New Year's Eve and Day!

For New Years, we went to my dad's oldest sister Mindy's house. Our family goes over to her house every year to celebrate the start of the new year.

This year is the year of the Ox, so Mindy had a few different activities for the kids to do to celebrate the year of the ox.

Mindy had a cute little book that the kids each took a turn reading about a ox. The picture below if of Brandon reading the story to the boys again.The kids also got to play pin the tail on the cow.
Mindy also set up a spot for the kids to color a cow.

There were also spots to guess the word of the year 2008 and it was bailout. Also, a spot to list the major events that happened this year in our family.

She really went all out to help celebrate the new year and does every year.

The food, like any B. gathering, was fantastic! Great people to talk to and catch up with. We all really enjoyed ourselves. The only downside is that night Ben was still getting over strep (he had been antibiotics for over 48 hours) and Emmy had two ear infections so they were a little sad.

Hyrum couldn't get enough of all of the cousins. There are tons of kids and he loved every minute. He loved a game that was there that had a person use a gun to shoot and knock off some bottles. Below he is with my cousin Jane.Hyrum and Ben also loved playing ping pong with Papa and Millie.Camille and my dad also enjoyed playing some ping pong together.Since there are so many young kids, New Years is celebrated at 9:00. The kids celebrated in still with hats, noise makers, bubble packaging. The kids, especially Emmy loved the bubble poppers. It was a great night.During New Year's Day, Brandon's sister Lorri and her family came to play with us at my parents house. Like we usually do when we get together, we played games.The girls got their fingernails painted by Camille and thought it was wonderful. Emmy was in heaven and kept ooohh noises when she looked at her nails. Emmy and Natalie had a fun time being little mommies to the babies Emmy got for Christmas. Good thing they were each able to have a cradle and baby. I had to do a little searching to find the cradle that Camille and I used for our babies growing up.Overall, it was a perfect way to celebrate a new year.

I just wanted to make a little note about New Year's resolutions

As a family we decided to set goals to:
Reading our scriptures every day and not skipping
Doing morning and evening family prayers
Be a healthier family (eat healthier, exercise, etc.)

Also, as part of my New Year's resolution I set up a person blog that will be just for me titled www.memoriesfromajar.blogspot.com I am trying to work on my own journal for this year to catch up on the memories that have come and gone and the ones still to come.