Ringing In 2009 With the Murphy Family

Matthew Olsen was blessed on Sunday, Jan. 4 by his father, Dan. So the entire Murphy clan came to town to celebrate and stayed with us for a couple of days. It was great fun . . . Murphys, Jeff, Sanders, Olsens, Birches, and Giffords, which meant babies, babies and more babies. There were 10 kids all aged five or less when Nancy and Mark arrived on the evening of New Year's day. What a sight. And you had a toddler on your lap anytime you wanted it! Loved that part.

While the Murphs were here, we hosted a breakfast with the Harringtons, Bree, Tysons, and Wilhites on Saturday. Rosemarie whipped up dozens of abelskivas and we had a great time swapping stories and updates. John and Louise's trip to Washington, D.C. was a highlight. Patti enjoyed playing "Familyopoly" with Zach, Kalee and Allie. (Allie is a real dealmaker in the family . . . but ultimately, Kalee was carefully amassing several thousand dollars and won the game!). Louise had personalized the game with pictures of the kids and names for the properties that made it especially fun. Thoughtful Christmas gift.

Over the weekend, Jeff spent one cold winter night in a tent outside at the BYU Marriott Center to ensure that his student ticket to the BYU v. Wake Forest basketball game would be in the closest rows. The temp that night went down to 14 degrees -- but he was happy and it was all worth it when we saw him on TV at the lead of the whole game coverage, yelling for the Cougars. He is hilarious! The men went to the game, but the Cougs lost because of the ref, they said . . . :)

The whole weekend we talked and laughed and enjoyed the darling toddlers playing cars and puppies and school. We held babies and watched the arts and crafts of the Murphy girls in everything from sewing to photo modpodge. Great weekend. Great families!

(See pictures below -- I am still learning how to blog.)

Cookies for Santa

The Olsen boys came over ahead of Christmas to decorate cookies for Santa Claus. We made bells and trees and stars galore. We rolled out the dough, cut the forms and then frosted them over and over again. The best part was adding the sprinkles and candies. The boys are learning to be great cooks of cookies!