Santa

It's a tradition to pick the kids up from the last day of school before Christmas break and go to the Fashion show Mall to see Santa.  We LOVE this Santa!  I think he is the real one!

 Then we go to the food court to eat...
(The following pictures are taken with my phone so not the best resolution!)  :)

 This is the coveted crepe that the kids can't get enough of!...

They are big so we buy two or three and share.  Forks are flying everywhere to get as many bites as the other person before the crepe is gone!  :)

 YUMMMM!!!

It's a tradition that I hope will never die!

Dane came home!

Another one of my nephews served faithfully and came home from his two year mission for the church!  Dane served in the California, Arcadia Spanish Speaking Mission.   We were lucky enough to be at the airport when he came home.
While we waited, some of the kids made signs...

 Some were already made...

 We visited....

 and waited....

 and waited...

 and waited....

 until Larse started to get a little silly!  :)  .....

 and then we saw him walking down the walkway...closer....closer....closer....

 Dane was home!!!

 Hugs and Handshakes....

 "Now What???"

 It was fun!

Welcome home Daners!!

Mom's surprise 80th birthday!

My mom turned 80 last week.  A few months ago, me and my sisters decided that we wanted to do something special for her.  She doesn't like big parties, but we thought maybe we could surprise her and show up on her birthday to help her celebrate.  Her birthday was on a Thursday, so that made it hard for everyone (spouses, grandchildren) to be there, so we decided that just the siblings would go.
It was a FAST trip!  We flew to SLC Thursday morning and then back on Friday morning.  But it was so worth it!
We were all there except for Larse and Trent.  Larse couldn't come because Dane was flying home from his mission on Friday so she was busy (and stressed) getting everything ready.
Dad took mom to the temple on her birthday morning (that has been a tradition for years), and then he told her that he was going to take her somewhere special in SLC for lunch.  We had reserved a room at the Lion House.

It was perfect!  It was a private dining room that gave us the opportunity to sit and visit together.

We all stood in the dining room waiting for mom and dad to show up.  They got a little confused and turned around so we had to adjust the plan a little.  Annette and Jill met them to help them get there.  They told my mom that they were part of Dad's surprise and they were taking her to lunch.  Little did she know that we were waiting there too!

So here we were waiting...and waiting...

...just waiting for the door to open...

Ooops!  Wrong person!  Annette just came to tell us that they were almost there.

Here's the birthday girl!

I think she was surprised!  :)

Hugs!!!

Lunch was great!

It was so fun to sit and talk with each other!

Here's the group.  We sure missed Larse and Trent!

We walked through the streets of Salt Lake...

Inside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building...

What a beautiful couple!

We went back to mom and dad's house to just relax.

Then we had soup and rolls for dinner.  Kelsie and her two kids joined us too!

Mom opened some presents...

And then we presented her with a book that we made.  It was called "80 and counting....things we love about mom."

Instead of a cake, we bought a bunch of desserts from a bakery down the street.  YUM!

Happy 80th birthday to the best mom!  

We couldn't love you more!

Christmas cards

Time got away from me this year.  Last week I told Mark that I didn't think we would be sending out Christmas cards this year.  I could tell he didn't like that idea.  So, last Sunday I took the kids outside before church and we took some quick photos of them.  They were being a little silly.  Ok, RACHEL was being a little silly!

 And even though I like this picture of them laughing,

 and I liked this one too,

 This is the one we chose....  (Rachel liked this one of her better!)  :)

 Rachel took a picture of me and Mark.

Then I went inside and put the card together and today I will address the envelopes and send them.

 Phew!  Not as painful as I thought it would be!

Tom and Sam's Christmas Program

Even though I missed Megan and Jessica's program, I made it to Tommy and Sam's!  Since Sam is in 3rd grade, his class played the recorder.

 Since Tommy is in 5th grade, he was an elf and he had a speaking part.

Great job boys!

Elf on the Shelf

This has been one of our kids favorite Christmas traditions!

It's the first thing that the little kids do when they wake up in the morning....look for the elf that hid during the night.  And they get mad if anyone tells them where it is before finding it.  "Charles," the elf, has been very creative with his hiding spots!

We will be sad when Christmas is over and the elf goes back to the North Pole until next December!