What Does Your Wii Face Look Like?

In reviewing my pictures for our families annual New Years Eve Party, that's the question you absolutely have to ask.

Take a peek below and you'll see some good ones...

 

Rachel & Houston

 

Joe & Rachel

 

Clista & Jacob

 

Bill & Ava

And then there was the non-Wii player, Jessica, who took a blessed night off thanks to the bun in her toasty oven!

The kids did their own Lord of the Flies thing that they usually do.

Sword-fighting and what-not is a must!

And of course then there's the midnight movie feature, complete with stadium seating.

 After the big countdown it's outside for some fireworks action!  Oddly enough, this year it wasn't too cold for being as late as it was.

  

 My beautiful Bella...

 

 My sweetheart Ava...

 

 Princess Iris...

  

 ...and of course, our Rascally Owen!

  

 And then, the biggest goober of the bunch, my heart, my love

...my Samuel.

  

 After all the hoopla everyone finally heads home for a few hours of sleep before we're back at it again with a hearty breakfast composed of everyone's favorites.

Here you see the kiddie table...

  

 ...and the adult table.

  

 The meal is always amazing!

  

 I think everything tastes better after a super-late night.

  

 Houston determined to make faces in EVERY photo...or is that just how he really looks all the time?

You judge!

  

  

Families are such a blessing.  And as I stand at the close of yet another year, poised to start a new one, I am grateful for new beginnings.  

Elder Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke to this effect in his talk entitled:  

The Best is Yet to Be

Regarding the past, he encourages us to:

"Dismiss the destructive, and keep dismissing it until the beauty of the Atonement of Christ has revealed to you your bright future and the bright future of your family, your friends, and your neighbors."

"This is an important matter to consider at the start of the a new year-and every day ought to be the start of a new year and a new life.  Such is the wonder of faith, repentance, and the miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

"Faith is for the future.  Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there.  Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the "high priest of good things to come."

"Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever.  That is a New Year's resolution I ask you to keep."

Truly words to live by!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Masa King!

That's Samuel's new name since he created the best tasting masa for our tamales!  It's a tradition that's faltered in recent years, and this year, with the purchase of a real Tamale Steamer Pot (see below), we're back in the kitchen again.

The quest?

It's always the same:

To make the perfect tamale!

Moist, savory, some heat...

This year we made two types of tamales:

Classic Shredded Pork in a Red Chile Sauce

&

Mozzerella & Sliced Green Chilis'

 

Utterly delicious!

 

(See my pot in the background?  She's a beauty alright!)

These are not for the feint of heart and they do pack on the pounds!  But oh, to once a year sit down to a plate of three (or four) piping hot tamales...

HEAVEN!

Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Carrots...Oh my!

T

 

 

The transition from rice cereal to pureed vegetables is quite the adventure.  For most, the journey is complicated and fraught with ups and downs...a love/hate if you will.  For our son, it was the same.  He was at first startled, then grossly insulted, later resigned, and then finally he wholeheartedly embraced the new cuisine!

Oh!  To be six months again, and trying everything for the very first time!

Sled-Happy

 What a sight!

 

 We were so excited to head up to the mountians for a play day, and of course the beautiful Sierras did not disappoint.

 

 Just look at the excitement on their faces!  We had entered a magical wonderland...

 

 Our wonderland came to an abrupt halt when we realized we needed a sled!  Luckily the service station was well-stocked, and twenty dollars later we found ourselves hurtling down the hills!

 

Being the non-snow people that we are, some of us had a harder time adjusting than others...

...though later our Ava was all smiles!

 

 Isabella was smart and nipped slips and falls in the bud by opting to sit for a spell.

 

 Owen, bless his heart, is not made for snow...

 ..or sand, or mud for that matter.

He likes his hands clean and freaks if he can't easily brush something away.  I'm sorry hon, the snow is EVERYWHERE!

That's just the way it is!

 

 Ava getting her sea-legs on...

 

 Mom and Gabriel watching from the cheap seats!

Isn't he DARLING?

I always tell him he's good enough to

EAT WITH A SPOON!

(And yes, I know we're going to have to beat the young women

off with a stick!  Maybe I should find one around here

to bring home with me...)

