Party at Grandma's House!

This past weekend we yet again made the trek to Grandma's house. Our niece Olivia was dancing in the IBT presentation of The Nutcracker. It was wonderful if not uneventful. Olivia truly is a beautiful dancer. It has been a long time since I saw her dance. Unfortunately after intermission, or "half time" as Owen puts it, Addison and myself were escorted out of the main room and then allowed to view the remainder of the show from one of the boxes. Apparently babes in arms are not allowed.... neither are pictures so I can't share any.

The following day was grandma's Christmas party. Always so much fun. This year we made reindeer cupcakes, decorated sweat pants with fabric markers and paint, recited the story of Christ's birth, and had a surprise visit from Santa. The funny of the night was Benjamin. Santa calls each child up one at a time to get a present he brought them. Ben was so excited for each new name to be called until the name wasn't his. Then he would furrow his brow and pout until the next present was taken out of the bag. Finally his Uncle Michael told him to cross his fingers and......voila! Finally Ben's name was called. Oh the faith of a child! We had a great time and look forward to heading back to grandma's house for Christmas.

Rudolph the red nose reindeer???? Okay, so that is just the song we were singing.

Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way...

Reindeer cupcakes, YUMMY!

Nate didn't have to wait long for his present.

Ben was not a happy camper as he waited for his turn...

The Santa that visited their school brought them these hats. She looks cute in just about anything.

Here is Samantha whispering what she wants Santa to bring her for Christmas. She laughed as she told me she asks for something different everytime!

Ben is crossing his fingers or at least trying to.....

Finally it was Ben's turn! He didn't hold any hard feelings towards Santa over the long wait.

I'm not sure what she asked him for whatever it was I hope she is more satisfied this year than last year...

Even Addison got to sit on Santa's lap. No screaming...impressive. Thanks Grandma for an excellent party as always!

Surprise Visit

We got a call from Uncle Jeremia on Friday afternoon asking for our address. On a whim he had flown into Salt Lake for the weekend and so he came to visit us on Saturday. The kids were so excited to have him here!!! They totally mauled him all day long! I did tell him that the cure for that is to bring his kids with him. We love family!!!! As for the rest of our siblings, our door is open!!!!! Come and see us!

To Grandmothers House We Go

Over the mountain and through the snow, to grandmothers house we go....
We are so excited to be able to go to grandmas house whenever we want to! We just got back from visiting her this weekend. Turkey, a "Tangled" matinee, and play time with cousins! Could it get any better? We also got to spend time with Johnny's cousin Elizabeth. Our kids love her! These pictures are from a few weeks ago before the snow fell.


Cousin Elizabeth seems to enjoy the kids as well. Here she is holding Addison.



Look closely and you'll notice the cousins are all piled onto the trampoline. Leaf fight!!!

They took turns burying each other in leaf piles. I spent a few days trying to brush and wash leaves out of their hair.

Throw it...

Pile it...

Jump in it! Way too much fun!

Number 8

I keep getting asked for pictures of Addison....,number 8, so I thought maybe I'd better post a few. This first one is a hospital photo. I'm not sure who she looks like, but she looks familiar.

Elizabeth was the photographer for Addison's first bath. I think she captured the experience pretty well! Addison likes to bathe.

She has blue eyes...not than you can tell. She still sleeps a lot but occasionally wakes up to smile and coo at us.

Look at those cheeks!!!! A friend of ours dubbed these "porta-pillows"! What can I say, she eats well!

Megan, and the other girls, loves to pick out Addison's clothes... Some choices are better than others. She looked cute this day.

Sleeping beauty...

And finally the blessing gown. We postponed the day too long and Addison grew out of the dress my mother made for her. Fortunately, Emily sent us an "extra" one she had bought and not used. It was beautiful. This picture was taken as the rest of the family waited out in the car for us. I knew we wouldn't get a chance to take a picture after church...and we didn't. She cried and screamed for the picture but was quiet for the blessing itself.

Our latest adventure....

Someone asked if we move every time we have a new baby...just the last two times. We recently relocated from Alaska to Utah. Johnny got a job as the registrar at SUU in Cedar City. He thought the job looked good. The money was good, the lure of sunshine and family even better!!!! So off we went just two weeks after the birth of our sixth child, Addison. As with our Alaskan adventure, we didn't know what we were getting into. We have been unable to sell our home. While the money at this new job would be good with a Cedar City mortgage, it's not so great with an Alaskan mortgage. Homes in Alaska are roughly twice as much. Add to that, we are also having to rent a home here in Cedar City...ouch. Thanks to help from Mom and Dad Allred we are making it for now. We keep praying for our home to sell and may need to look at renting the Alaska home in the near future.

But....we are together!!!! When we first moved we were seperated. Johnny was staying at his Uncle's place (thanks Uncle Kent) and the children and I were staying with Mom and Dad Allred. We were there for about six weeks. I'm not sure how Mom Allred felt about our stay but I enjoyed everything except being seperated from Johnny. The kids weren't too thrilled when Daddy would leave either. So when Johnny needed to find a new place to stay, we decided to find somewhere we would all fit...

That brings us to where we are now. In a cute little twin home in Cedar City. Things are tight, but I always know what my kids are up to!!! We are still spending a lot of time going back and forth from the storage unit trying to find the things that we need on a day to day basis. The kids are enrolled in school, East Elementary, which just so happens to be the same school Mom Allred attended. We have a lot of family history here and that is kinda fun.

For whatever reason I LOVE Cedar City! Maybe it's the mountain views out every window. Or the sunshine, or the ability to see family from time to time, or just the cute nutcrackers lining main street. We are excited to be here and who knows we may just stay put for a while!!!

Eight is Enough

I thought "Eight is Enough" would be a great title for our family blog, but then I worried someone would think I was not grateful to have the children we have been blessed with. So....we chose the title "Eight's Great" instead. I am creating this blog with the intention of keeping my family (extended) and other loved ones better updated on our life. We have been so blessed with family and friends...and then we moved away. We love you, miss you, and think of you often. So here goes!!!!