Utah part 2

Utah Part 2

I had so many pictures from Utah I had to break it up into a few posts. I'm so behind, but I'm trying to catch up.

Temple Square

We went to see the temple lights at the Salt Lake City Temple with Matt's mom, Linda. It wasn't nearly as cold as it was last year. Because of that, it was much more enjoyable for the kids. I love seeing the lights there.

Here I am with Matt at the exact location where we got engaged. Oh how things have changed in 15 years - 5 kids, some gray hair and some extra pounds!!!

Brayden and I in the Tabernacle.

Skiing at Sundance - Day 2

Matt took Brayden and Chase to go skiing again at Sundance. It was just them and they had a great boys day. They spend the entire day on the back mountain. Matt convinced the boys to go down a few black diamond runs and Chase was so proud that he had a "no fall" day.

Bray and Chase at the top of the mountain. You can barely see Provo way back behind them.

Bray!

Martinez Family Dinner

We had a dinner the night befor the wedding with all of Matt's family and Brady's family. There were so many people it had to be held at a church.

Brayden, Parker, Chase and Cullen. They pretty much were inseperable the whole time. It's so sad the these cousins live so far away!

We tried to get a picture of all the Martinez grandchildren. The only way Mateo would stay was if Tony was holding him You can barely see Mark holding Suzy and Bella wouldn't be in the picture. We tried our best.

Bray and Tanner

The grandsons, minus Mateo.

There was a photographer there taking professional pictures too. While Matt's parents were posing, we took this nice picture of them.

Riley and Daddy

Tanner!

Utah Part 1

Utah Trip

Dec. 26, 2008-Jan. 5, 2008

We left the day after Christmas to go to Utah and didn't come back until Jan 5. We had a great trip. I can't believe Matt was able to miss that much work, but with his Blackberry, he was never really too far from the office! The original reason we went to Utah was for Matt's sister, Melanie's wedding. We were able to make to make a fun trip out of it.

Daxton's Blessing

My younger brother, Ron blessed his new baby, Daxton, while we were in Utah. My mom came up for the blessing too. It was nice to have almost my whole family there.

The Haslam Family after Daxton's blessing.

Brayden with his cousin, Oakley.


The twins



Mia


Sledding


We stayed in Lehi with my brother, Jim's family. We had a lot of fun hanging with them and their 4 kids. Even though their oldest 3 are girls, my boys get along great with them. And my twins love their cousin, Bryce, who is just a couple of months older than them. One day with went to a park to go sledding. Living in Arizona, the snow was a big deal to my kids, especially the twins.

Lucy, Chase, Sadie, Mia and Brayden

I had to put a picture of Mia in her awesome hand-me-down snow suit! Great colors!

Tanner had seen a cartoon where the kids make snow angels. He was pretty excited when he finally got to do one of his own.

The Triplets! We called Tanner and Riley, along with their cousin, Bryce, the triplets. There were never far apart.


Skiing at Sundance

We went skiing at Sundance with our 3 oldest kids. Matt, Chase, Mia and I skied and Brayden snowboarded. Brayden and Chase were looking forward to trying out their new snowboard and skis they got for Christmas. Because Mia hadn't ever skied before, we weren't sure how she would do and tried to get her to stay home with Grandma. She would NOT give up and we decided to let her come. She pretty much spent the entire day on the tow rope, but by the end of the day she really got the hang of it. We had such a fun day with cousins and aunts and uncles from the Haslam side and the Martinez side, along with Matt's dad.
Our family before hitting the slopes. Sorry Mia that you're cut off!


With the Haslam cousins.


Brayden with his cousin, Parker. They were the only snowboarders of the family.

Bray!

Chase at the top of the mountain.

Grandpa Martinez with Mia (demonstrating a very wide snowplow) and cousin Morgan.

Lunch with the Peterson's

We were able to meet up with some of our best friends from Louisville, Lisa and Steve Peterson and their 4 boys. We looked forward to being in Utah at the same time and actually getting together. Even though we weren't able to spend much time with them, it was just like old times.

Lisa and I.

The boys had a blast spending time with Jackson and Dallen. Chase was so excited to see his "best friend", Jackson. They are so much alike and love to see each other. By the way, they are drinking root beer!

Hanging with the Martinez Family

Matt's parents rented a great house for the week. It had 7 bedrooms, a pool table and even a hot tub. The kids loved jumping all over the bunk beds and playing pool. Now that we live out west, we don't get to see the Martinez cousins very often. The kids had such a fun time hanging out with each other.

One of the many games of Uno!


Tanner with Grandpa Martinez

The older boys loved playing pool.

Grandma Martinez entertaining some of the little kids.

