New Years Day

New Year's morning I had all of our family over for brunch to kick off the new year.

It was so fun and I think I am going to try to make this a new tradition.

It was nice to have a later breakfast/brunch type meal for those who were up late the night before.

We all said one thing that we felt like the Lord was speaking to us for this next year or just a goal we wanted to accomplish.

I love goals. We grew up doing goals every new years day.

In fact this christmas my dad gave each of us a copy of all our goals from the time we started which was 1991. It was so fun to see how our goals changed and what was important to us each year.

(don't worry - my dad has on his copy if we met our goals or didn't for each year as well - we aren't anal at all are we?)

some of my first goals were:

"be kind to my siblings" - (who knew i was mean to them?)

"run the mile in a certain time"

"average x points per basketball game"

they then evolved to -

"learn to serve jordan"

"make lasting friendships in college"

"continue to seek the Lord in the morning"

my goals have changed now, but i really enjoy asking the Lord each year for what he has for me individually and us as a family and have something to work on for the year.

our church is reading through the Bible this year so that is one for me.

another one is to run a half marathon (i have a goal to run one in between each kid so i want to go ahead and get it done just to be prepared :))

i also am going to try to memorize the apostolic prayers

i have others for me and for the kids - but just thought i would share a few.

sorry for the tangent back to the new years day brunch!

jayden and emery kate

here is the spread of the food

a new favorite

time consuming but worth the work

pioneer woman cinnamon rolls.

you can find the recipe here

i realized after reading the blog post that when i made this batch i forgot to add the baking soda, salt, etc when you add the flour - no wonder they were so flat!

also i would recommend putting them in the fridge before you roll the dough out - i haven't done that yet but i think it would make rolling the dough out a lot easier

enjoy & happy 2011!

(my newest niece is coming tomorrow - i am SO EXCITED!!!)

All Aboard!

this is what it looks like outside when the kids aren't in school.

(and yes it is december and jayden is wearing shorts and a t-shirt - it wouldn't matter if it was cold or hot - he likes the shorts and t-shirt and especially this soccer jersey!)

i love how kids imagine and have fun playing together.

it is such a fun site to see.

Just a little glimpse . . .

into the amount of paperwork required to get 3 humans visas for traveling abroad

(and one of these humans isn't even walking or talking yet!)

Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with the Ogdens.

Things didn't go quite as planned in some ways - Jordan's dad got really sick with a 24 hour stomach bug from christmas eve until the afternoon of christmas day, and their

sink got stopped up on christmas eve night so we couldn't use it for the rest of the weekend.

But it still was wonderful being together.

I think that is the main thing about the holidays - you want to be with those you love.

And that was true for us.

The stockings were hung (and filled)

my mom had made each one of the kids these PRECIOUS stockings

she hand stitches each little piece onto them, it is a work of art - and something

we will treasure always!

the boys woke up to this fun pirate ship and car ramp

they love it

geoffrey working on the sink

opening our stockings

geoffrey got the boys a fun remote control car!

i think all ogden boys had fun with this gift!

we thought daddy kind of looks like an elf in this position

please notice the pants :)

my sweet little campbell isabella

we headed over to chase & staci's for lunch

we were going to have it at the ogden's but because of the pluming situation we thought it would be better to have it over at their house.

staci was gracious to host us all!

here she is with campbell

campbell under the tree

sweet duncan

the boy's had fun working on kendall and lily's lego's

alice got these adorable place mats at target and then had them monogrammed

with their names on it.

i think they are precious!

jayden & duncan both got guitars for christmas

(jayden picked out duncan's for his gift from him - i think that is SO Sweet!)

all the ogden girls

duncan having fun riding his new car from chief and alice

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was a fun day.

We met my parents at Uncle Dan's for lunch - which I LOVE!

Jordan and I went for a coffee date - which I also LOVE!

and then the other ogdens came over for a yummy dinner!

geoffrey gave us great music with some christmas carols on the piano!

taylor & campbell

alice made these precious - veggie shots

you put dressing in the bottom of shot glasses and then have the veggies standing up -

they were great and i loved how they looked

taylor, david, and greg

(this is right before he was sick - poor thing! he was sick with a 24 hour GI bug!)

andi, campbell, & taylor

jordan & geoffrey

duncan

taylor, jayden, & madeline

the pretty table

alice & geoffrey

the boys opened up their christmas pj's and then opened their fun gift from andi & david

they loved it!