This last week Henry Schein Practice Solutions, the company I work for, put on a conference at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas called the Business of Dentistry Conference. It was a huge success. Mostly it consisted of users of our main product, DENTRIX, the leading dental practice management software. Altogether there were nearly 600 people at the conference and there were fun activities, informative classes and good food. I expect that we will get pictures from the conference up on the website soon (http://www.businessofdentistry.com/). There are some pictures of the first night's activity on our Facebook page if you want to see those (http://www.dentrix.com/facebook/).

Well, I decided to take the kids to get pictures today. Brandon is always a trick but he did pretty good today. Here are a few of the pictures. The edited versions are better, but here are the originals.

   
 

       

This has been a whirlwind of a year. A lot has been going on this year, and I can't believe my little Anna is 1 years old. She is such a cute little girl. We feel so blessed to have her in our family! She brings us so much joy. It has been amazing to watch her grow throughout this year. The boys just love having a sister. She has the best smile and the cutest laugh. She is getting really good at walking and practically running to keep up with her brothers. I keep telling her to stop growing up so fast, but that doesn't seem to be an option. Here are a few pictures of Anna growing up this year. I love you sweet girl! Sorry I don't know how to do the slide show so I will have a bunch of pictures instead.

                   

Well, it is official. We have a DOG!! Michelle and DJ found a dog on ksl.com classifieds and thought it would be a perfect dog for us. On Friday night we went to Salt Lake to pick it up. The dog's name is Skyler and he is a very good dog. He has warmed up to us quickly and he is very good with the boys and Anna. He knows to not go to the bathroom inside and he rarely barks and he is very patient with the kids (which can be very difficult with how Brandon handles him sometimes). At first it looked like DJ was going to be allergic to him, but has done much better the last couple days. This is a picture from my phone on the drive home. We will try to get more pictures of him up in the coming weeks.

We have been trying to keep entertained around this house while it has been so cold. Here are some things we have been up to lately.

  Dj goes to Preschool

  Dressing up in Costumes. Can you tell which one is DJ and which one is Brandon?

 Paint a Magnet Board

Potty Train

Go to the circus

 

 

Celebrate DJ's 4th Birthday and make a race track cake!

     

How about this style?

 

Paint Rocks and Hide them in the house like Easter eggs

 

All in all we have had a pretty good winter, but we are so tired of being stuck inside! We can't wait for the Spring. Unfortunately it is pooring snow right now, so it might not be for a while. 

 

I just created a Facebook group for Michelle and my high school graduating class. If you read this blog and you graduated with us or know someone that did, go on over to the group and join. I just want to get as many of us as possible. There were hundreds of us, so we should be able to get a bunch pretty quickly. Also, if you were in this class and have a blog that others read, I ask you to post a link to the group. Let's see how fast we can fill the group.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48123728789&ref=mf

 

Chip and Erin are in town for her brothers wedding and we were able to spend some time with them. It was so fun to have them over, especially because I pulled of a big win in golf last night. We played while we watched the disappointing Suns game. Anyways, Erin got tickets to go see the Draper Temple Open House. Last Monday we decided we would take the kids so we had a FHE lesson on the temple and some of the things to look for inside of the temple. DJ and Brandon were so excited that they got to go to the temple. They have always heard of Mom and Dad going but now they got to go. We explained to them that the temple hadn't been dedicated yet so they were allowed to go and see the inside. And then once it was dedicated you have to be 12 and have a recommend from the Bishop to do Baptisms for the dead and then before you go on a mission you can go do other ordinance work. Well it was a beautiful temple. It really is on a mountain. The art work was incredible. Anna loved all the beautiful chandaliers. I am so happy we went. I know they don't fully understand what they did today, but I am pretty sure they felt the peaceful feeling in the temple, (even thought it was not dedicated yet) and saw the beauty of the temple. I know I felt a peace there. I was happy they were able to hear other peoples testimonies about eternal family and look in the sealing room at the mirrors that go on forever. If you get a chance to go the temple house goes until March 14th. It is well worth your time and effort to get there. 

