Happy 2011!

"Happy New Year Friends and Family!!!"

May this year bring you great happiness good health and may your life never be dull.........
lol

Here's to another exciting year!

From our family to yours!

Love,

Bryan, Jenny, Ava, Isaac

and (Diego & Alaska)

:)

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas.......

But really, two feet in two days? lol

This amazing storm system will be remembered............







I literally had to shovel trails to navigate around the house to avoid walking through knee-deep snow.....









I think most of the birds in the neighborhood found comfort knowing the feeder gets filled everyday. There are a lot of birds that visit our yard - which is always fun to watch. I don't know where they'd get food with this much accumulation of snow............

I was tempted to shovel off the roof of our house - but thought it might be risky....... lol
I definately did the shed. I didn't think it could handle all the weight.

The Nicest Present

Under the tree the gifts enthrall,

But the nicest present of them all,

Is filling our thoughts with those who care,

wanting our Christmas joy to share.

To you, whom we're often thinking of,

We send our holiday joy and love.

To our incredible friends and family (near and far), have a wonderful Christmas!

Love,
Bryan, Jenny, Ava, and Isaac

Exercising Honey

I took Ava and Isaac to the playground last Thursday because the weather was unbelievably nice. After we ran around for a while, we decided to go get Audrey's dog "Honey" and give her some exercise. What's a good way to wear out a high-energy dog in a short amount of time?

How do you like this idea?

Don't worry - I kept a close eye on Honey's actions - just in case she tried to flee after a cat, dog, ect..... next time I'll have another leash to guide her. She stayed close to me almost the whole time.
She did really good and actually seemed to enjoy tugging a heavy load up and down the road!

We went up and down the gravel road repeatedly. Every once in a while she'd try go and eat, I mean, play with my cat, Alaska. Alaska is not afraid of dogs. He's going to have a hard lesson one of these days.....

I think Honey appreciated this new experience ;)

I know the kids enjoyed it - and I laughed watching it :D

Candy Creativity

The Border Inn hosted a gingerbread house party last weekend. People were being so creative with their candy architecture. Bryan actually took all these photos as I was concentrating myself on my (uh-hum, I mean Ava's) house ;)

There were many more people there than these pictures show. It was a great turn-out and everyone had fun!

Hello grandpa and grandma Hanks!

The train is ALWAYS a hit every year that it's set up!

Look at all the creative candy houses!!!

Yummy!

In other news:

I was actually done with all my Christmas shopping a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday I sent out my last package - and all the cards have been sent. Now I get to relax the next couple of weeks ;)

This weekend is our Hanks Family Christmas Reunion. I'm excited to head up to the cabin in Cedar City! See everyone, sled, eat lots of yummy food; ect............

Rob and Amy - I think of you all the time and the little sweetie who's going to make his/her appearance soon! I can't wait! Rest up while you can! lol

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas Cactus in bloom...............

Decorations.............

Cutting a tree...............

Lights.........

Comfort.................

and Joy :D

Most importantly, spending time with family :)

Isaac's Birthday Party

We celebrated Isaac's birthday party on Saturday night. By the time 5:30 p.m rolled around he was already tired and wasn't the happiest one year old. lol

The family came over and we stuffed ourselves with pizza, salad, and of course - cake. Poor Isaac was so tired by the time the cake came around he didn't want any of it. He did enjoy the flame that hovered above the cake :)
The pictures below aren't the best quality, but here goes.................



Don't worry, after cruising around the kitchen for a while - Isaac decided to have some of his birthday cake after all. From Grandma's bowl! lol

He loves to dine & dash........

Cheeze everyone!!!

Sunday night (Isaac's actual birth DAY) we went over to the Border Inn for the special.
Our good friend Kassie was waitressing there that night :)

Hypnotized by the flickering flame again.......................... lol

Thank you everyone for the thoughtful birthday wishes and for the generous gifts for Isaac!! We had a great time. One year - a milestone - has passed. Unbelievable. The funny thing is that on Isaac's birthday, he slept through the night for the FIRST time!!!!! I guess he knows he's getting to be a big boy :P