Meet Josie

My brother James & his wife Julie just had their first baby and she is a little doll. Makes me want a girl next. They came over the other night and I just couldn't stop taking pictures of her. She's one BEAUTIFUL baby!

Thomas is Home!!!

My youngest brother Thomas just got home last week from his mission. He served in the Washington Tacoma mission. It's so awesome to have him back.

Grandma Margaret's House

The boys LOVE going to my Mom's house. She spoils them and gives them individual attention every time... Like going on the swing around with Tate and playing the clavinova with Samuel.

We LOVE Grandpa Manning!

Ice Skating Lessons +Two More Family Parties=A very BUSY Saturday

I had signed Tate up for a couple of free ice skating lessons (forever ago) and he finally had them yesterday and the Saturday before that. It was awesome because two of his friends (Logan and Liam) as well as his cousins (Rebecca and Anson) were there too.

We also had 2 family parties yesterday. Both were fun as you can see from the hayride and the trampoline picture below.

I LOVE this time of year!

Kinder Sing & Bryan's Family Chistmas Party

Friday morning Tate had his Kinder Sing at school. All of the parents and grandparents crammed into the school cafeteria to watch the Kindergartners sing "Must Be Santa, The Very Best Part of Christmas Time, We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and a few more. It was so cute! After the performance I signed Tate out of school. So now he's done until next year.

That night was Bryan's family Christmas party. It was so cute decorated with Nutcrackers from Uncle Jon's collection. The food was THE BEST EVER, especially the ham and potatoes! As always, I should have gotten more pictures, but I think I'm paranoid about taking too many pics of extended family. I don't want to come across as annoying... Does that make any sense? But I figured Matt wouldn't mind (anyone who takes the opportunity to throw Tate into the air for a fun time just might show up here on the blog:) Ha/Ha. He loved it Matt!

And I know the little kids don't care about pictures, so I got a few of them cleaning up. They were so cute taking turns vaccuming.

And here's Melanie (she is the most adorable little girl ever) just smiling away for the camera.

And then making faces-so cute!

Singing at the Rest Home & Other Happenings

Yesterday was a BIG busy day!!! It was our annual "singing at the rest home-performance" with my family. Our little family (Bryan, Tate, and I) performed three songs... Jolly Old St. Nicholas (with Tate and Me at the piano/Tate singing), Silent Night (in sign language), and Must Be Santa (Tate dressed up as Santa). After the performance, we went to my parents house for pizza and to make graham cracker gingerbread houses (we hot glued them together to make the houses stronger). Who eats the graham crackers anyways? We also got a really quick picture of some of the Grandkids in the nativity.

Benefit Golf Tournament

Yesterday was a BIG day!!! And not just for Bryan being in charge of the tournament and all... but it was a big day for me as well.
You see...at the very last minute some of the golfers didn't show up and so I was invited to join the tournament and golf in their place.

Well just for your information I play softball (as you can tell from the above picture), NOT GOLF. In fact I've NEVER golfed before in my entire life. So it was a BIT of a challenge for me to even hold the golf club like a golf club vs. like a bat. Anyhow...

I was VERY fortunate to have been placed in a team with my husband Bryan, Brother in Law Jon, and his sister Rachel. THANK GOODNESS they didn't seem to mind my lack of golfing skills.
It ended up being LOTS AND LOTS of fun! Here's Bryan being a GOOF!

And now a STUD!

We survived ALL 18 HOLES!!! It ONLY took us 6 hours! And our final score was... 102. Ha/Ha.

BTW, It's not to late to pledge $ for ME playing! After all, I didn't even know that I was going to be GOLFING until about 1/2 hour before we started.

So if you'd like to contribute towards a very worthy cause of helping my Mother recover click HERE. Remember to specify Margaret Manning as the recipient.

And if you have any questions...
Please email me onesmartchicken at gmail dot com

Silver Beaver Award

Bryan's dad (Keith) received a SILVER BEAVER AWARD Thursday night.

A silver beaver is one of the highest awards that a leader can receive in scouting-so it's kind of a big deal!

Anyways, we BARELY made it in time to the award ceremony, but I'm glad we did.

Sarah's Orchestra Concert

{She's the cute RED HEAD in the middle}

Tuesday night we got to go to a really nice dinner and orchestra concert at the high school to see Sarah (Bryan's little sister) perform. She did a great job and we really enjoyed the evening... everyone except for Mr. Tate who was VERY disappointed that they didn't have A1 sauce for his steak...

Thanksgiving Day 2009

We had Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Thursday and Bryan's family on Friday-so it worked out great to be able to visit both of our families! It kind of helps that Bryan & I, my parents, and Bryan's parents all live within 5 miles of each other...
Here's some pictures from Thursday (at my parents). Unfortunately I only got one picture at Bryan's parents on Friday and it turned out super blurry (so I'm not posting that).

{My parents helped the grandchildren to act out the very first Thanksgiving}

{Katie girl sneaking radishes before the feast}

{Kids Table}

{Rebecca with olives on ALL 10 fingers}

{The Adult Table}

{Emma & Tate in the Three Legged Race}

{Bryan and I WON the adult three legged race}