Christmas with the Noldens

Above: Everyone scrunched into our Living Room.

Above: Aunt Sandi and all of the young ones.

Above: Helga and Harley Nolden. They were very happy to have (almost) the entire family together in one place.

Above: Frank’s brother, Marc (left) and his brother-in-law, Larry (Sandi’s husband).

Above: A bunch of cuties! Left to Right: Lyndsey, Megan (almost in the picture), Katie (Lyndsey’s friend, she was “standing in” for Marc Anthony), Liz, & Mikayla (almost didn’t make it in the picture).

Above: Lynn (Marc’s wife), Megan and Liz.

Above: Cody was our official gift hander-outer. He did an amazing job .

Above: Love the glasses Grandpa!

Above: What? A Red Ryder BB Gun!!!??? Yep, Grandpa Nolden gave the four youngest grandkids a BB gun. They were EXTREMELY stoked. And yes, mom told them they had better not “shoot their eye out!”

Above: Donovan is in a daze. He never thought he would get a BB gun (probably because mom told them they would never get one .

Above: Grandpa Nolden made a calendar for each of the grandkids and made each one special by including photos of things that child was interested in.

Above: The best thing about the BB Guns is that Grandpa Nolden is a Retired Military Man. He was an arms specialist in the Army. He taught new soldiers how to use their guns, and he was even the coach for the “All Army Pistol Team.” So, the boys got some specialized training…with no ammunition…before they were allowed to actually shoot with real BBs. Mom was very happy about this.

Above: Getting instruction from the master.

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!! Watch this video of the boys shooting their guns. Ya gotta love the look on Donovan’s face.

Above: Jesse & Lynn.

Above: Three generations together (Cody, Harley, Frank).

Christmas Morning 2008

We had another wonderful Christmas at the Nolden house. We were all together, healthy and happy. What more can you ask for? OK, actually, I was pretty sick on Christmas day (hence, no photos of me)…but it was minor and I’m feeling much better now .

With all the turmoil in the world today we are even more grateful than usual for all that the Lord has blessed us with….especially the peace that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings into our lives despite anything that goes on around us.

Above: Holy crap…Santa found us again…

Yes, the tree topper is crooked…we couldn’t fix it and finally gave up.

Above: This is a “Santa Village” I made out of plastic canvas and yarn back when I was a senior in High School. I can’t believe it has survived all of the moves over the years.

Church Christmas Parties

We got to go to two Christmas Church events this year.

Aunt Sandi goes to the First Baptist Church, and they put on “The Living Christmas Tree” each year, which is a large production with music and a play. Sandi plays the trumpet in the orchestra.

We also had our Ward Christmas Party at our church.

Above: Sandi and her orchestra buddies.

Above: The “Living Christmas Tree.” The choir was sitting in the rows on the tree. Soloists would go to the top of the tree. Seth and Hannah both sang for the prodution as well. (you can see the orchestra pit in front of the tree)

Above: The WHOLE family with Santa. We are excited that Cody is home to spend 2 weeks with us over the Christmas break.

Above: The Conyers Ward and Yellow River Branch Missionaries.

Above: Our favorite missionaries! Left to Right: Elder Johnson, Elder Christophersen, Elder Chappel & Elder Quinney. We were very sad when the very next day Elders Christophersen and Quinney got transferred!!

Above: Some of the family being festive.

Above: Cody & Frank.

Above: PJ just couldn’t get the whole antler thing down right.

Above: Mikayla, “This is how it’s done, PJ.”

Above: Mikayla & her friend from church.

Above: Megan and Liz helped lead the crowd in Christmas songs (against their will).

Above: Ashley was the angel in the reenactment of the Nativity.

Above: Also against his will, PJ was the camel that carried Mary into Bethlehem. He was hatin’ it . I didn’t get a good picture of him (he’s the one crawling).

