Monday, January 14, 2013

Hunting and a fire

After Christmas, we headed over to west Florida to visit my family.  Every time we go, it makes me wish we could go more often.  The kids always have the best time.

Dallin had an especially awesome visit.  He got to go hunting with my brother David and niece Melanie.  Not even an hour after they headed out, they spotted a deer and David shot it.  Dallin was very good luck for my brother!

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After they killed the deer, they had to come out of the woods to clean it and remove the meat.  While we waited for them to come out of the forest, we looked at the turkeys,

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and fed the horses some apples.

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And then we got to see the deer.  Layton and Mandy were fascinated and were even brave enough to go up and touch it.

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While David cleaned the deer, we just goofed off for a bit.

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David got the deer skinned and then removed the best cuts of meat.  Here he is taking off the backstrap.  He gave us some of it and we added it to our New Years meal.

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After the excitement of the day, we met up with the rest of the family at White Springs,

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for dinner and little fire.  My brother Cliff never does things in a small way.  He lit that fire up with a propane torch.  Now that’s the way to light a fire!!!

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It was a great evening!

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After it was over, Dallin got to go home with Cliff and Chelsey to spend the night for more hunting in the morning.  Dallin’s favorite part of the sleepover – getting to sleep with the dog.  Elmo the dog became his very best friend!  Although he did say the Elmo snores just a bit.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Christmas Morning

Santa left a pile of presents for the kids!

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They came running in and tore right into them.

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Some of Layton’s favorites:

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He TOLD me he was getting a Mater!!!!!

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A few of Mandy’s many surprises:

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My favorite being this one.  Although I think I like it more than she does.  I think I’ll just have to order one for me!

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And Dallin’s awesome haul:

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Even Nathan got a few gifts.   The one from Dallin was his favorite – COAL in his stocking!

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And he even liked the one from me.  It is an absolutely beautiful CD of hymns done in a non-traditional more folk song way.  I love them too!

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After ripping open all the presents we enjoyed our traditional breakfast of crepes.  Nathan make a claim that he can put one together better than I can.  So I put his theory to the test and polled the expert world of Facebook.

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I won 11 to 0.  I think we all knew it would turn out that way.  :)

After my big win, the kids spent some time playing with their gifts.

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Even Nathan got in on the Lego Beauty shop action.

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Good times!

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we had a simple dinner of soup, salad, fruit, and bread.  I love simple meals like that.  We followed it up with a reading of Luke 2.  The kids memorized some of the verses and took turns reciting the story of Christ’s birth.  Interspersed were a few traditional Christmas songs and Dallin played the First Noel for us.

This is his first attempt at a song using two hands.  I was really proud of him for working so hard at it!

After that, the kids opened their gifts to each other.  Our ward has a Santa’s Workshop every year where everyone donates items that they no longer want/need and then the kids can pick things from it to give to their siblings and family members.

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Dallin LOVED what Layton picked out for him.

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And Layton LOVED what Dallin picked out for him.

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Mandy came away from the exchange pretty happy too!  I think I’m going to have to borrow her book from her though.  Nancy Drew brings back so many memories of elementary school!  I’m pretty sure I read every single one our elementary school library had :)

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I love what they picked out for Nana.  My favorite is the pick-up sticks that Layton gave her.

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You know she’s going to use them ALL the time :)

Monday, January 7, 2013

Layton’s School Christmas Party

Layton got ready for the 2 and a half week Christmas break from school with a party!  They played games, like pin the nose on the snowman:

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Is that some peeking I see going on there?

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For sure!

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After the games, the kids sang us a couple songs.

 

And then we ended the day with a birthday party for Jesus. 

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It was super fun!!