gauntt house

kids did this one on their own - yes, slade and i preferred to forfeit any award we might receive for outstanding gingerbread house decorating in favor of a nice sunday afternoon nap. and that doesn't make us bad parents, either.
i'm not even going to ask what happened to ALL THE OTHER candy i provided for their decorating needs. i even had stuff to landscape their yard (which is on the back). sigh...
despite this, we think it turned out pretty cute and we are very happy ethan and maren get along so well that they could work together on this little project and have a great time.

Gingerbread parade - Mitchell's house

Jennifer had a great idea for all of us to post a picture of our gingerbread houses that we did this year. This was our families first year and we had a great time. Savannah is now having a great time eating the frosting icicles off of the roof. So any of you who made gingerbread houses this year lets see your pics.

-Andrea

Wonderful Time

All -

That weekend was wonderful. As a kid it was always one of the highlights of my year, to come see you guys (not much has changed as an adult), but never did I imagine that it would become one of my kids favorite things to do too. And it is. Ethan and Maren were in heaven and when I suggested we would come back just before Christmas, they were delighted.

That is an announcement, by the way. Slade and I will be coming in on the 17th, I think, just in time to celebrate Grandma's birthday. My parents will be arriving in SL on the 18th, shortly before my cousin's wedding (which will be on the 20th). Cathy, DeeAnn and Grandma will remember my aunt Catherine - it is her oldest son who is being married. (This is lovely for me, since traveling to UT is substantially less trouble than going back to France!). We plan on hanging out with the rest of you when we are not occupied with the wedding. My mother is particularly eager to see you all again so perhaps we can plan a get-together?

Do you love how I tell you to plan parties for me?

Maybe we can plan on celebrating Grandma's birthday on the 18th? I nominate Candace as the official family baker. Is this a good time to place my order? Cheesecake, carrot cake and pie, please. Oh, and whatever Grandma wants too.

I'm kidding (umm, sort of). I just wanted to let you all know that we were coming back into town and will want to see you again. I'll be in touch as soon as I have a better idea how wedding plans will shape up.

In the meantime, I am glad to see so many great pics on the shutterfly account. Don't forget that we are all sharing one account, so hurry up and place your orders (Candace!) so others can get in and use the cart for the photos they want to develop. Just don't forget to add your mailing address to your order unless you want your pics to be sent to someone else. Candace, you are the lucky winner of the first 50 free photos Shutterfly offers on new accounts. Don't hesitate to use them.

See you all soon!

Jennifer

Reunion

We are getting so excited for the big, get together. I just wanted to make the invite for our house too. We could definitely "host" a family so if anyone needs a place to stay, let us know! Also, if anyone has questions on the carnival/fair thing for Saturday let me know. I want to make some cute signs for the booths, so post your idea and I can make a sign for you. This month in Parent's magazine there are some fun ideas if you can't think of anything. See you soon! Jill
P.S. Add Curt to the 1/2 marathon list. He signed up this week.

Plans

I want to ask if there is anything left to do in prep for this reunion. Have you Payson-ites divvied up all assignments? No one gave me anything to do. Should I be offended or grateful? I'll volunteer for clean-up duty! Do we want to make a follow-up photobook for Grandma?

My little family will be arriving on Thursday 7th, I believe. We can't stay long at all - turns out, Ethan starts school on the 11th. I know Kris's kids start on the 12 or something. We prolly should have planned ahead a little better... Will someone please let us know what the plan is for the weekend? Jesse, are you racing? Lisa, who is signed up to run? (I have a list of excuses why I will not which I feel so obliged to share...)

It will be Neva's first birthday on the 10th. Will you all join us for cake sometime on the 9th?
Ummm... and could Candace please bake us a fab cake?

I am so excited to see you all again. I have been looking forward to this for a long time now. Please let me know if there is anything left for me to do.

Jennifer

Provo River 1/2 Marathon

The Provo River 1/2 Marathon just happens to be the same weekend as our family reunion in Utah. I just thought I would see if anyone would be interested in running it while we are all in town. The race starts at 7:00 am so we could be done and back to Payson by 9:30 or so. Here is the link to the race if you want to read more about it. I did the race last year and had a great time. It is mostly down hill but not very steep. The course in on the Provo River trail which is paved for most of the race. It usually fills up early so if anyone is interested we would need to register soon.
http://www.trailrun.com/trun/showdetails.cfm?event=55&state=UT

Just leave a comment and let me know if anyone would be interested.
Thanks,
Lisa

coup de grace

I'm been meaning to do this post for a few months now and am finally getting it done. Jeff and his band, "coup de grace" came out with a CD a few months ago and I am so proud of him! I am posting a link to the bands "my space" page you can listen to some of their songs and even purchase the CD if you'd like. He has been playing with these guys for quite a few years they are two brothers who live down the street from Grandma, and a girl from West Mountain. Anyway I hope you enjoy.



http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=19098998


Here are a couple of great pictures my mom sent me. Can you believe that is little Jeffrey he certainly doesn't look like my little baby brother, he's grown up on me........ - Andrea

Gabriella Nicole

cute little thing...

one more!

My dad and Isabella had their baby girl earlier today and named her Gabriella Nicole. She weighed in at 7' 7 and has a ton of black hair. Everyone is doing well and I will send photos as soon as I get some.

... and you all thought the Stewarts were done producing immediate cousins!

Hello everyone,

The time has come to greet and meet our little one tomorrow (the 1st day of spring). We'll be heading to Seton hospital early in the morning for the c-section.

