Bradley's design...

Christmas in Utah 2008

We had a Great time at Christmas and Grandma and Grandpa's, we met our new nephew, Jacob, and Addison found her new best friend...GRANDPA! She followed him all over the house, and loved sitting on his lap listening to country music on the computer.





Christmas Eve with my little wise men and angels...





Christmas morning...favorite gifts:
Suzy: Nikkon d60 Camera
Mike: Airhogs remote helicopter
McKenzie: Digital Camera and software for composing music
Bradley: Camcorder and RC car
Sydney: Nintendo DS and doll
Nathan: Nintendo DS and RC car
Addison: Locks puzzle board, doll, ride on toy
Family: Yamaha Piano- weighted keyboard- love it!





We had tons of game time and parties too over the couple of weeks. Great time had by all!! Thanks Utah family- you are great!

Experimenting with my new camera...

Double click on any picture to see closer. These turned out fairly good for not knowing yet how to work the camera! (p.s. it's a Nikkon)

Seeing Santa 2008

We went to Town Square in El Dorado Hills to see Santa come in on the fire truck. It was exciting for the kids waiting, with Christmas music blaring overhead and a big parade with workers dressed up and passing out candy canes. They gave out hot chocolate and cookies and had a Spiderman bounce house that Nathan loved and the High school choir singing, which McKenzie went crazy over. FUN TIMES!

Redecorating...

Finally finished with McKenzie's room- except she wants music notes on the wall- so we are looking into that... Sydney got new badley needed furniture as well...They love their rooms now!

Christmas letter- Blogging style

Howell Family To-Do List 2008:

• Sign up Bradley for piano



• Work more shifts to pay for piano lessons-($120 per month in CA- whew!)



• Decide the day before to go to Disneyland with friends for spring break- pack in a fury



• Suzy and Addison fly to Utah for Grandpa King’s 90th birthday



• McKenzie start high school and mom be positive about driving her to early morning seminary



• Celebrate Addison’s first birthday ON Halloween



• Go to Southern California for cousin Sara’s wedding and see Grandma on Mother’s Day



• Nathan graduate from Kindergarten



• Mom get McKenzie to Snow College Flute Festival, EFY, Jazz Band Camp and Girl’s cam



• Serve Homeless meals at the Upper Roo



• Bradley start the crazy world of middle school and run cross country



• Celebrate Mike’s big 40 birthda



• Go to Sydney’s dance recital and choir concert



• Start Sydney in ballet again, this time- LOVE IT!



• Convince Sydney there are other ways to wear your hair to school besides the ballet bu



• Suzy-plan Pinewood derby for 4 wards combined



• Laugh at Addison’s dance style, “the jig”- see on http://www.sumehowell.blogspot.com/



• Mike- help plan Stake Road shows as high councilor over stake activities



• See “Wicked” on Broadway in NYC- trip with just Mike and Suzy- no kids- surprise for Suzy from Mike



• Try not to call home more than 10 times a day while in New York



• Crack up at Bradley’s funny comments during the day



• Mike take the boys fishing



• Try a garden again for Bradley’s Gardening Merit badge and hope the animals stay away from it this time



• Try to convince Addison to stop nursing



• Have fun playing Ticket to Ride with family and friends



• Finish the Book of Mormon as a family (only took 3 years!)



• Make lunches and feed the homeless in downtown Sacramento with Hands4Hope



• Go to the Beach and watch Addison eat sand and bury other kids in sand



• McKenzie learn how to knit hats with Mad Hatters knitting club



• Bradley to finish his tree house and all the inventions that are included



• Sydney learn to sew scarves and hats at Girl Scouts



• Laugh at Addison’s ONLY word for everything, “MAAA!”



• Enjoy Nathan’s zest for life and his imagination



• Be grateful for our fun, busy, and crazy family



• Be grateful for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ
  
  **We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and pray that your To-Do lists
  will include some wonderful things that will happen this next year!
  We love you all!
  Love,Mike and Suzy Howell and family

Feeding the homeless

I took the kids to a Hands4Hope activity (it's a kids community service group we are involved in). We assembled 200 sack lunches and drove down to downtown Sacramento to hand them out, along with donated warm clothes from the "Warm and Fuzzy Drive". As we drove in, the kids saw all the tents lined up and all the junk around and the homeless wandering the streets. One of my kids with tears in her eyes said, "Mom- I feel so guilty!" I asked why, to which I got the response, "...Because we have SO much!" What a great learning experience for all my kids. One in which they will never forget. We'll be doing more of these types of activities. Free, and PRICELESS!

Road Show

McKenzie in the Road show- she's in the back row plugging her nose (swimming) in the dance. She's in purple. She had SO much fun and everyone couldn't believe how animated she was on stage! And some people think she's quiet! Her mom and dad know better!

Addison laughing...makes me laugh!

Addison learns to walk

Halloween pictures for Grandma

Sorry so late, but Grandma wanted to see the kids' Halloween costumes. If you can't tell, McKenzie is "sheet music"(of course, with her addiction to music), Bradley is a skeleton, Sydney is a baby, Nathan is spiderman, and Addison is a ladybug.

Addison turns 1!!!

We had a little party on her birthday, which was Halloween. BUSY Day! We had Leona and Herb (our neighbors that we have adopted as grandparents) come over for cake and presents! Mike insisted she have her own cake, and eat it she did!! I told him if she was up in the night, he will be getting up with her. Lucky for him she slept through the night!

Our Traditional Fall trip to Apple Hill... Eating the "Walking Pie" from Kids, Inc. farm...

The kids had a great time! We packed a picnic, shopped, and played with animals, tractors and rope swings. We came home with 40 pounds of apples and ate them all week!! Apple pie, Apple crisp, homemade applesauce, sliced apples with caramel dip, pork and apples in the crockpot, apple/snickers/coolwhip salad...Tired of apples you think? Not this family!