Choir at the Joseph Smith Memorial

Jaycee had ANOTHER choir performance---this one at Temple Square in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I think she will have had 4 performances in 2 wks time by the time we are done. This is my favorite performance each year. Jaycee loves to sing---but I laugh because she usually yawns quite a few times during the songs as you can see on the videos we have of her.

Jaycee with her friends Ali and Jeana

Jaycee on the balcony in front of the beautiful chandelier

Ballroom Performance

Shawnee had her first ballroom performance today. It was really fun to see her dance. Unfortunately, we also had an important city meeting on our new business---the only time they met this entire month---so Garrin had to go to it and I went to the performance.

Shawnee in her "jammies" outfit before performing the Fox Trot to Santa's Watching You.

Here are a couple of Shawnee doing the mambo with her partner Kyle Harris

They also performed a Waltz and were excited because they nailed their lift in the picture on the left. They were suppose to dance the with their dad for one song, but since Garrin was at the city meeting, Grandpa Berger stepped in and did the Fox Trot with her.

For the grand finale, they had all the dancers plus a bunch of the dancers played instrumental of Silent Night. It was a great performance and fun to see Shawnee

PS---we passed our site plans with the city for the business tonight too. Yipee....on to step 3!

Thanksgiving

Mom, you also forgot about the puzzle all of us older kids put together. It was a 500 piece puzzle that took us about 2 hours to do. Devin, Austin, Logan, and I worked on this forever.

Bringin' on Christmas

We decorated our Christmas tree for Family Night. It's always lots of fun (not). hehehehe. We made a huge mess with all the boxes and Garrin always ends up having to "fluff" up our tree by himself. We thought a fake one would be easier than a real one...but it doesn't seem to take a lot less time.

I decided to take pictures of a few of the cute ornaments the kids have done over the years.

This one is Shawnee's little Frosty from 1st grade and she wrote her name on the back.

This is an angel I made of Devin probably back in 1991 or 1992 when he was 2 or so.

This is Kaylee's ornament from 2000 when she would have been 5 and in Kindergarden. This is how she wrote her name on the back.

Down Memory Lane.....

Well...before I start the REAL topic...I'd like to point out that memory lane is NOT as far back as some might think. There was a commercial about a show in the 1800's this morning and Jaycee wanted to know if that was back when I was little. For the record...NO...it is NOT.

We ended up going to Blackfoot, ID as Garrin's uncle Lyle Belnap passed away due to Alzheimers. Garrin and I left about 7am and got there before the 11am services. We went to the graveside, stayed for the lunch, and then headed home---arriving home at about 7pm. We left all of the girls home as they all had various activities to be to. It was a quick trip, but it was nice to see Garrin's family.

Here's Garrin with his mom Vonnie and Dad Merthan

At the cemetary in Blackfoot, I learned that Grandma and Grandpa Ellis (Garrin's grandparents ) were buried there so we walked over to their gravesite. This is the front and back of their headstones.

This is Garrin's great Grandpa Leo Turpin.

This house is the one that Garrin lived in when he was born. This is actually in Moreland, but he was born in Blackfoot. The Ellis' built this house and Garrin lived there until halfway through first grade. Originally the whole house was built underground with only about 2 feet sticking up and the roof. Later they added the "upstairs" which is really the main floor. Vonnie said she planted the Russian Olive tree and hated it, but that it was the only tree she could get to grow. You can see how tall it is in the 2nd picture. I guess it's been about 37 years since he lived there.

We drove around the farm---about 400 acres in all.

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.