Christmas 2010

OK, so I need to add some pictures of Christmas this year, but at least I can tell you about it in the meantime.  (These pictures are of Drake and his girlfriend, Emma Leavitt.  We took this picture the same day we were making our snowman).  This Christmas was awesome.  I think all the kids were happy with end result.  Madison’s big item this year was an itouch.  We haven’t seen her since we gave it to her.  She has excitedly been downloading apps and giving it her own personal touch.  Gabrielle wanted some remote control things to have so she could keep up with the boys on our street.  I figured she could hang with a truck to go crazy down the rocks, and race car, and then we went over the top with a helicopter that can take pictures and videos for you to download to the computer.  It’s amazing how cheap remote controlled cars are nowadays.  Hopefully Gabs won’t have them broken in a day.  We’ll see.  Drake’s favorite things this year was additional train tracks and trains to complement his set from last year and a battery-powered car he can sit on and ride.  He has taken it on laps all around the house.  Gabs was complaining about the noise after his 200th lap, but the battery is still going strong (fast forward two weeks, and we still haven’t had to recharge the crazy thing).  I also surprised Heather with a  king sized mattress from Costco.  The crazy thing came in a box that was vacuum sealed.  We took it out and let the foam just expand over the next few hours.  We all had fun sleeping on a mattress without pushing people off in the middle of the night like we did with our queen (sadly, Heather didn’t like the feel of the foam and we have since taken it back to Costco.  Thank goodness for their return policy, and thank goodness for a truck!!!). 

Train Track

Well, you can see in the background Drake’s train track he got for Christmas.  We love to make new tracks almost every day. 

Mt. Charleston

I think we came up with a new tradition for Christmas.  It had small roots back in Tucson (when we brought some snow back in a cooler from the mountain and built a small snowman), but this year might take the cake (since I have a truck).  We decided to go up to Mt. Charleston to go sledding with our neighbors, the Leavett’s.  They own a cabin up Mt. Charleston, so we decided to take a quick drive up there and go sledding and then get some snow to bring back.  In the past week, it had snowed almost every day up there.  When we got there, we saw first hand how much snow truly had fallen.  In this picture, you can see how the snow slid off the roof and piled up on the side.  We grabbed all their snow gear from the cabin and marched off to find a good sledding hill.  It was tough going.  We kept stepping through the top layer of snow and sinking in to our waist.  We finally found a fun hill and made progress packing down a path for all of us to climb up.  Gabrielle was the crazy one to start things off, of course.  We had a great time.  After that, we were able to accomplish the second purpose of our trek up the mt.  We completely filled the back of my truck with snow.  We had some help, though.  There was a back hoe there trying to clear the roads.  Jim talked the driver into giving us a load from his bucket.  After that, since he did the bulk of the work for us, the rest was easy to pile up as much snow as the truck could carry.  We drove it back down the valley with plenty of fun stares as we drove past the cars on the highway.  When we got to the house, I just backed up the truck into the middle of the street and got to work with Jim unloading the snow into the middle of the street.  The temperature was almost perfect.  It made the snow great for snowballs and almost right for making our snowman.  I couldn’t believe what happened next, though.  It was as though our entire street came out to enjoy the magic.  The next thing I know, all the kids are having a snowball fight and everyone else is pitching in to make a snowman.  It was definitely a highlight.  We all had to get group pictures to celebrate the event.  People got the biggest kick out of having a snowman right there in the middle of the street when they would drive by.  It was Madison’s idea to have a reflector put in place of the mouth so cars couldn’t miss it.  Leave it up to her to come up with something like that.  Later in the evening, I would come out and neighbors would still be coming out to check up on it and to get more pictures taken.  Too funny.  Heather had stayed home with Drake and had slaved away in the kitchen for our Christmas eve dinner.  The timing was perfect.  We came in from the fun outside to a delicious feast.  I have had some great Christmases in my life, but this one ranks right up at the top. 

Creative Kids

Christmas isn’t Christmas without making gingerbread houses.  This was the end results this year.  Gabs made the middle one earlier with her class so the two big ones are the ones we made.  Drake ate half of the candy before it made it to the house, I swear.  The kids all got a sugar high to help them with the next adventure.  Read on our next post for the juicy details...

Our Christmas Card

 http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d6a45304e5451794f44673d0d0a&blogview=true 

Well, this year rather than sending out an actual card we ended up just e-mailing this to all our friends. Click the link above and enjoy our holiday card! :D

The Crazy New Looks

Madison and Gabrielle discovered a website (taaz.com) that you can give yourself a virtual makeover so this is what ended up happening...

Yummy Treats

So Gabs gets it in her head that she wants to make some rice crispy treats.  She got on the internet and “Googled it” so she could get the recipe.  Well, there are all kinds of ways to make the treats it turns out.  The sky is the limit.  After looking at that web site, she decided to make some Christmas shapes out of them.  Of course, being Gabrielle, she can’t do anything without thinking of everyone else.  The next thing you know, she wanted to make lots of plates and deliver them to neighbors.  Boots had a blast running along with us to deliver them.  Fun fun!!!

Gabs' letter to her friend, Morgan

 OK, so I couldn’t resist putting this in here.  This is a letter Gabrielle wrote to her friend Morgan Murdock.  It killed me when I read it and I laughed for an hour.  It just hit my funny bone just right.  Hope it does the same for you...

November 14, 2010

Dear Morgan,

         Today we are on a plane from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas and I am very board so I decided to write you a letter. Anyway so how has your day been going so far

Sincerely yours,

Gabrielle Pritt

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Well, my evil plan for this year was to fly on Thanksgiving since I would get paid time and a half, then finish up by the afternoon and then be able to enjoy Thanksgiving with the family.  Well, all the other greedy FO’s out there had the same idea and I couldn’t even manage to get a trip.  I had the whole day to enjoy with the family.  So we ended up having a feast all on our own.  Heather cooked up a storm and the girls had fun helping get everything together.  Madison had to make the table all pretty and fashionable while Gabs tried to hold herself back from the rolls.  Drake just wanted to play with trucks.  All in all, the day was a complete success.  After our feast, we all piled in the car and went to Red Rock to watch “Tangled” at the movies.  Drake even enjoyed it.  We even had enough time afterward to get down all our Christmas decorations.  We put a lot up and then finished the job the day after.  I love looking at all the lights at night.  

Madison's Jello

Every once in a while, Madison gets a wild silly streak going and just can’t help where it takes her.  Her latest was putting jello on her forehead and seeing how long it would stick...

I forgot how little babies are...

We had a lot of fun in Utah these past few days.  It was certainly a highlight to be able to spend time with baby Wes.  Heather was amazed at how much the girls wanted to spend time with him as well.  They all wanted to hold him and cuddle him.  He is such a sweet and mild baby.  It is such a miracle to appreciate how baby Wes came into the Evans family.  He and Drake will be best friends.