Christmas

Christmas was the best!

Little John was having fun "helping" as we all got ready for Christmas.
Everyone got new pajamas. It is always fun to have something new to wear.

John in his new pj's.

Carolyn loves her new night gown.

Sarah has beautiful red silky pj's

Ben's pj's are long enough but a bit big around the waist.

Little John loved his new "Cars" pj's. He was ready to watch the movie.

This is our neighbor gift that we made this year. The reindeer antlers are made from Little John's hand prints.

Sarah is opening her present. It is an apron that Carolyn made. Tausha (the dog) is relaxing while I watch.

Little John and Tausha have a competition to see who gets to sit on my lap. Usually Little John wins. When he doesn't he sure lets Tausha know how he feels.

Sarah was feeling a bit frustrated as she tried to open her present from Ben. He had really wrapped it well.
'
Little John was feeling that it had all ready been a long morning.

John was excited when he got a present tower to open from Carolyn.

Carolyn loved her present.

Ben loves having presents that are big.

John can hardly wait for Ben to open his present, or is that a nice comment about Sarah's new outfit?

Sarah with her new sweater dress.

December 24, 2008
Grandma's Party
We had Grandma Earl's Christmas party at Scott and Juli Earl's house in Taylorsville this year. It was really nice. Almost everyone was there.

This is how Ben spent most of his time.

Jens and Lilly(Alex and Emma's children)and Emma and their dog Moosh.

Little John is sitting on my lap. I am sitting next to Alex. He is holding their foster daughter Maya and is sitting next to Scott.

Jessica and her daughter Hannah.

John Hizer (Carolyn's Husband) laying on the futon in the front room.

The table before it was set.

Evan Smith and Heather. They are engaged. Nicole Earl (Josh's wife), Me (Julie)

Josh Earl talking to the baby Kendria Dymock and Craig Dymock (Chrissy's Husband)

Ashton Earl (Josh and Nicole's son) is playing with a magnetic dart board.

Martin Earl

Mike

Martin, Lucy, and Chanel Earl. They are living in the apartment in Scott and Juli's house right now. Juli loves having her granddaughter so close.

Juli Earl

Jens and Emma Earl

Jessica and her daughter Hannah, Kate, Brian, Little John, Me, Scott, and Norah (Jessica's daughter) all trying Kate's chip dip.

Travis and Kate.

Mike and his dog Molly, Frank Earl, and Scott Earl.

Juli Earl, Evan Smith, Heather Snow, and Nichole Earl.

Nichole Earl, Carolyn Hizer, Kate Earl.

Jens and Little John sharing M&M's.

Going around the room from the left to the right. Scott, Lilly, Jessica, Norah, John, Little John, Grandma, Tausha (our dog), Alex.

Chrissy holding Maya, Kendria, Craig, and Frank Earl.

Little John is trying to wake up Ben.


November 28, 2008
Family Pictures
I made an appointment at JC Penny's for family pictures on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving at 9:00 in the morining. It was a crazy time for pictures, but it was the only day that we were all together and there was a photo studio open. We were on time, because I had been out shopping early, but the photographer was late. By the time she arrived and got all of the equipment turned on and going, we were almost an hour late. By this time, the boys had about destroyed the studio waiting room because they were so bored. Little John had had enough and didn't want to participate any more. It was a long morning. We finally got through all the pictures and everyone went to breakfast at McDonalds except for Carolyn, Sarah, and me. We stayed to view the pictures and choose the best ones. It only took another hour. We were finally done by noon. It was all worth it in the end when I picked up the pictures and saw how good they were.

Back: Rick, Sarah, Ben
Front: John, Carolyn, Little John, Julie, Heather, Evan Smith (Heather and Evan are engaged.)

Back: John, Rick, Sarah, Ben, Evan
Front: Carolyn, Little John, Julie, Heather

Back: Carolyn, John, Sarah, Evan, Heather
Front: Rick, Little John, Julie, Ben

Carolyn, Sarah, Heather

Carolyn, Little John, John

Little John's Christmas 1 year old.

