Merry Christmas Eve!

What a wonderful week we have had and there was even sunshine mixed in with the snow! Really the weather is getting colder but it was a pretty week. One of the highlights was when Hugh called me to come see the 'twinkles' in the snow, he was referring to the ice crystals on top of the snow crust. A silly source of entertainment the last few days has been to watch the 8 month old Golden Retriever (Bear)stare out various windows at the wild kittens. After awhile he whimpers, but the best is how the kittens purposely taunt the poor thing by casually moving from one window area to another. The funniest was yesterday morning when Bear and Twinkle (the house cat) were staring out the living room window with their chins on their paws as the wild kittens sunned themselves on the front steps.

The kids and I spent all morning making gluten free caramel popcorn for Brenton's twelve brothers and sisters. Several nieces, nephews, and one sister have trouble with gluten, combine that with my lack of holiday organizational skills and you arrive at one gluten free treat for all! This time around at least. Cody and Moira did most of the stickier work while Liam kept Hugh entertained with various games involving Lego guns. Though they thought the air popper was amazing! The dogs even helped by keeping the floor relatively clean. Brenton got home in time to play chauffeur and drove us all over town to deliver the baskets. We even caught up with the families in Cache Valley. After a lovely pizza dinner (not cooked by me) we watched "The First Christmas" and read the Christmas scriptures before banishing four giggle children to bed for the first of several times. Hope everyone had a good time today and that tomorrow is perfect for you.

Moira and I are going to figure out how to post a slide show tomorrow so tune in to be amazed by our techiness!

 

 

Family Photo

 

family photos

Oops the pictures are to big to load so I will have to wait for the in-house techie to come home and help. Sorry but I warned any readers that I am not a techie!

Already needing to catch up....

Hello, Thanksgiving was fun and oh so busy! The weather in Northern Utah was absolutely gorgeous and that is over, it was .3 degrees on the shed thermometer this morning! After a fun dinner at the in-laws we came home to just chill a bit and work on sewing baby blankets for a charity my grandmother works with in Phoenix. The best part of the day for me was when my brother-in-law, Jake, came and took our family pictures. He was the best! And the pictures turned out great if I do say so myself. The biggest bonus with having Jake as our photographer was that the kids adore him and he is so tolerant! Of course the 'no charge' part rocked as well. Brenton spent much of his weekend working somewhere for someone other than me! The Irish dancers, Moira, Liam, and Hugh had their first public performance on Saturday. They did great, when Hugh forgot the steps he just jumped up and down and smiled at the crowd. Liam and Moira did very well, and are already scheming as to how many feis (Irish dance competitions)they can con us into. We hope all of you are enjoying the Holiday season and that it is not too hectic. Enjoy these pictures, and Brenton swears he wasn't pinching Hugh in the last photo.

They grow up too fast.....

I was trying to organize our digital pictures so that when I hit the delete button by accident I have a clue as to what has vanished and came across a series I took of Cody and Brenton. Brenton was upgrading Cody to a 'real' razor versus the electric one he had been using. I had to leave I got to giggling so hard as they worked out the details of how not to harm oneself and still actually shave. It is hard to fathom that Cody not only shaves, but drives and is plotting out his college career while changing his career choice every few days. It is getting quite cold here in the North but I managed to run when it was 15 or so degrees the other morning and then amuse the kids by shaking slivers of ice out of my jacket upon returning home. Yesterday I snuck out for eight miles and had an almost tragedy, about three and half miles from home I felt a prick on the bottom of my foot and immediately stopped. I was anticipating a gargantuan devilhead but there was a two inch rusty nail sticking out of the bottom of my left shoe! I sat down and tried to get it out (it was a bit cold to have my gloves and shoes off not to mention to be sitting still) but had no luck. What a blessing when a neighbor drove by and stopped, stuck his head out the truck window and hollered what's wrong. I told him and he thought for a minute then asked if I wanted pliers. I was quite grateful as I was about to resort to my teeth and that was too grouse to truly consider. Anyway I love small town running and farmers who hunt on Sundays! God Bless!

Sleepy little Irish dancer....

Hugh had a great time at Wednesday's Irish dance class but he took a serious break during the second hour while the 'big' kids were still dancing. We are still learning the ins and outs of the world of blogging, and I erase more than I get to work. It is getting really cold here but it will get colder so we are enjoying any outside time we get. Cody's soccer team switched to an inside form of soccer called futsal....I don't get it but he seems to like it. Moira is happy because the dance guru from Portland will teach class next week and he is very intense so she loves it. Brenton is super busy at work but is staying in shape for the next soccer season. Hope all is well in your worlds.

New Blog

We are attempting to create a blog that we all like and can put 'stuff' on. Be forewarned I (Sheila) have limited computer skills so this should be a wonderful adventure in redoing things as I figure out where all the cool stuff is in cyberspace. This particular branch of the Hammons family is small, only four kids and two parents but we have tried to pad the family with four dogs, four rabbits, one cat, and numerous sheep on a seasonal basis. Stay tuned for pictures, news, complaints, exaggerated stories about soccer, homeschool, Irish dance, and a serious lack of respect for the necessity of running out of doors even in sub freezing weather!