Christmas 2010

We had a lovely christmas. It was so fabulous to have all the kids home! The Babies are so sweet we love having them with us.  We started Christmas eve going to the movies with our neighbors and then Dinner at their house I believe this is year 15 of Christmas Eve with the Mosmans!  We had lots of punch (my favorite!), yummy lentil soup (and yes Jennie I had extra for you!)  followed by a fabulous pecan and pear green salad and artichoke chicken!  It was Delicious!  Everyone was woke up this year at 6:00am by Addison and Weston!  We had a great day opening presents, watching movies, playing games and staying in our PJS all day!  We had a delicious Christmas dinner of Prime Rib (Thanks to Cory for the Fab recipe!) and funeral potatoes and then no Pennington meal would be complete with out Grandma Pats "Pink Salad"!    It was a great day and now we still have a whole week off before school starts!  Derek is back to basketball this week 2 practices a day and Steve is back to work - but for the rest of us we will probably do a little shopping and maybe see a movie or two!

Christmas Eve with the Mosmans

Jackie and Weston

Christmas Eve PJ's

Playing a little bit of COSMIC BALL - I had to move all presents they were getting a little rough!

Weston got some Aviators from Santa

Addison loves Christmas!

Addison fit inside Grace's new American Girl Doll Camper! HA

Playing a little bit of Just Dance 2

It's True!

They say Utah has the Greatest Snow on earth and we are now BELIEVERS!!!  We had FEET of powder to ski in!  We have stories of snow up to your waist!  It was the greatest!  It was a great way to start our Christmas Vacation!  We were so lucky Shannon and Cory brought there family up to ski with us which was really nice!  We sure love Cousins!  Even Jackie and Justin and the Babies came up for a night but Jackie said the babies were to young to start skiing!  Maybe next year! HA

The whole crew on our way out to ski

Derek LOVED all the powder

Shannon, Lauren and Savannah

The kids love to play in the snow and then jump in the Hot tub

This is what happens after  you Ski hard for 7 hours! He seriously fell asleep at 6:30

Uncle Steve finally made friends with Ivy - She even said he was on Santa's Nice list! HA

And He Makes the Paper!

We have a big rivalry with the town that is 8 miles from us called Pullman and Derek's Varsity Team played them last night.  Pullman has been undefeated and the paper has been VERY positive in their write ups and they have had an easy schedule!  We have not had the greatest start to our season BUT we have played VERY hard teams and lost by only a few points but the paper has not been so favorable to us in their write ups.  It was a big night!  Derek got to start and did GREAT!  We Won 41-38 and this mornings paper was very favorable towards us and Derek was mentioned in the paper! WOOT WOOT! Since you probably can't read it I will quote the Daily News-
Bears forced 16 turnovers while its offense only turned it over six times.  Moscow did that with starting point guard Lane Brooks on the bench with an injury. 
Filling in the majority of the time for Brooks was Derek Pennington.   "Derek really controlled the tempo," Coach Donaldson said. "We only had six turnovers and we were averaging close to 17 a game.  So we took care of the ball and that's key."  He also hit four clutch free throws in the final seconds of the game and defensively he kept Drake from getting hot late.

Way to go Derek!  He was pretty happy when he got home last night!  He had a great game and now we can quite hearing how GREAT Pullman is! HA

I was so caught up in the game I didn't take any pictures - but here is a great one of him playing Defense.

GO BEARS!

And so another season begins! We love Bear Basketball! Both Savannah and Derek are #11 - it is a favorite in our family - Steve was also #11.  The only draw back to basketball season is it's the same season as skiing!  So that limits our ski season.   GO BEARS!

1st 3 pointer of the season - and it was good!

Grandchildren Spoiled Here!!!

If I had known how wonderful it would be to have grandchildren, I'd have had them first!
  We loved having our grandbabies here this week!  Jackie and Justin came last sunday and are leaving tomorrow!  We will really miss them.  The babies are doing so well.  They are off all moniters and eating and sleeping well.  We talked Jackie and Justin into letting Grandma have our first Sleepover!  Jackie and Justin are staying over at Justin's parents this week and so we stole the babies for a night and they got to sleep in!  Thank goodness I could take a nap the next day!
We had a great thanksgiving.  Steve's mom and dad and sister and of course Lauren braved the weather and came.  We blessed the babies on Wednesday and had a wonderful thanksgiving on Thursday.  Went to a couple movies and did a little shopping. It was fun to have all our kids home!  We sure miss them when they are gone!  Grace did not leave Laurens side the entire weekend.  I heard Savannah and Lauren laughing late into everynight!  It was great to have her home!  Now we only have to wait 3 more weeks to see her again!

