Holiday Gladness

How grateful I am this holiday season to have both our families live so close. This year was a special year for both Kasey and I. For the first time in 3 years both my brothers and my sister were here, and for the first time in 4 years all Kasey's brothers and sisters were here too. (which is really quite impressive since there are 8 children, 7 spouses, 19 grandchildren - one of which was born on the 21st of December, and one on the way) We are so blessed to be surrounded by family and great friends. As 2007 comes to a close, we have been able to reflect on all the Lord has blessed us with and we have TRULY been blessed. It's not always easy to combine two family traditions, but I am so grateful to have two families that are willing to share our time. It has been such a great weekend bouncing between both families getting to spend time with both. We hope you and your family were able to share this holiday season together and wish you a wonderful 2008 filled with happiness and love!

Christmas Day

This year all 7 of Kasey's siblings were in St George for Christmas. We all gathered at Grandma's house (my mother-in-law) on Christmas Eve day for our niece Mallory's baptism - it was so great to see her be baptized on such a special day. Then Kasey and I headed off to my parents house for dinner and presents over there. We all came back together at 8am Christmas morning at grandma's house for breakfast and presents. Once everything was opened, we all hung out enjoying one another's company. You can always count on a good time, filled with laughs hanging out at the Cottam's with all 8 of the kids at home.

Grandma and LaNae getting breakfast for everyone - no one gets to open a thing until AFTER breakfast

Grandma made pj's for everyone this year, so everyone hung out in their Jammie's

Danny and Hannah anxiously waiting for everyone to finish eating so they can go see what Santa brought.

FINALLY - all the grand kids get to see what's waiting for them in the pine room

Sammy got a "real" pony for Christmas. Danny and Sammy brushed and sat on the horse for hours!Santa was on the same page this year - he brought Jonathan and his cousins Nintendo DS's and they all linked together and played Mario Cart Racing. It was great. (Jonathan let his cousin Wade borrow his - so he could play against the girls.)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we head over to Papa & Nana's (my parents) house around 5pm for dinner, caroling, the Christmas story and the opening of gifts. We open everything Christmas Eve with my family, and Santa comes Christmas morning at our house. This year we had everyone home and it was so much fun. (Although, Brent almost didn't make it home for Christmas. He had gone to Salt Lake with a friend to finish his Christmas shopping the friday before christmas, and the friend that was supposed to bring him home on Sunday, left him. So Blake and I hoped in my little bug Sunday afternoon and made a midnight run to Salt Lake to get him - we literally drove up, got him and came right back) We couldn't spend Christmas Eve without Brent. It was so much fun to have Trenton, Milton and Kendra with us! We had a great time together.

2007 Christmas with Papa & Nana

Singing Christmas Carols - we are NOT the most musical group

Nana reads the Christmas Story

Passing out the gifts to everyone is my job

Kendra showing off her bag full of money!

Jonathan was so excited to get these. They are called Shinning Star Pets - they come with a code and you go to the National Star Registry and you get to name a star in the sky for each pet. They send you a certificate and a map to show you where in the sky your star is located Jonathan thought it was pretty cool!

Trenton LOVED his rocking horse that Jonathan gave him

My little Cupid

Jonathan's Wolf Den decided to act out Rudolph the red nose Reindeer for the ward Christmas party and Jonathan was Cupid. They made thier own masks and worked really hard at learning all the words. They also sang Jingle Bells. We love Sister Ross and all that she does for our cub scouts! (the lightening was terrible in the gym at the church)

What time is it?