Little John

Back: Carolyn, Heather, Sarah
Front: Ben, Rick

Heather and Evan

Heather and Evan

Little John sitting

LIttle John Christmas snow globe

Little John sitting in a chair

Little John smiling

UEA

We headed down Wednesday night to the hotel to stay over for UEA. I had reserved a two room suite for us, thinking that it would be easier for all of us to sleep and that there would be more room. We arrived at our hotel. WOW! It is very nice. As you go in the front door, you see a beautiful staircase going to the second floor. We checked in and headed up to our room. When I entered the room, I was confused to see a king size bed and a huge tub in the corner of the room next to the bathroom. This did not look like an average two room suite. We dropped off our stuff and went to eat and TGI Fridays. We had the potato skins as an appetizer. Yummy! They are the best. Everyone ordered something different. The food was ok but not anything to rave about. The atmosphere was fun though. Little John was not feeling well and spent most of his time throwing food on the floor and crying. John finally ended up taking him outside while we finished eating. We went back to our hotel and I asked about our room. I found out that they had goofed and assigned us a spa room instead of a two room suite, because the are the same price. We stayed with the room and had a roll away bed brought in. We had also brought the blow up mattress. We went to the pool for a few minutes and then up to bed. Little John had a very rough night. I took him out and walked the halls for over an hour to get him to settle down. I finally took him into the board room and walked around until he fell asleep. We all felt tired in the morning as we went down to breakfast.

Little Man is Stuck

October 10, 2008
Little John and Carolyn were playing with the different knitting rings we have around the house. Carolyn has been using them to knit several different things. She made a cute sweater for the dog. Carolyn and Little John were playing with the rings by putting them on their heads like a crown. Little John had grabbed the red ring that was on his head and pulled on it, sliding it down over his head. He thought that was great until he could not get it back off. As he started to fuss, Carolyn tried to lift the ring off of his head, but found that it was stuck. She had John try to remove it and he did not have any luck either. By this time, the little guy is crying and trying to get the ring off of his neck. John came and got me and we got some shortening and greased Little John's head. After a couple of tough pulls, the ring slid off and we all breathed a sigh of relief. It took a few minutes for the little guy to see that he was really going to be ok. It was quite a traumatic time for us all.

Snow!

October 10, 2008
Can you believe it? Here it is October 10th and we are having our first snow storm. It is amazing! The leaves in the mountains have changed and are beautiful, but the leaves here in town are still green. It seems strange to see the snow on the ground with the green trees and the pumpkins still in the field. Here are some pictures of the storm from the beginning to the end.








October 6, 2008
Fire Station
For family home evening, we went to the annual fire station open house. We got to take a tour of the fire station, try out the fire hoses, and learn about how to be safe.

John is excited to try out the crash car.

John right before the cars crashed.

John working the fire hose.

Carolyn thought that it was so much fun that she tried it out too.

Little John, Carolyn, and Julie sitting on the fire truck.

Ben, Little John, John, and Carolyn in front of the fire truck.

My Tree!!

Yesterday our super helpful neighbor, Brother Toyn, brought us a truck load of compost for the backyard. As he was backing the truck up in the backyard so we could shovel the compost out, he backed over one of the trees we planted two years ago. It bent clear over to the ground! The good news is that it rebounded to almost up-right again. There is quite a scrape on the bark but we think that if we stake it the tree will recover since it's still quite a sapling- only about 2 inches thick. He felt so bad about running over the tree. He helped us fix a few problems with our sprinklers while he was here.
But, the most exciting part about yesterday is that the electricians came! We have working lights and powered outlets in the basement now! No more using an extension cord plugged into the only working outlet. Little John slept in his real crib (not the port-a-crib) in his own room last night. He was so excited by all the changes he took forever to get to sleep. He had a three hour nap in his new bedroom today so I think he's settled in.

Choo-choo!

The cabinet installers were here today to put in the fabulous shelves around the fireplace. They were using some air compressor powered tools and the baby was scared by the noise. Carolyn and John took him downstairs to play in their bedroom now that they have the rug all set up and he can play on the floor. I had found the train box in the garage. John, Sarah, and Carolyn all had a great time trying to build a working train track while Little John kept taking it apart to chew on the pieces. It was really fun!

Peach Days Contest

Every year Brigham City dose a beautiful baby photo contest for Peach Days. We took pictures of Little John to enter into the contest. He was so cute in all of them that we couldn't decide which one to enter so we asked a bunch of random people which one they liked better and that's the one we entered. Everyone we asked was totally "oohhing" and "aahhing" because he was just so cute! Later we learned that we were supposed to enter a "head shot" photo of him smiling and they would have the winner take another picture with the peaches. Oh well. We had a lot of fun taking the pictures and showing them around.