Derek was not going to be part of this sister lovefest!  HA

We attempted family pictures!  They were very entertaining!

One of the thousand family pictures we took to try and get a good one!

Grace and Weston - They are so attentive and love to smile and talk to you!

Aunt Jera, Grace and Weston

Always plenty of babies to hold!

Grandpa with Weston

Addison loved her new dress I made for her!

Addison and Weston before their blessings

Elder Gavarrett

This weekend was our Stake Conference and one great perk of being the Stake Presidents family is we get to host the visiting General Authority.  Elder Eduardo Gavarrett came this weekend and he brought such a great spirit with him.  He was a lot of fun and continually teased Derek and I about having to talk in Stake Conference.  Come to find out he wasn't teasing and we both got to have a turn at the pulpit!  We don't have to do that usually Steve knows he will be in trouble if he calls on us!  AHAHAHA  Elder Gavarrett wasn't afraid of us I guess!  HA It was a fabulous stake conference and a wonderful weekend.  The church really is true and we are so blessed to have it in our lives.

Halloween

Since Halloween was on a sunday we did the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday.  It was fun and Grace got enough candy to be satified and then she handed out candy on Sunday.  Steve and Savannah were in Hawaii with the Vandals and had a great time!  Derek went to a party with his friends they were Bacon and Eggs. 

My little gypsie and her friend the Mad Hatter

Our Carved pumpkins! (Yep that's Derek's pumpkin!)

Savannah and Derek were working on it together - they aren't so good at team work so it ended up this lovely piece of art!  (I think Derek is done with the carving tradition!)HA

Grace and her cute pumpkin - which she did by herself!!

Derek and Savannah trying to workout a compromise with the pumpkin!  It didn't end well! HA

Kids Marathon

One of the schools sponsored a kids marathon.  They run a 1.5 mile fun run in October and another end with another one in April.  In between the races they have pedometers to keep track of their running and they are suppose to run 26.2 miles.  I guess the pedometers are really sensitive so they may run a few marathons in that time frame! HA 

Grace and her running buddies  - Ashley & McKenna

Starting line!  It was seriously cold this  morning!  But no Snow that is a plus!

running the course! 

FINISH LINE!!  She did it in about 20 minutes!  WOO HOO

 

Another runner in the Family!

The boy turns 17

Derek had his 17th birthday yesterday and as one of his birthday wishes - was to not have any pictures taken! HA  So I will just use old pictures and do a little blog tribute to my only son.  Derek is full of life.  He is the biggest tease not only to his sisters but also to me!  He seriously makes me shake my head or laugh at everything he does.  He is so funny.  In the back of his truck you will find many interesting items.  When I asked him why he had an axe and a bat  he told me sometimes you just need to chop stuff or hit stuff.  I decided not to ask any other questions.  He LOVES basketball and does very well.  He went to State with the Moscow High School team last year and hopes to repeat that again this year.  He has had the same 5 friends since kindergarten and everyday for lunch they all show up with him for lunch!  They are a great bunch of boys!  He loves to wakeboard, snowboard, surf and tube.  He landed a few backflips with the wakeboard last summer.  He loves his family and especially his Cousins! When you get the cousins together it can get really crazy and he is usually the ring leader.  He is a great kid and we love him!

SPA DAY

We had a Mother / Daughter Activity Days today.  It was a spa day.  It was really fun!  We did pedicures, manicures and facials.  It is always fun to spend time with my youngest goof ball!  Although I did get 3 calls from Savannah while I was gone!  At least she missed me or should I say my Taxi service! HA  It won't belong until she can drive herself! YAH!

starting with the parafin for our manicures

She's finally a REAL GIRL!

My cute little Savannah just got cuter!  No more Braces!  YEAH!!!  When we were driving home and she was looking in the mirror she said "I finally look like a real girl!"  HA  I love this kid! 

The orthodontist office sang her a "Braces Off song"  and gave her balloons and a cake made out of all the candy she shouldn't have been eating.