Weight Watchers

Two days ago I joined the Weight Watchers ranks and I feel a half pound lighter already!

Well, 4 new posts. I should be good for a couple of months, right?

Double Digits

Natalie Merrell turns 10!

The birthday gang.

L-R bottom: Cory Watts, Stevie, Remi, Porter, Adam and Rachel McCiuistion

top: Jennifer Jones, Natalie, Kayleigh Rice, Katelyn McCuistion
(for some reason Adam and Jennifer look like they have purple lips, but they really didn't)

We had Natalie's birthday party today. She turned 10. We had "brownie pudding" and ice cream. I made brownies for the cake. When I pulled it out of the oven I noticed it swayed a little bit, but thought it would stiffen as it cooled. So we sang Happy Birthday and I cut into it. It was basically a brownie crust over cooked batter. The kids didn't mind at all. Who can resist brownie batter? I couldn't (and it cost me a meal worth of weight watcher points). One girl was excited to have some because her mom never lets her have batter. Natalie wanted to go to the hot springs for her party so we took her friends to John's Pool and they swam. It was nice not to have to entertain kids. I just had to drive them there and the trip went by surprisingly quick.

Do these look comfy or what?

Come on in the water's warm.

Party's in the hot tub- next to the hot pool :) makes sense, right?

"'cary noman"

Grant's scary snowman.

We had to hurry and build this snowman before he melted. It was drizzling as we built him. By the end of the day he was a hunchback.

Fig leaves =modest snowman

Snowman kit means the buttons stay on and face stay on. Thanks, Aunt Janalee. The kit was perfect!

Now, it looked like Grant didn't have a problem helping with the snowman, but he wouldn't let me take a picture of him with it. " 'Cary 'nowman" (Scary snowman) so we had to take a picture together with it.

Sledding

Yay, we got snow this year and it stayed around long enough for us to go sledding. First, we went to Simplot which is a little dangerous. At Simplot, you're still picking up speed when you hit the street so you have to catch the kids (and adults) before they go into road. The drivers didn't seem to slow down for sledders either. And then we went to Camelsback which you have to watch out for the sledders at the bottom of the hill. Both were fun. This was Grant's first time sledding and he loved it. He would giggle as we went down. Here's a video of my brother sledding. It seems like when they're coming at you it doesn't matter where you move they head right for you anyway. So I thought I'd stay where I was. If you get motion sickness you may not want to watch the video. I can't seem to hold the camera still.

Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas, as usual. My mom was here for the holidays. It was great to have her here. She's always a good sport when it comes to playing games. A week earlier we went to a couples Christmas Party and played Shaving Santa. Matt and I thought the kids would have fun playing so we decided to do it on Christmas Eve with them. My mom, grandma, bro, and sis-in law played along as well. This is a video of Natalie shaving Remington.

The finished product- let's just not put a razor in her hand, ok?

We enjoyed Up on the Housetop played by Porter.

Natalie and Remington performed a poem as well. What amazes me here is they could pass for twins in this picture. I always knew they looked alike, but didn't realize how much until I looked at this photo.

It was definitely a fun and memorable Christmas Eve. Thanks, fam.