Ugly Sweaters and Nog Party

Are these sweaters ugly or what ?!

The Ellis Family's Ugly Sweater and Nog party, and man were there a lot of ugly sweaters!

Amanda and Mike

..and thanks to Caitlyn, plenty of yummy nog.

Caitlyn and EJ counting the votes for the Ugliest Sweater, and the winner is........BRADEN!

Christmas 2008

Caitlyn found this tin in an antiques store....it's exactly like Grandma Ellis', you know, the one that ALWAYS has candy in it! I hope mine works like hers! Caitlyn gave Dean this antique Dr. Pepper bottle.

Amanda made "Jammie pants" for all the guys. Mike was pretty excited about his Lionel Richie record Caitlyn got him, and the mini manequins were a huge hit!

Caitlyn is reading about the many things she should do before she dies. Amanda made these really cool hats for Caitlyn and EJ, and Braden finally got something with Dixie College on it, better late than never, right?

It definitely was a white Christmas at our house! Braden and Dean shoveled repeatedly trying to clear the walks before the Jensons and Christensens came over for a turkey lunch.

Oops, maybe should have taken the picture of the lovely turkey about 5 minute earlier! It was a thing of beauty!

Volleyball Team- "Mixed Nuts"

Last night was the championship game in our league tournament. We won! We all got $10 gift cards from target....so does that mean we are pro now? This picture is the team from this year's Moab tournament. I forgot my camera last night, ...had other things on my mind. 5 of us are the same, the girl on the front left, and the girl on the back left didn't play on this team, and we picked up Ali from New Zealand. Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand are represented on this team, and of course the two token white girls.

Thanksgiving, Jenson style

For Thanksgiving we headed to Kanab to spend it with the Jensons and the Christensens. Janna brought a large white rat for Jeff's snake, Grip. That provided us with some great entertainment! We all stood around and watched as Grip killed, and swallowed Voldemort...the white rat. Jeff's little kids have watched it for the last 5 years, so it was no big deal for them, but for the rest of us, it was amazing!

Grip vs Voldemort ...


Grip won!

Oh yeah, and we had a great dinner, and loved spending time with our family.

Mike and Amanda spent their Thanksgiving in New York, boy did they miss out! (Boy, did we miss them)

Snow Canyon half marathon

We all finished the Snow Canyon Half Marathon! We talked our neighbors and Braden into joining us in our training and our goal to run, and finish, a half marathon. Braden joined in about a month late, but ended up beating all of us! EJ was doing great on the training up until September 25, when knee problems hit. Many trips to to Dr, and several hundred dollars later, still had knee pain, and was very nervous that she wouldn't be able to finish the race....but she did! Dean is feeling the pain of his first race not beating Braden. That's more painful that any of the muscle soreness he is feeling. Our friends, the Demies that ran it with us were awesome! Cathy ran the whole way. She was amazing in sticking with her training. Mike of course had to add an interesting twist to the race...when we got to St. George the night before the race, he realized that his suitcase had not made it into to car! He had to buy new running clothes, including new shoes (not recommended to wear brand new shoes the day of the race) that evening, and he bought a brace for his leg on the way to the race. I don't think that was the most comfortable way to run a race, but he finished, and he had the cleanest shoes of anyone there!

Caitlyn and Lindsey, and Chris and Richard and Jonathan were there to cheer us on at the finish line. Andee also came at the end to share in our moment of accomplishment! What a fun weekend...except for the last 1/2 hour of the run....not so fun at that point!