Deb.

Christmas 2009

Christmas was a little different this year. First it was the first time Cory had to work at Utah Valley on Christmas day. They have very strange shifts. He worked all night Christmas Eve, so our Christmas Eve festivities were held on the 23rd. Then we opened presents on Christmas morning without Shawn and Christi, before he had to go to work. It wasn't really our year for Christmas but Nick and Aiyden were able to come and Shawn and Christi didn't have anywhere to go , because her parents were going to Colorado to see her younger sister and her family for Christmas. So bizarre all the way around. But we made it work and had a lot of fun doing it!

Here I am with 3 out of 4 Grandkids. Mind you we've been doing projects all day and I don't even think I curled my hair or had make-up on. Why I'm putting this up there I don't even know!

Abby's getting started with Pink as her first choice, who would have guessed!
They all worked really hard. Their personalities came out though. It was really fun to watch each of them and how they came up with their own design.

Shawn & Abby worked on hers. Then you just blow on the dots so they'll dry.
Aiyden picked a Christmas stocking. He was fast, first and had his on the tree!
Lucas with his finally painted snowman. They all did great!

The next project was a Gingerbread house, along with some trees. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. I was pretty messy, but the kids loved it and had fun. The hardest part, keeping Lucas and Aiyden from eating all of the parts!
Abby tried so carefully to put the star on top of her tree! (The key lots of icing)
Trying to do the last little detail to make it perfect. (in other words, not letting it fall over.)

Here we are with the fruits of our Labors! It was so much fun! I think they had fun, I did!

So it's Christmas Eve, (only it's the 23rd because of Cory's schedule this is how we had to do it. But it worked) So after the fun day well it's PJ time. Abby got Hannah Montana, who she loves,(yep, she can do the ho down dance!) So when she got hers she ran in the bathroom and immediately put them on. I almost hate putting this photo up. It doesn't do justice to how cute Abby is! But I think you can tell how happy she was with hers and she ran out to show us!

Right now 3 months later, I have not idea what are on Lucas' PJ's. But he seems pretty happy, so I think I chose wisely.

I believe Aiyden got Ben 10. A game for the Wii. He seems ok with my choice.
Scooby Drew got Mario, because they didn't have Scooby Doo in his size!
Em got Snoopy and the Charlie Brown gang. She's so happy because of the pants, they are fleece and so warm and soft. We all have some now! Shawn and Christi, Cory and I have Grinch.
Yep. Even Nick got some. Couldn't resist. Stewie from Family Guy! So Nick.
Story: Cory hates Uno. Uno attack broke and he was very Happy. But I found the latest version, UNO FLASH! He is so excited, I had to tell him to stop smiling.

This was a gift for Drew and Cory to share. They both have been working out. Drew is so dedicated it's amazing. He's been doing his own work out for about a year now and you can really tell. But I thought they'd like this and they use it all the time. I did good!

My Mom is here with Christi. We got her some Christmas trees for next year. That sounds boring, but she's hard to buy for and I knew she'd like these.

Abby is so adorable and funny. This is a sweater I had a friend knit for her. She loves the bright colors,(I think Shawn wanted one too!) But this little girls LOVES little things, the smaller the better. If you give her a purse or box to put them in then you've hit the mother load with Abby! She's awesome! She might even still have some of these left. She's pretty good at keeping them.

Here's Lucas opening up something, who knows, it's small and they alway get a lot of little things. But he and Abby we're happy with all their stuff! All in all, I believe everyone was.

We were so happy Nick and Aiyden got to come from California. We missed Scarlet, but next year, it's our year. Divorce bites, big time. But handle what's thrown at you and she'll be here next year, hopefully along with Alex and Zoey! We missed them a lot, as well!

Ok, love this story. Emma spent the better part of 6 months telling me all the reasons she needed a new laptop. She had an old one that she was using and I told her all through the months of Oct. Nov. and Dec. that we didn't have the money to get them both one and that Drew needed it for school and she didn't. So here is Drew getting his, and you can see in the back how Emma feels about this. Little did she realize I had wrapped hers in a different box.(They should know by now, wouldn't you think?) But she had to try really hard for about 5 min. to keep from either crying or screaming! But she was all the more happy, as you can see.

