Earl Christmas Party!

Jeffrey with his cousin Stephen who is three years old.

 Essie and her cousin Gordon riding the skidders together.

 Daddy and Rulon running and chasing each other outside.

 Me, Laura, and Julie together!  Julie and I our pregnant so we thought we would sandwich Laura.

 Handsome and beautiful Grandpa and Grandma hosting the Christmas party!

 Some of the children getting ready to perform the Nativity for us adults.

 Essie playing Mary, the mother of the Christ child with her cousin Joseph playing Joseph.

 Damian performing the Drummer boy for all of us, it was so inspirational!

 Essie singing "Oh Christmas Tree" for all of us, she did perfectly!

 Grandma told us the story of Grandpa during the depression and how poor his family was and one Christmas all Grandpa got was a chair for the table, it was really for everyone and it always made him so sad but he never complained.  Grandma has decided to display it in her house to honor him and help us remember to always be grateful!  We all went around taking pictures with Grandpa Hansen to remember this tearful story.

  

Grandma did a really cute lunch bag filled with yummy food for all of us this year and we sat around outside and ate together it was a blast!  What a wonderful Christmas party!!!

Manner party in honor of....

The children have been working on their manners for the past six weeks and earning stickers at the table to add up for the manner party.  We invited Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandpa over for a special dinner in honor of the children.  We ate some fun Mexican food and cinnamon rolls with hot cocoa for dessert.  We all went to hear the First Presidency Christmas message. What a fun night I was so proud of the each of the children.

Utah Trip Fun

 Of course lots of our family, my side, all live in Utah.  except for Great Grandpa Hansen, McKay's Grandfather.  Grandpa with Damian and Essie.  He is almost 90 years old and so much fun.

 Here is Grandpa Hansen's fish pound in the back yard, isn't it beautiful with all those lily pads.  He is a master gardener and can build anything.  Damian fell in the pound that day, everyone says he was the first grandson to fall in and Grandpa always wondered who would be the first.  Way to go Damian.

 Damian with his cousin Dan, who is 13 now and Joseph or Jo-Jo who is 7.

 Rulon up in the Heber mountains.  We all played where the trees were full of Autumn colors and picked a bunch to press in books to later take back home.   

 We always go to Leatherby's Ice Cream Parlor right down the street where I grew up in Taylorsville, Utah.  It is the best ice cream on earth and I am not kidding.  The taste gets better every time we go back.  We got one big sundae, 1/2 a gallons amount and each of us picked our favorite topping.  Jeffrey liked the cheese fries more than the ice cream, I think.  Just talking about it makes me wish I was there!

 A funny picture of us in front of the LDS Salt Lake Temple, isn't is beautiful, no one could do anything like a smile we all felt like being silly.

 

This is Damian giving some two hundred dollars he collected to give to someone in need.  He had been keeping it for the past few months not knowing who to give it to.  Than the night before we left I got this e-mail that one of my dear friends' daughter was going in for special treatments and they were raising money because their insurance did not cover the treatments.  When I told him about it he knew right away this is where the money should go.

Rulon at the the Lion House, Brigham Young's home in Utah.  It is quite the tour.  His wife Lucy made 24 loaves of bread and 24 pies each day.  Wow!  As busy as a bee, BUZZZZZZZZ!

It's a GIRL!!!!

We had a ultra sound party!  Sounds like fun...well this great guy comes over, very professional, and hooks everything up to your TV right there in your home and leaves you with a DVD of the whole experience with all of our voices and reactions all recorded!  He sends in the report data and that way its just as good as the hospital ultra sound everything is check for your baby's health.  By the way it cost less!

So McKay and I thought it would be fun to have over some family and friends and of course the kids were there and lots of fun food.

We found out we are having a Girl and she is "Perfect"!  We are naming her Suzanne Marie Earl and we are so excited.  We are expecting her to come the first week of March.

Hailstone Reunion

 The joy of family!  There are 40 of us and counting for the Hailstone family bunch and we are proud of it!  There is nothing like just beginning together, I love reunions.

 This is Essie and her cousin Heidi, so cute!

 We are all about to play base ball and thought it would be fun to line and in height for fun.  Base ball was a tradition growing up in my home.  We never played cards really just ball and races it seemed.  I hit a home run and ran around four months pregnant!  WooHoo! 

 You always got to have a three legged race at every reunion.

 Another tradition we experience was The Great Scavenger Hunt.  My mother seems to put these together for one reason or another.  She would have you going all over town and doing the craziest things.  So split up in three groups and race!  I was at the Cougar Stadium in a grass hat and skirt waiting to give the next assignment of singing a cheer as loud as they could and than get the next clue.  Uncle Marty's group won but some say it helped a lot that he grew up and lives in this area.  McKay raced Uncle Brian for second!

 Scrabble of course, and always hearing from somebody "that is too a word" and "get the dictionary".

 Aunt Shannon, baby Nellie, Ruth's last baby, and Essie holding up her egg in a bag that later we dropped from the roof of the Sipes to see who's would survive, yes another classic tradition.

McKay and Rulon making something...

 I had to include this picture...we ended one evening with having grand kids tell us something about Utah and Damian chose the Ute Indians.  He talked for about 10 plus minutes with this look on his face, not forgetting any detail he had studied.  He is so cute and intense!  Happy reunion--we are in charge of this years.

Gibert LDS Temple

"This is the place" were Brigham Young's famous words for spot were the building of the historic Salt Lake City, Utah temple would be built.  So "this is the place" were the Gilbert, AZ, LDS Temple will be built.  It is about 12 minutes from our home and we thought we would take a picture of the ground before and after it is built.  In two years we will have the after photo.

 This is at the actual ground breaking ceremony.  We all attended and felt very honored to be apart of such an event.  We know great blessing will come to this area because of the "House of the Lord".

 Here is a picture of what it will look like when it is done in less than two years.

 Lots of people get a turn to "break the ground" with these pretty shovels.

Jeffrey was hot and mostly stayed on the ground in the shade, it was funny to see everyone come in their warm Sunday clothes, because it was in Nov. but it was still a high of 85 degrees.  Us Arizonians can only where are cute sweaters and boots for a couple of short months.

Victory!

 

McKay's first Olympic Tri...swim, run, and bike race to the finish line!

He trained four months or so for this race and it payed off.  This race of St. George Utah was much more hot, a lot more up hill, and a real test in the open waters.  But he finished and is training for his next one in May.  He's my inspiration!

 This is where Essie jumped in at the last 20 yards to finish with Daddy, she pushed him!  McKay had lots of support, Mom and Dad Hailstone, my parents came out to cheer him on and of course all of us!  It was a  hot day full of great times for all of us.

 McKay enjoyed eating all week long to refuel his body, he must of burned some 4,000 calories.