Chad's Birthday--yesterday...

Today is actually Bret's birthday, "Happy Birthday to You!", but yesterday was Chad's, and I think he had a really fun day. On Friday he wanted to have a pizza party and we didn't get to make the 'snowman' pizza I had planned at Brian Head, so we made it for his party. Luann came early and she made Chad his favorite Oreo-dessert, plus some yummy banana pudding. Later some friends came over to play games. 

The 'Snowman' pizza. I made it with Alfredo sauce.

Another fun thing we didn't get to do at Brian Head
was make these cute little reindeer cupcakes....

....so Chad and his friends had fun making them.

We made some mighty fine tasting pizza!

Everyone played games & drank root beer floats!

Chad's favorite- Oreo dessert!  Luann was so
sweet to make it for him!

Yesterday we took Chad over to Show Low so we could meet Luann's parents. I looked in the back seat and Chad was kicking back with his neck pillow and eye shades! I took him shopping and he got a few new clothes, which he really needed.

We at lunch with Luann's folks at Lucano's and had a great time visiting and getting to know them. Such nice people! Then later we went to a movie with Chad & Luann. We watched the Hobbit. It was a fun day!

Christmas Fun-- continued....

I will show the rest of the pictures of Brian Head in this post! 

We sure had a fun time!

We found a big mound of snow that was piled up and made
a great little hill to sled down. It was windy & cold!

Kingston went down by himself and it was steep!

London was hanging on behind Auntie Lisa!
If we would've had a prize for the BEST sledder,
it would be Lisa, she went the farthest and fell off
the lest. She took all the kiddos down the hill
lots of times and had to climb back up the most!

It was great to get out of the cold and head to the pool!

We made pizza on Christmas Eve for the kids. I wanted to make a 'snowman' pizza, but we didn't have an oven big enough, so instead we used cookie cutouts of trees and candy canes. They loved it. 

Lisa made a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner- salmon, rice and asparagus! Yummy!

We couldn't not keep with the tradition of dressing up and acting out the Nativity. 

Pretty sweet Mary & Joseph

Blake was such a good sport about wearing his outfit. He didn't move an inch during the whole reading of Luke chapter 2

Christmas chaos!

Christmas morning we woke up to MORE beautiful snow!

The snow was so powdery it was impossible to build a very big snowman!

Becki & Dempsey

While the rest of us were swimming, Lisa & Becki were doing
'smash book'? stuff!

The grandkids sitting on the reading pillows they got from Gma!

After 5 days of super fun, we had to head home. It wasn't the best day to travel, lots of new snow. It took us all over an hour to get down the mountain, 12 miles.

I think going to Brian Head was a really fun way to spend Christmas together. It was a long way to travel, but being in the snow made it all the more 'Christmasy' for everyone. Maybe another Christmas we can ALL be there together, that would have been the only thing that would've made this time together more special.

Christmas at Brian Head, UT

So for Christmas this year, we decided to go to Brian Head, UT. Uncle Dave has a beautiful condo that he let us stay in for 5 days. Everyone that could come, came. Bret & Becki & kids, Lisa & Barry, & Tami, Ryne & Blake. Reed got to come for a little bit.  We had a great time, we played together, we swam in the indoor pool, we played in the snow, and we ATE, boy did we eat! 

The roads were clear getting there. Everyone arrived safely.
Our first sign of snow was on the drive up the canyon.

We took turns cooking meals, that was great. There was no oven, so that made things a little tricky. This was Friday night, I made lasagna in the crock pot! Reed & Bret's family didn't arrive until later on Saturday.

Blake loved the pool!

The hot tub was super hot, super bubbly, and great to relax in. The big fireplace was right there, which gave it a great look.

Coming in out of the snow and cold.

Tami made a banana cream, blueberry pie that
was sooo delicious!

Reed & Ryne playing football in the hall.

 Reed brought us all the greatest Christmas gift. He has been working for months on digitizing all my old family videos. I thought they were lost forever because there was no way to play some of them. He worked on coping, editing and categorizing hours and hours of old videos. He made a  'highlights' DVD which has lots of the fun memories on it and gave everyone copies of that for Christmas. What a wonderful, very special gift that was for everyone! Thank you Reed! Then he gave Dad & I the DVD's of everything that was once on the old tapes, all organized in a file box with pictures on the dividers. Sooo Cool!

Sunday was church. Tami & Ryne went to
 Panguitch, UT where they used to live, to see
some of their old friends and the rest of us
attended down in Parowan, UT.

Making 'reindeer pancakes'.

Eating---constantly.

Making hot chocolate dippers!

For my birthday, Tami made my very favorite chocolate cake!

Kingston & London! Grandkids are GREAT!

Baby Dempsey

For my birthday my girls gave me a pedicure! Loved it!

We made paper chains and Christmas bell ornaments for the little tree we brought with the grandkids.

This is what the outside of the condo looks like. The underground parking is great!

There's more pictures to come of our Christmas vacation, keep checking,   I'll get them posted soon.