December to an end and 2010 begins.

I haven't blogged in so long I had to pull out my 2009 calendar so I make sure not to forget anything important. Well Daniel finished school and starts up again on January 11th. School is going well for him. I am getting nervous about medical school because the odds of him getting into the University of Utah's med program is slim to none. I really don't want to move out of state but it is not looking in my favor to have the luxury of an opinion in this matter. Sad, I know.


Daniel and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium for Baby Ashton's birthday celebration. He turned one year old. He is our favorite new one year old out there. The aquarium was pretty neat it had quite a bit of fish and soon there will be a penguin exhibit. I can't wait for that since the penguin is my favorite animal. This is a picture of Daniel and I with; Jess who is Ashton's aunt; the one and only Baby Ashton and Jen who is Ashton's Mom. We love them so much they are all our family. On December 21st Chaz had a concert at Bingham High School. He has first chair for the Bass. He did really well and Daniel really enjoyed being able to go back to the school he graduated from and listen to their perfomance. It is called the Candlelight Concert and they always perform it before Christmas. Chaz was looking pretty slick in his Tux and we enjoyed his performance. Daniel got to sing in the last song and that is what this picture is he is on the right hand side next to the Harp in this picture. Chaz is in the picture below looking pretty studly.

This is our Christmas tree. I am not sure why I even bothered to put it up this year because I felt like I never got to look at it and it was taken down before I even knew it. I sure do love Christmas though and that is probably why I put it up.
We celebrated Christmas with all the usual traditions. First is our huge family part at my parents house. All the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and family friends get together for a huge party. We all bring appetizers and dessert. The kids have a gift exchange and the adults play the White Elephant game. We all leave the party having had a blast and with gifts in arms. We love it. Then Daniel and I spent the night at my parents so we could wake up Christmas morning and open gifts. I got a new sewing maching and a gun. Yes, a real live gun....it was a bit scary. Daniel got video games and the Wheel of Time series (it is a book he really enjoys..12 books) We had a really wonderful Christmas and went to my grandma Nelta's for dinner and visited with everyone there.
After Christmas we drove to Idaho. Yup, that's right on the 26th of December my cousin Stevie got married in the Twin Falls temple. It was a gorgeous temple and Daniel and I had fun spending time together. This is us at his reception.
Daniel and I had the whole last week of December off and we saw three movies, all of which I probably enjoyed equally. We saw Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and The Princess and the Frog. All three were good movies. On New Years Eve we went to Teppanyaki Steak House they cook the food in front of you it was so much fun. The three pictures below are us having fun at dinner.
That evening Daniel and I had a party at our house. Everyone played board games and rock band. I think everyone had a good time. We loved bringing in the new year with all our closest friends and our family of course.

We were able to see Daniel's Aunt, Uncle and their kids on New Years. We had dinner with them and visited with them about the holidays. We didn't see them for Christmas since they were in southern Utah visiting Grandma and Grandpa Ruesch. We are grateful to have all of our wonderful friends and family. We are grateful to bring in the new year healthy and happy. We love you all.