Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Grandma Boren had "fun" with the grandkids in the hot tub. Clara cried every time we put her in , claiming the water was too hot. Once she was in we had a hard time getting her out. We had a great time in Sandpoint and are grateful that Lord protected us on the snowy drive.
Sherrie is an accomplished cross-country skier. We enjoyed beautiful snowy weather up in Idaho. It snow more than a foot after we took this picture.

After Christmas we headed up to Sandpoint, Idaho, where David's folks live. Sherrie shot this picture during the first hour on the 13 hour drive up. Though the kids were not smiling and holding hands the entire trip, they did exceptionally well.


This was a special Christmas present to Nathan and Clara from mommy and daddy. The piece of paper informs them that they will be getting a younger sibling sometime this summer (June or July). Nathan seemed excited enough, but Clara was instantly jealous. She immediately stated, "Mommy no like that baby!" We'll work on the idea with her. Needless to say, mommy and daddy are excited.


Although Clara was not super excited about mommy and daddy having another baby, she was excited to get a stroller for Christmas for her babies. She has been walking her babies and putting them to bed ever since.
We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas at Sherrie's folks' house in Taylorsville. Nobody got any coal in their stocking. Nathan was feeling a little sick Christmas morning and actually only made it halfway through his stocking before he threw up. We had beautiful snow, good food, too many treats, and a lot of good family time. Nathan is Joseph and Clara is Mary.

Snow & Santa

Yesterday we got about six inches of snow! It was nice heavy snow, perfect for making a snowman. Nathan and Clara helped me shovel and then we went to the park and went sledding. We especially enjoyed going down the slides at the park when they were covered with snow! They are really fast. I think the kids' favorite part of the entire endeavor was going inside and having hot chocolate afterwards. It was a lot of fun!


What can we say! Clara is a wild woman. She loves jumping from the arm of the couch to the cushions. She's discovered that if she takes off the cushions that she has a further fall! What fun! She giggles the whole time she does it.


Last year Nathan and Clara both cried when they sat on Santa's lap. This year was an improvement. It seems to help that Santa was giving out candy canes. Nathan didn't cry at all and actually stayed on Santa's lap long enough to tell Santa that he wanted a football for Christmas. Clara grabbed the candy cane, arched her back, and was out of there. We'll see what she gets in her stocking.

Thanksgiving Break

We enjoyed a great trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving break! Marian and Ryan were nice enough to let us invade their home. Nathan and Clara had way too much fun with cousins. It was really good to catch up with a lot of the cousins and aunts and uncles. We are truly blessed with a wonderful family. We have really enjoyed the citrus that Uncle Cameron gave us!

Clara turned 2 while we were in Arizona and Aunt Mares threw a great party...pizza along with cake and ice cream.

We enjoyed a trip to the Phoenix Zoo while in Arizona. It is a fantastic zoo and the kids all had a great time. The highlight was probably the merry-go-round!


Emmy and Nathan are best buds now. They really had a lot of fun together. In fact, they had so much fun that they forget to go to the potty in the bathroom. They seemed to be having a competition to see who could go through the most pairs of clothing. We're not sure who won, but they really had a great time together.

Congratulations to Grandma and Grandpa Hansen for enjoying 50 years of marriage. We are so grateful for their great lives and examples. We went to their 50th wedding anniversary in Preston, Idaho in mid-November.

Busy Week

We had a fun and busy weekend. The first big news was that it snowed an inch or two and we got to play in it. David had a few minutes before work to pull the kids around the yard and it was a lot of fun. It has since melted, so we're ready for more snow.


Mel had her play this week (Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare). It was really good. Good job Mel! The best part was watching Nathan. He really enjoyed it and laughed heartily. We had a little lunch get together before the play and Dianna showed Stephen who is boss. We also learned that David Higginbotham does NOT like apricot jam. We ran out of strawberry and it was a tragedy. We'll be better prepared next time.



Sherrie's brother Michael made it back from his mission in Madagascar this last week. He had a lot of unique and wonderful experiences. He looks great and is trying to get back into the swing of things here in the states. We had a fun family get together on Sunday with a lot of good food. Nathan took almost all of the adults into the bathroom with a flashlight and had each of them tell ghost stories. Even Grandpa Hansen told some stories. Nathan is now our local expert on ghost stories. Clara wasn't feeling too well and threw up on the drive home.

Grandpa Boren's Costume

Sherrie and I took turns passing out candy and going out with the kids on Halloween. During my shift of passing out candy, a few of my second cousins came to the door with their mom, Diana (Diana is my dad's cousin). She gave me a copy of this picture of Grandpa Boren (Sam) dressed up for some sort of costume party. She said that on the back of the original picture is said "¿A dónde va el loco?" (Where's the crazy one going?). Anyway, it looks like our family has been into dress up for a few generations at least.

Happy Halloween!

The kids loved carving jack-o-lanterns. Clara was very concerned about her "sad punkin". We'll make sure to always have happy jack-o-lanterns in the future.

David, Nathan, and Sherrie were cowboys and cowgirl. Clara was the barn cat.

Aunt Mel came trick or treating with us. She was an Indian princess (or some sort of princess). The kids had a blast.

Nathan's Birthday

Nathan loved his spider cupcakes for the big #4 birthday.