Christmas Eve


We had a family Christmas Eve dinner at Lisa and Alex's house.

Lisa made this awesome soup,  Grandma brought little smokies (which we love)

and then we had our Fales tradition of cold cut sandwiches, chips, olives, fun drink, etc.

Aunt Phyllis handed out fun gifts to the little kids.

Lisa and I played our Sleigh Ride duet we had learned for my student's piano recital.

I didn't mess up as many times this time :)

We acted out the nativity.

Well, the kids did . . . sort of.

Austin wanted to be Joseph because that is the role he played in his preschool program.

Hailey was going to be an angel, but when things got started, fought Abby for the role of Mary.

It was pretty funny!

We ended the night with our traditional pajama gift.

This year, I made pajama pants!

They were pretty easy actually!

New Pet

For Christmas, Halle has asked for a dog for the last 5 or 6 years.

I am NOT a dog person, so . . . she has never gotten one.

Sometimes I think about the movie Lady and the Tramp, and really want to give Halle a puppy . . . in a box . . . as a gift under the Christmas tree.  

But then I have to remind myself about the day after Christmas. . . and what having a dog really means.

And when I do that . . . I remember that a dog is out of the question.

I was visiting a neighbor sometime toward the end of October, 

and she was telling me how they had been given a guinea pig.  

She showed it to me, and told me how she took care of it.

It was actually a pretty cute animal, and it sounded like something I could take care of.

I went home and thought how maybe we could get Halle a pet after all.

Not a dog, but something more than a goldfish.

I did A LOT of research.

I needed to know what I would really be getting myself into.

I checked out a couple books from the library, and spent a lot of time on-line.

After all that, I still felt like this could be an animal that I could handle!

I checked out KSL classifieds and stumbled on a baby girl guinea pig being sold . . . with the option of the owner taking care of her up until Christmas Eve!
She had the colorings that I liked, and was still too little to have any real bad habits to break.

My Aunt Phyllis offered a cage.  She also offered to watch her for a couple days before Christmas (to keep her in hiding)!  It all worked out perfect!

So we did it!  

We bought Halle a guinea pig and picked her up from her owners the weekend before Christmas.  

She was 9 weeks old when we picked her up!

We dropped her off with my Aunt Phyllis who would take care of her until Christmas Eve.

My parents were visiting for Christmas!

They brought her down to us on Christmas Eve.

Ben took the kids out for a little while in the afternoon 

so my Dad could sneak our new pet into our basement.

We snuck her in and felt pretty sneaky!


It was kind of like bringing a new baby home.

We had all these pet supplies and were so excited . . . and yet not really sure how it would go:)

We'll see how this goes! 

 I know this might seem silly, but getting this pet is REALLY adventuresome for me!

Orchestra

Abby plays the violin in her school orchestra.

This is her second year.

Here she is performing at her school Christmas concert!

Pumpkin Patch

Every year for at about the last 5 years we have gone to a pumpkin patch during Fall Break.

I look forward to this as soon as school starts!

This year the weather was so nice on the day we went.

We were there for hours!

The kids picked out their favorite pumpkin.

They ran through the hay mazes . . . and ran around and jumped on the top of them!

The corn pit was a pretty big hit too!  

We took a tractor ride.

The kids played with some friends that come with us every year.

And then it was time to go.

I love that my kids look forward to this every year!

Heber Valley Railroad

Ben had a birthday!

To celebrate this year,  we took our kids on the Heber Valley Railroad.

They had never been on a real train before!

And Ben and I have only been on this train once . . . when we were dating!

This train ride was so fun!

Gwen told me how she had asked people at school if they had ever been on a real train.  She was pretty excited to finally go on one!

Austin liked looking out the window.

Our train left at 7pm which was nice because it was still light outside for about the first 1/2 of the 90 minute ride . . . and then it got dark.  We liked being able to experience both!

Music was playing on this train . . . which was great!

I didn't feel like I had to keep my kids quiet.  

We were on the rowdy train!

The conductor passed around a microphone.

Abby was okay with a little performing!

We ended the night with some homemade cheesecake.

Happy Birthday Ben!

Lake Powell

Lake Powell.

This was my first trip, Ben's as well.

Ben has some relatives who own a timeshare on a houseboat.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, and not really sure if I would like being on a boat for a week.

But I have to say, this is one of my FAVORITE family vacations!

I think this is up there with Disneyland for me.  

And I REALLY love going to Disneyland.

This turned out to be THE MOST relaxing vacation!

I got tan (for me).

I read a book.

I only had to cook one day out of the whole week!

The weather was GREAT!

 Even though several people got sick (throwing up kind)  for about 12 hours, including me, Ben and Austin . . . it was still so fun and hard to come back to real life.

This is a view I woke up to one morning.

Abby was  watching the kids on the water . . . this had to have been around 7 or 8 in the morning.

We slept on the top deck of the houseboat.

I LOVED that!

The temperature was great, the stars were beautiful . . . .

My girls really got into the tube wars.

I only played once . . . it was a slightly vicious game.

Austin loves to do whatever his sisters are doing.

This makes Ben so mad!

Ben's Aunt Janet had brought his grandmother's button collection.

It was a HUGE collection!

Austin really got into making button necklaces.

I came home with several!

I felt pretty loved!

I was surprised at how fearless the kids were sometimes!

Here Austin and Neal (well actually, that is Neal jumping off and Austin watching . . . but Austin would jump off too) jumping off the side of the boat.

The back of the boat had a water slide that they would go down often too!

Ben got his waterskiing fix.

He hasn't gone in years.

Abby and Halle were able to try it out!

I hope it works out to go again someday!