The day after...........

We decided to crash Kim and Tammy's family Thanksgiving party (Garrin's brother and his wife) and see them and their kids. They rented a cabin up above Heber. We drove up and visited for several hours before heading home. Tammy had a gingerbread house for them to put together

We hadn't seen our nephew Chase and his wife Kori's baby Genevieve yet...and as we all know....it's ALL about the babies! She's a cutie! This is a cute picture of "V" and her dad!

It just wouldn't be a family gathering without at least ONE color accent photo. This was cute of Kaylee and her cousin Ashley! Look at those rosy cheeks and lucious lips! Everyone had fun watching Garrin and his brother Kim do a Wii boxing match. Garrin won...sorry Kim!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my mom and dad's house for dinner! As usual, we stuffed ourselves silly, watched movies, did puzzles and played cards.

Logan Teresa Shawnee, Austin, Landon, Logan, Dad

Shawnee Austin Devin Mom

My sister, Teresa, was the ambitious one and thought we should make mini gingerbread houses....so we did. The younger kids had a GREAT time! Here they are making them.

Kaylee Deni Ryan Dawson

Jaycee Sydney Teresa Kennedy Bailey Jaycee


I think they liked eating the candy as much as making the houses. Here are all the unique finished products!




Jaycee's House Kaylee and her house


My niece Sydney my nephew Ryan


Niece Kennedy niece Bailey

nephew Landon nephew Dawson

Didn't they all do a GREAT job??

Singing...Singing all the Day

Jaycee joined the Eaglecrest Choir this year and has really enjoyed singing. Ok...so here's where I'm going to be REALLY bad!!! They had a performance for Lehi City Family Week. I was excited to hear Jaycee sing, but had NO idea that they were one of at least 20 groups singing that night (although it seemed like 100).

I had to come straight from work as I worked a 10 hour day until 6pm (late for me) that night due to an illness of a co-worker. I hadn't eaten since lunch and didn't have time to stop...so I was hungry! Jaycee's choir was early in the program---I think 3rd or something. They sang 2 songs and that was it! I then had to endure the REST of the 2 HOUR program with Garrin and Mom and Dad. We all seriously thought about sneaking out---but Jaycee was part of the closing song---all of the choirs combined on the stage. Ugh. There were some good parts of the program---but there were also waaaay too many and some not so good ones. Jaycee was cute though and we enjoyed seeing her perform with the choir for the first time.

Kaylee's new place...before and after

Over UEA, we decided to re-paint Kaylee's room as she was the only one who hadn't gotten to decorate her room 2 years ago when we finished the basement. Here it is before...........

Here's the AFTER.....unfortunately I can't really get the WHOLE room in right now as it's messy! GASP! We borrowed the neighbor's cricut and cut out the words that described Kaylee and also used the floral images from Stampin' Up. I think it turned out really cute! It's really bright with bright orange walls and a hot pink chair rail!

The Comedy of Errors

This is the backdrop for the play Comedy of Errors by Shakepeare that Kaylee was in. For some reason, I've had this post in DRAFT mode for the last month...yikes! She LOVED being in the play and was at the Junior High almost every day after school practising. She only had 5 lines this time....but has been bitten by the drama bug and is trying out for the musical Pirates of Penzance soon.

Some of the cast


Kaylee's hair that we spent about an hour on each time we curled it. Ithink we had to do it 5 different days and between hair and makeup---whew---it was a lot of work. Thanks to Shawnee who did it for me several days since I had to work

Kaylee had 2 parts in the play. She was "Luce" on the left---a servant. And on the right, she was a "player". The player puts on a mask and then acts out different scenes from the play---but with no speaking. She was mimicking one of the main characters---a guy :) HUGE thanks to Grandma Berger...without her...there would be no Kaylee in the play. This mom does not sew. Do you think we shoul dtell her about the upcoming auditions for the NEXT play??? hehehehe

Garrin's Automotive...coming soon!

Well--we found out our official date that we'll be kicked out of our current business a few weeks ago. Because UDOT wants to expand I-15, they are taking our property and we have to be out on Jan 15th. Yikes! We will hopefully be moving it to Lehi---as soon as I find out for SURE---we'll post. We are also splitting from our partner of almost 3 years and will become Garrin's Automotive instead of Gordon Ellis Motors.

We'll be building a new building and so I'm sure there will be LOTS of pictures coming in the future! We're excited for this new adventure---but it's been a LOT of work already! I spend all my days "off" from the hospital visiting the banker, the accountant, the builder, the owner of the property where we want to buy, the city.......the list goes on and on. We'll keep you posted!

Jaycee when nobody's watching

When I downloaded my pictures, I found this on my camera and HAD to post it. It's just too funny! This is apparently what Jaycee does when I'm not around and watching...how entertaining!

Here's another one I found.....

Shawnee and her birthday from a month ago!

Well, apparently it's been a looong while since I posted. I should check my camera more often as I really had things I could have put on here. Here are pictures from Shawnee's birthday---she has been 16 for a whole month now! She got her very own first cell phone. 16 is the magical age for that at our house---and she had been waiting (im) patiently for her birthday. She is also driving all over the place and I'm getting a LITTLE used to it. I worry about all the idiot drivers out there---Shawnee is very cautious. I've even had her run a few errands....ahhh.....

One bird...no...make that 5,6,7....and a NEST!

Friday night got a little chilly here---so we decided to turn on the heat and warm up a little. We didn't realize that it really never came on until we were going to bed. We decided to take a look on Saturday morning. When we woke up it was a chilly 62 degrees inside! BRRRR! Poor Garrin worked on the furnace for 3 hours before we called a repairman to take a look. The guy didn't work Saturdays, but gave him some help as to what to look for. Garrin tried all that with no luck---so we decided to call repairman #2. Well....he was so busy he couldn't come out--but based on what Garrin was telling him, he thought maybe some kind of animal had gotten down in there.

Well---sure enough....first there was 1 bird. Garrin put it all back together and fired it up. It didnt' work long before it was obvious there was another blockage. He pulled down more of the pipe and out came bird number 2,3,4,5,and 6. A little air with the compressor brought out #7. Whew...what a lot of birds....yuck! And yes...they were all dead! AND...there was a really "FOWL" smell...hehehehehe.

We thought that was it and hurried to leave as we were meeting friends for dinner. Had a great time with Robert and Wendy--it had been a long time since we had gotten together and we talked & ate for 3 hours! We came home and I told Garrin that it didn't seem like the heat was working again....so he finally had to cut the pipe apart to see more of it. He put a smaller PVC pipe inside and pushed it all along to see if there was any other blockage---and out plopped a large nest...yep---inside our 3 inch pipe. I guess they flew in from the exposed pipe on the outside of the house. Yep--the one that is now covered with screening.

I'm happy to report that here we are...24 hours later...and we are still warm and everything is still working! Yippee! Thank heavens! We got our first snow last night!

DRIVING!!

Can ya'll believe i just got my license!! It is so amazing. I already drove kaylee to the school to pick up something she forgot. It is really weird without a parent in the front seat. Anywho...stay off the roads...jk im a good driver and i promise i wont hit anyone!! :)