A Wedding!

We were soooooo thrilled to be able to attend the wedding of my brother John to Liz in the Salt Lake City Temple. They are a beautiful couple and we feel blessed to have gotten to know Liz so well and have her join our family. She is just perfect for John and we love her so much. Paisley was taken with her the second they met and we are happy to have them so close to us here in Texas. They both looked incredible on the wedding day and so so happy.

 

All the Perriton kids, we were just missing Alana who recently had a baby and it was a little early to travel so far from Australia

 Mom and Dad with the bride and groom.  Ethen and Graeme are in the corner there.

Cousin boys Graeme, Ethen and Max were in charge of the hot chocolate and drinks at the reception

 

Cousin girls Claire, Annie, and Phoebe were in charge of the french toast and other food to be refilled.  (And Look at my baby bro James all grown up and hott)

 

Paisley eating some cheesecake after getting out of her dress

Lots of Perriton Cousins were able to attend. It was so good to see everyone

Scott was sure to have the car decorated a little for embarrasment factor, and yes he spelled incorrectly

 Off they go :)

Christmas Morning 2011

This year we spent Christmas in Utah at my parents new house.  We headed there the week before to see John and Liz get married in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple.  It was a beautiful day that I will blog about later.  My parents house is giant and we had such a great time with so much family visiting. Nathan and Jen and kids all came and stayed there too so the cousins could get in as much together time as possible.   Christmas morning was all full of excitement for the kids as we had them line up at the top of the stairs and wait til all the grownups in the house were settled in the family room.  It was good torture as it is every year, but they finally were able to come down and we had a great morning together.  We were only missing Alana, Brian and new baby Hailey.

Waiting at the top of the stairs to be told they can come down

Luke in StarWars Heaven

Some sweet headphones from Nana and Papa

A super thoughtful gift to Ethen from Graeme. He made a longboard for himself and bought one his teacher made for Ethen.  It is so cool!

Thank you Grandma Bergen for the sewing kit

Christmas Eve 2011

Jen reading a story to the kids

The kids in new Christmas jammies 

Graeme rocking out some tunes

 Cousins reenacting the Nativity

 Mom helping Toby get some of his costume off

 

Dad taking pictures with the tripod attached :)

James' beautiful picture of the Christmas Tree

Skiing Powder Mountain

We had an amazing day of skiing on Powder Mountain as a family. For the first time we were all able to go together! It was a such a great feeling to have all the kids with us and do a fun, bonding activity together. This was Paisley's 1st time on skis and Luke decided to skip the board this year and try out skiing as well. Luke took right to it and was flying down the mountain with us trailing behind him. He only rode the lift up with me about 2 times and then didn't want to wait for us so he was riding all by himself or with Ethen. Paisley only needed a few times on the bunny hill and had pretty good control so we took her up the lift and she had a blast. She would go most of the way herself and only needed to a little help down the steepest parts. It was so much fun and no one complained all day! Paisley started crying at the end of the day and didn't want to leave. The only way we got her to take off her skis was when we told her that John and Liz would be at the house when we got back. Thankfully they were there when we arrived. We are looking forward to many ski trips back to our favorite resort, Pow Mow!!

Waiting for the shuttle

Paisley all bundled up in her cute snow jumpsuit! It kept her cozy warm all day.

Ethen on top of the world

Scott in his element

Taking a little break to refuel. Paisley had to put all her gear on by herself.

Luke and Mama on the lift

Phoebe and Mama on the lift

Our incredible kids at the top of Powder Mountain

Paisley riding her way down

Ice Skating Fun

We had a fun afternoon ice skating one day in Utah. Phoebe and James worked on some sweet moves and I think only Luke and I succeeded in injuring ourselves. Mine was from trying to get too confident in my skating ability and crashing on my knees. Luke's was more ligitimate and he suffered a skate scrape to the side. Luckily they happened at the end of our skate time. Sorry no footage of the wrecks, but here is Phoebe and James!!!

Ethen's Christmas Choir Concert

Ethen had a Holiday Choir Concert that was really great. It was held in the high school auditorium and he really enjoyed singing the bass line in Mr. Grinch.

Paisley's Preschool Christmas Program

This is our last Christmas program to have a child in at Little Saints. All of my children have gone to preschool at Little Saints and I was crying on the way home because it is hard to believe we won't be going there anymore after next year. This performance marks our 8th one. Paisley was very excited to perform and she looked adorable singing in her cute Christmas dress with hair done in bows.

walking up to sing

Mrs. Ellen has taught all of my children for at least a year. She is a wonderful teacher and we LOVE her.

White Christmas Tree

This year we are foregoing the large green tree and just put up our white one. The house feels festive now! Red and white like a candy cane :)

Ipod pictures at the beach

Ok these are the last of them. I am still wishing we were at the beach. I really wouldn't mind just moving to one permanently! Although I do know that it wouldn't have the same affect on the kids if we lived there full time (or maybe it would!)

Stingray sighting