Zade's a Wolf!

We don't often get invited to the Cub stuff, but we were excited to be there when Zade got his Wolf badge!  Trigg wanted to get in on the pics too!  I love Derek's ward.  They are such a wonderful, supportive, ward family.  And they have a great scout program starting with the Cubs!  So thankful for them.  Congratz Zade!

Surprise baby!

It's not a surprise for them, but for us it was quite the surprise!  Moss and Christie announced (some time ago) that they were having a baby.  We were all quite sure, along with them, that they were done. But we are so happy that they changed their mind.  A new house and a new baby are both good things!  So here is the pic of the finding out...it's a boy!  We are so excited and happy for them!

Zion in Snow

We thought we'd go to Zion and do a hike one Saturday afternoon, but when we got there, the hike we wanted to do was under two feet of snow.  We decided a beautiful drive would work just fine.  We did do a little bit of a hike on the Riverwalk Trail, but it turned so icy after a while that it was closed down.  We still had a wonderful time in the winter wonderland  of snow covered Zion!

Friday afternoon in the rain at Snow Canyon

I love it when Paul is done early with me on Fridays.  This day it was rainy and we decided to check out this one waterfall in Snow Canyon and follow it to the top to see its' source.  We weren't disappointed.  It was beautiful.  Love my raincoat and Snow Canyon with my honey!

Elephant Arch for MLK Day!

Wow, I'm so behind I can't remember a lot, but the main event was taking a hike to Elephant Arch.  It had rained recently, so we thought it might be better walking in the sand.  It was.  A lot of other people had the same idea on the same day, so it was a bit crowded, but still lots of fun!  The Randalls, the Borrowmans, the Weavers and I went.  It was the highest I had ever been (up into the arch) of all the times I've gone over the years.  Really cool arch and great company!

Brenden #8 + baptism + Cub Scouts & temple baptisms

Brenden is another one of those January birthdays.  He is also the last of the 4 cousins that are all born within a year's time.  Finally it was his turn for a birthday, baptism and to join Cub Scouts!  Lots of exciting things when you turn 8! Happy everything Brenden!  We love you! (He got to participate in the Pinewood Derby just a bit beforehand since it was so close!)  We had lots of fun hanging out with the Key clan for lunch after the baptism!

In the afternoon after this fun we had more fun.  We got to go to the temple with Brady, Tavin, Kaebri and Tasia to do baptisms for the dead.  Lou participated in the baptisms too. Bryan and Paul did the baptizing and confirmations.  It was Brady's first time and it was nice for Tavin to be there to show him the ropes!  We didn't get his picture unfortunately.  This was also our first time to go with Tasia!

Randall January birthdays - all at once!

January turned crazy and it was hard to ever find a time to celebrate these January birthdays. We planned to do it one Sunday and then the weather got in the way and the bishopric forgot to sustain Brady.  Finally we got them all at once!  It was fun to have Bryan's dad there to celebrate too.  It was also the day that Brady was ordained a deacon and the grandpas got to participate in making that happen.  That made it and even better day!  Happy Birthday to all and congratz to Brady on receiving the priesthood.

Starting off the new year's family dinners

We started the new year's family dinners off  at our house.  We had a great turn out just missing Derek, Moss and Christie and family, and Beacher.  We also celebrated the first of our many January birthdays with Eden! She's now in double digests at #10! Grandpa and Grandma Sheffield joined us for the cake, candles and present part of the evening.  Happy birthday Eden!  We love you! We love you all and look forward to more great family get togethers in 2017! We added a new thing to the evening that I hope we can continue.  After it was pretty much all said and done and the kids were playing we gathered the adults around the table and had a little family report/council time where everyone kind of reported on what their family was doing and had a chance to bring up anything they wanted to share with the family as a group.  We  talked some about the plans for Family Camp along with the other stuff this time.  It was nice.  Let's do it next time!  

Noah's baptism!

The last event of 2016 for us was Noah's baptism.  He's the 3rd one of the 4 boys to be baptized.  We just have Brenden yet to go.  It was a nice time to enjoy most of the family as we gathered for this special time.  Noah seemed pleased. Noah's best friend and neighbor Mallock Weaver ? , (no relation) was baptized too, as well a little girl. Noah and Mallock share a birthday too! After the baptisms/confirmations we gathered for lunch and visiting.  The only thing we didn't get done was to take enough good pictures. We are so happy to see each grand child take this important step on the path back home. Congratulations Noah! We love you.

Christmas 2016

The fun began with a light looking trip with the Randalls the Monday before.  We visited the Desert Garden and the Town Square and then came back to the house for hot chocolate and donuts!  Such a fun evening!

Christmas Eve we partied two times.  Moss and Christie hosted a lunch at their beautiful new home in the afternoon.  We had yummy food that everyone brought to share, enjoyed a wonderful little Christmas concert from Brynnli and Tavin and then we got to open our gift from the gang...awesome tickets to the Tuacahn shows coming up this summer!  Thanks to all!  We are going to have lots of fun!

Later that evening we had a pretty low key Christmas Eve dinner with us, Grandma Kurtz and Moss, Christie and kids. A little before Christmas we got the exciting news that Moss and Christie are having another baby coming up in July of 2017!  So excited for that!

Christmas day we enjoyed going to church and then coming home and opening gifts with Grandma and Bean.  After that we traveled around from house to house visiting with the kids and giving them their gifts.

The Weavers came down from Cedar and dropped by to see us!

Next we visited Derek and kids!  I think his favorite gift was the waxing kit from Juge!

Moss, Christie and their kids were very excited about their See's certificate from Grandma Poulsen!

On to the Borrowmans!

After that Grandma was tired out, so we dropped her off and headed to Enoch to see the Randalls!

It was a wonderful Christmas Day!  Having it fall on Sunday made it extra special and gave us a bit more time to remember the real reason for all of the celebration...thanks be to God for the matchless gift of his divine son who made the plan of happiness possible.  Oh how we all missed Weed this Christmas time, but how immeasurably grateful we to know we will be with her again because of this gift from our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Jay and Brynn and family shared this Christmas day in the snow picture with us since we couldn't actually be with them the day of.  We did get to enjoy them for a few days after Christmas and had a lot of fun puzzling, etc!