merry christmas to you!

this year we decided to send our christmas card by email. i know i don't have all the email addresses for the people i would like to send our card to, so i hope that this helps reach nearly everyone i would like to share this letter with. be sure to click on the letter to be able to read it.



we wish you all a very merry christmas!
elliot, jeffrey, maryirene, and sam!

elliot and ben . . . ben and elliot!

let's get together

i had a great time visiting old friends in provo. it's amazing how many people have moved on and how the wards have changed. it was nice to still have some good friends to come visit and catch up with. it was so nice of everyone to come and for telisha to offer her home as the gathering place. i know i've put up a lot of pictures, but i had to get everyone in.

here is the crowd of kids.
marseille, my previous next door neighbor! we miss playing outside everyday with her and christopher. i know the boys miss riding their bikes around and around the apartment complex. it was great to come play again.
telisha! she was so nice to let us come crowd her house for a couple of hours. her kids are so darling!
laura and her 2 kids.
telisha's little girl sydney. she was so darling and we were buddies for the day.
samantha and her little boy.
ashley, finn, me, sam, and julie!
launie, my neighbor who lived in the apartment below us. they were so sweet to put up with our two loud boys running and jumping above them. what great neighbors.
courtney! check out her husband's movie, the adventures of food boy on www.theadventuresoffoodboy.com, with the actor lucas grabeel from high school musical as lead character.
janine!
sammy!

sam and sydney playing catch!
elliot loved the beads!
doesn't he look like a rocker!
we really had a great time! we miss you all so much! thanks again for coming over to play! merry christmas!

our trip to utah so far

it feels so good to be home. we have seen so many of our friends and family already. here's a little post of what we've been up to so far, or at least the places we've been where i remembered to pull my camera out.

snow!! we have finally been able to play in the snow! we went over to karie's house and played with lillie, jozie, jonas, and karie.
that's jozie on the ground doing a snow angel, then sam, then lillie, and then elliot.

here they are building a snow man. we didn't get very far. hehe.

beautiful karie with handsome jonas. i love this baby!!

don't we look cute!! he's got the cutest smile! it is so wonderful to be able to hold him and get to know him a little. it has been so hard to be away while this little guy is growing up. i'm so glad to be here for a while!

eating lunch and giggling!

we were then able to play with our wonderful smith cousins!! ben, elliot, bekah, and sam are here at grandma's house playing the wii.

i also had the privilage of going to hear my neice emma perform her poetry at her school's poetry reading. it was so fun. she is such a cute girl! love you emma!! thanks for letting me come!

we got to spend a night at their house too! i'm so sad i didn't get a picture, but i'll tell you about it. we played at laura's house and then a babysitter came over while the adults and laura's kids, except for ben, went to the mormon tabernacle choir's christmas concert. it was wonderful by the way. the guest singer, brian stokes mitchell, was amazing and such a great performer. it was so great to be able to be there, especially to see my parents up there singing their hearts out. when we came back to laura's the babysitter had put the kids to bed. we snuck in to check on them and there was elliot and ben, sound asleep right next to each other on their sleeping bags on the floor. it was fun because that was elliot's first real sleep over. elliot even told me the next day that it was fun. he said, "we even talked for a little bit, but then we went to sleep." it was so cute. cousins, how we love cousins!!!

here's a picture of me with another neice, bekah, at the concert in the conference center. she's growing up and so beautiful! i love being here so that i can get to know her more.

spencer, my nephew, and i have had some good times too, talking about music and just hanging out! they are such great kids! we also took a trip with laura and her kids, and my mom, to see santa claus at the mall. unfortunately we went to the mall that won't let you take your own pictures, and i'm too cheap to pay $28 for a santa picture. oh well, they had fun, told santa what they wish for, and got a candy cane. they're good!

we then headed over to mike and jessica's house. we had so much fun. elliot and logan seem to get along so well. i love seeing elliot so happy! we really need to find a friend for him in ny. a boy his age that likes to fight for fun, crash cars, build legos, play video games, make loud noises, etc. we'll keep looking.

for now we'll play with logan and ben while we're here.

logan let us come see him play basketball. it was so fun! i couldn't believe how many baskets those boys made! he seemed to have a lot of fun. poor sammy has been sick the whole time we've been here and at this point he was tired and a complete mess, so sam and i waited out in the hall. elliot kept sitting in there and watched the whole thing. he really loves his cousins. wait did i already say that?

today we went to jeffrey's family's house for dinner. before we got started fuzz took the boys out for a ride on a sled in the snow. they had a blast.



a little random, but that is a little of what we have been up to so far. i know i've left out some things. let's see. i saw twilight and loved it!! didn't think i would, but i did! i went with my two friends, karie and katrina, and my sister becky. it was so fun. i cut the back of my ankle with a door. long story, but i'm good now and just taking it easy. i think that's about it. we can't wait for jeffrey to get here! i love you jeffrey and am missing you terribly. till next time . . .

fall leaves in ny

the colors here have been so magnificent! sadly to say most of the leaves have fallen and all the colors are gone. thanks to jeffrey and this photo shoot we have the memory. it was so beautiful. oh and did i mention those are the trees in our front yard? pretty awesome.

dressing up

watch out or they might just get you while you're not looking!!

while in d.c.

it was so fun to stop by to see my old friend mei li while we were in d.c. she teaches at a school nearby. the place where she lives was so magnificently beautiful!!

the grounds of the school and the color of the leaves made such a beautiful scenery.

jeffrey took these pictures of the boys. they are so adorable aren't they?


it is always fun to see old friends. especially when it feels like it was just yesterday when you hung out, and really it has been 5 years. mei li was so cute with my boys. running down the street, twirling, laughing. the boys favorite part i think was spinning around on her rotating lounge chair in her apartment. we laughed pretty hard. we were only there for a couple hours, but it was so nice to say hello and catch up.

hope you liked the pictures. jeffrey always does such a great job. too bad he didn't get out his nice camera. have you checked out his blog lately? upsidedownbackwards.blogspot.com

a run in with the authorities...

for more information about why we were stuck at a gas station in nj with 5 cops questioning us check out jeffrey's blog. upsidedownbackwards.blogspot.com it's a pretty funny story now, but it wasn't at the time. it all started with a large format camera and a water tower...