Playing Santa

Dave loves to dress up in his Santa suit and visit the Heal boys every year.
Here is his visit from last year (HERE) and the year before

Dallin LOVES Santa and he still doesn't recognize Dave :)

They each got a Christmas Pez Dispenser from Santa

Boston wasn't coming anywhere near Santa!

Logan's turn

and Brock

Brittany and her boys with Santa

Then Dave and I decided to head down to Sandy's house
and surprise Charlie (her grandson)

Walking up to the door

Charlie nearly jumped out of his skin with excitement!

Charlie talked to Santa for about 10 minutes. He wanted to tell Santa
everything!

This Santa suit has brought so much excitement for little kids.
I still remember the time Santa came to visit our house when I was 5 and my brother were 3 and 2 years old. We had all three just had baths and we were parading around the front room in our underwear. I remember looking up and seeing Santa walking up to our front door!

We had a magical visit with Santa and my mom to this day says she still doesn't know who it was. Probably the REAL SANTA!

ODS Christmas Concert

Last Friday was the ODC Christmas Concert - Maddie's last since she's a senior.

Maddie and Whitney - Co-VP's

Some of the team - the picture is blurry!

This one's cute when they're all making a funny face :)

I tried to get a few dancing shots but as you know, my camera stinks!
Maddie is on the far right - front

Bronson's reaction at every play or dance concert!

Daddy and his girls

My Little Homemaker

Talbie loves to cook dinner! I also love it when she
cooks dinner :) She's really getting good at some recipes.
These were yummy cheese enchiladas!

Young Women in Excellence

Wednesday night was YW in Excellence. The Laurel class was in charge
of this activity and they did a great job with the theme and setting everything up.
They chose a "Country Fair" as their theme and everyone dressed the part.
The young women each set up a table to display the projects they've been working
on this year for Personal Progress. Talbie chose to display paintings.

Some of the girls before people starting arriving...

Talbie and Maddie with Sister Gibb, the YW Pres.

Talbie did face painting during the activity. It was a huge hit!

Talbie finished her Personal Progress this year and
was presented with her Recognition Award by the Bishop.
Way to go Talbie!

Maddie conducting the evening's events

Emmie and Marley

Maddie with cute Sister Gilber our Stake YW President

At the end the girls gave our bishop a birthday "pie" because it was
his birthday. What a wonderful Bishop to come and spend his birthday evening
at a young women's activity.

Bronson's Christmas Miracle

Bronson got an ipod touch last year for Christmas.
He's been so diligent in keeping track of it and taking care of it.
That's saying a lot for Bronson because he can be pretty "forgetful."

2 weeks ago I found his ipod at the bottom of the washing machine
AFTER it had gone through the entire cycle.

He was heart broken :(

Dave went up to his room to talk to him right after it happened.
He walked in and found Bronson on his knees praying.

That was such a beautiful sight, yet we knew that he would be disappointed
because there isn't much you can do for an ipod that had been immersed in water
for 30 minutes or so.

Dave looked on line to see what other had done in our situation. We knew that if you
didn't turn the device on after it happened, you had a chance...a small chance.
We knew you could set it in rice and hope that would suck out the water, but we didn't
know if that would really work either.

The best Dave could tell from people online was that those that left their ipod in a bowl
of rice for 2 weeks, had minimal results.

We tried it.

Today Dave and I wanted to try it before Bronson came home from school so we could
prepare ourselves for breaking the news to him.
Before we turned it on, we said a little prayer ourselves.

We turned on the ipod...and nothing! It was dead.

"Oh well," we thought - but then we remembered that the battery was probably
dead so we hooked it up to the computer and...

IT STARTED UP!

It acted like nothing happened and it works perfectly.

What a miracle!

Nativity

Logan made this awesome Nativity set for us for Christmas in his
wood shop class. I just love it!

Maddie tried to take credit for it... we weren't buying it!

Look how great it looks on my mantle!
I love the fact that it all fits back together like a puzzle. So clever!
Thanks Logan!

Fall in December

Weather in Utah is so weird AND the
trees next to our house are even more weird! They are huge trees
next to the orchard by our house and they don't like to loose their leaves until December!
It's always such a mess around our house with leaves mixed in with the snow.

Today was such a beautiful day AND it was "early out" day for school
so the kids had a project :)
Maddie was a trooper for helping to head this up AND take pictures!

Christmas Parties

We've started the Christmas Season off to a great start
with some fun family parties. We had our annual "Sisters" party
that we hold every year in honor of Grandma "V" (Vivian)
This year Dena hosted the party and we played Bingo (Grandma's favorite)
ate tons of yummy food and opened presents (bingo prizes)

Sisters...Dena, Georgia, and Pat (my mom)

Maddie came this year because she's almost 18 ;)
Maddie, Brittany, Leslie (our cousin) and me.

I wish I had taken more pictures but I didn't.
We were too busy having fun I guess!


Then last night was the annual Knowles Family Christmas Party
at Grandma Knowles house.

I love family parties and I love how we grow! We are a pretty big crowd these days!

Brigham give Emmie the "tickle torture!"

Devan the Pirate :)
This girl is never seen without a sword, cape, and pirate's hat. I love it!

Sandy, Alisa, and Steven

I'm not sure what this picture is all about???

Pretty girls - our family has a lot of them :)
Lauren (Brig's fiance), Maddie, Abi, and Talbie

We all gathered around the piano to sing Christmas Carols
Here we are, each wearing a pair of Grandma's glasses.
They were a bit strong for my liking :)

Aunt Marianne gave out treats to everyone at the end of a great party!