Not the X games - but kind of

Wow - Im glad December is over with (Oh I mean Merry Christmas) By the way this is your Christmas card from us - With love From the Hammonds

Alright, I am behind on my postings but have figured out how to do the whirlwind month of December in one shot. Ok so here it goes:
It started out with my family Christmas dinner

Then we had the ward Christmas Party
Followed by just barely getting the Christmas decorations up before the 20th
Family home evening brought ginger bread house making night - I didn't know kids could eat that much candy and still go to sleep at bedtime - who knew
Christmas finally came, what a great time for the kids. I personally felt like my wallet stopped hemorrhaging money on this day. (I know Merry Christmas)



The month was capped off with a whole lot of snow that fell during Christmas so we all decided to hit the local hill for some great sledding. Now it's time to go skiing - ohhhhhhhhhhh yaaaaaaaaa

Jacksons World

We were driving to my folks house for dinner and
Jackson found the camera. He decided to snap off a bunch
of pictures so we decided to post them. It isn't often that
you get a chance to see the world through your kids eyes,
but as it turns out with these pictures we did. It was
interesting to hear from Jackson why he took each picture.
Jackson can take awhile to tell a story so getting through
each picture took awhile.

Take Em Out

Jake has been getting strep throat on a regular basis for the last couple of months so the doctors decided it was time to take some action. The diagnosis was to take his tonsils out. So they scheduled a date at the hospital and Jake showed up, being really brave. The procedure was relatively quick and if you ever wanted to see what tonsils look like in a plastic jar (the lower right picture is for you.) Jake did great and is on the mend. Fortunately it hasn't started to snow here so we won't miss any skiing days - thank goodness

We can still rip it up

Soooooooooooooo Much Fun!!!!!! Each year we take a group of friends to Lake Powell without the kids. It's interesting because without the kids we become kids and just let loose - in a good way. So we were at Powell this year and had four days of the best weather I have ever seen. It was mid eighties all week and no wind. We couldn't resist the glassy water and spent every moment we could wake boarding. What a great time

Home Sweet Home

After many months of tearing the house down to the studs, layout options, design details, and all kind of decisions on paint color, sinks, counter tops, carpet color, light placements, cabinets, door knobs, etc...... we finally got to the end. Wow, I told Julie that when we bought our house we weren't moving, but this was just as bad. Self inflicted would is what I think a full remodel should be called. Julie and I are very glad that the remodel is over, but we are very pleased with the end product. Thank You to Julies partents that let us live with them while we did this project, and a very special thank you to our contractor who did a great job. He did the project on time and within budget. Thank You Steve!

Lake Powell Family Fun

We took our annual trip down to Lake Powell this year. The weather was awesome and we had a great time. We went on several hikes, one of them was to some Anasazi Indian ruins called Defiance House. The kids had a great time going in the Indian homes and huts. We met up with some friends at the lake and they came with us on our hike. All the kids had a great time and after that fun hike we were a little hot so every one went swimming. There was this sand bar near our boat that was just under the water surface so all the kids swam over to it and played like crazy.