To find out more information go to this link http://www.lds.org/temples/openhouseinfo/0,12357,1921-1-590,00.html

 

We have already had such an eventful New Year. Anna fell while holding on to one of our kitchen chairs and she got a black eye. It is hard to see it but I tried to get a picture of it. She has figured out how to turn around and go down the stairs. She is so proud of herself. Also, she has decided she can stand up in the middle of the room without pulling herself up on something. She can bend down and pick something up and then stand up again. Then tonight she took her first couple of steps. It is not going to be long until she is running around with the boys. Watch out boys! Here are some pictures of her.

Yes she is standing up right at the top of the stairs. She was scaring me to death. Here is a picture of her black eye.

It looks worse when her eye is closed.

Also, DJ is going into Sunbeams tomorrow. We will see how that goes. Brandon won't know what to do without DJ in nursery with him. Also, we took the plunge and put the bunk bed together. It has been good so far. Here is a picture of the boys all excited about it.

 

Well, then on Tuesday morning we were off to the Cabin. We got there and the road up to the cabin was very icy. We didn't make it very far before we got stuck. So David and Steve came and helped us out. We got about half way up the road and then we got stuck again. This time I decided to take the kids out and walk up to the cabin with them while the boys worked on getting the car there. The car finally did get there, but it wasn't pretty.

Muscle Man Steve was a little too strong for our car and the window shattered. Luckily Steve was ok and we got the window fixed right after we got back to Utah. I was so happy I took the kids out of the car before this happened. 

Other than the car disaster everything else was so fun at the cabin. We didn't get too many pictures here but I got a couple of the nativity and Danny pulled it out for Christmas morning with all the chaos of cousins presents. 

DJ was Joseph. Brandon was an observer again, and Anna was our little angel. Mari was Mary and she did so good. 

Here are a few pictures of Christmas morning.

 

We had so much fun with all of the cousins and uncles and aunts. DJ, Brandon and Anna have been wondering where all the fun has gone since we came back.  We hired someone to come take family pictures for us but the weather was too bad. So we tried to improvise and do it ourselves. Here are some of those pictures.

 

19 Grandkids with 2 more on the way!

 

Brandon didn't want a picture. Can you believe it?

 

Doesn't Anna look happy!

 

The little boys were done with pictures.

 

Not too bad. Every child is looking at the camara. Danny had to push Brandon's face against his to keep Brandon's face forward. What a guy!

I think my New Years resolution should be to take more pictures. Especially if we are with family that we don't get to see very often.

Well on Friday we were off to the Kings house in Mesa. We had such a good time there. The kids loved playing with all their uncles and aunts. DJ thinks Spencer is a "really awesome boy." DJ put himself in charge of putting firewood in the fire at all times of the day. So if you were feeling cold in Mesa all you had to do was come visit the Kings and we had a nice hot fire going all day long. In fact DJ, Spencer and Sam roasted Marshmellows in the fireplace a few times while we were there. We visited Papa Great and Mama Great on Saturday. The kids love them so much. It was so fun to see them! The that night we were able to go to a big King family party with lots of cousins and uncles and aunts. The kids did a nativity at this. Brandon does not like to dress up and so he was just an observer of the nativity. DJ was a wise man. The kids loved having a pinata at the end stuffed full of lots of candy. Then on Sunday night we had a good Christmas celebration with just Danny's family. It was fun to be all together. We were able to eat a delicious meal, and then we said what we were thankful for and had a nativity. Unfortunately, Brandon was done with the night right after dinner so while I was putting him down I missed the thankful part and the nativity. Danny video taped the nativity and Anna was Mary. Amazingly she sat still the whole time. That is unusual for our little Anna. We has a small talent show after that and then opened a couple presents and just talked. We had a great time. On Monday I was able to see Heather Horton Glenn. It was so fun to see her and her cute kids. It has been almost 4 years since I have seen her. That afternoon we had famil pictures with the Kings. I will post some of these when we get them. The boys did not feel like cooperating but everyone else did great. Right after that we went to Ivean's house (susan's sisters) and met up with all the cousins and uncles and aunts from Susans side of the family. We had a great time! Pitiful continued comes in right here. We did not take a single picture the whole time we were in Mesa. That is right not a single one. So anybody who happened to take a picture of us during our stay there can you e-mail to me. Then I will post them on the blog.