

So if I start posting more and more pictures just know it's because I don't want to loose them on my next hard drive drama! Wish me luck!!!