Emma opening a big box, now she knows what I did and she got one too! You had to be there to fully enjoy this moment. Hilarious! I really thought she was going to lose it before she got to this box. Quite entertaining to watch!

A sleeve for Em's new Laptop! So much relief on her face! She's so happy! So am I. I get to use my computer now and it's great!
Yah! Books for Nick, my kids are such great actors.(Well, one of them is at least!)
A snuggi for Christi! Everyone mocked me, but Shawn got her one as well, and she uses both of them all the time! That sounds like a great gift to me!

We gave Shawn and Christi a poker set, so they can play at their house, as well as ours. No worries, no money changing hands, just watching peoples chips drop drastically is enough for us! We aren't that hard to please or to entertain are we?

As you can see Cory has his scrubs on and is ready to run out the door, so we're hurrying and this was the last gift. Shawn is writing a novel and this is the first draft. A great gift for a father who also has written a novel. Very proud! Now they are both sanding. Cory's been sanding his book for about 8 years now. Maybe one day he will finish it to his liking. That's all he's shooting for. So in spite of all the weirdness, it was fun and great to have most of the family around! We did miss Alex and Zoey and Scarlet, but here's looking forward to next year!

Thanksgiving 2009

This Thanksgiving this is what we woke up to! Yes it's a Hot Air Balloon parked at the end of my sidewalk. Emma came running downstairs and woke us up to see it. It really was quite cool. The fly around here all the time and we've watched them land a couple of times, but never this close! This picture is taken from the front window in the piano room. It was really fun to watch people get out, then more got in and then off they flew. When they took off. (We went back to bed, not thinking clearly) they flew right over our house and the balloon completely filled Emma's window upstairs. I wish I hadn't gone to bed and got that shot. It would have been fantastic! She said it really just filled her whole window up. I can't believe they can do that and be that close to my house and not hit something! It was a great way to start the day of Thanks!

Pretty cool shot, don't you think?
So here we are in Grandma and Grandpa'a garage and here are Drew and Em with their cousins, Jordan and Marcus. Jordan just left this morning for the Army Reserves training and won't be home for 6 months!(It's Jan. 19th) I already miss him!
Now some little ones. We've got Chloe, Ella, Nomers(Naomi) and Jaden! All giving very tight squeezes!
Here are Cory's parents, Jerry and Jackie and Jerry's Mom, Grandma Fullmer. She just turned 90 about 2 weeks before this Thanksgiving!
Now here is Cory's little Brother(ha, ha!) and the soon to be newest member of the family, Krista! They are getting married on April 9th and we can't wait and are very excited, she's fantastic and we all think they are perfect for each other and we love her! Welcome Krista!
Here is a picture of Cory's youngest sister Jana with her hubby Ed.

Here is his other sister Lisa and her husband, Tony. Jordan and Marcus are her boys. You could probably figure that out by looking at them. Jordan actually looks almost identical to Cory when he was that ages.

I call this another "Like Father Like Son!" moment! Sad part is, we have so many sons!

Here are the 4 of us. All the other boys had to be other places this year. So it was just Cory and I with Em and Drew! But we had a great time, just wished the other kids could have come!

Before it got too cold we decided to take a ride up the canyon to the top. You can see Heber and Midway when you get there. I should have stopped and taken pictures on the way up, it was pretty. It was also cold and Emma wasn't feeling well, but she still wanted to come. So we pretty much just hurried up, took pictures, and hurried down. Still fun just really, really, really, fast! If you know any of us Boyles, you know we're ok with driving fast, so not that much of a problem.

