roasted chickpeas, Strawberry Oat Bars, Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, cinnamon stix with peanut butter dip, crackers with salsa hummus, and veggies and hummus

Punch glasses edged with crushed candy canes. This was to go along with the tropical, peppermint nog/smoothie

There's Darren's ugly sweater

and my gorgeous, wreath covered turtleneck

Ryan and Emily Robbins with their awesome white elephant gifts. Ryan was excited about target practice. Poor Justin :(

Eric and Jessica Roberts

Derek and Emily Pratt. Soup and the sounds of blackness. Sounds like a fun date night :)

Chris and Nancy Dyson: Birds of a Feather certainly swing together :)

The funniest moment of the night was when Ryan sat down onto his plate of food. His comment was priceless ... "Well...this night just became a lot more interesting!" haha.  It was even funnier when not 5 minutes later Ryan commented on Emily having something on her backside. She had apparently sat down on some food as well, although she couldn't remember when or how. So to memorialize this night in Christmas Party History, we took a picture:

It was hilarious! We all laughed so hard our cheeks hurt...haha...no pun intended!!

Ugly Sweater Contest Winners: Ryan won the "SO-HO-HO Ugliest" Ribbon

and took home the coveted trophy. Those are some awesome sweaters!

The Coveted Trophy in all it's glory. He might be missing some pants...but that Rudolph sweater rocks!!

...a faux fireplace!

And I thought...why couldn't Darren and I build something like that? And the answer is...WE CAN! So...WE DID!! :)

The before picture (just a blank wall)

The process and materials:

And the end result:

Darren drew the fire. He's quite the artist!

I think it turned out great! And all for about $10. I LOVE it in our living room!

Darren made this to go along with dinner tonight. He wouldn't let me see it until it was finished. Pretty clever eh? Very creative babe. Have you been looking on Pinterest? haha :)

We didn't have time to eat dinner before heading out to the festival, so once we arrived we bought two huge muffins at the country store bakery. Pumkin and apple. YUM! 

My cousin Shana and her family

Cute little Kasen

Hay ride, corn maze, pig show and go-carts. It doesn't get more fun than that :)

We had fun at Camp Lo Mia this year.

The girls had the opportunity to ride a zip line...

...and practice their archery skills. They had fun competing for the role of Merida (from the new Disney movie Brave). As they pulled the string back and stood to take aim, the famous line was..."I'll be shootin' fer me own hand." I'm not sure who won the title.

the girls in front of our addie (a.k.a. spider-ridden cabin)

For the 4th of July, Darren and I went to Heber for our annual family BBQ. We always have such a great time getting out of the heat and spending time with family. And of course eating the yummy food :)

we had fun decorating this year

My first attempt at Watermelon Cake.

Other than not being perfectly round, I think it turned out pretty well :)

Our cute "niece" Haylee

...and Devyn

I think the cutest kid in there is the big one :)

James...what a character :)

Uncle Darren playing baseball with the kids

Cute kids! We had so much fun being with everyone. I can't wait until next year :)

On June 6-9, 2012, Darren and I had the opportunity to be a ma and pa on the pioneer trek. What an amazing experience. We absolutely loved our family!

The before picture: doesn't he look like a true Stetson Man?

Another before pic: we definitely were not this clean after 4 days of trekking

"rollin', rollin', rollin', keep those handcarts rollin'"

most of our family: Natalie, Ben, Luis, Katie, Kaytlyn, Quint and Kassy

pa and the girls

chicken pluckin' time

Tug 'O' War. We won a bag of salt water taffy! :)

The kids playing the "sign game"...and Natalie shaking our cream into butter.

Doesn't she look excited? :)

One of my favorite parts of the trek...our family cooking around the handcart.

Such a fun time!

Chili and scones (with honey!) Our favorite dinner by far!

YUM!!

Our family: Aubrey, Gareth, Luis, Katie, Kaytlyn, Ben, Quint, Kassy and Natalie.

This pic includes us along with Aunt Chandra and Uncle Scott.

Our family would not have been the same without them. They are amazing!!

Names from the "sign game": random kid, More!, cup 'o' noodles, tiger-slicing,

take a picture, Tarzan, chopping wood, sonic boom and tree-man.

I can still see and hear Quint lying on the ground laughing...haha :)

the last day...not too much farther to go

Can you see our "unity stick"? The kids pilfered handkerchiefs from the

other families so we could have our flag of many colors.

"Go pirates!" It was such a great idea!

Such great kids! Thank you for all your hard work and great examples.

We will always remember you and love you.

"YO-HO! YO-HO! The pioneer's life for me. ARRGGHHH!!"