new year's eve

for new year's eve last year afton planned the whole party :) it's amazing to me how much she enjoys it all. she got everyone to dress-up (though that's a somewhat relative term for us), planned games--button, button, who has the button and tic-tac-toe featured prominately, and made sure everyone was having fun (you'd be surprised how fun those games can be if your 5-yr old hostess is entertaining everyone with them!). there was plenty of food and balloons and crackers. and we even got naps that afternoon so we could stay up really really late (10!!!)

rayna stuffed balloons under her skirt so it would POOF
(i just loved her expression too--so cute!)



just before bed (almost 10!) covered with streamers (yes, paul thinks he's funny)



afton ready with her cracker



the whole party complete with crowns from the crackers, and a couple little toys too :)

okay, i must admit, the rest of us stayed up past midnight, playing games that might pass as more enjoyable than afton's choices, but i think we all had a blast ringing in the new year, and having quite the party for our last night in az! thanks so much to sarah for sharing dominion with us, we loved it (though i evidentally never caught on fully to strategy--i was doing better by the end there)!

we've got just a little bit from new year's day:

this one's actually new year's day. malachi got his own fork for breakfast, and proceeded to eat with it fairly well too. i was impressed how well it worked at least!

we also really enjoyed later church (11) at grandma's house, where the girls relaly wanted to go to primary, so they got to try out a new ward before their own new classes back in tx the next week! i was proud of them for staying the whole time and having fun too! after church we packed up pretty quick so we could head out as soon as possible for our long drive back. the drive was gloriously uneventful and we made it home by lunch time :) here's just a few more pictures from the way home:

and a few sunrise pics from our drive home. this is middle-of-no-where, TX, and i was mostly impressed with myself and my new camera because i took it while driving through the window, and still got some pretty good shots off :)



gotta love those windmills too!