Hanging out with the Haslam Family

Sometimes it's a little crazy when you have to juggle both families at the same time, but we were able to have a night with my family. We had dinner and afterwards played games and played Christmas songs on chimes. The kids really got a kick out of the chimes.

My niece, Sadie, and Brayden led us in the chimes.

We look like we were really concentrating on the chimes.

My sister, Jen, and I.

Christmas 2008

Christmas Sunday

I can't resist buying matching Christmas outfits for my kids each year. Now that Brayden' s turning 12 pretty soon, I'm thinking this could be the last year I can have him match the other kids. It's just too easy to go to The Children's Place and buy 5 matching church outfits. This is what they wore this year:

All the kids. As usual, this picture was about the best we could do when church was starting in about 5 minutes!

The twins! Tanner and Riely just love each other. I wonder if Riley realizes how much taller she is than Tanner!

The girls!

The boys! They couldn't live without their hair gel!!!

Mia and I! I tried to look a little "Christmasy".

Christmas Eve

My mom came to town a couple days before Christmas to spend the holidays with us. We decided to wait to do the gingerbread houses until she was there. When we lived in Louisville, Matt's mom always made her gingerbread houses from scratch and we would go to her house to make them. Now that we live in Arizona and I'm on my own as far as gingerbread houses, so I buy the pre-made kits!

Tanner was most interested in eating the candy. The boys did their own gingerbread house. It ended up being a BYU house. What a surprise!

Go Cougars!

Mia and I with the lovely gingerbread house that we made. It wasn't as neat as the boys' house!

The finished houses! Once again, Tanner is going for the candy!

After the gingerbread houses, we got our new PJs on, had our traditional Christmas lesson and program, looked online to find out where Santa was, put cookies and milk out for Santa and tried to get the kids to bed. Tanner was soooo scared to go to bed. He thought Santa was going to come into his room and get him. Tanner kept sneaking out of his bed and hiding in the closet. With Tanner doing this, Riley would not go to sleep either. Finally they went to sleep watching a movie in our bed. Seriously, I don't think everyone was alseep until about 11:00. Matt and I were dying! Then we got to work wrapping and setting everything up. It was so late when we finally got to bed ourselves! Christmas for parents isn't ever relaxing!!!!

Christmas morning

Brayden and Chase claim that they were up at 5 am, but I'm not so sure about that since the kids didn't wake us up until about 7:30. We felt like we slept in, even after a late night the night before.

The traditional morning pic! Santa brought Brayden a guitar, Chase an I-pod Nano, Mia a Barbie Dreamhouse (which is huge!), Tanner a basketball hoop and Riley a kitchen set.

The family room before the destruction of opening presents!!

Riley with her Princess saucer chair. Tanner got a Cars one. They love them.

These are the only pics we got of Christmas morning this year. Matt was more into the video camera this year. As usual, it seemed like the kids got way too many presents, but some of the other favorites were a snowboard for Brayden, skis for Chase, Mia got a bed for her American Girl doll and Matt bought me a bike. Once again, we had a wonderful Christmas.

School Christmas Parties 2008

This was the first year I have ever gone to all my kids' school Christmas parties. I've always had a little one (or two) at home and was unable to go. This was a treat to be able to help out and stop by each of my kids' classes.

Mia's Class

In Kindergarten, Mia's class made the traditional graham cracker on the milk carton gingerbread houses. I think all my kids have made a few of these over the years, but it was fun to do it with Mia this time. Here' Mia with her friends, Belle and Camilla.

Here's Mia with long way to go on that gingerbread house!

Chase's Class

Chase is in a 3rd grade class with more parent volunteers than they could use. So, they didn't need anymore help with the party, but I stopped in and said hi.

Chase with his good friend, Gavin. Since the kids have to wear uniforms, they love to have the occasional dress down day. Chase and Bray both chose their BYU shirts. What a surprise! Gavin is a big ASU fan, hence, the thumbs down at BYU!

Chase with Sam. He and Chase were on the same page as to what to wear to school!

Brayden's Class

Here's Brayden with his friend, Zane.

Brayden's 6th grade class played a game where they stuck a sucker in their mouth each time they couldn't guess which Christmas song was being played. I think Brayden had to put about 10 suckers in his mouth. It was pretty gross!

Twin's Preschool Party

Tanner and Riley made some graham cracker gingerbread houses too. I think Tanner ate all of the candy off of his before we even got home!

Riley was more interested in eating the frosting than decorating her house!

The gift exchange.



The class sang some of their songs to us and did the pledge of allegience for us. I'm can't believe how much my 3 years olds have learned this year. They love Shining Stars Preschool.