The Merrill Multi-Month Update

Wow, where does the time go!! I have not posted anything for the Merrill family since before Halloween. UGH! I am going to attempt to catch up, so I apologize for the length of this blog entry ... get ready for A LOT of Merrill pics (hope you enjoy!)

We will begin with Madison's video entry for Reflections this year. The theme this year is "Wow!". Madison wrote an original story and then we made this entry for the Storytelling portion of the contest. As of today, she has won at the school level and the district level. Her entry will now go to a regional level (against Logan, Cache and Bear Lake school districts). I am definately not a video expert, so she had to do it all in one shot ... and here it is.

For Thanksgiving this year we went to the new cabin in Island Park. It was so beautiful ... and fun!

Going for a nature walk. IMAX Theater!For a fun story, ask Mark about the "Road Trip". Now for DECEMBER!!!

Miscellanous Events:

Decorating the tree

Work Christmas PartyBlaylock Family Christmas Party (I do not have a lot of pictures of this event, because everything came out fuzzy.)TaVasi Concert (Singing and performing group)
Celebrating Birthdays

Richie

Amanda, Dayna and Mom

Just Amanda

Christmas Eve and our Christmas traditions!

Christmas!

Our HomeGrandma and Grandpa Merrill's HomeGrandma and Grandpa Williams' HomeNew Year's Eve was spent 4-wheeling/sledding, eating and playing with the Merrill's and Simmon's families. We also had our friends Berk and Yaprak, from Turkey, over to celebrate the end of a great year and the beginning of the new one.

WOW, 2008, wasn't it great! I love you all and pray that 2009 will be just as fine!

Christmas 2008 at Grandma and Grandpa's house was great!. Everyone came over in the afternoon and we spent a hour or two opening presents, and then we had our Christmas dinner. After dinner we brought out the board games and ate some more.

Even Sami got in the holiday spirit. Or maybe not..."Ba Humbug!!"

Rachel doesn't thinks all dinners are created equal. What's up with the carrots?Kendal thinks that there is still some potential on this plate.

Santa brought Taylor the baby doll she wanted...but even Christmas day has to end.

Even Sami was exhausted at the end of the day.

It showed all day Christmas so the next day Grandpa got to try out his new present from Great Grandma Williams.

December with the Hatch/Hayman Household

Yes, December has come and gone. What happened to the time? We started the month off at Mom and Dad's to celebrate the monthly birthdays. This event included Mom/Dayna/Amanda. I believe we celbrated Richie's earlier in the month. Mom and Dayna were 29 again....and Amanda turned the wonderful age of 15! Yikes!

Christmas Eve soon arrived and Santa, Gregg and Dayna were very busy all month long. We all finally get the presents wrapped and put under the tree with great care!

Maigen and Carson stayed with their Mom on Christmas Eve and Katelin and Kylee stayed at their Grandma's. Once all the kids made it home on Christmas morning, our extravaganza could begin. Gregg's Mom was the first to the house. I made a new French Toast Bundt recipe (compliments of my boss....thanks Susan), bacon, sausage and hashbrowns. I had to do something to occupy my time until the kids were home. Kendyl was more intrigued with the boxes. Anything that she can climb on to help her get to a higher place than she currently is.....

I wish Santa would've straigtened that tree star! Oh well......

Here are the kids and Gregg in action.......

After the mayhem....I mean...excitement at our house was done, we packed up the troops and headed to Mom and Dad's. Yeah.....I love that we get to do all of this again! Two Christmas' is great!

Once all of the opening was done, we all sat down for a wonderful Christmas dinner! Thanks to Mom, you are the best! Once the dinner was cleared......make way for the games....pie.....Diet Coke......and more goodies!

Once we got back home.....Christmas had officially ended, but the fun was just beginning. I had to go to work the next day, but when I got home.....we broke out all of our games. The kids first wanted to try Twister. Yes, they got me to play, but there is no way that pic is going up..... I'll put this in instead!

Here is Kendyl with her Santa present.....she loves this piano! Maybe we can upgrade someday and get her some real lessons!

And finally, to round out the month......we received an abundance of snow in December. So, Kendyl has to get bundled up everytime we walk out the door. I will admit, she cannot stand the mittens. It prohibits her from grabbing everything.......Hmmmm, I just had a thought.......

What a wonderful Christmas, what a wonderful family.......Love ya all!

The Hayman/Hatch Thanksgiving in Texas

Our entire family (Grandma Hatch, Gregg, Dayna, Katelin, Kylee, Maigen, Carson & Kendyl) flew to San Antonio, Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving with Gregg's brother and family. What an awesome experience! Thank you to Rich for being at our house bright and early (as in 4:15 AM) to take us to the airport. What a trooper. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I booked the flight at 6:10 AM. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I was even interviewed for the KSL channel 5 news story about the busiest travel day of the year. Yes, I'm a rockstar!

Once we arrived in Texas, we had a blast. We went to Corpus Cristi (I don't know if that is spelled correctly) and visited the aquarium and the beach. It was dark at the beach, but still fun. Grady (Gregg's brother) cooked the turkey in a turkey fryer, which was divine. The Thanksgiving spread was great! My compliments to Grandma Hatch.....dinner was awesome!

Here are some pics from the aquarium.

Here are some pictures from Six Flags.

Thank you to Grady and his family for welcoming us into their home. We had a great Thanksgiving Holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We had a great Thanksgiving at my house this year. The only bad part was that we were not altogether. Maybe next year! Here are the highlights of the day!

And just a noteworthy side note:
After we got to talking, everything was made "fresh" and/or "from scratch". The stuffing, the sweet potatoes, the green beans, the cranberry sauce, the gravy, the mashed potatoes. Even the turkey was ordered fresh. YEA for us! That equates to about 8 sticks of butter used, and 0 calories taken in! (because everyone knows that calories don't count on holidays!!!) All in all, it was one of the best meals I have had!! Including the next-day-leftover-lunch-meal too! YUM-O!!!!

Mom making the sweet potatoes. She didn't quite follow Mark's recipe though. She omitted the step that calls for "cook until charred black" part!

Rich carving his very first turkey. (How DOES this thing work?!?-notice the scowl?)

Aww, real napkins even!

The boys playing legos. (by boys I mean grown men)

The fam.

Alora's first Thanksgiving!

The pies! Made fresh from Golden Corral that morning!

And don't forget the whipped cream!

My family can beat up your family!

I think that I have the coolest family EVER! Just wanted you all to know that. At least you are such nerds that you make ME look cooler! haha, just kidding, love you all. tootles

Hatch/Hayman Halloween!

We went to Day Farms and picked out our pumpkins. There were so many to choose from! Each kiddo got their pumpkin and we planned on carving sometime that weekend. The carving didn't happen until Monday night. Maigen and Carson came over and Gregg and the kids scraped out the pumpkins. (I was taking Katelin to dance.) Maigen, Carson and Kylee finished their pumpkins. The rest of us were carving ours on Halloween night.This was Kendyl's first official visit to a pumpkin patch. She was very intrigued. She kept picking up a pumpkin that was her size and then would throw it. She'd go pick it up again, and throw it again.

Kendyl was so easy to pose. We put her in the middle of all the pumpkins and then we put her on the straw. She was happy as could be. All in a days work.......