New Year's Eve Fondue

Our New Year's Eve tradition is fondue.  Sometimes that includes a fondue dinner, but it ALWAYS includes dessert.  Most of us are in our pajamas here...

 Joining us were my parents, Sarah and Josh, and their son Jace.

We followed up fondue with a little karaoke and a movie.  I wish I could get Mark to do karaoke.  I can hear him singing along, but he can't quite make that jump to doing it into the microphone.  Then we watched the ball drop in New York.  It's getting harder and harder to stay awake for this as I get older, but my kids relish the opportunity to stay up late!  Fun and yummy night!

Take your best shot...goodbye gingerbread house!

You know how rock hard a gingerbread house gets by the time Christmas rolls around?  Well Mark came up with a great use for that gingerbread house instead of just tossing it in the trash - target practice!  Jamie was so sad to miss out on this.  She's done it with us for the last couple years, and she is very into her guns, so she has a blast with it.

This year we drove about an hour away into the mountains just east of Phoenix. We set the two gingerbread houses up (Josh, Sarah, and Jace came too with their house) against the mountain.  Mark was totally in his element.  He LOVES this!  It was fun to watch him teaching the kids.  He went over gun safety and made sure all the kids knew how important it was to be careful around guns.  I'm glad he's teaching them so they know what to do if they ever see a gun.

A note on this...

I'm pretty paranoid about guns.  I think they are fun, but I'm not so excited to have them in my home.  Thankfully Mark is really big on safety.  He has a gun safe that not even I know the combination to (he tried to give it to me, but it wasn't easy to remember, so I told him I didn't need to know).  His guns are always unloaded while at the range, before getting in the car to drive home.  He doesn't go hunting.  Just shooting at a gun range.  When he gets home the guns are transported directly from his car to the safe.  I'm glad he is so careful.  Even so, our kids won't be allowed to own even a BB gun until they are at least 18.  The best they can do is an airsoft gun or their Nerf guns.

So here are the houses before the demolition...

I was up first...

I like that little 22-pistol.  There isn't any kick.

Next, was Sarah...

If you look closely, in a lot of these pictures you can see the casing being ejected up and to the side of the gun.

Surveying the damage...

This gun had a little more kick...

As if the damage wasn't bad enough, those poor little house got leveled by a rock throwing contest at the end...

Next we moved on to shooting clay pigeons with the kids' new 20 gauge shotgun.  Bryan was the "thrower" of a lot of our clay pigeons.

Mark shot first.  He had shown Bryan how to throw "junk" by punching out the middle of the clay pigeon, or throwing it upside down so they would fly funny, but Mark still shot most of them.  Can't outwit your dad, B-ry!

Bryan tried throwing junk with me too, but I think I shot all but one of what he threw.  Yay me!

Bryan was next.  You can see the orange clay pigeon in the sky between the two  cacti...

Sarah was next...

Colton loved learning how to use the thrower...

We were out there for about 3 hours and everyone had a great time!  Poor gingerbread houses.

Christmas Day 2012

Christmas Day dawned a little too early for Mark and I.  We were pretty wiped out from staying up so late on Christmas Eve, but at least the kids let us sleep until 7am.  Jamie was staying with us.  I love it when she comes!  She is living in Salt Lake City right now.  My sister Heidi came over a little later that morning too.


Here we are before starting to open presents.  My hair was pretty poofy.  I tried a "sock bun" the night before just for fun (saw it on pinterest).  It made my hair pretty big (I have A LOT of hair).  Not my favorite look.

Bryan had asked for a couple of piano books.  He wanted the music from "Spirit" and Owl City.  Since getting these he has played constantly and is really loving piano.  He is an AMAZING pianist - especially when he gets to play what he loves.  I remember being the same way.  My kids are not into classical music.  They would much rather play movie themes and stuff they hear on their favorite radio stations.  I felt the same way at their age.  Since I am their piano teacher, I try to incorporate both into their lessons.  Some songs they pick and some from me.

Another book in a series my children all love...

My sisters Heidi and Jamie...

