Bear Lake Cabin

Several years ago my sister Chirstine and her husband bought a cabin in Bear Lake.  Das and I haven't had a chance until now to get up there with them to check it out.  This is the view of the lake from the patio. 

 We headed up there Friday morning and stayed until Sunday afternoon.  Christine came up there with her two kids and her brother in law Dan came up to do a little hunting and brought his cute family up for Friday night.

 So a bit about their cabin.  It is beautiful!  You walk into the main floor that has the kitchen, family room, and two master bedrooms.  Both bedrooms were furnished with king sized beds, showers, bathtubs, and fireplaces.

The basement has two full bathrooms, and six bedrooms.  Two bedrooms had queen size beds and 4 had bunkbeds with the full bottom.  A ladder from the side of the kitchen takes you up into a small loft with 4 twin beds.  So it sleeps a total of 24 people!

And I can't leave out all their toys:  fourwheelers, a six person ranger (us up top) snowmobiles, and wave runners.  We bundled the kids up for a small ride on the ranger.  It was just noisy and bumpy enough to put Logan to sleep.

Unfortunately there wasn't enough snow to go sledding and the wind was blowing strongly.  So we spent most of the time indoors just relaxing and playing games.  Saturday Dan and his family went home, and Craig came up when he got off work.  We all climbed into bed and I had Das turn our fire on cuz I got cold the night before.  Around 2am we were both stripping down and throwing blankets off until I finally told Das to turn it off.  And then the wind was howling all night long.  We woke up, cleaned up, and packed up to head home. 

Logan giving Griffin kisses.

We really enjoyed spending time with Craig and Christine.  They are so generous to let people use their cabin.  They have even given us a weekend to take up some of our friends.  We are looking forward to it.

Thanks again for sharing your amazing cabin with us.  We had a wonderful time!

Great family! Good friends! And the best of times!

Logan and more Logan

 What would we do without our sweet Logan!?  Everyday is something new with him. I can't believe how fast he is growing. He loves his daddy and big brothers so much.

A few months ago we bought a gate to keep him from going upstairs.  That obviously hasn't worked out so well.

And when he gets to the top, he thinks he is so funny and will sit on the edge laughing.  Scares me to death, but he has learned to come back down, so I think the gate will come down as well.

 Any time we pull out the computer, iphones, itouches......Logan is instantly by our side ready to play.  He manuevers them pretty well. The other day we did face time with Das while Das was sitting next to us on the couch. He thought that was pretty great.

Das took this picture last week of him being very persistent to go play with his brothers upstairs.

And he got stuck!  I am sure one of these days he will fall down the stairs.  It's bound to happen.  But at least we tried.  A few other little things he does...fakes laughing when we are all laughing at something.  Says the word sh**.  Well at least that's what it sounds like.  Says here kitty kitty, or at least tries. Says dada.  Signs "eat" and "play". He makes a grunting noise while turning his face red.(constipation sound) He sticks his tongue out and spits when he is angry.  He has started hitting us when he isn't getting his way...which isn't often.  And my favorite...he gives slobbery kisses and loves.

New Years Eve 2011

Joe and Kelly Johannessen were so kind to have a party at their home this year.  A kid friendly party that was awesome. 

The night started out with pizza and snacks.  And while the kids played, the adults chatted and relaxed.  Joe and Kelly have a nifty toy room in their basement where most of the kids hung out. 

It was someones (good) idea to celebrate New Years Eastern time for the kids and then get them to bed.   

They then passed out a bunch of blowers and hats for the kids.  Das had bought the boys confetti guns from the dollar store.  It was pretty cool, and messy. 

I love Ellie!  She is gonna come live with me if I don't ever get a girl.:)  After the celebration for the kids, the dads took them outside for fireworks. 

Before settling the kids down for the night, we took some pictures. 

The Kids!

The group!  Joe and Frank, Kristi and Jeff, Joe and Kelly, Das and me, Leesa and Kevin 

The Boys! 

The Women! 

Thanks Joe and Kelly for daring to host the chaos!  Your home is beautiful and the company was great as always.  Hopefully you guys will want to do it again next year.:)  Maybe one day when we have a bigger home, we will host one. Most everyone was staying the night. They had a couple of rooms set up and those who could brought sleeping bags. We had my nephews homecoming to be to early Sunday morning, so we weren't able to sleep over this year.  When we got home, the boys were out real quick. It was only 15 minutes until midnight, but I was beat.  I told Das to come give me a kiss at the New Year.  He almost fell asleep himself.lol  but I got my New Years kiss.  All was bliss...until the fireworks started going off.  Logan woke up and I had to put him into bed with us.  I am sure if I wasn't pregnant and so tired all the time.....we would have been letting off our own fireworks.  Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas morning 2011

Santa was good to us this year.  Christmas morning the boys woke up at their un-regular hour and laid on our bed until Logan woke up.  We then had them each walk out to see how good Santa thought they had been this year.  Tristan had been really worried about it the night before. 

