New Years Eve Fiesta Style!!

We celebrated New Years Eve with Spain this year and it was so much fun!!

We had yummy food (only Scott's Spanish Tortilla and my Mom's Spanish peanuts were authentic but everything was delicious!), great friends and fun activities!  I neglected to get a picture of food or the "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" that Ashley requested but you can see in several pictures people playing games and mariachi music was playing in the background (which made me giggle).

It was delightful to celebrate as a family and to celebrate early and enjoy the rest of the evening at home with the kids.  Hopefully this is a great start to a new tradition!

 Cassie and Scott Chappell, Conner, Jon and Deborah Fairbanks, and Annie Eddy

 Jonny Hulse, Brandon Eddy, and Trevor and Nathan Fairbanks

 Eleanor, Bethany and Maggie Hulse

 Scottie, Grandma and Grandpa

 Izzy's décor from the bottom looking up

Chappell boys

24th of July

Because we spent the evening picking Ryan up from the airport and then opening presents, we missed any big firework shows so we created our own.  Ryan loved helping light them (much to my uptight chagrin).  Thomas enjoyed watching and mostly stayed put.  Ashley was scared and watched from the front window until they were all done and she could just do poppers.

 Izzy and Katelyn Whiting

 Some of the crew

Ashley with her poppers and a smile!

Memorial Day Sunday at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's graves

It was a beautiful Sunday for a visit to the cemetery.  When we arrived we drove right past our friends visiting their loved ones so we stopped because I had brought flowers to place on their graves as well.  We briefly stopped at Katrina's then headed to her Grandma's, Xenaida Sigua (Ima) who was our beloved neighbor for many years.  At her grave the Sigua clan was congregated so we took pictures for them then left our flower and headed to the flags to find Grandpa's flag.  After taking pictures there we went up to VGJ and BBJ's grave.  It is such a beautiful peaceful place.  Tommy just wanted to run and explore, Izzy didn't want any pictures taken of her, and Ryan wanted to mess up every picture I tried to take but it was still beautiful. As we were leaving Ryan asked, "I thought graveyards are supposed to be scary." It provided a great opportunity to talk about how sacred a place it is and how strong the Spirit can be when we are respectful.  We also talked about how the graves are dedicated by the priesthood.  I'm so thankful for the knowledge that we have of the Plan of Salvation.  I'm so thankful that families are forever.  I'm just so thankful.

 Straight down from where we were you could see Katrina's family congregated around her grave.  My heart was pretty tender.  I got to peek at baby Jett but I didn't get close, he's still so tiny.

 The cemetery was packed but full of beautiful flowers.

 Tommy was trying really hard to blow up the balloons at this grave.  We let him stay until he discovered that someone had left a cupcake in a container as a memorial for their loved one.  As soon as his eyes saw it we had to get him out of there!

The Sigua clan at Ima's grave

Feeding the Ducks

We went to Nielsons Grove park on Memorial Day to feed ducks and play with Laura, Bobby and the boys.  The baby ducks were darling and they liked the corn we brought to feed them.

 Laura brought bubble blowers for the kids to play with.  The kids loved them!

 Ashley and Little Ryan

 Shawn, Ashley and Ryan

 Bobby and Ashley