Everything's Bigger in Texas!

Since I am off track again, I guess I better update our blog. Our wonderful, generous parents flew us all to Houston for Christmas this year. We were lucky enough to fly out between the storms or we would have been stuck in Salt Lake - yuck! But we all made it to Houston safely and we had a blast! Mom and Dad picked us up at the airport. On the way home, mom told us about these angels that we just had to see. She didn't say much about them, but we could tell she thought they were funny, but we definitely needed to see them for ourselves. The first two pictures illustrate that everything is bigger in Texas, including the angels! 

There was a picture of this house in the newspaper and we had to see it for ourselves. It was incredible! There were a ton of people outside just walking around and taking pictures. One night we went there was even a tour bus! The people who owned the house were serving hot chocolate in the driveway. I couldn't even imagine putting this all up and then taking it down again. The picture doesn't even do it justice. 

These are the larger than life angels. Imagine coming upon these in the night. They were quite frightening. If you could see their faces, you would probably even say they were creepy. But we got a good laugh about them. 
On Christmas Eve, we had the missionaries over. We had a fabulous time eating and singing. Jeni was giving mom advice on how to take a good picture. Mom is usually talking or making a face while pictures are being taken, so they were practicing. I thought this picture turned out great. 
Here's dad with his new toy. This missionaries showed up at our house with gifts from "Santa." They brought him an amp and a new guitar. Nice gift "Santa." We spent most of the evening singing songs while dad and Matthew took turns playing. 
I think Matthew was a bit jealous of new guitar and amp. He is quite the guitarist. I am always impressed by his ability because he's never had lessons and he makes playing the guitar look so dang easy. But we sure do enjoy his talent, when he is willing to share! 
This is mom and dad on Christmas morning. Notice the shorts - the weather was wonderful! It only got cold enough to wear a sweater. We lounged around all Christmas day in our pjs. We love being lazy! 
The day before we left, we took some time to help with the yard work. Who knew yard work could be so hard in December! Matthew and dad did most of the work. They were definitely the muscles behind all the work! 


Surprise! We are finally done. 21 garbage bags later - full of leaves, needles and trimmings. What a work out! 

We had a fantastic time in Houston. Dad made sure we saw all the shopping we could handle - well at least most of us could handle. I've never seen so many malls in my life - and big ones at that. We took an excursion downtown one Saturday. Apparently, downtown is closed on the weekends, so we didn't get to see the underground shopping. I might have been the only one that was disappointed about that, but next time. Other than that, we just spent a lot of quality time together. Matthew thought we were gone a little too long, but I could've stayed a whole lot longer!