Glimpses of Christmas

Kylie and I at her class party.
Kylie working on her craft.  The party had yummy food and fun games and crafts.
Kara was invited to a Young Adult Party and they had to wear tacky Christmas sweaters.  She was so mad because I gave all my Christmas sweaters away.  She and Christa came up with these cute creations.
We had our Christmas Eve dinner at Ruth's Chris.  It was the best meal ever, mostly because I didn't have to make it.
Reed and Shelley before.
Reed and shelley after.   Reed keeps getting mad at me because I post his silly faces.  Well here is another one.  Isn't he cute, I mean special.
loving sisters
Kara, Heather, Amy and Bryan.  We loved having our college kids home for Christmas.

Christmas Cookies

One of our favorite Christmas Traditions is making sugar cookies!  Kylie had her best pal Natalie over for the fun!

Cute Heather rolling out the yummy cookies.
Yummo!
Kara and Heather having fun deciding which shape of cookie to make.
Kylie and Natalie cutting away.
Amy, Kara , Kylie and Heather.  Sticking it out until the end.  It takes awhile to bake and frost them all.  When they are done they are so cute and really taste good.
Heather and Kylie
Comparing our stars.  We had such a great day bonding, cooking and then delivering.  Christmas is so fun!

Shawn and Bay's Wedding

My nephew Shawn Van Wagenen married one of my favorite YW Bay Boyer.  They are the sweetest couple.  Their sealing today was amazing

My sister-in-law Katherine and her cute sons in their wedding tuxes.
Kara and Lauren on the steps of the Temple.

The reception luncheon was held at the Palms restaurant in Fresno.  It was really nice.  The food was so yummy!
This is Reed and our nephew Blake.  Of course they have a lot in common, they are both pretty silly.  I can't take pictures without at least one funny face.

Christmas Cards

I love Christmas Cards.  It is one of my favorite parts of the Holiday Season.  I get so excited every day to go to the mailbox and see what has come in the mail.  It is so fun to catch up on family and friends.  I have to say that a picture is a must.  I save my cards from year to year.  I usually put the pictures in a little christmas photo album.  Below are some of my favorite cards that have come this year.
I loved this card because their picture was amazing.  How can you miss with such a cute family!
This card was so cute.  Every year Chris always comes up with the cutest card.  I usually copy her for the next year.  I also took their picture, but that is not why I love the card.  I just love the dots and ribbon.  It is soooo cute.
This is my sister Patti's card and I really loved the pictures that my sister-in-law Kerri took.  As I said before it is all about the picture.
This is Bob(my bro) and his wife Kerri's card.  I loved the pictures and the design of the card.  The colors were similar to the Remingtons card.  They just look so great with the black and white pictures.
The Winters card.  I love how they added their cute missionary son.  Also, great pictures!

Stake musical

Every year our Stake does a youth musical.  This year the musical was a Christmas theme.  It was called, "And his name shall be called Wonderful".   This is the ending scene.  I was able to get an amazing shot of them and then I made it look antiqued.  There were two Mary's, this is Maddie Roubicek and the one below is Janet Rynders.  They both did a really good job.

This is Janet and Kevin Dill.  What a sweet scene.
This is me and my great friends and fellow stake leaders.  I decided to give them all aprons for their Christmas gifts.  We did a dinner on Saturday night and cinnamon rolls on Sunday.  We were pretty busy with the musical all weekend.  I was able to sneak in and see a performance on Sunday.  The music was so beautiful.  They even did a number from Handels Messiah .  The spirit was strong, it really gave me chills.  It was a great way to start the holidays.
Heather and her good friend Jessica.
Lauren and her friends.  This was Lauren's first year in the musical.  She had so much fun going to all the practices and being in the performances.

Happy Birthday Reed!

Today is Reeds Birthday! He turned the big 50, yikes!  
This is Reed opening his presents!  In classic form he is giving me one of his faces.  Pretty much every picture he takes he gives me what I lovingly call the rupret the monkey boy face.  If anyone has seen the Movie "Dirty Rotten scoundrels",  they will know what that means.  Steve Marten pretends to be special and his name is Rupret.  I love my Rupret!
Heather made Reed a poster for his Birthday.  All around the poster she put reasons why we love him.  Here is what she wrote.   "Some reasons why we love you.....you take us on fun trips, you make us laugh, you take care of our family, you help us with our homework,  you teach us how to ride quads, ski, and wakeboard, you teach us the gospel, you give us kisses on our heads, your handsome, you drive us to activities at all hours, you make the yard look awesome, you keep the house clean and organized, you think of others and serve, you are hardworking, you are friendly, and reach out to people, you have a strong testimony of the gospel and try to do all you can to live it, you know how to have a good time, you encourage us to stay in shape, you do hard things and so much more!

I thought this was pretty sweet!  Reed is an amazing Husband and Father!  We are so blessed to have him in our lives.

Thanksgiving with the Van Wags

We spent Thanksgiving at the Happiest place on Earth.  I decided that anytime you are with your family it is the happiest place and time on Earth.  We had the best time hangin with Grandma Bonnie, The Jaeckel's, Sampson's, and Scott's family.  It was fun seeing all the amazing Christmas Decorations.  What a fun way to start the Holidays.
Kylie, Minnie, Brett, and Blake  having fun visiting with Christmas Minnie.  Don't you love Brett and Blake.  The looks on their faces are a crack up.

It was so fun to see Kara, Amy, and Bryan!  Kylie thought we were doing silly faces.
What a special family!  getting ready to watch "Honey I shrunk the audience"  We also went on the new 3D toy story ride.  It was so fun!
Getting ready to ride the Thunder-mountain railroad.  We love roller-coasters.  Our favorite is the California screamin coaster.  It is the Best.
Jenae, Jeff, Bryan and Amy!
Giving cousin Brett a smooch!  Can you tell he is loving it.