Ashley's visit

Ashley came for a visit at the beginning of February and we were able to do lots of fun things during her visit. We had a family dance at Alyssa's school that was so much fun. We jammed out to YMCA and did the electric slide. The kids had a blast and they had no problems going to sleep after we got home.




































We were able to attend the Draper Temple Open House. It is a beautiful Temple. It was really cold so we were not able to get pictures of the outside. This is taken in the chapel that is next to the Temple. It was fun to take the girls through and tell show them the baptismal font, a sealing room, and the celestial room.
















Jacob turned 36 while Ashley was here and we had homemade banana pudding for his "cake" this year.





















We went with some of our friends to the Clarke Planetarium and had a ball. It was fun to get out of the house for a while. The kids had fun walking on the moon and Mars and enjoyed having their friends there with them.





Alyss and Adalyn walking on Mars











Adalyn and her best friend Ansley

















Adalyn giving us a pose

John loved to climb on the rocks

Ashley showing us one of the space suits

Alyssa posing with an astronaut on the moon.

John and Holden test out there energy making capabilities

Mr. Shoe Model

John loves wearing shoes especially if they are not his. I decided to see just how many pictures I could get of him in different shoes. Here were my results.

Along with John's love of shoes he also has his own sense of style. The stuff on his mouth is brown marker. At least once a week his mouth will be a different color where he has found a marker and decided to eat it. He also eats all the erasers off my pencils. I am waiting for his art to show up on my walls.

During Ashley's visit in February she and the girls put on a performance for us. Ashley was the director/producer/song writer/announcer. Alyssa and Adalyn were the performers. Once the show started John thought it was fun to be in the show to so they had to change the progam a little to include him in on of the performances. They had lots of fun doing this and we had lots of fun watching.

Dancing Queens

Behind Ashley's blanket (screen) is the keyboard. She pretended to be playing the dance songs that the girls and John danced to. If the girls needed help with their "wardrobe" she would sneak out and go down the stairs and help them. She was great at multi tasking.

The performers in their fairy dance

Showing off their talents

John was a super hero in his dance

Accepting their applause. My little performers. I love them dearly.

I took some videos of different dances. They were so fun to watch I thought all of our family and friends might enjoy them as well. I think we are going to be looking at "So You Think You can Dance" in a few years

John's latest adventure

First I need to clarify something from my last post. At our Christmas breakfast at Thomas's house I said the only people in our family not there were Amanda and Ashley. Not necessarily true. Beth, Ryan, Ty, and Jim were also not there. Sorry about that Beth. I was just thinking I had seen you the night before, so it was just an assumption.

So, this morning John had another adventure I thought I would share. I was downstairs talking to Ashley and I hear Adalyn yelling for me. Pretty soon she comes downstairs and tells me John has gotten her cup of juice and spilled it all over. I come upstairs to find this...........

Christmas visit

Were do I start. Things have been pretty crazy here in the last month. I know I can't blog everything, nor do I have time. I am going to hit the highlights.

* We got to have Ashley over for a visit before we left for Bama (YEAH). We are sorry she couldn't come with us but are sure she had fun spending Christmas with her family in Utah.

* Santa came a few days early to accomodate our travel plans

* We left for Bama on December 22nd and made it to Nanna and Pop's house on Christmas Eve. Just in time to have our family christmas. It took us 36 hours to drive.

* Santa surprised us again in Alabama with a few things.

* We got to have Christmas breakfast at my cousin Thomas's house with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins. This is a tradition that has been going on for over 30 years. We have the best hot chocolate in the world on Christmas morning, along with grits, eggs, buscuits, sausage (2 kinds) and gravy. It is awesome.

* My brother killed two deer and my dad killed a deer while we were in Bama so I got to have my favorite marinated deer meat. Plus I got to bring some home and eat it again. If any of you have ever had my mom's marinated deer meat you will know exactly why I put this one in here. Not to mention Adalyn thought it was great that she got to touch a dead deer and watch it get cleaned.

* After spending a few days in Magnolia we headed to Wetumpka to spend some quality time with Jacob's family.

*All of Jacob's brothers and sisters and their families were home for the holidays. The only person missing was Ashley. We sure did miss her.

*The Pinkston's were nice enough to house us for our entire visit in Wetumpka (Thanks Pinkstons. We had a great time)

* We were able to enjoy lots of family time with our Enslen Family. I am sure Grandmomma and Grandaddy were glad to have a little quiet time when we all left. Not to mention a grocery bill that I am sure decreased significantly

*We got to spend some time with Grandaddy Edward and Lou Lou. Grandaddy Edward passed away Tuesday Jan 6. We are grateful for the special time we had with him before his passing and are glad we decided to make a emergency trip home to see him over Christmas.

