The Manning Family

Tasha and I went on a date during Christmas vacation. Off to the mall we went and grabbed some lunch from Mod Market.

I’m planning on doing these sheets every New Year’s Eve from now on to see how the kids favorite and goals change. 

Someone got a cookbook for Christmas and has been busy cooking up a storm.

Ammon’s solution to Annabell being in the house to warm up…She actually laid down after this and went to sleep =)

My gal pal Carissa and I had some girl time at the mall, complete with Macarons!

Sunday lego-athon

Tasha’s bestie, Phoebe came to visit, so what did the girls choose to do-bake of course!

The kids and I went to see “The Greatest Showman”. AMAZING! We all adored it. Ammon didn’t really want to see its and he was sick, so it was the perfect time.

Annabell came in to warm up and literally massaged Rocky’s side for 10 min. He just layed there. 

A true doggie pile!

Mom came to visit for about 5 days and we had a fabulous, fun-filled time. We did lots of baking, talking and eating!

You know its cold when…

Skiing at home 😉

Christmas Eve photoshoot after church

Game time

Our traditional Christmas eve picnic. Things were a little contentious between the children, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus 😉 

Bye Grammy! We miss you already!

There’s something so magical about Christmas trees. The twinkle lights, beautiful decorations, many of which have sentimental significance and the togetherness and anticipation we feel while decorating it. Probably my favorite Christmas tradition.

We went big this year with our gingerbread house. We had a blast decorating it…too bad lil’ Annika got the stomach flu that night, so none of us could eat the candy!

We hosted a fun Christmas party for the young women at our home. Gingerbread house decorating and a white elephant gift exchange. Fun for all!

Our little virtuoso, after her concert. Isn’t she pretty?!

Ahem, as I was saying….

Ammon was in charge of putting together this Evening of Creche. A huge display of nativities from around the world, complete with a canopy of twinkle lights and sugar cookies and a hot chocolate bar. Unfortunately for him (and us), he came down with a bug…So the kids and I baked and decorated 180 sugar cookies. It’s ok though…we had fun doing it! 

Yummy snow!

Sweet tomatoes for my birthday lunch with this amazing gal! So fun! Why did the day have to end?

We had 15 people for dinner on Thanksgiving and it was so nice to host for the first time in about 8 years. I was excited to put our new dining room to good use!

Here’s the gang, including Sister Pelo and Sister Hooper, our amazing sister missionaries.

We left the morning after Thanksgiving to head to Montrose for our dear friends baby’s blessing. We swapped Kevin for Malika and had a grand time!

December sunrise

SaveSave

      

Gumby..enough said!

Raking leaves for family night. No, we don’t have any trees in our yard, those are our neighbors leaves. I wish they would leaf them on their side of the fence! Get it, leaf 😉

This was Kevin’s first Sunday passing the sacrament in church, so we had to get pics of him all spiffied up. Tasha was feeling especially loving towards her siblings that day, it seems. I like it!

Yup. We got Ammon his own dog =) She was from a rescue and had been well-cared for before her surrender. When we got her, she was boney and scared and cute, but a little homely looking. Meet Lucy!

 

What do you buy for the guy who doesn’t have a lot of time for hobbies, or who buys the things on his wish list himself? Something he’d never buy himself, which is hard to figure out….Ammon loves Opera oddly enough. So, I bought him tickets to see La Boheme.

  

We started out with dinner at the Bonefish Grill. Amazing food, the service that night on the other hand was….

Lucy, Rocky, Annabell bonding session. Going well, so far!

I’m one of the room-Mom’s in Annika’s class this year, so I was able to help throw together a fun Halloween party. Annika was a baby, after conceding that there’s not way I could craft a hamster costume 😉 Sadly, these are all the pictures I have of our costumes. I was Miss Piggy, Ammon a bush, Kevin was Jack Sparrow and Tasha was also a baby. Totally forgot to take pictures. Mom-fail!

At least Rocky dressed up! Cool, dude.

The girls went to the local thrift store just for “kicks” and I received this text on my phone…this girl!!!!

Generations day during spirit week. This is what Kevin will look like in 60 years!!!! 

My bestie (Kylene) and I try and get together once a month for some girl time. Sometimes, it’s just a few hours, other times its all day. This time we went for pedicures and had lunch. It was nice as always to catch up, but unfortunately, I was feeling the effects of the flu shot, which left me drained and not at my best. 

Beautiful sunrise one morning. 

Miss Annika has become quite the baker! She loves being in the kitchen, specifically baking and does a bang up job. Here she’s making pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins.

A couple of trees hanging onto their beautiful leaves

 

 

We attended our first Rockies game (baseball) ever and all would agree it was a blast! We had nachos and hotdogs and popcorn and cheered our little non-sports following hearts out =)

Nope, you’re not seeing things, that is a cat head behind Rocky’s bum. Annabell was smooshed back there, but she didn’t even care.

My Dad (otherwise known as AZ Papa) came to visit for a week spur of the moment. We were having tile floor put on the main floor of our house, so we all crashed at the Mannings. (Thanks Lee & Ellen!!)

  

Happy 12th Birthday Kevin! Thanks for being your grateful, easy-going self. We’re glad you’re our son =0

The night before Dad had to leave, we went out to dinner at our local diner. Always good food and a fun, retro atmosphere.