We'll keep you posted on the developments and will post pictures in our blog as soon as we can.

Love and blessings to you all,

Kerbey and Isabella

Reunion dates?

Does the weekend of August 7-9 work for everyone? If no one has any concerns or other suggestions, lets set the date.

Will you all make sure everyone is aware and ok with these plans (are the burtons going to arizona in august?) and will you think of a few things we could do? Another kid-friendly hike, another cookout, heck, I'm even game for another Easter egg hunt. Payson locals, what is there to do in August?

Send back your ideas. I've never organized a family reunion (especially not from afar!) and don't know what all we need to take care of in order for it to run smoothly. Food? Activities? Lodging? I'm eager to hear back from you all. Don't be shy. We need to make plans soon.

Jennifer

PS. Wanna try to put together another photobook for Grandma (and anyone else who may want a copy)?

reunion?

check out this great old photo of geneva steel i found on flickr. (i spend a lot of time daydreaming on flickr...). cool, isn't it?

i don't know if this is the best forum for planning a reunion, but we'll start here. Y'all will have to talk to each other to make sure word gets around. we need to know if we should be planning a trip to Utah this summer. we talked about a reunion last thanksgiving and think a date should be set if we're going to do it. i hope we do. i would really love to see you all again. (I'm always sad to leave, and its not just because of the long drive home.)

and who is new to the blog scene? can we add any more links?

hope everyone is doing well, wherever you all are!

Mexico

Just wanted to share this photo with the family. This is one of the kids we have got to know over the last few years. Her name is Nancy. Shes 14 and loves Maya and Jacob. In some ways we feel she's part of our family. We had a great trip it was good to see the kids down there again.
We had had to postpone this summers trip due to lack of interest, but that's ok, we'll go down again sometime soon. Hope all are doing well.

Jesse

Elk

We live near one of the largest ranches in the nation called Deseret Land and Livestock (which is owned by the church) during the winter months all the big bull elk come and feed in the field that is on our way to the grocery store. It is awesome there are about 80 bull elk all together right off the side of the road. Here are a few pictures, which don't really do them justice!

wedding and reunions

Esme and Neva

M&M
E and Ava

Maren, trying to persuade Sophia to smile


Dan, Cassie and Esme in France
Kris, Crystal and Carina at Morgan's reception

Slade, Morgan, Sarah and Jennifer

Its really hard to decide what to post. I have 50 things to talk about and 500 photos to illustrate! Christmas was nice but the highlight of this past month was Morgan's wedding and the blessing it was to be together (for the most part) again. Our traveling went smoothly, but only because Murphey unleashed all his power against Crystal and Kris and had nothing more to spit out at us. And while its true that most everyone involved with the wedding came down with the stomach bug, at least it passed in a day or so! I'm forgetting to mention the jet-lag. Attending weddings at 4am is a different experience for me and I say thank goodness for concealer and eye-drops! Jetlag did make for some fun midnight encounters, though. It seemed there was always someone up at some point in the night because none of us could sleep.
Despite all this, the wedding was really lovely and I'm SO grateful that we were able to go.
And we're happy to welcome Sarah to the family too. She is a lot of fun. You know, growing up I used to complain about not having a sister and now I have a whole bunch of them and they are all past the point of stealing my clothes or my boyfriends.

We were so glad to see Cassie again in Austin. She brought her girls down to see Ethan and Maren before we came back to Sacramento and we all spent a great afternoon at Grandpa Kerby and Nana Bella's house roasting hotdogs and goofing off.

Kerby and Isabella are in full baby preparation mode. Their house is under renovation and thats not the only thing expanding... Poor Isabella is feeling every bit of this pregnancy but is looking good. Spirits are high too, and I happen to know that makes a very big difference!

Now I am home again and getting back into the swing of my routine - the good and the bad - and am starting to make plans for the next reunion. Maybe in August? Lets get moving on those plans, folks!

Jennifer

Update

I forgot to put who that was from, If you didn't figure it out its Andrea

Update

Hope you all had a great Christmas and are back in the swing of things now that January is half way over. We are all doing great and still tring to keep warm. It has been very cold this last week, funny how you get used to it though. I sent Samuel out to play the other day and I think it was +1 but the sun was shinning, wind wasn't blowing so it was a great day! It doesn't seem to phase him. We have so much snow here and I can honestly say this is the first of my four winters here I am acutally enjoying it. I don't know if I have just gotten used to the freezing temps or know there isn't anything I can do about it so I might as well enjoy it. Anthonys basketball team is doing very well and they hopfully will be playing in the state championship game.....one more month I enjoy it but will be glad to have him home again. As for me I have been spending alot of time playing Polly Pockets with Savannah, it is actually really fun. Lisa, Catie, and I would have loved to have the Polly Pocket cruise ship when we were little. I guess I'm kind of re-living my childhood, but hey isn't that one of the perks of being a stay at home mom?? For those of you who don't know I have started my own blog and you can email me for the link if you'd like. How is everyone else doing??? Does anyone look at this anymore besides me, Lisa, Catie and Jen???

DeeAnn's Grandkids

Here is a picture of all of DeeAnn's grandkids a few days after Christmas. It is always fun to have everyone together.
Back row- Maya Sorenson, Darren Bylund, Savannah Mitchell
Front Row- Garrison Bylund, Jacob Sorenson and Leah Sorenson, Kaitlen Mitchell, Samuel Mitchell (just in case you aren't sure who is who)