Prom

Jessica went to Prom with her friend Christian Peacock. He and Jessica are the only seniors in our ward so they have known each other for a long time. On mother's day, our wards tradition is to have the graduating seniors speak. Since there was only the two of them, they had to take the entire time. They both did a great job. Jessica went first and "introduced" them both. Is was really cute and very funny.

Sterling Scholar

Since just before Christmas, when she found out that she was the sterling scholar in Trade and technology for Cedar High, Jessica has been busy putting her portfolio together for the region competition. It has been sooooooo much work but she got it done and then went to region competition. She was going up against the sterling scholars from 15 different school in her category. All of her hard work paid off and she was awarded runner-up. This gives her a 4 year 1/2 tuition scholarship to SUU. We are so happy and proud.

Grandma and Grandpa Gilliland and Grandma Savage came for the Banquet and awards ceremony

Legislative Day

Right after the Disneyland trip, Jessica was able to go up to the state capitol for Legislative day. This trip was part of the Cedar City Youth Council. They got to meet state and local leaders and to participate in mock bill discussion. It was a very great learning experience for her.

Science Fair

Miles really wanted to participate in the science fair. As a parent I LOVE science fair. Just kidding! So it's not my favorite thing to do, but Miles came up with a good idea and it didn't seem to long and drawn out. He chose several different paper airplane designs. He guessed which on would fly the best and then we tried them out. He learned which ones he likes the best and had a great science fair.

DisneyLand

As part of our Christmas this year, the kids agreed to skip the big gifts in place of a family trip to Disneyland. We went with Ralph's Family and had a blast.

Jessica, Brant, Tanner, Dallin, Drew, Brock Miles and Ben

Jessica was the only girl with her 4 brothers and 3 cousins, thus the picture

The whole gang

Part of the fun is posing for the pictures on the rides. We always get a laugh to see what everyone comes up with.

Happy 2012

To celebrate New Years, Crystal, Jeff and their kids came down for a visit. Saturday we drove down to Red cliffs and  met up with Lance, Sharley and their girls for lunch and a fun day of climbing and repelling.

Miles was brave and gave it a try.

Riley and Dallin

Jessica

Brant, Morgan and Tanner

Brant and Tanner getting fancy

Christmas 2011

Every year the kids get a new ornament to add to their collection. They enjoy hanging them up on the family tree. When they start their own families, they will take their collection with them.

This year instead of making a gingerbread house, we made a gingerbread nativity. I saw this idea on pinterest and thought it was so cute.

One year when my siblings and I were little, we got up Christmas morning around 3am. So excited we started playing with all of our toys. Unfortunately, my parents weren't so pleased with the time and sent us all back to bed. Every year after that, on Christmas Eve, a chair was placed in the hall. If we got up and the chair was still there, we had to go back to bed. This ensured  our parents got a few hour of sleep. As a child it was torture, but now as a parent, I think it's brilliant, and it's a tradition  we carry on with our kids. Here they all are at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for us to move the chair Christmas morning.

 

Brant has been taking woods at CHS, and for Christmas he made Ralph and I this beautiful table. the top turns and the edges drop to form a triangle. It' is called a cricket table. It was a very nice surprise.