Parry Christmas Party

What another wonderful Christmas celebration. We are blessed to have such wonderful relationships with extended family. It's very telling when kids look forward to seeing their extended family, and our girls always do.

After eating some yummy food, we had a quick program. Then the girls got to dress up for Grandpa Parry's reading of Luke 2. Afterward, Tyler got out his accordion and played while we sang a few Christmas songs. We finished the evening with a gift exchange game where we ended up with a happenings book with all sorts of great deals for the coming year and the girls opened some gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.

Parry Halloween Pary

Our Halloween celebrations started early this year. We celebrated with all the Parry cousins tonight so that Grandma and Grandpa Parry could have a chance to see everyone's costumes. There were some super cute costumes, great food and fun games. The girls got to bob for apples, eat donuts from a string with no hands, and play a musical walking game for toys.

Silly Girl

While playing Barbies at Grandma Parry's house, Daddy recommended Emma try on the shoes. She did and we were surprised that they fit....on her big toe. She thought it was quite fun and kept putting them on as we laughed.

The Graves

Sunday night we visited Valley View Memorial Cemetery to visit Grandma Hazel's and Corey's graves.

Then after our hike on Monday, we went to the Redwood Cemetery to visit the Parry and Larson graves.

The girls love to play at the cemetery. Sadie was doing acrobatics with Jeff while Kali was off exploring with Kate. Ashlyn was in heaven with all the flowers and although I told her numerous times not to pick the flowers, she magically ended up with several. I wish I had taken a picture of her after she had picked one particular flower from a flowerbed in the middle of the cemetery because she pulled so hard that the entire plant came out--dirt, roots, and all.

I wish my relative's graves were closer. But even though they aren't, I still spent time remembering them and all the happy times we shared together.

Parry Christmas Eve Party

This year, the Parry Christmas party was in American Fork which made for a bit of a challenge with the huge snow storm. Thankfully everyone made it there and home safely and the evening made it all worth it. The food was great. Ashlyn obviously loved the green frosted cupcakes.

And the kids always love when Grandma reads Davey and the Donkey. 

We also got to enjoy an array of talents. Kali and Sadie each played a Christmas piano piece that they had been working on. Then to finish off the evening we sang a few Christmas songs together. And on Jingle Bells, the Gallaghers let all the kids hold one of their bells and ring it. It made it much more lively and fun.

Copperton Park

We also continued the Parry family tradition of going to Copperton Park for lunch. The girls got to do all sorts of fun things like play with blocks, color with chalk, ride scooters, play on the playground, race cars, and serve as ball girls for the guys playing tennis.

Playing on the tennis courts has become a tradition for the guys now. Kali and Sadie wanted to play too but aren't quite ready to compete with the guys so they had to settle for ball girls instead.

Grandpa Parry's 80th

Grandpa Parry turned 80 years old today and we got to go to a fun celebration in his honor. Seeing how Grandpa is a cowboy at heart, they had a cowboy theme and it turned out so cute. This life size poster of him was probably my favorite thing.

They had pinatas, hats, yummy food, fun dancing and more. Josh really got into the spirit of things. But if you know how much he's like his grandpa in that he loves horses, hats and westerns, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

A Princess Party

Grandma Parry turned 75 today and was thrown a princess party. It turned out so much fun. The girls dressed up in their prettiest princess dresses and insisted I put makeup on them. They played fun games, got their nails painted, and danced to fun music with disco balls. Grandma seemed to be enjoying herself too. She got to wear a crown and dress in pink (her favorite color).

Taylorsville Dayzz

We also got to celebrate Taylorsville Dayzz today. Needless to say, it was a long day full of fun and Emma was an angel. She was just chill, relaxing on the blanket while we all visited and played around.

The glow sticks were a big hit and Sadie was more than happy to pose with them.

We also had the privilege of having Korin and Grandma and Grandpa Parry join us. Grandma just wanted to be where the kids were and it was a lot of fun to have them there.

I didn't get any good pictures of the girls playing with Uncle Gary and Aunt Lisa, but they were there too and the girls had a blast with them throwing footballs and glow sticks and just playing around. Thank goodness for family that can help my kids use their energy, because sometimes I need a break.

Grandma Parry

The day after Christmas, Grandma Parry had a very serious stroke. Thankfully we still have her with us, but she has to work very hard on a daily basis to make improvements. We try and visit her about once a week and the girls love to practice flash cards with her. I don't know how much she likes it, but if she doesn't, she's a good sport to put up with it.

The Parry Christmas Party

As always, Christmas Eve was a lovely evening. We had yummy food and a beautiful program. Obviously these kids enjoyed it too because it's very rare to see them all lined up, sitting quietly, and paying attention to what's going on. Kali played Jolly Old St. Nicholas on the piano and did a great job. We also had a gift exchange where we played a game to see what gift we would get. This is the first year that Josh and I participated and we had a lot of fun. We ended up with an amazon gift card which is exactly what we wanted.