Jones Family Annual Christmas Sleepover

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is the Jones' family sleepover. Near December 23rd, we all go over the Nanny and Papa Jones home right after dinner. We gather to visit, have a talent show, the children put on a nativity play, play games, and we all spend the night. The following morning we have a nice breakfast together and the kids exchange gifts.

Hailey, Chloe, Tyler, Jayne, and Avery

We are always excited to see what creative costume Emily and Katie come up with every year! This year it was Kangaroos! They are so funny and creative!

Michael reading to Chloe. He loves the little ones!

Russell family Christmas gathering

Last night Cameron and Connie hosted a family Christmas party. Danica's family and our family came early and the boys had a ton of fun playing in their newly finished indoor basketball court and then we all went and played in the snow. Travis' family and Bailee's families were able to come for dinner. We all enjoyed a delicious dinner of taco soup, chicken noodle soup, and salad.
We missed all those who live out of town and Papa and Grandma Nancy who were out of town on a fun two week long cruise.

Jarom (Danica's), Ryan (Cameron's), Porter (Danica's), Tyler, and Andrew (Cameron's)

Jordan Price (Ashlee's boyfriend), Ashlee, Emily, Rebecca (Cameron's daughter), Brittany, Tyler, and Mike taking a break from sledding after Brittany got a badly bruised hip.

Jordan and Ashlee starting a snowball fight.

Tyler loading up for the snowball fight.

Porter (Danica's son) with his adorable snowman

Ashlee, Canyon (Bailee's and Zach's son), Zach, Jordan, Brittany, Bailee, and Amber playing a game of cards. I love these fun bonding times with extended family!

Some of Amber's and Ashlee's college adventures

Amber and Ashlee are blessed to have such great roommates. Amber's roommates are Emily Anderson (Mike's cousin), Jeacey Robinson, Katelyn Empey, Irene Howe, and starting tomorrow, her best friend since she was 3, Lauren Hughes. (Her former roommate Kat just got married.) Ashlee's roommates are named below. Ashlee will have three new roommates this week. Jessica, Aubrey and Emma are on the Fall Spring track.

Amber and Jeacey on Halloween
(Greek Goddess and Kathrine Hepburn)

Amber went to Temple Square with her ward. I am including this picture because I thought it was cute and it looks like she's singing Christmas songs on the drive to Temple Square. One of her friends called it her paparazzi picture.

Amber and friends enjoying the lights at Temple Square

At the beginning of Christmas break, Amber's former ballet teacher, Amy, planned a ballet reunion class for all the girls who had been on Senior Company. Amber was so excited and had so much fun.

Ashlee is with neighbors and roommates, having a sleepover. They moved their mattresses to the family room

Katie Michelson and Ashlee are standing in front of our Idaho Falls home.

Ashlee with her cute roommates
(Emma Parker, Ashlee, Jessica Ashby, Moriah Opper, Kayla Skinner, Aubrey Hiatt)

Ice cream for dinner?

Last night Mike came home from work with 5 different kinds of ice cream and chocolate syrup, put it all on the table with large bowls and spoons, and called everyone to dinner. Tyler was just excited, but Emily and Brittany kept asking if he was about to give them bad news. They were excited when they realized there was no bad news, just ice cream for dinner! (Mike had called me earlier and convinced me to let him do this. They had a motivational speaker at work who asked them to do something out of the ordinary to make a fun memory for their kids. He suggested serving ice cream for dinner and being the ice cream lover that Mike is, he did just that.)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I

Amber and Emily both went to the midnight showing last night with friends and had a lot of fun. We always go see Harry Potter on opening day, but this time we are going to see it tomorrow so Ashlee can come with us. She is coming home tonight from BYU Idaho. She and Amber both have the whole week of Thanksgiving off! BYU doesn't get it off, but the Elementary Ed program at BYU gave them the whole week. We are excited to have our girls with us for a week!

Siera, Emily, Sidney, Ali, and Heather posing with Hagrid

Emily flirting with Harry!

Amber and Katie Nilson

Soccer and basketball

Soccer ended last month for Tyler and Brittany. I didn't take any soccer pictures this year. They both had excellent soccer seasons and were both blessed to have their daddy as their coach. Brittany played AAA this year and they did so well. Tyler is still enjoying the recreation league. Brittany has been invited to be a guest for another AAA soccer team that is going to St George for a tournament Thanksgiving weekend. She is so excited to get to play soccer until the end of November this year! Because she loves soccer and because she loves St George.