My children all take time in the months before Christmas to earn money to spend on some nice gifts for each other.  They really look forward to it!  This gift was from Bryan to Kyle.  It didn't cost Bryan any money, but he spent ALOT of time making something special for Kyle.  It was a walking stick.  Bryan had carved words in a spiral from top to bottom: "Kyle Christian McOmber . May 10, 2004 . And whosoever shall compel thee to go with him a mile, go with him twain. 3 Nephi 12:41".  Bryan was so excited to give this to Kyle, and Kyle was ecstatic to receive it!

Bryan has a hat similar to the one Colton is wearing, and Kyle knew Colton loved that hat.  He saved up and got one for him and another one for Bryan!  Colton was so excited.

Colton bought a really fun DS game for Morgan...

We exchange names in both mine and Mark's family.  Jamie had Heidi this year. Since Heidi is moving from Phoenix to Colorado she needed a good coat and that is what Jamie got for her!

Bryan is really into the band "Owl City" right now.  He was very excited about CD Morgan got for him.

Kyle gave Mark and I a really cool calendar he had made at school.  There was an illustration for each month.  He had started with a simple shape or picture.  The object was for him to turn that shape or object into an entire picture having to do with the theme for that month.  His drawings were amazing!

Colton gave us a block he made at school.  He had decorated it with his picture on it!

Colton gave Bryan a DS game Bryan had been dying for - FIFA Soccer.

Kyle gave Morgan a Carrie Underwood CD.

Bryan took "Clay" as one of his electives this year for his first semester.  He ended up loving it!  He made this for Morgan!  She was very excited to have something her older brother had made.

Jamie gave Heidi some beautiful necklaces.

Bryan got a great pair of Skechers (Mark got some to match).

Mark gave me a great new tripod with a ball head that allows me to change the angle of my camera so much easier than my old one.  He also gave me a remote for my camera.  Now I can take pictures with me in them at my leisure and not have to run after setting the timer on the camera!  Yay!

All the kids received a 20 gauge shotgun from Mark and me (that was more from Mark than me - he's the gun enthusiast around here).

As you can tell by Jamie's face in the background, she's actually quite the enthusiast too!

Mark got one too (from me...kinda...I was told to wrap it and put it under the tree).  Ooooo....ahhhhh.

Morgan got an ipod shuffle.  She was hoping for an ipod touch, but Mark and I aren't ready for her to get into texting yet.  We told her she can get one when she turns 14 (that's when Bryan got his).

Kyle was the last person to finally get some kind of music device.  He was very excited about his mp3 player from grandma and grandpa McOmber.

Morgan bought Colton a fun Wii game.

Heidi made Jamie the adorable bracelet she's wearing.  No pattern.  She just walked through a craft store and picked some stuff out.  She is SO creative!

Can you tell Bryan is excited about this book?  It's the second book in the "I Am Number Four" series.

The kids pooled their resources and got Mark this really awesome Bear Grylls knife.

We gave Bryan another version of the FIFA Soccer game he's so into.

My parents gave Heidi her first sewing machine.

Colton got a great bow and arrow set.

Another piano book for Bryan...

My kids gave me some perfume I had been wanting.  I LOVE this perfume!  It's called Issey Miyake Light.

Bryan got a spinner CTR ring he had been wanting...

My parents gave Mark a neat book with cross section pictures and explanations of all the different systems of the body.  They thought it would be a fun thing to show our kids and his patients.  Neat!

Santa left some fun gifts for the kids...


Bryan got a tennis racquet.

Kyle got a remote control Star Wars toy.

Colton got a Hexbug Nano Habitat and Bugs.

Morgan had asked for things to hang her jewelry on.  She was very excited about these.

And last of all, Santa gave our family a Karaoke machine!

The rest of the day was spent playing with toys together, watching movies, and cooking a fabulous Christmas dinner.  Yum!  Josh, Sarah, and Jace came over later that afternoon to have dinner with us and to play for awhile.  It was fun to relax and just hang out together.  Great day!