Melody's Visit

Since I have been such a slacker, I am going to take post about one event at a time (hopefully I'll be able to post once a day for the next few days) and hopefully I won't get burnt out posting and you all won't get burnt out reading :)

We all had a very fun time when Josh's sister, Melody, came to visit us during January and part of February. (And wish she could stay with us all the time!) She was able to stay for quite a while and it was so fun having her here. We miss her and are so thankful she took the time to come and visit us! We showed her some of the fun sights here in Utah, and Josh had fun hiking her all over his antler mountain! I have discovered that I am not a wimp, Mel didn't like hiking in snow up to her knees either! :)
She and the girls did have a fun time building a snowman. I haven't been too excited about getting outside, so the girls loved having her help them.

One place she wanted to see while she was here that we hadn't gotten a chance to see yet was Antelope Island. We had a good time and saw all kinds of wildlife - bison, coyote, eagles, deer ("big bucks!"-josh), but strangely no antelope. Hmm...

Anyway, we had a fun time together. We also took her around to see a few of the places we enjoy, but it was mostly fun just having her around. :)
Josh had a few animals in a taxidermy competition in Salt Lake City, so we had some fun going there and looking around. He did really well with two first place ribbons and a "Best of Show" award. He was excited, to put it lightly :)
Fallow Deer

Whitetail Deer

We also went ice skating again, which the girls loved! thank goodness daddy and aunt Mel were there because mommy wasn't much help, except to take pictures :)


During the time that she was here I started substitute interpreting here and there and she was so helpful in watching the girls when I was called in. I cannot express how grateful I am to her for that and just being so willing and excited to spend time with the girls. They know they are loved! :)
Speaking of being loved--Melody's awesome boyfriend proposed to her the night she got home!! Congratulations you guys! We are so happy for you. And much to our surprise, our wonderful family all pitched in to buy our plane tickets to come out during that time! We are so blessed! Thank you guys so much, we hope you all know how thankful we are to you. And we are very much looking forward to that trip and the time we will be able to spend out there with all of you!

Family Fun

We have been so blessed this past year to have so much of our Pennsylvania family come and visit us since we moved to Utah. Over New Year's we had a wonderful time with Grandpa Randy and Grandma Jeanette. They were able to visit for five days and we all had a great time! Thanks, you guys, for coming! It means so much to all of us! This is a long post, but there are pictures included, so you should survive :)
The first place we took them to was Park City. We had fun looking around, and the girls did pretty well for how much we walked. The highlight of the trip were the candied apples. To fill you in on the story: Alma has two teeth that are growing in behind her two of her baby teeth. The baby teeth are loose, but they just didn't seem to want to come out. So, we told her that if she ate a candy apple it would help it come out faster. So, of course there was an awesome candy store in Park City with about 10+ different kinds of candied apples. So, each of the girls picked a m&m covered apple.
Alma getting ready to dig into that delicious apple

Saralyn...thinking....

and going for it!

Well, the apple didn't actually pull the tooth out effortlessly and painlessly, but it did make it extremely loose which was great. So the next morning, we were eating breakfast and Alma takes her first bite of sausage (she loves sausage) and it comes right out! The blood scared her a bit and she didn't finish her sausage,but after she was over the shock, she was way excited for a visit from the tooth fairy :) (whom generously gave her a dollar for that tiny little tooth!)

After Park City we took them to temple square in Salt Lake City to see the lights. Well, most of the lights weren't on but it was still fun to see and there weren't many people there so it was pretty relaxing.

A few lights were still lit.

We thought this reflection looked pretty cool.

The next day we went to Hardware Ranch which is like an elk refuge where they feed the elk during the winter. They take you on a wagon ride right through the elk so you can get an up close look at them.
One of Josh's favs (for obvious reasons)

This poor guy was named Maynard. His one antler was down over his eye. They weren't sure if it had broken or just grown that way. Later this year after that one falls off and the new one grows back they will know. If it grows back the same way, it's a genetic defect. If it grows back normal, it was probably just broken somehow.


The girls in the visitors center.

