WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO. . .

Snowmobiling

When we were riding, we found this tree Dad had carved his name in about 48 years ago when he was sheepherding as a boy. Way cool, huh!!!

Shooting (Derek & Brad)

Playing with Kids

Derek is still fishing

Elder Kyle Kohler returns home! We love having Kyle home!!!

Baby Beck Lance Erickson is born and he is SOOOO cute!

Rachael goes to Jr. Prom. She looked so, so beautiful!

Snowshoeing (this is Der going down a big slide we built)

The Wises came to visit and the girls went Prom dress shopping. Syd and Sam tried on lots of fun dresses and modeled them for us!

I decided to recover my couch. . . AHHHHH!!!

BEFORE

DURING

There's no turning back now!

AFTER pics will be coming soon. I haven't finished sewing the cushions yet. I've been too busy with school and work to finish.

Family

We thought our holidays would be completely relaxing and not busy. We were wrong. We had such a good holiday season though and found it hard to get back in the rhythm of school and work. The family all came (except Amy), to Utah in December. It was so much fun with everyone. We went snowshoeing, icefishing, sledding, and lots more! Here are a few pics of everyone.

Ice fishing at Strawberry. Max, Fischer, Isaac, Derek

Heather & Max snowshoeing

Me & Dale snowshoeing

Me, Heather, Holly snowshoeing

Charlee & Reiss getting ready to go sledding

Heath and Dad pulling the tubes behind the 4-wheeler

Sweet baby Hannah with her cute smile!

The girls (and Heath) playing dress-up. Reiss, Abbie, Mara, Charlee, Heath

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We all celebrated Mom & Dad's 40th wedding anniversary by going to the temple and then having a dinner afterwards. It was so awesome to all be in the temple together. Jen put together a really neat video of Mom and Dad's lives, included all of us kids.

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For Christmas, instead of buying gifts for eachother (meaning the 7 of us kids), we give the money that we would have spent and it goes towards helping other people. Each year one of us 7 kids is incharge and we get to choose what we do with the money. This year Derek and I were incharge. We decided to to hygiene kits. It was really awesome because we had all the grandkids put the kids together. They loved doing it and I think it was good for them to learn that not everyone is as fortunate as we are.

Mom

Max

Fischer

Char & Me

Abbie

Life Update

Well, I am clearly horrible at updating our blog, but I am finally out of school for 4 weeks so now I have no excuse. Here's what's been going on the last month or so.

Derek's birthday

Another hunting trip for Derek. He went with all his brothers and his dad. He was gone about 5 days and had way too much fun. I always secretly hope he doesn't kill anything so maybe he'll change his hobbies. I must not be praying hard enough yet!

Thanksgiving with the kids--way cute kids, huh!!!. We had Thanksgiving at Dale & Ann's house where we had fondu (our version of a turkey dinner). Jen & Lance and Mel & Brock also came. Not the same without Mom & Dad, but it was still a great day!!!

Temple lights and Jazz game. . . all in one night!

Laurie, Rachael, Hayden, Me

Dad went on a trip to Washington in November. I loved these pics of Amy's kids so I thought I'd post them. I miss her family like crazy and wish we saw them more.

Syd in her riding gear.
Sammi in her riding gear

Jake & Dad went fishing while he was there. Here's one of the many fish they caught. Derek was really jealous when he saw these pics.

Halloween

The Saturday before Halloween, the family went to mom and dad's and painted pumpkins. Mom made homemade soup that was delicious and the kids had a blast! (Note to Aunt Jude. . . I put names of parents in parentheses for you. . .there's getting to be lots of us these days. Did you know Jen is pregnant? It's a boy!!!)

Reiss (Mel), Charlee (Mel), Cael (Jen)

Lauren just liked eating the paint (Dale)

Halloween night we were in Heber and went trick-or-treating with the kids. Charlee and Drew were so, so into trick-or-treating. They practically ran from house to house leaving behind Reiss, Heath, and Lauren. Derek and I ended up taking Reiss and Heath and doing some houses at their own pace. Here's most everyone in their costumes.

Reiss the mean witch and Charlee the kitty--mom made these costumes

Maylie the ladybug. . . she was so incredibly cute in this costume!!! (Derek's Family)

Riley the teenage mutant ninja turtle (Derek's Family)

Bubba (Melanie's) the doggie and Derek. Bubba was so funny with his costume. He threw a fit when Mel tried to put it on him and then when she finally got it on him, he wouldn't take it off.

Cute Rachael

Me and Reissa. . . I love this little girl!!!

Mel looking all good in Reissa's witch hat. Reiss ditched the hat soon after the

trick-or-treating started!

Drew the fireman (Dale's)

Holly sent me this pics of her kids and I thought they were so cute I had to post them. Holly made all of these costumes. . . she did an amazing job!!!

Isaac the Storm TrooperEnoch the carnitore (don't ask me, I guess it's some kind of dinosaur)
Baby Zeke the seal