Winter Wonderland!

We went up to Pinetop on the evening of Christmas, and this is what we found!

A WHITE CHRISTMAS!!

Most of our family went, besides Jack's family and my very smart mom and dad! There ended up being 25 people who went! We had a great time skiing in the most insane blizzard, almost got frost bite on our cheeks and noses, but hanging out all together at the cabin is the best part of all!

The first freezing cold run!!!

and warming up in the lodge, having some laughs and lunch!!

This was Emma and Alli's first time snowboarding! They did great and Dillon and Courtney had a blast helping them out in the afternoon!

Back out hitting the slopes with the Skousen crew!!!

The drive back to the cabin...notice the 10 foot wall of snow on the side of the road is taller than our car!! This is Kristen and Dave's Tahoe - all covered in snow. And the cabin again...with all the snow on the driveway! So much FUN!

A Very Merry Christmas!

Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas!

Have a holly, jolly Christmas; It's the best time of the year

I don't know if there'll be snow, but have a cup of cheer.

Have a holly, jolly Christmas; And when you walk down the street

Say hello to friends you know and everyone you meet.

Oh, ho, the mistletoe hung where you can see;

Somebody waits for you; Kiss her once for me.

Have a holly jolly Christmas,and in case you didn't hear,

Oh by golly, have a holly,jolly Christmas this year.

Winter Band Concert!

Dillon has been playing in the advanced band this year at Hale Elementary. Last year, as you may remember, he played the drums. This year, he has been playing the trumpet...today was his first concert this year and the bass drum guy didn't show up, so Dillon played the bass drum and the bells for the concert! He has decided to play both instruments this year!

What a talented kid! We're so proud of Dillon!

Our very own Haunted House!

Well, we had a very popular house again this year for Halloween! Dillon FINALLY convinced Chris on Wednesday to start working on the "haunted hallway" in our house! It turned out really good and scary with strobe lights, fog machines, "kids" jumping out at you and up at you from inside the coffin, and even some dog poo for sniffing effects! Well, the dog poo wasn't our choice obviously -- someone probably brought it in on their shoes, but for a while I really thought that Chris had scared the "poo" out of someone! We got that cleaned up really fast!!! The kids had fun on Halloween with their friends...we hardly saw them. Luckily, I was able to get a couple of pictures before they headed out. Dillon and his friend Bennett did stay around for a little while, so that they could scare some of the kids coming to trick-or-treat in our hallway.

Here's Courtney the Spider-Girl with Caitlin a Spicy Pumpkin, and Dillon the "shall we say...overweight" Ninja with his friend Bennett the police man.

This is some of Courtney's friends, Brooke, Sadie, Courtney, Lexi, Caitlin and Page.

Amy, my sister brought her kids over for some scaring and we got a picture with Kyla, but Max and Rhett ran off somewhere into that dark hallway to be scared by Uncle Chris!

I just couldn't leave off the very best part of Halloween!