Above: Donovan is a “Wise Man” in the yellow robe. I never got a face shot. He didn’t want to be seen.

Above: Liz and some church friends.

Above: Ashley and some church friends.

Above: PJ (still working on the antlers) with Bishop Buck.

Above: Ashley and Santa. Ashley’s the one on the Right.

Above: Donovan with Santa….totally embarrassed, as usual.

More Fall Fun…

Above: Ashley, it can’t be THAT bad!

Above: Mikayla, “Are we eating, or what?”

Above: Frank. Go Weber Football!! They made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs this year! Woohoo!

Above: Sandi – ready for some turkey!!

Above: Mikayla, “Yeah, I’m still waiting!”

Above: Frank helps keep things light and happy at our house. Megan labeled him the Christmas Frank-n-Stein.

Above: “What lights?”

Above: PJ and Frank working on the outdoor Christmas lighting. Uh, yeah…but…we discovered we are going to need a 30-40 foot ladder to get it all done. Hmmmm….

Above: Fall has been quite an event for us. We are used to living in the West…and Nevada at that. We had one tree in our last yard and it was a little Palm tree that stayed green all year. Now we have a million trees with 2 billion leaves.

The fall was beautiful…unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos when the leaves were at the height of the season. But I like this video because it shows the “Rain of Leaves” that we saw almost every day for weeks. Frank would groan every day when he woke up and saw the new layer on the lawn. Not really . He has a great attitude about everything. I was groaning for him .

Backyard Cookout

We decided to do Foil Dinners in the backyard firepit in November. We discovered that there’s a little more to it than we thought…but despite some things getting burned…they actually tasted extremely good! The A-1 was especially good! We’ll have to try that again.

The same day we got a chance to try the famous “Coke and Mentos” trick that is popular right now…or maybe it’s old and we are behind the times…not sure . But it was fun. For those of you that want to try it…it HAS to be DIET Coke WITH Caffeine. I accidentally bought Coke without Caffeine the first time. Who would’ve thought you could even buy that anywhere but Utah??? When we used to live in Vegas, and we would drive through St. George we would pick up Caffeine-free Mountain Dew for some friends…because you couldn’t buy it anywhere else.

Above: PJ (see the trampoline in the background).

Above: Hannah, Larry & Sandi.

Above: Mikayla

Above: Liz

Above: Liz, Ashley & Mikayla roasting marshmallows.

Above: Hannah & Sandi. What a cute picture!!

Above: Shayne & Liz warming up after the adventures outside. We are all still trying to acclimate to the cold.

Above: Liz, “Got Milk?”

Donovan = Wolf

Shayne is the Den Leader for the Wolves in our ward (that’s Cub Scouts for those of you that haven’t had to do this – yet . In November we went on a Recycling Field Trip – the Recycle bins were at a Fire Station and one of the firemen came out to talk to them and then let them take a tour of the fire truck. It was very cool.

Above: Donovan, tuck in that Scout shirt!!

Above: We got to “celebrate” with a little ice cream at McDonalds afterward…

Rollerskating…

We went rollerskating with Aunt Sandi, Seth & Hannah back in November. Some of us hadn’t done this for a while…but it was very fun!

Above: Part of “The Crew.” It was kind of dark in there…so some of the photos didn’t turn out so well.

Above: Seth, “I am the master of this sport!”

Above: Donovan – “Just don’t let me fall, just don’t let me fall…”

Above: Ashley, “What are you talking about? This is easy!”

Above: Megan, “Yeah, Right! I fell…..AGAIN!!!”

Above: Hannah – “Yeah, I think I’ll just stay here a while.”

Above: We have a hard enough time telling Donovan and Seth apart (they look very similar from the back)…and then they have to wear very similar shirts!

Above: See what I mean? Ok, so it’s more obvious when they aren’t standing right next to each other!

Above: Liz, “This is fun. Now, can we go home?”

Above: Frank, “I did it! And no broken bones!”