Free Ice Cream for a Year!

Check this out! I won a gallon of ice cream from this site last year. Let's hope for a year's worth this time!! Woot Woot!

Kissing Cousins

January 1, 2009- Sacramento, CA

Somehow we managed to get all the kids to pose for a shot at the mall. It's always a feat to make sure everyone was happy and staying in one place. Ryan was the one who wanted to wander off and had to be thrown in the shot at the last minute. But the greatest challenge is narrowing down the choices... how many kids are looking at the camera and actually smiling, and which shot was the cutest. Just ask my brother-in-law who was the token male at the photo shoot and couldn't understand why it took so long to decide on a picture. He wanted us to decide already so we could go home and eat lunch! I think this one turned out very well. And they were kissing cousins indeed!

And We're Back!

In California, we visited with Greg's uncle Bob and family- which included seeing Greg's cousin's wife whose name happens to be Stephanie Burt! (She's on the left wearing the white sweater.)
Clausen's with Greg's parents- Doug and Margie Burt.

Well, we are home from our Christmas vacation in California. An update is long past due. Here's a bunch of photos to give you a taste of our trip. I couldn't get them to load in order so we'll skip around a bit. A bit thanks to my little sister, Liz, for hosting all 15 of us Clausen's for over a week!! She did a most excellent job feeding and sleeping all of us under one roof. It was great to have all the little cousins together playing so nicely with each other. It is sad we don't live closer. Maybe one day they'll all move to Denver!! We'll keep praying and hoping. Enjoy! Golden Gate Bridge
The kids with their grandparents

Emily and Abby playing with cousin Ashton

Emily and cousin Tommy on Christmas morning... perhaps wishing a puppy was in one of the packages.

My oldest sister, Lisa, and I

Ryan loving on his cousin Tommy

My aunt Nancy, Uncle David, Cousins Pheobe and Sammy

Abby teaching cousin Kiki a thing or two on the piano.

Grandpa and Mummu and all their grandkids!

Daddy and kids at the Golden Gate Bridge

Momma and her boy!

The girls

Our family at the Bridge

That's my girl, Abby!! What a card she is!

The kids had funny hat worship time!

Ryan really loved to love on cousin Brennan!

Me and my niece, Kris

Lana and her nephew Brennan.

Liz, Kris, Emily, and I decided to go green.

The kids enjoyed a visit with their great-grandmother, Greg's grandmother, Bev. She lives in Folsom, about 45 minutes away from my sister.

Mummu with some of her adoring grandkids!

Mary had a little lamb- at Fairy Tale Town!

My seesters!! Lana, Liz, and Lisa. (Yes, I know, my name shoud have started with an "L" too!)

My oldest sister, Lisa, with kids Tommy and Kristen.

Abby and mom.

Our family on Christmas day.

Auntie Lana with her nephews.

Sister Liz, husband David, with boys Ashton and Brennan.

The kids patiently waiting to rip into the gifts on Christmas morning.

The cousins are waiting on the stairs for the go-ahead to come see what Santa brought...

The Clausen Clan!

Merry Christmas from the Burts!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and Family!

Sorry we didn't send out cards this year. But as you can read from previous posts, we are busy with our sweet Emily who's 8, Abby who is 6, and Ryan who is 16 months. Greg is still job searching and we know God will be faithful to provide like he's done in the past. Stephanie still homeschools while keeping Ryan out of trouble! We are so happy to visit Stephanie's family (15 in all!) in northern CA for Christmas. But we get a double blessing because Greg's parents will drive up to visit us as well. We will also see Greg's grandmother and uncle and family too. It'll be a busy but fun trip!

May you have a very blessed and merry Christmas as we celebrate the Savior's birth!

Walking and Crafting!

Snowflakes! An easy craft made from arranging q-tips in a snowflake pattern.Next, drop huge globs of glue at the intersections- making sure the q-tips touch. And sprinkle glitter all over the glue. Watch out for the glitter. It makes a mess but the result is very cool, pretty, and worth it! This is a very easy craft that the girls really enjoyed!

The first real snow of the season! The girls enjoyed playing and Ryan can't wait for the day when he can run around and play in it too!

Well, here's my boy! He finally started walking. But God forbid he take his thumb out of his mouth so that he can balance better!! He's climbing on the fireplace (and oh, so proud!) and keeping me busy!

TAG! You're it!

I've been tagged by Nancy Mandl... Now you are it: Jen Troyer, Judy Lyman, Wendy Callaway, Alicia Dennis, and Rebekah Zeerip. Now you open your picture file, open the 5th file, open and post the 5th picture. Tag 5 of your friends. Here's my picture. This is my mother-in-law holding Ryan days after his birth.

By the way, Ryan just started walking this past week. Today was like a milestone for him because he walked all the way from the living room into the kitchen! His farthest walk yet!!