At our ward Christmas party the high priests did a skit - what time is it...notice how MANY years younger Kasey is compared to the rest! It was a cute skit, but the napping part was a little too real! Kasey may be 20 years younger than the rest of the high priest, but sure naps like one! :-)

You pay the sales tax

Saturday Jonathan and I went shopping to finish what little Christmas Shopping we had left. We were at Roberts buying scrapbook paper, when Jonathan saw these wooden rocking horses. He asked me if we could buy 2 of them for Trenton and Alexis (Blake's girlfriend Sarah has a 1 year old daughter) I told him I had already bought something for both of them so I wasn't going to buy anything else. As we walked through the store, Jonathan kept going back to the wooden horses. Finally he came to me and said, "Can I buy them with my own money?" (Which Jonathan has his bank account that he has saved quite a bit of money in) I asked him if really wanted to spend $65 of his own money on Christmas present for his cousins and he thought about it for a minute and asked me how much he would have left if he took out the $65, I told him he would still have several hundred dollars left, which was a lot of money and then after thinking long and hard he said "How about I buy the 2 horses, and you pay the sales tax? Is that fair?" Okay, so I am standing literally in the center of Roberts with my 8 year old negotiating the price of 2 rocking horses, I was pretty impressed that he was thinking of ways that he could save money. It was pretty funny. We agreed that I would pay the sales tax and he would pay for the horses. He was so excited to come home and with the help of Kasey he put the rocking horses together, and he can hardly wait to give them to his cousins! (After we got home I pulled out the receipt from Roberts and EACH horse was originally listed at$59.99! So he basically bought one and got one free) I have to say that we have a pretty great son who thinks about others first. It was a great experience for him, and for me to see his generosity. I am excited for him to give these to his cousins.

Under the Tree

Every year Jonathan is ALWAYS trying to guess what he has under the tree and we usually tell him he can't pick up any presents or they get taken back, but just in case he shakes the presents when we aren't around, we also wrap things with rocks, or puzzle pieces in them so he will be thrown off. This year though, we decided to start a new tradition. We took out the wrapped presents that we were to and from each of us - and decided to try and guess what is in the package, including the "extra" things that may have been wrapped in there to throw us off. (you just have to make sure any toys that turn on when shaken, or have a button that might get pressed are set aside somewhere else) We then wrote on the bottom of each of the presents what we thought it was. Some of Jonathan's guesses are so far off, it was almost to hard not to laugh out loud - although I am sure a few of my guesses are way off too, Kasey likes to wrap things like gift cards in HUGE boxes loaded down with something heavy. Anyway, it was really fun, and we are all even more excited to open them, just to see if we guessed right.

It's Over...

Okay, so for the past 2 weeks I have been quite ill - thus the neglect of my blog - anyway, as a result of being so ill...Big News....I have given up DIET COKE! I know, what?!! I never thought this day would come! (Neither did Kasey or Matt - the dentist I work for) It was a clean break, we just said our goodbyes and that was the end of it. However, I would like to formally invite you all to the burial of the remaining cans of Diet Coke that are in my fridge...and I would like to take a moment to remember the good times we used to have. There was nothing like coming home to a nice cold can of Diet Coke, or a large fountain Diet Coke, my favorite though was the Diet Coke that I started each day with, but no more. It's over! I have said my goodbyes to my friends at the local Tri-Mart who have so willingly supported my Diet Coke habit, parting is such sweet sorrow...

YM Cookout

Josh & Auston

Josh, Brother Crawford, Kasey, DJ and Derek

Josh, Derek, DJ, Brother Crawford & Kasey

Okay, so for those of you we haven't updated, a few months ago they released Kasey from the Bishopric. Whooohooo! After 3 years as the first counselor, they called us both in to the Stake Presidents Office, and released Kasey, then literally walked us both across the chapel to the Bishops office, and the Bishop called Kasey to be the YM President. So much for getting my hubby back! :-) Talk about overwhelming - YM is WAY more time consuming than the Bishopric. But it's fun to get to know the ym better. (while Kasey was in the Bishopric he was actually over the ym & yw so he knows all the youth pretty well) Saturday morning they had a planning meeting with Priest and they all came over at 8am and cooked breakfast...yikes...and planned their activities for 2008. They made some mountain man breakfast in a dutch oven -outside on our camp chef. Fortunately, my kitchen is still standing - and the food turned out pretty good (according to Kasey).