The Judd Family December 2012

                                ( We took this photo in our backyard right before church.)

It's that time of year.....

We decorated the house right after Thanksgiving this year.  The girls were very anxious to get everything done...so we went to work setting up the trees, the nativities and our Christmas village.

The house looked so nice and festive when we were done.  It is amazing to me how an ornament can bring to mind such great memories.  I love that we have so many handmade ornaments that the children  made over the years. (Especially the ones with pictures!)

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  Maybe it's because it is in the fall, maybe it's because I get to spend time with my family, or maybe it's because we get to eat yummy food.  Whatever the reason...Thanksgiving rocks and this year was no different!  The guests this year included Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan, Uncle Brian, Tyler, Allison and Connor, and Emily.
(What I would call a manageable houseful!)

Great Grandma Sullivan made this adorable quilt for Connor along with the stuffed dinosaur!

                    Can you guess what is happening in this picture?... Yep, it's a Just Dance party!!

 Hannah put on quite the show for us.  She had everyone fill out their thankful turkey feathers, and then she performed a lovely dance routine she choreographed herself.

Ben and Haley joined in for the finale.

Since there was so much food to be consumed during our time together, we made sure to work some of it off at the park with a serious game of kickball..... 

and a little bit of jump roping.

               Have I mentioned the food??  MMMMMMMMmmmmmmm, we had a feast!

Another fun tradition is the annual "pass the pigs" tournament.  Everyone puts in a dollar to play and the winner takes all.  This is a very competitive group we have. Hannah was so stressed because she really wanted to win.   

             Grandma rolled a "never before seen in real life" double leaning jowler.  We were impressed!

But in the end.........Hannah was the big winner!!  Yeah for Hannah.   

Baby it's cold outside!

We planned a trip to Utah over Veteran's Day a long time ago.  Plane tickets were purchased and plans to attend a BYU football game were made.  The weather decided to give my girls an early Christmas present.......SNOW!!!!  We arrived on Thursday night and on Friday it snowed all day. It was the kind of snow that allows you to make a great snowman!! Hannah played out in that snow for a few hours.  She was not the least bit affected by the cold. Since we keep our snow clothes in Utah she was prepared!!  We had fun playing at the park near Grandma's house.  Mikelle came to spend a few days with us.  The girls giggled and laughed as they rode together on the sled down the park slide.

         We got to spend some more quality time with little Connor boy.  He sure is a smiley guy.

                          Ben and Grandpa hung out before church on Sunday.

Hannah's home!!!!

Hannah had a wonderful week at camp KEEP.  We picked her up at the school on Friday.  I was so happy to see the busses as they pulled up.  I had missed my little Hannah girl!!

 We toilet papered her room while she was gone so she could come home to a BIG SURPRISE!!!

Happy Halloween 2012

Ben decided early on that he wanted to be a werewolf for Halloween.  As the month of October went on I would ask him what he wanted to be for Halloween, and the answer was always the same.  So we finally took a trip over to party city to find a werewolf costume.  They did not have anything so I decided to buy a few things and make it up myself.  Well, Ben thought it was great and he happily wore his werewolf costume to school. He ran around the house growling and acting like he was going to attack us.  I told him to be nice to people and not to hurt anyone.  I was a little nervous because Ben has a tendency to get a bit carried away with things and I did not want him to "become a werewolf" at school.  At the end of the day he came home from school and there were no phone calls from his teacher so I am assuming he was a "friendly" werewolf.

This Halloween was a bit strange for us.  Hannah was away at camp KEEP for the week.  Haley went with a friend from school to a Halloween party at her church and Ben did not want to go trick or treating, so we decided to pass on the ward trunk or treat party and stay home to give candy to the neighborhood children.  It was actually a very relaxing evening!!

Ben did want to try on Russ's new BYU football uniform 

so that he could look cool while posing with Haley.

All for a good cause....

Haley, Hannah and I got up real early today to join lots of girls from dance to run/walk in the Multiple Sclerosis 5k.  We had made tutus for the girls to wear and they had team t-shirts.  We ran in honor of Taylor who goes to school with Haley.  She used to dance with the girls until she was diagnosed with MS a few years ago.  I had  planned on just walking the 5k with everyone but when I got out there it was all I could do not to run....so finally after a few minutes I had to take off running.  I told the girls I would meet them at the end.  It felt so good to run!! I am very grateful for the ability to run!!!