The rest of Christmas!!!

I have been waiting to do this post because I wanted to get copies of the pictures that Kara took at the Hutchison party. I'm still waiting but it's not all her fault. I need to remind her more often. I did still one picture off of her blog of my mom and dad with everyone of their great grandchildren.

We had some fun parties with some really great food. Here are a few pics of them.

These first few are at the Tarbet family party. I gave these shirts to Phil, Kade and Brady for Christmas and they all wore them for the party. I thought it was pretty funny since they didn't plan it.

This is most of the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa in these pictures.

Jaxon and Brynly were Mary and Joseph while Kara read the Christmas Story. Bryn wouldn't hold baby Jesus so Jax did. We also managed to get Brooks and Brady in this one.

These next pictures are at my house on Christmas day. Brynly is showing her cheer moves in her new Bronco outfit.

We've finished breakfast and the turkey is cooking so Kara and I were off to Maverick to buy batteries.

This was breakfast. Jessica's mom and Garth and her brother Billy stayed at Kade and Jessica's house on Christmas eve, so they joined us for breakfast. We had a great time. As you can see in the background, Brooks is doing most of the cooking. This is one of our Christmas morning traditions.

Kelsey and Brady at breakfast. Kelsey took most of the pictures so this is about the only one I have of her.

I think that this picture is priceless! Great grandpa and Great grandma with all of the great grandchildren! How many times are we going to accomplish this?

Another Christmas gone by. It really does come and go fast. I really love Christmas. I think it's my favorite holiday but this year it really came quick and I was a little unprepared. I didn't get a lot of my decorations up and it took me almost until Christmas eve to finish my shopping. I got sick this year also so that made it a little harder to get things done. I hardly ever get sick so that made it worse. I loved all of our gifts as well as sewing dolls at the Hutchison party. The very best part of all was the family time. I appreciate my kids and their spouses for their support at all of the extra stuff. They are great and it wouldn't be the same without them. It is always really neat to get with our parents and siblings and their children as well. You just can't have too much family time!

Santa came!

I have proof!!! Santa came to my house! I was just going to bed, when I heard a sound in my family room. I quietly crept down my stairs and snapped a picture. Can you believe it? After all these years, I finally caught him! I hope everyone has a great Christmas.

First Christmas Party!

This past Saturday was our semi-annual Tarbet (extended) family party. We get together with Brooks's cousins, Aunts and Uncles, eat some pretty good food that we all contribute to and then Santa comes and give the kids a gift. Here are a few pics that I took of my grandkids.

Brynly is into that fake smile that we have worked so hard to keep Jaxon from doing.

Jax was pretty excited about his present.

I thought Bryn would be scared but she was just fine.

Jordan (our niece) was a great sport. Isn't she pretty?

Even Molly was okay with sitting on Santa's lap.

Oh, and by the way, I have finally decorated my house a little but it's not worth pictures. Maybe next year.

Christmas Decorating

Since I haven't found the time to decorate my house for Christmas yet, I have decided to decorate my blog background again. I may just do this a few more times until I get my house done. It's driving me crazy! I usually do it on Thanksgiving weekend but this year, I was in Denver. Ahhhh but I am really grateful for a fun time in Denver and a nice warm house to decorate!!!

Thanksgiving with a "Gratitude Attidude"

Brooks and I celebrated our Thanksgiving a little different this year. Yes you are looking at pictures of the Denver Broncos in Mile High stadium. This was a unique and fun way for us to spend Thanksgiving. We did miss our families and the good food but we still had a pretty great time. Our hotel was attached to a restaurant but we were informed when we arrived the day before, that the restaurant would be closed on Thanksgiving day! BUT, the hotel stated that they would provide a free breakfast and boxed dinner for everyone staying there. We thought that this would be fine since we didn't rent a car and there wasn't anywhere close by to eat. SO on Thanksgiving morning, we found the free "breakfast" which amounted to a muffin or a danish. This didn't really concern us since we knew we could eat at the game, which we did and enjoyed a hot dog for me and a hamburger for Brooks. We left the game a little early (since the Broncos had it well in hand) to return to the hotel in enough time to pick up a boxed dinner. When we got back to our hotel, the staff informed us that they were out of dinners! NOW we were unhappy, so we went to the vending machines and had chips and pop! The next morning we got Brooks some pie (ya, for Thanksgiving) from McDonald's at the airport. As you can understand, we really did miss the good Thanksgiving food. I think I'll cook a turkey for Christmas to make up for it. I took these pics with my phone because I forgot my camera.

