Just looking over my profile and realized that i don't have a picture of Shannon and Lawrence!!!! Oh my gosh.
Lawrence is my most favorite son-in-law in the world. He has a heart of gold and pretty much keeps everyone grounded. So here's a picture of them.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Larry and I spent this new years eve apart . The first time in 37 years! Up side of that is we both slept thru it so we didn't miss much.

Shan and I took Chris home on new years eve, he had been in slc monday thru wednesday with Shan and Drew doing meetings.
We ended up at J's and Megans on new years eve. Now you have to understand Megans house is approx. 2000 sq ft. There were 23 (I think) people there for dinner. Most of them kids. Tracy and Curt were there with their kids along with us and Chris's family. Dinner was awewome and Tracy, Megan, and Lisa had some great food. WE played games and visited until about 10:30, guitar hero kicked me off the stage twice. Anthony was the expert, then Lisa and Megan. We had fun. Then on new years day we had dinner at Chris and Lisa's. That night we added 3 for a total of 26 at dinner. Wally (Megan and the girls were in Cedar with her parents) JUstin and Gabby. btw I think the wedding is in Sept. 2009 and the ring is beautiful! Shan and I had decided to stay another night, and leave on friday morning. Then around 8 or so poor little Carson was in such pain that we decided to leave that night instead. He had a tooth that had absessed and had it pulled at 8:30 the next morning. We left st. geo. around 10 and arrived home around 1:30 friday morning. So thanks Megan and Lisa for letting us stay and hope to see everyone soon.

Merry Christmas Hope everyone had a great one. Larry, Max, and me went to Shannons this year. We went on Christmas eve and stayed for prime rib on Christmas day. I slept in Reagans bed and Larry slept in Anthony's. I woke up freezing at 3:30 and went to find some heat and rolaids. Shan doesn't have rolaids (i will remember that) after eating everything in sight i had heartburn so bad that i needed one. Anyway i went in the kitchen to find heat and there was Carson standing by the tree! I quess there wasn't much sleeping going on at 3:30 in the morning. I remember the year my kids (bless their little hearts) changed the time on the alarm clock. We had threatened them that no one was getting up before 6:oo on christmas morning. The alarm went off and we all proceeded into the living room. It didn't take long to realize that it was really 1:30 in the morning! We ended up opening all that santa brought and went back to bed. So I don't have to much sympathy for all my kids. Had planned on going to St. George today, but the weather isn't cooperating with my wishes. I am totally chicken on bad roads. So we will stay here this weekend. It was supposed to be our family party tommorrow, so i am a bit bummed about not going. Justin got engaged! (about time) and Gabby is the newest recrute to our family. We welcome her and love that she is going to belong to this crazy bunch. We're waiting Wally! This year has gone by so fast. We feel so blessed to have our kids and grandkids as close as they are. (it could be much worse) I know that the Lord blesses us more each year, and am so thankful for everything he give to us.

We all went to Shanns house on friday morning for breakfast. The kids got to play in the petting zoo at the Lavery's

All the kids were in Nephi for thanksgiving. It is so fun to have everyone home, even if just for a day. Lisa and Chris were at the Jacksons this year. Shannon and Lawrence had all of the Lavery's at their house. But each of them are close enough that we can still see everyone. Our house was still filled with grandkids and kids. We still made Shannon make the monkey bread and jam. Not eating here was not an excuse, she mixed the dough and sent it with JJ and Megan on thanksgiving morning. Nothing is better than her monkey bread and fresh strawbery jam. She also makes the best chocolate pie! We all ate until we couldn't put any more in our mouths, then in a while we ate more! We all had fun and we feel so blessed to have all of our kids close enough to come home now and then.

I had a plan to keep the kids here for more than just the day, so we made plans to have a Ray family float in the Christmas light parade. I figured that would keep them all here most of the weekend anyway. We came up with a theme of candyland.
I had these big ideas, and figured that i could delegate most of the work 0ut to the kids. If it weren't for Lawrence we would probably still be cutting the gingerbread men. Don't know where he learned all his skills, but we are all glad that he did. Anyway Lawrence saved everyone a tons of work and time by showing us how to cut and make the little men. I am sure Wally and Justin we pretty much sick of them by the time they were done. They turned out so cute! Megan 2 ( that's Wally's Megan) and Gabby would put lights on while the boys cut. There was only one casualty. Megan broke on of the little guys leg and Lawrence even fixed that! We moved from the Lavery shop to the Ray garage. Chris, Lisa and Shann then joined in to get the float assembled. Saturday we finished the float with time to spare. The grandkids were in the back and they had rehersed the songs that they would sing. They all made it thru the parade without one of them having to go to the bathroom! They all looked so cute, but then we all know that I have the cutest kids around anyway.