All my children are precious, and never more so than when they are all bundled up in hats, coats, and mittens and look just extra-squeezably soft!

 

 Scaling the wall...okay, baby hill.

 

 Nothing like a snowball fight!

 

 Look at the size of that one!  Luckily she threw it at Dad, but can you believe this child had the audacity to throw one at me while I was holding the baby!?!

Don't worry.

I got her back later!

 

 Iris' favorite pastime turned out to be eating snow.  Here she is literally SHOVELING it into her mouth.  What a funny girl!  I only wish I had some snow cone syrup for the girl...

 

 Samuel taking a break with our boys...

 

 ...while I took a turn at the sled.  I'd like to say I walked down gracefully, but I'll be honest, there was a fair amount of sliding!

 

 Wow!  This is FUN!

 

 So much so that we went back...

 

 ...again, and again!

 

 Just when you thought Owen had stopped crying, the tree under which his chair was placed shivered and sent forth a positive SHOWER of snow!  You'd have thought the sky was falling the way he bellowed!

 

 We spied several families making snow man, and couldn't leave with leaving something to be remembered by.  An Elmer Original, if you will.

 

 We like to dream big, but unfortunately our snow man was woefully small.  Why?  Gloves!  Or lack thereof, I should say!

 

 Since our snow man was of unusually small proportions, we opted to make a "snow-baby" instead.  We named him Gabriel, and even gave him the same hair-do as our son!

 

 Gabriel was pleased...

 

 ...and even gave us "hat's-off" congratulations!

(Bella noted that his bib said pooper and the dirt clods we used for eyes resembled...well, never mind!)

After all our scrambling around we worked up a mighty appetite and headed down the hill to IKEDA's.

 

 We had never been, but heard great things about the place. 

 

Sure enough, the parking lot was packed and inside tables were HARD to come by-a sure sign that the food is going to be spectacular!

 

 Luckily, before our order was up I pounced on an open table and we settled in for classic burgers and fries.

 

Except for me, I opted for the spicy Thai chicken over rice!

 

 On the way home we stopped to see Auntie Red.  We had a special delivery for one Miss V., who planned on making the trip with us but couldn't in the end.

Lucky for us, snow keeps plenty cool in the ice chest!

Happy Snow Day to you too!

When Did This Happen?

 Being a mother of three beautiful daughters, it still boggles my mind to know that I am also the mother of two very handsome sons!

 

When did this happen?

 

 Along those same lines...when did Christmas happen?

 

A favorite tradition of ours is taking the kids to The Dollar Store to play Secret Santa for one another.  This year they had a blast picking out their gifts, and oh what a time they had concealing their purchases from one another (they are all notoriously NOSY)!

But lo and behold, Christmas came and went and we remembered two days after the fact that yet more was to be given!  Luckily, we Elmers are always up for still more surprises and this gave us the perfect opportunity to have more fun together.

By the way, I know your curious.

This year they surprised Dad with a level (it works great!), and mom was the proud recipient of a bag of Pixie Stix (my favorite!).

Food Network Challenge: Here We Come!

My sister and her family have a fantastic tradition of decorating Gingerbread Houses for Christmas.  Each family member has their own kit which they assemble and decorate to their liking.  It's always fun to see what they come up with...

 

We followed suit with a shared Gingerbread House, the basis of which Samuel created with cardboard.  He was so proud of himself!

The kids on the other hand were more excited about the decor.  After all, to ensure our house was sound we needed to test (taste-test that is) the building materials to ensure they were top quality.

There were!

 

I made some heavy duty royal icing cement and we went to town with the graham crackers which served as our drywall.

 

Our side (Iris, Ava, and I) was a haphazard collection of goodies placed every which way.  Of particular note was the sour ribbon siding which I thought added a pretty classy touch-especially since some of the pieces were half-eaten!

Hey, they're good!

 

The other side (Isabella's & Dad's) was much more orderly and reflected a more "traditional" style-very symmetrical.  You should have heard them howl when we tried to sneak rogue pieces of candy onto their side!

So touchy!

I don't know that our gingerbread house will win a national Food Network Competition, but maybe we'd win a prize if we entered in this goofball?

What do you think?