I have been going to write about gratitude for the past month but like Tami I am late. I guess my intentions are always better than my actions. I read an article a few weeks ago in the Readers Digest about having a gratitude attitude and it really touched me. The article mentions a professor, Robert A. Emmons, from the University of California, Davis, who pioneered research on the benefits of positive thinking. Emmons quoted new studies that indicated that even pretending to be thankful raises levels of the chemicals associated with pleasure and contentment. He said that if you live as if you feel gratitude, soon the real thing will come. He recommended keeping a log of everything we're grateful for in a given week or month. One major study showed that people who wrote down what they are grateful for felt 25 percent happier after ten weeks than those who did not. They even felt better about their jobs and exercised an hour and a half more per week!

Now, here's the part that really hit me....The author states that "Gratitude is never so important as during those times when everything appears to be lost. Finding something to appreciate, can save us from absolute despair--in a way that abject complaining cannot." The author also states that he discovered this truth while he was driving a friend of his with cancer to his chemo treatments. Despite his suffering (or because of it) they became more connected. The friend stated "I realized when I got sick that I'd spent years worrying about things that mean absolutely nothing, celebrating life while it's here, was most important now!"

I realize that this author most likely knows nothing about the eternities or our religious beliefs but I still think that getting through mortality with a better attitude can't hurt.

So now here is my meager attempt at jotting down some of the things that I'm grateful for this past week:

Diet Sunkist

Grateful that Brooks made it through his first colonoscopy prep without killing me.

That I can still get up in the morning and feel pretty good.

A warm house

Grandchildren

My Children

My new kitchen

Family

Extended family

A good job

That I got out of work today at a decent time

The gospel and my testimony

Christmas

Did I say grandchildren?

Laughter

People with a good sense of humor

sleep

Chocolate

Cheese fries

I'm not starving

My tempurpedic bed

Polite drivers

My insulin pump

Blue

Flowers

Warm weather

Patients that smile and say "thank you"

Choices

To be busy

Grandchildren!

Family Pictures

Beautiful children!!

We had our family pictures taken a few weeks ago. Kade and Jessica's good friend Georgiana Hall took them for us. We took all of them at the farm. Believe it or not, we found some really great places for pictures. I just can't decide which one I think is best. So maybe you bloggers can help me decide. I'm really quite happy with all of them and so it makes it more difficult.

These on the truck were really fun. We waited as long as we could stand it in the cold and with kids getting tired of it all to take the picture. We were hoping to have the sun in a little better place but I still think it's pretty good.

We still have a few old barns left that Brooks and Kade are planning to take down soon.

Outstanding in our field!!!

Hawaiian Vacation

Brooks and I had the opportunity to go to Hawaii with some good friends this past week and stay with the Egberts in their wonderful home! Once again we had a great time and really enjoyed the fun and sun. Here are a few pictures that I took while we were there. I didn't take near enough.

Evan, Brooks, and Brad. I guess they had a really hard day!!

I hadn't been back to Pearl Harbor for quite a few years. We had another chance to go again. I really love this place and the history.

Quite a sobering site. These are the names of those that lost their lives during the attack.

Brooks and Brad were able to tour a submarine that was on display at Pearl Harbor.

I took this picture of the gorgeous sunset from our balcony at the house.

The turtles were out when we stopped by.

One of our favorite places to eat. The shrimp shack. There are tons of these places around, but this one was our favorite.

We snorkeled at Sharks Cove. The waves were pretty big this day.

The waves were also good sized at the house. You can barely make out Brooks head in the middle of the wave!

Our first morning in Hawaii with a walk on the beach and a beautiful sunrise!

We had a very relaxing time and it was good to get away from the cold. (we left snow) It was all over with way too soon but hopefully we can go again soon.