Christmas Eve 2009

We have never really made it a tradition to open up a gift on Christmas Eve. This year our family was so blessed that we decided to let them each pick one. Here they are opening a gift of their choice! Here is Cade just getting started.

And Alyssa very excited and being the drama queen that she is. :) (P.S. Both my girls did get new pants for Christmas as you can see they were desperately needed.)

Jaida opened a couple of very cute sweaters! Here she is holding up one!

And Preston, loving another remote control vehicle to add to his collection.

Christmas Day pictures still coming.........

Alyssa's Christmas Program

I'm not sure what the schedule for grades is, but Alyssa was the only one with a Christmas program this year. Maybe it is a 1st grade thing. Here she is getting ready to show us her talents.

Still getting ready. Wow, what a job to get that many 1st graders organized and quiet. (I think there is like 6 classes with about 30 kids in each class).

Not quite serious enough, but at least singing!

Here is the whole group! So cute!

"It's Christmas" was the theme of their program this year. They all did a great job!

Hometown Heroes Salute

The first Friday in November Eric's unit had a special awards night, honoring all of those who just returned, or have recently been deployed. They called it a "Hometown Heroes Salute". It was really neat. They served dinner, and had a couple speakers.

The coolest part was they invited the employers of those who had served and honored them as well. One of the owners of the company Eric works for came with his wife! We thought it was awesome they would come all the way to Salt Lake for it. (They and only 1 other employer came.) I guess they only gave them like 4 days notice! It was definately a feel good moment for Eric when they walked in. They had to walk through the line up and receive a special plaque. We took a picture, but it somehow must have got deleted. :(

Here is the "line-up". Kind of intimidating. Each of us (wives and families included) had to go through the line-up and receive awards. Eric received a very nice plaque, I received a medal, and a nice pen/pencil set and all the kids got dog tags. It was really nice.

This is a picture of Eric's boss getting her award. She is retiring here in a couple weeks, and they are really going to miss her up there!

This event was extra special for their unit also, because they were eliminating their specific unit, and combining with another one giving it a brand new name/title. It was kind of sad for a lot of them. Here is a picture of them retiring the unit flag.

All in all it was a great night, and everyone had a good time. We had a guy take pictures while we were getting our awards, and have yet to see them. Maybe someday.

Thanksgiving.....Finally!

We were able to go up to Eric's grandmas for Thanksgiving in Wyoming, and it was really nice! It had been almost a year and a half since we had been up there, so Cade was MUCH bigger to her!

Even Preston always seems to grow a few inches in between each visit!


Eric doesn't change too much though. :)

We did have a few guests join us for dinner this year!

It was great to also be able to see and catch up with Grandpa McConahay as well!

Here is a picture of Eric's cousin Ashley, her husband Steve, and their daughter Adisyn. They have since (on January 14th 2010) added another little girl to their family...Brinlyn.

Eric's Aunt Diana, and another cousin Brandy.

All the kids. Cameron (in the blue/white stripe, and Chyann the blonde on the bottom left are his cousin Brandy's kids.) Then all my kids, and Adisyn (Ashley's daughter) also seen in the photo above.

The weather was so nice the whole time we were there. The kids LOVED playing outside!

I do love the holidays, and it is always nice to get together with family! We also very much enjoyed Eric being back home, and were not looking forward to him going back to work. But it was inevitable. We headed home from Wyoming on Sunday morning, and were able to stop by Eric's dads one more time and say goodbye!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!

Halloween 2009

Here are the kids pictures from our Halloween events. They wore the same costumes as last year. I figured they didn't care, they still fit, and they were in a different school, so it works! We have a black phantom, Dorothy, and a Pegasus!

Each year they have a parade all through the classrooms throughout the school.

Here is a shot of Alyssa.

Here is Jaida.

And Preston. (He really does look creepy!)

Then of course, here is Cade, our cute little cowboy!

He wasn't too sure he wanted to leave the hat on, but he did really well. Especially once he saw candy, the hat was forgotten.

Here they all are right before we went over to the trunk or treat!

We hope your Halloween was just as happy! :-)

Our Little Getaway!

Thanks to a good friend Megan, Eric and I were able to go on a little getaway up to Park City for a few days when he got back. Nothing fancy, but we had a nice little studio apartment, with a full kitchen.

It was so nice to spend a couple relaxing days doing nothing we didn't want to, and just enjoying snuggling by the fire!

We made most of our own meals in the kitchen which was fun, but we did hit Ruby Tuesdays for dinner before we came home.

Here we are kissing in the elevator. Eric got a new camera while overseas that he loves, so he has been pretty camera happy since he got home! :-)

We had a great time, and I decided this needs to be at least a bi-annual event!

Family Pictures

We hired my niece this year to take our Family Pics. She did a great job, and was so patient with all of us! Here are a few highlights! Thanks Trina!

~Eric & I~

~ The girls~

~The boys~

A group shot. Cade was kind of doing his own thing the whole time.

~Just the kids~

Gotta love Fall!

Eric Comes Home!

Well, the day finally arrived! On October 21st at 9:00 p.m., Eric's unit returned home from Qatar! They were greeted by many employees lining the hall with flags clapping as they walked towards us. It was great to see them!

The smiles were big ones as they began to see family and friends awaiting them there. They were so glad to be back on U.S. soil.

I had to take a back seat for a hug because my kids desperately needed to hug their daddy. Except for Cade. He was still not too sure he was ready to go to him yet.

I tried to give him a backwards hug, but Cade still wasn't ready.

Eric's uncle Russ came to welcome him home as well. I know that meant a lot to him!

Several of the officers from the unit were also there to welcome them back.

The girls even made Eric carry them down the escalator.

My parents, and my sister her husband and their 2 kids came to the airport with us.

Finally Cade decided he wanted to go to his daddy.

He got to ride the luggage cart out to the car. It was the only way he would let Eric put him down. Grandpa couldn't even carry him, which is rare!

The kids crashed the minute we got on the road.

I had hardly got to wish Eric home because I let the kids take over. Eric decided to steal a kiss on the way home while I was driving.

Cade woke up as soon as we got home. Then he wouldn't go back to sleep. Eric had to hold him and rock him, and he wouldn't let him leave his side.

All in all, we were very glad to have him back!