Em, Drew and I at the top. I love helmets shots. Who is who? This could be just some random people that we don't even know, yet we always take them? It's just a pain to take them off and put them back on. We're lazy, I admit it!
Bunny Ears really? At first I thought this was Cory, because he does this whenever he isn't watched, closely. Then looking closer you can see it's Drew in the background. That's my family, and I love them. What can I say?!
So this is me at the top and there is Midway in the background. You can't really see it, but we could and it was really pretty and it was a fun. We're lucky to live so close. It takes us about 15 minutes to get to up there and after living here 5 years(5 years next week actually, yikes!) this year we really took advantage of it. We've got a yearly pass and we still go up a couple times a month. It's really beautiful covered with snow. Actually it's breathtakingly beautiful! I just need to remember to take the camera next time we go up.
So I need a picture of Drew and Em. Em drove up, so Drew got to drive down. So I couldn't see Emma and told her so. This is the shot I got. She was a little out of it, but I like the shot.
One of my favorite things is watching Cory put the ATV's back in the trailer. You just never know. It's very manly, in fact, so manly in fact that he really is the only one who can do it. (whatever). I will admit when we have 3 bikes on there it's dicey and I wouldn't do it. We need a bigger trailer. I think it might be on the list for next year. We have a lot of trips planned (Alex is in a play next month, Em and I are college scouting and we might do London to see Alex over there with his Masters program), so we'll see if we have money left over for a bigger trailer and another 1 or 2 ATV's. It would be great and we do love them. So we'll see. (We missed a really good deal on 2 this year, that a man down the street was selling and we're kicking ourselves!) I hate when that happens. You think about it about 30 minutes too long and there gone.
Ok, best shot of the day! I wish I could zoom in on Emma's face. All around her goggles her face is covered in dirt. It was hilarious, and she already felt like crap. She was right behind Cory and I on the way up, and she was literally eating our dust. Or at least absorbing it. This pictures says it all! "Wow, I'm so glad I came, this was great! Please lets go again, I can't wait!"
So good times had by all. I too was covered in dirt and Cory must have really had a good time. That smile look like it's hurting him(I'm pretty sure it's hurting me!). It really was a great day.

Fall Photo Shoot!

We headed up the canyon to take photo's because Emma missed school photos and I wanted some for the family room. It was a beautiful day and there were probably 300 cars up there doing the same thing. We came up with a few good ones and these are the ones I like the best. My kids would choose others, but....

I never like photo's of me, but I didn't hate this one and I think Emma looks absolutely beautiful! I wish I were as photogenic as she is.

Emma and I being Emma and I. Shawn wanted us to look casual and this was what we came up with. We're just goofy, the whole lot of us!
One of my favorite shots of the year! Drew's look on his face is priceless. Basically it's, "Really Mom, you are ridiculous!"
This was about as good as it was going to get and it actually looks like Drew and that is good enough for me! He is who he is and he's fantastic!
I like this one a lot and it ended up framed in the family room with the one of Drew. We got a lot of good shots.
I really love this of Drew, he was having trouble smiling(see above) so finally Shawn took this one and it reminds me of the, fink, fink, fink days, when he was younger(like 4 or 5) and you'd ask him a question, he would actually touch his chin and tap it and say,"fink, fink, fink!" That was durring our trouble with his TH sound. Cute story, he came home from school, 1st grade and said,"Mom, they want me to do Speech Therapy. They think I have trouble with my vas, and vers. (the and there's). Do you think I need it?" I almost peed my pants!
I LOVE this shot of Emma! She's not crazy about it, but what teenage girl ever like photo's of themselves. Once in a while she'll say,"I guess that ones ok."
We were trying to get Lucas to look at us and he just kept looking down. In his defense, he didn't feel great. So this is what it came down to. Pretty much everyone holding his head up! Abby was the first one to try it and it was funny, watching her try and keep his head up. What a good little sister and she's already IN CHARGE!

Here's Lucas and Abby. Lucas actually kept his head up for this shot and I love it because you can see the missing teeth and now the 2 huge ones are coming in. It's an attractive stage in life, right! Your cute little kids, turn into I don't know Alienish looking things! Still cute, but different cute and they no longer look like your little babies.