Ann Arbor

Aftin's youngest sister, Raquel, is a BYU gymnast. Her team was coming to a meet at U of M in Ann Arbor about an hour from our house. We went out to spend time with her and see the meet. Before the meet we took the kids to a little indoor zoo and the U of M natural history museum.

Decorating our posters at home

Raquel on the four events. She did really great on all her events! We were so happy for her!

Receiving all her awards

February

Aliyah and Bill's Annual Valentines Dinner Date

This is pretty close to the peak height of the snow this winter.

Cute and Silly Pictures from January

Aliyah Loses another Tooth

More Snowy Days

Michigan has had a much colder and snowier winter than average. I think they have broken some records on low temperatures and snowfall. We figure if we can survive this winter, we can make it long term here.

New Year's Day

Since I didn't end up making a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, I decided to make a nice New Year's Day dinner--ham, potatoes, etc. We talked about the highlights of 2013 and about goals and new years resolutions. What I am imagined would be a long meaningful family discussion, of course lasted about two minutes, the attention span of small children. :) Oh well, maybe in a few years... I didn't think of a dessert ahead of time so I just made a box of chocolate pudding. The kids loved it and Russell made a big mess! Maybe the making of a new New Year's Day tradition?

New Year's Eve

A bunch of families from church pitched in and rented a small event hall for New Years Eve. So many people worked a lot to make an awesome party. There were cute decorations, yummy food, a great DJ setup, and a kids room with movies, videos games, crafts, and toys. The kids enjoyed dinner and dancing and playing around with their friends with the adults for the first half, then the second half they stayed in the kids room with a babysitter.

 

Photo Booth

We played some games and had a fun dance party. We love dancing. Back at BYU, when were were dating and newly married, we would go to dances all the time. We haven't been to a dance in so many years, so it was so fun. We danced so much we won a prize!

Yes, this IS the Macarena! :)

At midnight we toasted with sparkling cider and juice boxes!

What a fun night!