We got to take Grandma out to dinner on Tuesday night! She is such a great person. She is 90 years old but her memory is amazing and she is full of knowledge and wisdom and memories. She wanted to go to OUTBACK to get the rack of lamb with mint green jelly! I love it. I love that she knew exactly what she was craving and we made it happen. We got Sean to watch all of the kids so it was a quiet adult meal which we don’t get often.

A few words of wisdom from this trip:

She told us about the advice she got from her mom when she was raising her family and complaining about leaving a sink full of dishes every night to run off to baseball games… Her mom said to leave the dishes and enjoy the games. Soon enough you will have time to do as many dishes as you want. She said it has been a good reminder to live in the moment and enjoy the present stage of life.

She said one of her motto’s is to not worry. If something is going to happen  you’ll have plenty of time to worry about it then and figure it out but it doesn’t do any good to worry about it before it even happens.

The night before that we had family over for a family night with grandma!

Look at this cuteness:

the egg hunt:

We think we’ve been going to St. George during Spring Break for 7 years now!  That’s before my little family even needed a spring break 🙂 Each year we stay at the same condo’s and hang out with Pete’s family, Matt’s family and Michelle’s family. It’s a great mix of family and fun in the sun. (except we missed last year for Joel’s wedding)

We had a super fun time. The weather was great and that made all the difference. Our kids were little fish. They swam and swam and would have swam more if we had let them 🙂

We also Ate a TON. Donuts and Mongolian. Custard and more custard. Burgers and Veyo Pie and Texas Road House…

We also found a fun park to spend the day on Saturday. It had a great play ground and a splash pad, tennis courts and wind to fly the kite. On Thursday we also went to a park and played soccer and threw the football and watched Amanda learn how to run again.

On our last day we went to the St. George Temple in the morning.

And that was Netty St. George 2014.

On Christmas Eve we got up and wrapped a few presents and made some pies and got everyone ready for our McDonald’s lunch with the cousins! Ben had some extra days off so he didn’t go into work at all that day. We met up with everyone at McDonald’s and let the kids get all of their hyper-ness out. After McDonald’s we went home and avoided the busy streets and stores -there was definitely a Christmas Bustle this year. We gave the kids their Christmas Jammies to open. Having presents under the tree was killing them. In the Evening we had a party at Michelle and Udine’s house. Unfortunately Cali was pretty sick. I stayed home with her while everyone else went to the party. Since the party was next door I got to sneak over a few times and enjoy the food. They ate and played and chatted and then had the kids act out the nativity. They did it all on their own this year! No adult help! pretty cool. We came home tired and excited and ready for Santa to come! (so tired I forgot to get a jammy picture 🙁 )

McDonald’s

our shepherds

the whole crew

Packer left this note for Santa 🙂 Choowe is our elf Chewy and I loved that he pre-thanked for ALL of the toyz!

Every year since before I knew him Ben has been making a gingerbread house for his nieces and nephews and now his own children to decorate! We all look forward to this tradition and one more reason to get together during the holidays. This year we did it at our house. The new house accommodated it well.

ornaments from grandpa and grandma

Now that Ben’s parents live here in Utah we have a new tradition… they invite our family over for some Christmas time just with them. We get to exchange gifts. We eat some yummy snacks and just enjoy being together and enjoy the Christmas spirit. I really have the best in-laws. They are great. The kids all get a new ornament from them each year. I love that tradition. The kids love finding all of their ornaments and hanging them on the tree each year. This year we had red velvet cookies that i loved and Rick made his toffee and we had norwegian shortbread cookies that are a Netteshiem Christmas classic. The boys got a few new games that we had to try out right then and there. Actually all gifts were opened and played with before we left. And Millie slept the entire time.