I don't want to say my prayers, Daddy!

"OK, Gracie. Whatever you want. With that face how can we ever make you do anything you don't want to do."
For family prayer the other night Scott helped Gracie kneel down too. It was so cute that I ran for the camera. When I got back this was the shot I captured. I just love it.

My new Passion

So I got a pressure cooker for Christmas (and no it wasn't a horrible gift. I asked for it)and I've been canning ever since. My dear friend Christi Larson is my canning guru and is teaching me everything I need to know. So far I've canned about 30 bottles of beans, 10 bottles of chicken, 9 beef and 5 turkey. I figure with just that I could have 2-3 months of dinners and I've only been doing this for about 2 weeks. It feels so good to have food prepared and know that you can feed your family if times get tough. I'm loving it. I've also made 3 batches of Wendy's salsa and put it in the jars to can but haven't done it yet. Everyone's eating it too fast so it might be a waste to can it. I'll have to make some more I guess. Everyone loves it. Thanks for posting your recipe, Wendy!

My next venture will be planting a garden. Cross your fingers for me. I've never done it before. Should be fun.


Aren't they pretty?

Tucson Zoo New Year's Day - Warning! R-rated pictures

Scott got money for a new suit from his parents so we decided to go to Tucson on New Year's Day and take the kids to the zoo and get his suits. The zoo was so fun and just perfect. It only took about 2 hours and all the animals were right there for you to get up close and personal with. You'll notice if you look closely that we got a little too personal with the giraffes. Apparently it was mating time for them. This went on the whole time we were there and because the griaffes are right in the middle we kept catching a glimpse. Unfortunately it opened up lots of questions with Jackson so when we got home we had to have "The Talk". UGHHH! It went ok though.

Gracie was the main attraction at the zoo. We got stopped like 20 times for people to comment on our cute baby.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning I had so many kids to help I didn't man the camera so my brother did. Thanks Nate! I think.
Jackson got his WII (along with the rest of us. Kind of a family gift)
Joey was so excited to get his Leapster 2.
Jake loved his new bike. It was all he wanted.
Being the picture taker I'm usually never in any but since someone else took them you'd think maybe I'd get in a few. Nope, this is it. The back of my head. Probably for the best.
And here's Gracie with her baby dollie her daddy insisted she needed. This is the only picture of him too by the way.

Christmas Jammies

After we got home from GG & Grumpy's house we carried on with our annual tradition (and everyone else's it seems) by opening our new jammies. The kids love it and look forward to it each year. Mom does too.

Christmas Eve

This Christmas was a special one because we had my parents here with us for the first time in 3 years. My family have all been coming to my house for Christmas for years but because of my parents health they haven't joined us in awhile. They were able to come up for a week this year. Then Christmas Eve my brothers, Nathan & Dana joined us. Cameron and his family came up on Christmas day in the afternoon. We had a full house and were only dampened by the fact that my sister, Heather and her husband couldn't join us this year.

Christmas Eve was spent in the usual way with us attending a green chilli dinner at Grumpy and GG's house and then participating in the "Davey Game" (or as Joey calls it: The Old Navy game). During all these festivities we had a special visitor. Santa showed up to double check that the kids were behaving and getting to bed early.


We put Gracie on his lap and she was so tired that she gave him a look and then promptly fell asleep. It must've been so comfy with all that extra padding.

Sunday outfits for Christmas

Growing up we didn't have much money so we didn't always have traditions like a new Christmas dress. But when I married into the Howard family I was quickly taught that you had to get a new Christmas dress for Christmas Sunday. Since I've had boys they get new Christmas outfits too. Here's all the kids after church so looking a little worse for wear but still cute.

new updates coming soon

So I haven't posted in forever. I have so many things to blog for Christmas time that I've been overwhelmed and just don't want to do any because I know it's going to take forever. At the same time, I've got to do it because I'm getting ready to print my blog into a book for the year. So, get ready for lots of posts and forgive me for all the old Christmas entries.