I am sure Jacob has lots more to say about his Grandaddy. Hopefully he will post some of his thoughts (Hint Hint Honey!!)

As for me Grandaddy Edward was a great person. Although I wasn't around him often when I was I always felt loved. He is greatly missed.

*We left Alabama on Jan 2 making a quick overnight stop in Magnolia one last time before heading back to good ole Utah

* We come back to Utah the same way we left it SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great time in Alabama and really do miss all our family and friends. Because this was a special trip to spend time with Grandaddy Edward and family we weren't able to fit in a lot of visits we would have liked to. We promise to visit next time when things aren't quite so hectic. WAIT--things are always hectic when we come to visit.

My battery on my camera ran out before on Christmas day so I only got a few pictures on my trip. Hopefully I can figure out how to download pictures from Grandaddy John's journal so I can post those.

So Enslen family sorry none of these pictures are from Wetumpka. It's not because I didn't want to take any.

We got a quick family picture while Ashley was here. I can't believe we were all looking

Santa was good to us this year. Ashley got a brand new bike that is actually big enough for her to ride. Alyssa and Adalyn got babie houses. John got Tonka cars and a disney piano. They were all really happy with what they got.

This is a picture of what we had to drive through to and from Alburquerque. This is only when the snow stopped and cleared enough for me to take a picture.

Thank goodness for car DVD players. I am not going to tell you how many movies they watched on our trip. Lets just say it kept them quiet and happy.

Mom loves to hand out the presents to the grandkids. We have to wait for each kid to open their present before the next one can start. It is great. Jacob and Alyssa build a tower with some the blocks Olivia got for Christmas.

This is the 7 point (I think it was a 7 point) my brother Billy killed. Adalyn thought it was great to watch them clean the deer.

Thiswas at Thomas's house for Christmas breakfast. Everyone except Billy's wife Amanda and Ashley were there. John liked the horses Thomas had at his house. Notice the short sleeves some are wearing. That is because it is about 70 degrees on this day. It was awesome and the kids came home filthy from playing in the yard and woods in from of Thomas's house.

Random shots and video

At the Smith's Grocery store here they have little buggies for the kids. This is a good and bad thing. The kids love it, but it makes your shopping trip go about twice. Why you ask? Well when you have a 18 month old he is more interested in what is going on around him so he ran into things often. He would stop and check out a more interesting thing in the store rather than push his buggy. He refused to allow mom to give him any assistance whatsoever. He had to give each person he passed a big smile and show them what a big boy he was.
In the end we wound up ditching the kid buggy about half way through the store. This in the end caused huge melt down from my little man, but in the end we were able to finally get all the shopping done before the day ended.

Adalyn and John were very cute in their apparel they picked to wear for today. Notice John's shoes (they are my clogs). His hat is a hat I made for Jacob one year for Halloween when he was Snow White's (Ashley) prince.

Adalyn is sporting some very cute dress up shoes, a maroon scarf and a knitted hat. Also that white thing she is holding is actually shelving cover. She decided to use it as a skirt and had me tape it on her.

I love music and you will often find us dancing around our house to music. Check out our future So You Think You Can Dance Winners below.

Oh. If anyone knows how to get the video's turned the right way I would love to know. I am sure you would rather watch them without having to turn your head sideways.

Christmas musicals

December 9, 2008, THE NUTCRACKER BALLET
One of my neighbors gave me the idea for this. Each year she takes her daughter to see the nutcracker. They dress up in their best and she gives her daughter a nutcraker to take to the play.
I decided to start this tradition with the girls. They were so excited. They watched with large eyes as the play unfolded. Adalyn talked about the play through the whole first half. You could tell she was so excited. The second half was a little more mellow. Adalyn fell asleep shortly after the intermission ended. I had to keep talking to Alyssa so she would not fall asleep. I will look forward to this tradition each year.
I will also try and remember to get pictures of us together before the play instead of after.

December 10, 2008

Relief Society Christmas Play

My calling at church is the chorister in Relief Society. This has been a hard calling for me. I know it should be the easiest calling, but it was totally out of my comfort zone. Anyway, I was able to help plan and direct the the Christmas play. We performed the Play "the 10 Virgins". The book for this play is sold at Deseret Book and is really amazing. It is a musical with each character singing a solo. It was a little difficult to find 11 people who were willing to sing solos, but we did. I am always amazed at how the Lord's hand is in all things from the greatest to the smallest things.

This play was amazing and I was so glad to be a part of it (even if it was directing)