Christmas!!

We drove to Utah and spent Christmas there. Here's Tori with her presents from Santa.

Tori got a pedicure set for Christmas, and I got pretty purple toenails.

Tori enjoyed hanging out with her cousin, Jace!
Tori, Bronco, Popcan and I all went to the "bobsled run" up at Fernwood campground to sled.
For New Years, we had our traditional fondue party.
We went sledding in the dark on New Year's at Andy Adams park. Bronco was grabbing people's sleds and running away with them!

It was good to see everyone, especially Rebe and Tyler who moved to Rochester, NY this year! Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday, Tori!

Victoria turned 11 on December 22nd! The Friday before her birthday, we took her friend Ellie to Old Chicago for pizza, then went to a movie- "The Tale of Desperaux."Tori's actual birthday was spent in Utah at the Melville's house, where she had reindeer cupcakes. She got a PSP, piggy bank, a picture frame, jump rope, a purse, plenty of stuff to keep a kid busy!

Happy Birthday, Tori!

Cantabella Choir

Victoria had her Cantabella Choir concert this weekend. They were lucky to be able to perform at Denver University in the Newsom center. What a beautiful place!

The choirs looked and sounded very professional. It was quite impressive!

These three girls are friends, we all are in the same ward- Victoria, Lindsey, and Ellie.

If Victoria stays in the choir for a few years, the oldest choir gets to go on tour in Europe during the summers! This summer Tori gets to stay in the dorms at Denver University for a few nights for a choir festival. It has been a great experience so far.

Catching up...

For Thanksgiving we had Scott's cousin Michael and his fiance Jen down from Fort Collins. All the food turned out great, and it was nice to have family close enough to come!Scott and Tori hit the ski slopes the next day at Loveland.

We had fun shopping for our tree, and listened to good Christmas music while we decorated. (not the junk like the song "A Very Special Christmas"- what is that mess?)
My elementary choir, the Strasburg Singers, performed at the town's Festival of Lights. I have almost 40 fourth and fifth graders in the choir!

Pheasant Hunting in South Dakota

Scott and some of his buddies: Travis, Brett, John and Chris went to the Authier Farm to go pheasant hunting.

Look at all that wide open space on the farm! The guys had fun- I think I'm now up to 13 pheasants in the freezer. Any recipe ideas?

Crazy for Jacob Black

Victoria has read Twilight and New Moon, and is in love with the books. I had bought midnight Twilight tickets for me and some friends, forgetting that Scott was going to be hunting. So I bought a ticket for Victoria, too. I didn't tell her until I woke her up. It took a minute for her to comprehend what I was telling her!

Victoria and I are on Team Jacob- we want Jacob imprinting on us! We loved the movie, and she saw it again the next night with a friend, two times in the first 24 hours!

Go Jacob!

Halloween!!

Halloween is one of our family's favorite holidays!
We had some mutant, half-breed pumpkins growing in our garden that smelled strangely like cucumbers or watermelon when we cut them open...For four years now, we have had a Halloween party at our house, we invite our friends who live out on 40 acres who don't have neighbors. Our garage gets converted into a dining hall/karaoke room. We even showed "Thriller" with our projector (Happy 25th Anniversary, Michael!). Everyone gets goes Trick-or-Treating in groups around the neighborhood. We had 52 people including us!

I make my white chicken chili, homemade macaroni and cheese, and rolls. We go through a lot of candy, and I know almost every trick-or-treater from school.These are Victoria's good friends Ellie and Kayla. Victoria was an Egyptian.

Since I've been in Colorado (I can't believe it's been 7 years), it has been freezing cold, and even snowed a few inches on Halloween. This year it was 80 degrees during the day, and no one had to cover up their costume with a coat!