We Got Snow

It has decided to snow again in Utah. We woke up the other morning to 8 fresh inches on the ground. Lucas started shoveling the heavy, wet snow and by the time he was done there was another 1-2 inches on the ground. It snowed another 6 inches through the day. The photo of the suburban is after we had already cleaned it off once and shoveled the driveway. Let it snow...

Mutton Bustin

We took Emma and Nathan to the rodeo at the Golden Spike Event Center in Ogden a couple of weeks ago. We didn't get there as early as planned and thought that we wouldn't have a shot at getting Emma into the mutton bustin'. She was the last contestant entered and did awesome. She wasn't afraid of the sheep at all and almost jumped out of my arms to get on it. Hopefully she'll do some more. Here's some of the footage.

Introducing our niece Dana Leigh Mannion

My sister Darcy, her husband Dave and their son, Declan, welcomed a sweet baby girl into their lives on December 2, 2008 at 4:16pm. Dana Leigh weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 " long.

Dana was also baptised on January 25, 2009 at The Lutheran Church of Holy Communion in Philadelphia, PA.

"Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them; for to such as these belongs the kingdom of God.

The Polar Express

During the middle of December, we enjoyed a Polar Express Train Ride on The Heber Valley Railroad with my mom, and our friends, the Edwards and Fairchild families. After we braved the weather and horrible roads to get there, we had a really fun evening. We bundled the kids up in matching PJ's for the event. During our train ride, we sipped hot chocolate, ate cookies, read the Polar Express Book and sang Christmas Carols. Emma even told a joke into the microphone. Santa waved to us outside and then greeted all the kids on the train with little jingle bells.

Mrs Claus also came aboard with cookie recipes.

It was a wonderful Christmas memory that we hope to enjoy every Christmas season.

Emma and Nathan in their matchin PJ's.Emma watching for Santa.

My mom, Grammie Dana, and I. Sweet ole Mrs Claus.

Tellin' Santa what we want for Christmas.

Anniversary Weekend

When Dawn and I got married five years ago we never were able to go on a honeymoon (she doesn't know that my honeymoon has been the entire first five years of our marriage...bonus points!). We had planned on going on a small vacation on our 5th year anniversary to some place tropical and very relaxing. Plans always change (work and such) so we weren't able to make a tropical vacation. Instead we hit my office Christmas party, stayed the night in SLC, came home the next day to see the kids and then went to Eden for a relaxing night. It was great, massive amounts of snow and ice hit Utah so we had slow cruising but made it to the Lodge on Saturday afternoon. I think we were the only people in the entire hotel so we were able to play pool at the hotel pool table and take Scrabble back to our room for some intense board gaming. Although some would say that a tropical vacation would have been better, this weekend was right up our alley and was fantastic. We packed up bright and early Sunday morning to make it to church and almost didn't make it because of some big wrecks on the way home. Here are some pics of the getaway.

This was our photography tripod that we used for our self portraits...very innovative!

Emma's First Christmas Concert

Emma had her first Christmas Concert the other day. There were 8 three and four year olds singing Christmas songs to all of us. They sang Hark, The Herald Angles Sing, Joy to the World, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and the following poem;

Christmas presents remind me

that animals gave Jesus their manger

and Mary gave Jesus her love

and shephards gave Jesus their praises

and wisemen gave Jesus their gold

but most of all

Christmas reminds me

that our Father in Heaven

gave us Jesus, The Best Present Of All!

It's amazing what young children can comprehend. Merry Christmas everybody!

Winter Wonderland

The snow has descended upon us again bringing cold temps and tons of snow. We got about 6-inches yesterday and are expecting more this weekend. Our families in Montana have gotten loads of snow, wind, and sub zero temps. The kids were able to get out and play in the snow immediately. A quick trip to Target for new sleds and they were ready to go. Nathan's doing much better this year, only falling down every two minutes instead of every 30 seconds. Come and enjoy the snow if you get a chance.

5 Year Anniversary

On December 6th Lucas and I celebrated our 5 Year Anniversary!

Colossians 3:12-17
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Communion and Prayer

Our Crew
We thank God for our marriage, our friendship and our family!

Momma's Birthday

November 25th was Dawn's birthday. We spent the evening hanging out, having fun and eating the best german chocolate cake...ever. We took about 15 photos of the kids and Dawn but they just wanted to make funny faces the whole time. Here's one of them both semi-smiling.

Happy Birthday Dawn!

The Coziest Blanket

I got this blanket when I graduated from Dawn's grandma, Nola. I know that all of her grandkids received these blankets when they graduated high school but I was fortunate enough to receive one from Nola. As you can tell, this blanket never left my side. No, I didn't carry it into my college classes but I did keep it with me wherever I went. The best part was that Dawn saw this blanket when we got back together...and she loved that I always kept it. How could I ever get rid of the coziest blanket ever? Now my kids get to feel the love...

The Bike War

I came across these pictures today from this last summer and they made me laugh! It was a beautiful day and Lucas was teaching Nathan to ride his bike.

Daddy and Nathan

Forget it! -Back to the Spiderman Four-Wheeler

Ice Skating Princess

Emma is our ice skating princess............ She started ice skating lessons at the Ogden Ice Sheet that was built for the Winter Olympics that Salt Lake City hosted several years ago. It is a great facility and has a learn to skate program. She passed the first level (Snowplow 1) several weeks ago and now is in the second level (Snowplow 2) . She has a natural ability and is developing her fundamentals! She has lessons once a week and we take her to an open skate once a week as well. She loves being on the ice! She listens well in class and takes pride in achieving success in a new skill.

We started Nathan in lessons too, but he still wants to come off the ice to his mommy so we took him out of lessons for now. He enjoys open skate with mom and dad, but we'll wait on lessons for him a few more months.

Emma Skatin'

Emma passed Level 1!
Takin' a Break-

Nathan and his Bucket-

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! My grandparents came down for the weekend and brought along the best Pecan pie that I've ever eaten. Dawn and I did double duty on the turkey dinner. I took care of the turkey and Dawn took care of all the difficult items. I told her a couple weeks ago that I would prepare Thanksgiving dinner, only referring to the turkey of course. Here are some pics with the kids and their great-grandparents, Nathan ready to eat at the table and Emma and Nathan dancing. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!!

Sarah the Bunny

We have a new addition to our home...a lion head bunny that Emma loves dearly. Nathan loves it too but shows it by picking it up by it's head and such. Here are some pics of the two blue eyed blondies...Emma Grace and Sarah Madelie Jackie (Emma picked that one out!)

Catching Up On Photos

Here are some pics of our secret lounge spot that several are aware of. I think I managed to burn my entire back this day but it was a great time. The sandy beaches are wonderful and allow the kids tons of room to run. The water is no more than two feet deep for about 200 yards so the kids can wade and play. The only problem that we have is that our son seems to enjoy the taste of sand. It's usually crammed up his nose, in his ears, in his mouth and, sometimes, in his diaper. That's our "animal". We'll see you all at the Lake next year. Here are some pics of our secret spot...

Sharing the News!

We're having another baby.....just kidding! We decided that we would try our hand at blogging to give all of our family and friends the latest and greatest happenings in our lives.

Thankfully, our lives have somewhat settled down as of late. We're settling into our Layton, Utah home and meeting new and wonderful people everyday. We'll try to update this occasionally so that you can all see the newest photos of our quickly growing children. Here are a couple...