An Armstrong Christmas

Mallory, Bary and Teri arrived last Tuesday for Christmas. Mal and I spent most of the day baking Christmas goodies. We also had to make game food to watch BSU play in the Poinsettia bowl that night. (Which BSU lost by 1 point). We drove to the edge of town to see quite the display of lights. Like nothing we have ever seen before. I made my first Turkey dinner on Christmas day and the meal turned out pretty good (with some help from Teri and Mallory). Travis, Sarah and Mason arrived the day after Christmas and the highlight was getting to see Mason enjoy Christmas. She received several Elmo dolls and other Elmo apparel. Several of us went to a hockey game one night and a movie another night. We hit the zoo which Mason seemed to enjoy much more than she did a year ago. Trav and Sarah were the last one here today so we went for a drive out to the Snake River before they had to catch their flight back home. We enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for a great Christmas!

Mason playing with her Elmo Live!

Strummin' her new guitar

Watching the dogs play in the snow

One quiet moment with Lucy and Max

This is only a fraction of all the lights at the house we went to

I wont say who won breaking the wish bone

This California girl wasn't too sure about the snow

Looking at the monkeys

Travis and Mason at the zoo on a gorgeous day

Snake RiverAction shot of a hawk we saw on our driveSo Fast! Mason loves to run.

Winter Wonderland

Well, it finally started snowing. It started yesterday, and snowed all day, but it was only tiny flakes all day long so didn't add up to much. It started dumping this morning though and we are probably up to 2 inches now, and headed for quite a bit more. Hazen's work crew went out last night to plow, and luckily he didn't get called until 9am this morning to go check a property. Our neighbor had a Christmas party last night that we went to. Probably the closest party to our house we've ever been to. Kinda weird just walking to it. Nice to not have to drive in the snow though. We are getting really excited for Christmas. All the decorations are up and I spent several hours in the kitchen yesterday making goodies for the neighbors and people at work. Can't wait to do another round of baking with Mallory next week. Maybe it will be easier with two people doing it (though Hazen did help unwrap some of the caramels).

Thanksgiving

We made the trek to WA last week for Thanksgiving. Headed out at 7am Wednesday morning for the 8 hour drive. We got a new car the week before so it was a pretty comfortable ride (unless you ask Lucy). We made it most of the way and Lucy was doing fine. That is until we got to White Pass. Coming down the other side into Packwood it gets real curvy. Lucy was flying around the backseat and finally got sick about 1/2 hour before we were to our destination. Luckily we had blankets on the seat and most of the puke got on Sammy, her stuffed squirrel. She enjoyed playing with Max (Hazen's parents dog) and didn't enjoy Bailey (Aubree's parents dog) who barked and snipped at her. We had a good time visiting family and didn't look forward to the drive back Sunday. We made it safe and without anybody getting sick.

Our new car (a little dirty from the drive). A Ford Five Hundred.

Hazen's cousin's daughter, Azalea

Teri and Grandma Judy

Hazen, Barry, Uncle Danny, and cousin Spencer

Cousin Andy, Uncle Erik, and Uncle Buzz

Too much turkey for Spud and Shawna

Dad, Ryan and Hazen

Aunt Dawn's foster son, Joshua. Cute as always.