Just as soccer ended, basketball started. Tyler was very excited to play basketball for the first time this year. Most of the kids on the team had never played before. They started their season with two losses and then had the greatest team improvement I've ever seen and won the rest, most of them blowouts! He loved it, but was sad that it only lasted for four weeks. They played a total of 8 games.

I love this picture of Tyler watching the video that Michael took of him doing a layup.

Happy Halloween!

Amber dressed up as a Greek Goddess on Friday at school. She is doing some student teaching at Jordan Ridge. She is so excited that she was assigned to that school because her Nanny Jones taught there before she retired and because her cousins, Hailey and Emma go there. She was so excited to see her cousins at the school and see their cute costumes and they were excited to see her. Saturday, she got really sick and her sweet roommate Jeacey brought her home so that she could be more comfortable. Saturday night while Mike was out trick or treating with the kids, Amber and I watched "Letters to Juliet" and answered the door for all the cute trick or treaters. we had a fun evening!

Emily, as Cruella De Vil, heading off to school!

Brittany, Tiger Lilly and Tyler, Mexican

The kids are ready to go trick or treating. Emily decided to be a candy kiss for trick or treating.

Happy 15th birthday, Emily

Emily, showing the cute purse and ring that Brittany and Tyler gave her. Mike and I gave her a coupon for a luggage set that we will go shopping for. She wants luggage for our trip to Florida for Spring Break. We are all so excited to go to Harry Potter world. We have been saving our sky miles for years and we have enough to go. We just had to pay $5 per ticket for the airport fees! Amber and Ashlee have a gift for her that they will bring when they come home for Thanksgiving. With her birthday being a weeknight, Amber was not able to make it. She has a lot of evening classes.

Emily decided that she wanted a Razzleberry pie for her birthday, instead of a birthday cake. The pie was still so hot that the bottom of the candle completely melted. We had to dig some wax out before serving!

Sleepy Hollow

Brittany got the female lead, Katrina, in her 6th grade play. They all did an amazing job.

School Pictures

This year I decided to take the kid's pictures myself instead of buying the ones from school. It saved quite a bit of money and I am really happy with the results. I am posting a few of my favorites.

Emily, 9th grade

Brittany, 6th grade

Tyler, 2nd grade

Aspen Grove

This past weekend (UEA weekend) we had a fun, mini Russell family reunion at Aspen Grove. We spent two nights in one of their family lodges and had a blast. We had many wallyball games during the weekend, fun visiting, playing games. . .We also had a Family Olympics competition that included playing walleyball, basketball and shuffle board. We missed Greg's and Cheeri's families, but everyone else was able to come. Even Ashlee came for one night. She got a ride down from BYUI with a roommate who was heading to Alpine.

Russell Family Olympics

Celebrating October birthdays.

Aunt Connie being funny!

Tyler, Brittany

Kyler, Austen, Roger

Payton, Papa, Troy

With 13 boy cousins all under 10, there is always football fun during Russell family gatherings!

Rebecca

Happy 12th birthday, Brittany

Last Saturday, Brittany turned 12. She is so excited to enter Young Women's! Amber was able to come home for her birthday. Mike and I gave her a luggage set, Emily and Tyler gave her a skirt and jewelry, and Amber and Ashlee gave her a sweater.

Brittany had a large group of friends and cousins over last night for her 12th birthday! They played games and had a lot of fun! I didn't realize the party would be this large. Thank goodness the weather was great and they took a lot of the games outside!

Moving Ashlee to Idaho.

Saying good-bye to Ashlee as we were leaving Grandma Nancy and Papa's to take Ashlee to Idaho.

Melissa and Amber came with us to help Ashlee moved in. It was fun to have them with us.

A picture of Ashlee and Jessie right after they finished setting up their room.

Ashlee, Emma, Aubry, Jessie, Kayla

Mariah hadn't moved in by the time this picture was taken.

Ashlee and Kayla baking.

Ashlee is loving her roommates and classes. We all miss her, but are excited for her adventures.

Emily's cake

The young women in our ward had a cake auction as a fund raiser at our back to school block party. Emily made this beautiful cake. It was a four layer cake; white, chocolate, white, chocolate. There was chocolate mousse between each layer. Everything was made from scratch except the white cake was from a box cake mix. Mike outbid everyone for Emily's cake. It was delicious!