Here are the horses that pulled the sleigh/wagon through the white and drifted snow :)

The girls enjoyed petting the horses and seeing them up close



We stopped to get a few quick pictures on the way home.


The next day we kind of took it easy and just enjoyed a relaxing day
The girls and Grandpa playing with the gift they gave to Saralyn.

The girls and Grandma playing barbies- Thanks for being a good sport Grandma :)

Saralyn helping Grandma with the dishes.


That evening we went for a drive looking for deer. Although we didn't see many deer, we got some beautiful pictures of the sunset.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Alma ice skates for Christmas. So we decided to all go ice skating together. I couldn't ice skate with them so I took the pictures. But they all had a fun time. We had no tears!
Grandma and Alma after the first time around

Grandpa and Saralyn - all smiles :)

Alma being brave and standing by herself on the ice

Saralyn taking a break with mom



After the first trip around the ice, Alma decided that she wanted to try it by herself and she did for most of the time that we were there. She did a very good job for her first time skating. I think she will remember this for a long time :)

I think the smiles on their faces show that this trip was a success!

Thanks again, Grandma and Grandpa for coming! We had so much fun with you here and we know that we are loved. We love you guys!!

Christmas

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. We had fun telling the girls the story of Christmas and trying to help them understand the reason we celebrate. It's fun to have them retell the story and see what things stand out in their mind. I am thankful for my Savior and for this time of year that we have to focus on Him. I hope that in the coming year I can be more like Him in the things that I do and say not just at Christmas time, but the whole year through. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband and two little girls that are good examples to me and remind me of what I should be doing just by how they are. I love you guys :)

Merry Christmas!

Good news everyone, our wonderful family gave us a new camera for Christmas! So no more excuses, right? Anyway, I'm going to start this post with Christmas Eve. We stayed home and had some fun together. We went out to one of our favorite restaurants and basically just had a relaxing day. Josh didn't have to work so that was nice to have him with us. Later we made a gingerbread house.
We bought a kit and were trying to make it like the picture. It was fun, but I think it would have been more fun just to let the kids do whatever they wanted. But we had fun anyway.

The girls lasted about 15 minutes, but they were so excited about the present they got from Great Grandma and Grandpa Hunt that they decided to let mommy finish it. :)

The Hunt's have a family party on Christmas Eve every year. And, although we couldn't be there, we were able to talk over the computer (Skype) and they got to watch the girls open their gifts. Not quite as good as being there in person, but better than nothing.

This dollhouse is cool because they can play on both sides and not be in eachother "space". It makes it very nice :)


Christmas day was fun. The girls were so cute. They were excited and talking and laughing together in their room when they were supposed to be sleeping. When it finally got quiet, I went in to see if they were finally asleep, and this is what I found...

They almost never sleep together, only on special occasions or if they're "scared". I thought it was cute.
Anyway, we actually had to wake them up and remind them what day it was...


We were trying to leave for Burley by 9:00, that's why we didn't let them sleep in, although it would have been nice. After they saw what Santa brought, we got on Skype again and talked to Grandma Minnick and they opened their presents from her.
Here are some pics of them with a few of their gifts...




It was fun to talk to everyone in PA and we miss you all very much!

After all that excitement, we drove to Burley to spend the weekend there. It was nice to spend time with family and the girls had fun playing with their cousins.
One of their favorite things to do at Grandma and Grandpa's house is get in the hot tub with their Uncle Tucker...



He's the one behind the pink tube. He's an awesome uncle and they love spending time with him and all their other aunts and uncles :) They are very blessed to have so many people that love them!

We also had a gingerbread house building contest on Christmas. Here are what we all came up with...
Uncle Tyler's creation

Uncle Scott and Aunt Joy's creation (notice the hot tub..nice touch)

Uncle Brandon, Aunt Megan, Kylee and Jordyn's creation

Our creation

Of all the other fun things we did, most of all it was nice just to be with family. Whether it was on the phone, computer, or in person, it's the best thing in the world to know that you have people that care about you and love you. We want you all to know that we love you too!