Alabama vs. Auburn

Don is so happy!!!!! Alabama won! Roll Tide Roll!

This Years Ornaments

These pictures came out better. Here are the ornaments for the year. I buy each of my kids one ornament a year and then I buy a family ornament. Also, if we travel anywhere, I am always looking for interesting ornaments that represent where we just visited. People even buy me ornaments! Last year Don had to buy a bigger tree to fit all the ornaments. I love it. It is neat to pull out the ornaments every year and remember where we were, what we were doing, and important events in our lives. This one was Zach's.

Austin was in Disney World and he found this one. He begged me for it. It is a Pirates of the Caribbean ornament. I figure I have Star Wars ornaments and Jack Skeleton ornaments, so I might as well have a skull.
Of course Aubrey is into High School Musical. If I could have found a Nick Jonas ornament, she would of been thrilled! When you open this one it plays music from the show!
Ian loves Wall-E. He even does a Wall-E voice! Funny

This is our family one.

We went to Disney World this year.

Don and I got away and went to San Francisco this year.

Black Friday

Am I one of those crazy people that get up at 4:00 a.m. to go shopping on Black Friday? Why yes I am! I love it. I got some great stuff, and this year Don came with me. Why did he come with me? He needed more Christmas lights for the house. Those of you who know him are wondering, can you put anymore lights on your house? According to Don, yes. So while I was out, Don started decorating. He loves decorating for all holidays, especially Christmas. Today was inside the house, tomorrow will be outside the house. He used to take a day off of work to do this, but now he just starts after Thanksgiving. It works better for us. Here he is putting up his village.

The tree.
I buy ornaments for the kids each year, and I get ornaments when I travel. I guess it is the one thing I collect. I will take better pictures of them tomorrow. Here is Zach's.

Austin's

Aubrey's

Ian's

Don with one of the ones we got while we traveled.

Finished tree.
This is what the guys have been playing for two days, Axis and Allies!

Today we went to the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. Ian visited with Santa and got some Ethel M. Chocolate. Yum!

Aubrey took a turn too!

At Ethel M. they have a cactus garden. It is so pretty. I never thought I would say that. At Christmas Time they decorate all the plants with lights. It is so pretty. Forgive my blurry pictures. I forgot my tri-pod!

Then we went to the Bellagio Casino on the strip to see the botanical gardens. I never get tired of taking people on the strip to see the gardens! They are incredible! They are always different. I always wonder how they change them. By December 1st they will be all set for Christmas! Amazing!

This is the ceiling of the Bellagio hotel lobby. These are all hand blown glass.

You can't go to the Bellagio without seeing the fountains! This is why we love having company. We can take them down to the strip and show them around!

Thanksgiving

When the kids were young I started doing a "Thankful Tree". I just wanted the kids to be thankful for all of their blessings. I make the tree and leaves and then every night (just for November) they pick a leaf and write one thing they are thankful for. It is very interesting to read those leaves. I thought that maybe they were outgrowing this tradition, but Zachery said that we need to do it. I am glad he still wanted to carry this on. So here is a picture of our tree. It is interesting to hear the things they are thankful for. Some in our family are thankful for water, life, The Church, prayer, food, family, and the Atonement to name a few. During the past few months I had a health scare, and I really pondered what I am grateful for. I really counted my blessings. I am so embarrassed to say that it took a health scare to really take a look at my life and count my blessings. I hope that I can always be grateful for my blessings, and not let myself be lazy like that again! (I am fine, no cancer! All is well!)

Don putting in the turkey!

Our nephew Wesley and his wife Alyssa came down from Idaho. it has been so fun getting to know Alyssa!

After we eat we always go to the movies. This year we saw "Bolt". It was so funny! We have never laughed so hard!

This year Zachery made Pumpkin Cheesecake and Austin made his award winning apple pie. Don't they look thrilled!

Thanksgiving Morning

We have certain things we always do the morning of Thanksgiving. One of the things Zachery and I love to do is run in the "Catch the Gobbler" race. It is a fun race that has a huge turnout. The Cross Country season is over, so a lot of runners from the high schools come and run. It is fun to see those kids, who were just running against each other for state, come together and just have a good time. On Thanksgiving it was still raining, but that didn't stop the race. Here is Zachery finishing strong.

Here I am finishing. I had a horrible time, but I still came in first for my age group. I hate pictures of me running. You never look like you are running.
Pretty fall picture.

I have to admit, it is fun to run with Zachery. This is the one race we run together.

Austin decided to go and play football with the ward. They had so many people show up, they had two games!

It Rains In Vegas????

Yes it does! I can tell you exactly when it started this morning. It started at 5:10 a.m., 5 minutes into my morning run. Lucky for me I was only running about 3.5 miles because I have a race tomorrow. So what do I do? I just keep running. The best part was when I came in the house and Don said to me, "Hey Kel, it's raining." No kidding! My kids love when it is raining outside. They get all excited. The news covers it minute by minute. Rain is big news here in Vegas. (O.k., right now my family in Connecticut are totally laughing!) Anyway, we love it when it rains. We live right up against the mountains, so this is the view from my front door. I love when the clouds are low on the mountains. I have to admit, I do love running in this kind of weather.

Girls Night Out

Yes, I did it. A few of my friends and me went and braved the teenage girls and saw "Twilight". It was fun to get out with some of my friends. Do I like the movie? When it first started, no. Then as it went on, the actor playing Edward did great! By the end of the movie I was totally into it. The book is always better, and I think you have to read the book first before you go to the movie. It will help you understand the movie better. There were two scenes I wish were in the movie, but what can you do? The funniest thing was hearing the screams from the teenagers in the theater, but it was even funnier to hear the gasps from the adult women when Carlisle (Edward's Dad) came on the screen. I wasn't expecting that! I had fun, and I think I need to do more movie nights with just the "girls". No, "High School Musical 3" does not count! One of the best parts of the night was seeing the new Harry Potter trailer!!!! I can't wait until July!

CHS Dance Clinic

Hi! This is Aubrey writing. I went to the Dance Clinic on Saturday. I'm the girl in the green Bunker Dance t-shirt. I had LOTS of fun. the girls there were really nice and funny. I really want to do the Dance team. I'm going to be performing in their Winter Concert! I got a free t-shirt. I got really hot from dancing. I couldn't feel my feet but the Dance Clinic was still fun. It was 5 hours of dancing! I got to see a little of their dances and they were AMAZING! Did you know that they have a special dance studio attached to the gym? I sort of felt bad that I missed Ian's last soccer game. The Dance Clinic was extremely fun.

written by: The amazing, awesome, cool, Princess Aubrey

This was held at Zach's high school. It was a fundraiser for the Dance Team. We have some good friends whose daughter dances on that team. We wanted to support her.

Done With Soccer......Done With Coaching

The time has come, the season is over. Yes, we are done with fall soccer. We ended the season with 5 wins, 3 loss, and 1 tie game. Not bad. It was a great season and the team did a great job. They are a great bunch of kids. This is also the last time Don will be coaching. He just feels that as the kids get older, they need a coach that can really teach them the game. At this age, it is all about having fun. (At least it is for us.) If we sat down and counted up how many years Don has been helping to coach or been the coach it would just make us feel old. It has been many years and now is the time for Don just to relax on the sidelines. These are some pictures of our soccer party.

For Zach's Duty to God project he helped Don coach the team. He missed most of the games because of Cross Country meets, but he went to every practise.

Don still give each kid a certificate saying one thing they excelled at. Here is Ian's.