Everyone was very happy with what they got.  The boys got lots of fun stuff.  Bay blades, Lego's, wii games, air hogs, remote control cars, Dr Dreadful Zombie Lab and lots more.   

We bought Logan a little piano and drum with other instruments inside.  And a little talking ladybug.  And each of them got an outfit to wear.  Oh, and don't forget the underwear Santa always leaves in their stockings.  Das got me a gift card to Nordstrom, a 90 minute massage, and my favorite candy...penuche (that was gone fast.)  I bought Das a racquetball racquet, balls, a gift card to Cabella's, and 4 UofU football tickets and 2 Jazz tickets for next season.  Our big gift was a new mattress.  It has been wonderful!  I have gotten the best nights sleep.  I didn't realize how bad our other mattress was until now.  And Das also purchased us a smoker/fryer that I cannot wait to try out! (really he will be doing the cooking with it)

We didn't get very many pictures Christmas day.  My oldest sister Lynette and her husband stopped by in the afternoon for a visit.  Last year she gave me a recipe for her sausage egg casserole that we have made a tradition to eat for breakfast.  And then I stuck a roast in the crock pot to make french dip sandwiches for dinner.  We had Das's brother Rama join us in the evening for dinner and to visit (and to watch the Bears lose to the Packers).

It was a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends!

Christmas Eve continued...

 My parents have such energy to have everyone over on Christmas Eve.  We are so thankful for all they do for us.

 You would never guess that my parents are in their seventies.  They still are so full of love and life.  I look forward to every minute spent with them.

After we ate, the kids got dressed up to act out the Nativity.  Ashton was Joseph this year. 

After the Nativity, all the kids opened up their PJ's.   

Every year we take a sister picture with my mother.  I love having sisters! 

This year we decided to add all the nieces to the photo.  It is so wonderful having a large family. 

And then we thought, why stop there?  We got all the men together for a group shot.  We all then headed home to get ready for Santa.  When we got home, we pulled up the Internet to track Santa.  He was getting close, so we had the boys hurry to bed.  It was a very long and exhausting day, but so wonderful spending it with family.  I am so thankful for our Saviour and for his atonement.   Christmas is my favorite time of year.  All though I get stressed and overwhelmed, it is still such a special time.  We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve at the Weidner's(part 1)

By the time we got to my parents house, they had already started dinner.  So we grabbed us a plate and proceeded to stuff our faces again.  I love being pregnant over the Holidays.  I can eat, and not worry to much about the weight gain. lol 

I of course was camera happy, so I carried Das's phone around with me. 

Amy and Mont VanWagenen

My mother, and Rebecca.  And this is where the night ended.  Well, not exactly true.  I headed into use the restroom.  As I prepared to sit on the toilet I heard a plink and plunk.  I was horrified to turn around.  Could this really be happening to me....AGAIN?!  Sure enough, Das's iphone was in the toilet.  I snatched it out, wiped it off, said a little prayer that Das wouldn't kill me, and headed to hide.  As I headed to find some rice, I ran into Das and told him what I had done.  Can I just say I have such a wonderful husband?  He is so patient and kind.  I knew he had to be upset, but he didn't show it.  So the night did continue.  Just waiting on pictures from siblings to post more.  And as for the iphone....It Survived!!!  It spent 3 days in some rice and came out just fine.  It must have been that little prayer I said.

To be Continued.....

Christmas Eve Afternoon

Christmas Eve was originally supposed to be at the Freeman's house this year.  But I have never missed a Christmas Eve at my parents house, so thanks to Mirabai holding her party earlier, we were able to make both. 

We all met up around 1:00 for lunch.(Well, most of us.  The Velasquez family had a rough time getting there.lol)  Aunt Kay, with her two daughters, Margie, and Ana, and Margie's boyfriend Chris, all proceeded to walk into what the thought was the Freeman home.  Took a look around, and realized the pictures on the wall were not of anyone they recognized.  Margie hurried and rushed everyone out of the home and back into the car with the family running after them.  What a hoot! 

After filling our bellies with delicious food Mirabai prepared, we gathered around to exchange gifts. 

 It went from youngest to oldest.  Keli had drawn Scott's name and she definitely made him work for his gift.  I think she wrapped 10 different boxes stuffed inside of each other.  He thought it was great.  Mira chose my name, and bought me "Real Mom's Kitchen" cookbook!  I am so excited!

While Mirabai got dessert ready, I wanted to get family pictures.  Above is the Jettie clan.

Rama, Ratha, Alma, Das, Keli, and Mirabai.   

Das Jettie's clan

Ms. Keli and her boyfriend Randy.

Ratha, Racie, and Boston Jettie

The Velasquez Family

Ana, Aunt Kay, and Margie.(missing Natasha)

The Freeman's

Scott, Mark, Melissa, Mirabai, and Josh

Margie and her bf Chris.  Mirabai is always such a gracious host.  We really do appreciate her hospitality and hard work to get everyone together.  After dessert we packed everyone up and headed into my side of the family for dinner.