Riding the FrontRunner & new cousin Cole!

On Monday, the 29th, Wayne and Amber were in town from Boise so we decided to ride the FrontRunner to Salt Lake to see them.  Being FrontRunner virgins, we didn't know what we were doing and bought a family pass for $16.50.  Evidently, family passes are only good after 5pm and on the weekends.  We didn't read that part on the tickets because we were in such a hurry not to miss the train.  Luckily, the FrontRunner lady said that she would let us ride this time, but in the future we have to obey the rules.  (I don't want to have to go to FrontRunner jail or anything!)

Aunt Amber & Andy in Dick's Sporting Goods.  It's one of Andy's favorite stores.  He likes the basketballs!

Shaylee holding Coleson Grant...the newest addition to the Slaughter family.  

I could seriously snuggle with Cole all day!!!

Could he be any cuter???

Two brothers with their kids...  Wayne, Andy, & Cole and Chris (peeking out from behind Shelby) with Shaylee, Shelby & Sami.

The girls were so excited when the girl who was sitting here got off in Layton!  They had their eyes on the seats with a table! 

Shelby (future photographer) decided to take pictures of her sisters with their reflections in the windows.  She had Shaylee take this one of her.

Sami.  I love how her skin looks like Snow White in this picture!

Shaylee, penny for your thoughts...

What a fun day!  It was awesome to get to see Wayne, Amber, Andy & Cole, even though it was only for a few minutes before we had to hop back onto the FrontRunner.

Porcelain Dolls for Christmas

One of my favorite memories as a child was sleeping over at Grandma King's house.  She let us stay up really late, let us eat lots of cookies, and always had ceramics for us to paint.  I loved that!  Anything arts and crafts has always appealed to me.  Eventually, Grandma moved on to porcelain dolls.  When Grandma passed away, my mom got to have all of her parts for making porcelain dolls; heads, wigs, and body parts.  Mom didn't know how to put a porcelain doll together, so she had some help from a sweet little lady that she knows, as well as a bunch of help from the other side, I'm sure!  Anyway, Mom made a doll for each of her granddaughters this year for Christmas.  

This picture shows Madison, Shaylee, Samantha, Paige and Shelby holding their new babies.

I love the picture of Shelby holding her picture because of the look on Mom's face in the background.  Shelby was the first one to open her doll and she was genuinely excited to finally have her baby!  And from what I can see, Mom was just as excited with Shelby's reaction!

Dad made the little boys wooden trucks for Christmas.  I am absolutely amazed at the talent my Dad has!  These trucks are amazing!  Carter's is a dump truck, Preston's is a front loader, and Eric's is a racing semi-trailer.  The cool thing is that all of the trucks actually work, they are not just hunks of wood to look like trucks!  

Dad also made some really cool food-storage things for all of the adult kids.  They are organizers made to fit canned foods, and of course, he customized them to hold all of the different sizes of cans, from tuna fish to large soup cans.  What a talented Dad!

Christmas Day Pinewood Derby Races

Christmas Day Pinewood Derby Races

This year, with the condition of the economy, the Nelson family decided to have a fun activity since there would be fewer presents under the tree than in years past.  The activity we decided on was a Pinewood Derby race.  Jarrod is a scout-leader or something in his ward, so he had access to borrow the track and they set it up in Mom & Dad's basement.  Each of the kids designed and made a car, and a few of the "big" kids did too...(Jeff, Lila and Dad)...Jarrod didn't have time to do a car for him, so he borrowed his neighbor's winning car (which didn't win in our races! haha!)  

Our girls decided on a "bug" theme.  Shelby's car is a bumble bee that says "Shelbyzzz" on the side, Shaylee's is an ant that she painted little flowers on, and Sami wanted a Love Bug, complete with flower and butterfly stickers.  

Below, from left to right, Lila's carved flower car, Shaylee's ant car (she removed the antennas to make it more aerodynamic), and Jarrod's borrowed car.

Below, I think Madison's car is first, then Shelby's bee (how cute are those wings?  She made them out of dryer sheets...all her idea!), and Preston's garbage truck.  The WM stands for Waste Management.  Jarrod hollowed out almost the entire center and filled it with lead, so it was one heavy garbage truck.  It was a big winner!

Below, Sami's love bug, Spencer's shark, and Paige's car.  Paige won 1st place for her paint job!

Sami's car ended up winning like six times or something!  The video above shows her excitement at winning.  

Jeff and Dad were the only ones that designed their cars with speed in mind.  Dad had his powered by a mouse trap, and Jeff had some sort of motor that was activated by pulling a string.  Jeff ended up being the winner as far as speed was concerned.  His car didn't even compare to the others.   But we had such a good time, and Mom and Dad had candy bars & ribbons for everyone that participated.  We had so much fun that it didn't matter who won.  Well, unless if you ask Sami...she was pretty proud!

YA HOOO!  Chris got Shaylee's choir song to upload.  This one is a medley of a few Christmas favorites.  Shaylee is in the middle, behind the blond girl.

Shelby's Family Birthday Party

There was a huge snowstorm on the night of Shelby's birthday party, so while we were waiting for the Monson's & Jarrod and Jeff to get there, we played Apples to Apples.  Jarrod and Jeff had decided to go rabbit hunting that day, but they didn't tell anyone where they were going.  They promised to be back by 5pm because the party started at 7pm.  Needless to say, we had two very worried wives, until they finally showed up at almost 8pm!

Nana did Heavy, Heavy, Hangover...and Shelby had no idea what she was doing!  From the look on Preston's face, he was just as confused.  

Does this hoody describe Shelby, or what?

Carter's shirt says it all... "Ladies Man"

The best part of the night was that we made gingerbread ice cream sandwiches instead of cake.  The only thing Shelby specifically asked for was Candy Cane Ice Cream.  Mike said it was worth the 15 mph drive from Clearfield just for the dessert.  Ya, he was right!  Yummy!

Okay, so it's been a long time...  Life has been a bit crazy for the Slaughter 5!  But we're back...  So here is a picture of Shaylee with her friends, Jessica & Sarah.  They all sang in the school choir.  I tried to upload one of their songs, but it's just not working for me.  So imagine how cute they sounded singing about Mrs. Spackman's Killer Fruit Cake!  Shaylee's solo line was "Oh, No!  Please don't send us any more!"  It was cute.  

All of the kids in the choir had to be at school at 7:15am twice a week for practices.  Shaylee didn't mind waking up early, and I (kind-of) didn't mind driving her.  It's a good thing it's still dark at 7:15 so that the other parents couldn't see my messy hair and pajamas!

Another milestone in December... the Expedition has been around for 200,000 miles!  Still running good, and I hope it keeps on running good because we owe too much $$ on it to sell it with that many miles!