And she's off...........

Right before Christmas we surprised Emily with a new car!!
She knew she was getting a car, but didn't know when.
She got a cute little Ford Focus all decked out with all
the bells and whistles that she wanted.
Now she can get around in Provo in style!!

Emily is now a student at Paul Mitchell beauty school in Provo Utah!!!
After Christmas we drove to Utah and got her all settled in to her new apartment.
She  graduated early from Stockdale High School, which enabled her to begin beauty school in January.  We are so proud of her! She is ready for this new adventure!

Santa was very generous!!

 The children were so excited to wake up and see so many gifts under the tree. Since Christmas was on Sunday, we had church at 10:00am. We let the children open their stockings before church, and then we ate a nice breakfast together. I was so proud of them for making the decision (or at least agreeing to go along with it) to wait until after church to open their gifts.

Ben received his own ipad which means he won't have to use Dad's anymore!

Haley was very happy to open an itouch with her name on it!

....and she got the purse that she really really wanted.

Hannah was thrilled to find out that there was an itouch with her name on it too.

...plus that zebra pillow pet that she really really wanted!!

Can you tell by the gifts who is moving out in a week?!?

You can never be too prepared, right?

Tyler was very happy to see this playstation with his name on it!
Allison just hopes that he lets her have a turn to play!

Zazzoo was very happy to get a bowl of milk.
It did not take him long to lick it clean!

We're having a Grandbaby!!!!

Tyler and Allison gave Russ and I a very special gift.
There were screams of delight when we opened it!
I actually knew about this ahead of time, but didn't let anyone else in on the surprise!

Grandpa and Grandma Judd received their own special gift!

The excited grandparents-to-be!!!!

Christmas Eve + chocolate fountain = one great night!!!

  What an awesome evening....we had a nice meal, exchanged sibling gifts, read from Luke 2, and wrote our annual  "what I will give to Christ this year" notes to put in our box under the tree.

              Cleaning up the chocolate fountain is quite entertaining!

Ben picked out Tyler's gift all by himself while he was on a field trip with school.  It was so fun to see what Ben chose for Tyler....salsa bowls, a mug, and a WWF belt buckle.

The children received new pajamas...

.....and then showed them off!

Veteran's Day Parade

Hannah and I met some friends downtown for the Veteran's Day parade. Haley's band from school was performing so we were excited to see her march past us. Recently I have been reading the book, Unbroken, about a WWII fighter pilot. After learning more about what our armed forces endure for our freedom, I am even more appreciative of the sacrifices our Veterans make.

Here comes the Warren Junior High Wildcat Marching Band........
They stopped right in front of us and began to play "God Bless America". It was so fun to see Haley playing her flute, looking so cute in her uniform!!

Halloween

Ben had to get dressed up for a big Halloween dance at school so he came up with this idea.....

Meet D J Ben Judd. He gave us a show the night before his party. We all laughed pretty hard as he busted a move! Ben has such a fun sense of humor, we never know quite what to expect with him!

The next day we went to the church trunk or treat. Ben decided to go as a cowboy this time. Haley was a fairy. She enjoyed wearing Emily's old costume from a play she was in a few years ago. Hannah donned the charm witch costume.....
she's quite a character!!!!

No Halloween is complete without a little pumpkin carving and pumpkin seed roasting!

Our strange visitor....

I went outside one morning to sweep the front porch and noticed this little fellow hanging on the wall. What in the world was a bat doing there? Just in time for Halloween! The poor little guy must have inhaled too much bug spray courtesy of Dewey Pest Control, because when I nudged him with the broom handle he fell off the wall and I discovered he was dead.