On to the New Year!

When Mike asked his mom what she wanted for Christmas she told him a family picture.

Every year I try to take one but the lighting is never right and they never really turn out. So this year Mike found a studio we could use that had lighting and everything. 

On December 27th we headed to the studio in Bountiful.

I paid for cheat sheets for my camera so I would know what setting to put the camera on, then I went ahead and left it home. So a couple of settings were off! 

So all the pictures were off, too bright. 

I can't even tell you how mad it makes me.

 Luckily I was able to darken some of them up a little. But man, I am sure frustrated with myself!

Mike found a Groupon so we had the studio for 2 hours for $35.

So we did his family first and then my family second.

Once again, super mad about the settings. I couldn't tell on the little screen that every one was washed out. Ugh!!!

 Someday I might get over it. I can tell you that I came home and figured things out so it better never happen again! It wouldn't have been so bad if it was just our family, but it was everyone together (which isn't a super easy thing to accomplish).

I made everyone get together and then I ruined the pictures.

I guess you live and you learn.

On New Years Eve we started out at the Borgstroms. We played games and ate yummy food.

Took a few cousin pajama pictures.

Then we headed over to Trevor and Katie's house for more games and more food!

 I sure love these people! I am excited to see what this new year brings.

 On New Years day Mike and Jaycee went up to Nordic Valley to ski. It was Jaycee's first time and Mike hadn't been in a LONG time!

They both loved it! Jaycee has a pass so that she can ski at each resort in Utah 4 times. It is a program they do for 5th and 6th graders. Now we just need it to snow a little. 

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!

This year Mike surprised me with this cedar chest! It was my moms, and it was a mess. I actually had just told Mike a few months ago that maybe we should get rid of it because I didn't think I would ever get around to fixing it up.

Mike is amazing!

We've had such a great holiday season. We were able to do some fun things with the "Light the World" campaign. I hope the kids remember what is really important all year round.

The best part about the holidays is spending so much time with family. We are blessed to have so much family around.

This year Grandma and Grandpa Bailey got everyone laser tag guns. For the next hour or so the house was loud and crazy!

Later Mike and the kids went out and finished building their snow cave. It was pretty awesome!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

This year Christmas Eve landed on a Sunday.

It was nice being able to go to church. They only did sacrament and it was beautiful. The choir put on a program and they had the kids come up and sing with them. They did great.

After church we headed to Borgstrom for more partying.

We played some games, ate food, and the kids put on the Nativity.

Viv was a baby carrying lamb,

Wesley was Joseph, Bensen was a shepherd, and Jaycee was a donkey.

It is always fun to see the PJ's Grandma makes for the kids, and they love them!

This year Grandma and Grandpa got each of the kids a game, we got Twister, Watch Your Mouth, and PJ Mask.

We love our traditions, and we love our family.

December Fun

We got a little snow, so the kids were out taking advantage of it.

 It is nice that they have a pretty good hill right next door.

Jaycee had her winter choir concert. She put in a lot of hard work getting ready for it. She goes to school early on Tuesday mornings to practice and then about a month or so before the concert she went early on Thursdays also. I am so proud of her for sticking with it. One of her New Years resolutions was to be a better singer. She is doing great.

We had our first (and only) visit with Santa and Mrs Clause. We were able to go to Grandma and Grandpa's ward Christmas Party. They were in charge of putting every thing together, and it was wonderful.  Good food and a good program.

For family home evening we painted up some ornaments. 

This is a fun tradition that we do every year. The kids always look forward to it.

It has been so fun watching the kids play basketball this year. They both did so good, and I think they both liked it.

We had our Bailey family Christmas party. Amber was incharge this year. We went up to the church and had pizza and played games

Kailey made the cutest Christmas sweater. It was a fireplace (which was her phone). So cute.

Bensen loved running around with his cousins, even after he ran into Whitley and got a black eye.

I always love getting together with family. We are blessed to have such big fun families.

Wesley Got Baptized!

Today was the day! Wesley decided he wanted to wait to get baptized with Brody, so he waited a couple of months.

 He was so excited to get baptized the night before he talked about getting up early and getting his baptism clothes on, he had it all planned out.  Well, we had a bit of a late night the night before, so when we went to wake him up he was still in bed, and at some point in the night he must have got up and started getting ready, because he had his pajamas off and he was sleeping in his church pants and belt.  

 Wesley had the ward missionaries come over a couple of times to teach him some lessons. 

He did great, he even made a little small talk with them.

 It was pretty cold this morning, but could have been colder.

 I am so grateful for Mike and his good example to the kids. They sure are lucky to have him.

Mike baptized and confirmed Wesley. Grandpa Max and Grandpa Randy were the witnesses. Mike, Tyson, Trevor, Spencer, Grandpa Max, Grandpa Randy, Bishop Skeen and Brandon Buckway were in the circle when he was confirmed.

 Brody and Wesley were the only baptisms today, it was nice that it was all family or people from our wards. Emily Goss gave a great talk about how life is like a maze, and how we are trying to get back to Heavenly Father.  Then Bailey and Borgstrom cousins were able to sing Gethsemane. They all did a great job.

Wesley and Brody are such good friends, it was so nice to have them baptized on the same day.

 Wesley is so lucky, he has so many people that love him and came to share this special day with him. Besides most of his extended family, the Ward missionaries, Melissa Peterson and Michelle Clark, his primary teachers, Zack and Dawnyle Haugen and their kids, his school teacher Mrs. Harris, the primary President Tena Thompson and her counselor Kalie Weisman, and Bishop Skeen.

After the baptism we all headed back to our house for lunch. We had sub sandwiches, several different salads, chips, cookies, and some cake.

 We've never had so many people in our home at one time, it was crazy. Luck for us the weather held out and the kids were able to go out and play.

Then just like that they were gone!

I am so proud of Wesley for choosing to be baptized.