happy new years eve

so my husb took my memory card to my camera so he could order the christmas pictures for me today (yes you will still be getting a belated christmas card from the Ruf's) and he LOST MY MEMORY CARD. what does this mean? it means I CAN'T TAKE ANY PICTURES UNTIL I GET IT BACK. so no pictures of what we are doing with our new years eve here at the ruf residence...but i am going to show pictures of a concert i went to which looks like we could have been at a new years party (kinda, sorta)...just use your imagination...




it was a new kids on the block concert (linzi and lisa)...

don't judge us... (molly and marci)

it was totally free and night away from whining kids... (kyle and molly)

although i did come home with my ears ringing (laura, kyle, and brett)

christmas ACT III ( night time activities)

well we made to nightfall and headed to my grandma's home/condo. we were able to reserve her "rec room". it was sooooo nice, we had tons of room for kids to run in, a piano, an organ, a tv and lots of people to see. i made my famous sweet potatoes (so so YUM) and we had all the trimmings of your regular thanksgiving/christmas dinner. we watched THE FAMILY MAN on tv (love nic cage) and played catch phrase after eating and opening presents.

here is sick brenton(he did eat a doughnut at grandmas and a roll at dinner) and brady with their newly aquired toys. but from all the running he did you never would have known he had been sick.

here is kylee helping her great grandma hoyt open her christmas presents.

daddy could not open up tessa's gift fast enough, i mean look at her face, it says it all. I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!!

so she tries to take it into her own hands...ah the sweet success of getting your gift out of the box.


here are the kids looking for their gifts under the tree (pre tessa freak out)

now look at poor george...say and tess will now duke it out for this other toy, ahhh christmas and kids?!!!

christmas ACT II (the afternoon)

in the afternoon we left to go to my mom's house, where the rest of my family was. kyle had made from scratch, DOUGHNUTS. and oh they are the most glorious doughnuts ever.


here is kylee showing off her fav toys that she recieved. she is holding a sock monkey kit that you put together. and below brenton is holding his fav gifts, BATMAN AND CARS.

i thought that tessa wore one of the cutest skirts ever!!!

my mother and her FOUR BIG BABIES!


walter and his BABY GIRL.

christmas Act 1 (the morning)

our morning started early...6 am, brenton throws up...luckily he wasn't too sick as you will see from the pictures. he ended up being ok, he just didn't eat much throughout the day (poor kid at christmastime). other than that we had a wonderful christmas, considering my dad wasn't here to celebrate it. here are the pictures of our wonderful little christmas morning with our three overly excited children.



brenton and kylee had both asked for a wii, and lo and behold they recieved one. guess what they did all morning???

kylee recieved her cupcake maker and tessa fell in love with a BOLT stuffed dog

brenton recieved his car set that he had asked for at numerous times

kylee was worried that santa wouldn't know in enough time that she wanted mama mia because she had asked for it 2 days before christmas. i told her santa is really good at knowing what you like... she was so surprised!!!

brenton was also surprised by another gift he had recieved but didn't ask for. "how did santa know i would love this gift?"

and tessa kept trying to drink the candy canes...YUMMO!!!

ps i saw benjamin button today, warning: it is a three hour movie, but it was very enjoyable...the ending was very touching

christmas joy to spread

we just want to say MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL...



AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT...

THE END...MY GIFT TO ALL OF YOU!!!

can't contain the excitement

here comes santa claus, here comes santa claus...



we are so flippin...

excited that we can hardly...contain ourselves!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!!

a pioneer christmas trek

we went to THIS IS THE PLACE PARK for a pioneer christmas experience. we had done this last year with everyone in my family (ah last year when my father was here) and had found it to be quite enjoyable. so we decided to give it a go again.



brady and brenton at the front of the TRAIN.

ky all bundled up, at the houses you would stop in and make a christmas craft of some sort. they made ornaments, sachets, saw a printing press, and a puppet show.

i felt so bad, i forgot tessa's hat but she was warmly bundled otherwise.

here are the kids walking to meet santa, they also got to see some real reindeer.

it was so flippin cold out there walking around, when we got in the car to go home it said 18 degrees outside (thus my chilly willy face). scott (my bro in law) laughed at this picture, thanks!!!


ps it's the day before the night before christmas and i'm busy busy busy bein' good!!!

every year...

every year my sister molly and i put together a gingerbread house. with whom we do it with has varied from year to year. this year it was the terrible threesome (i say that jokingly) brenton, kylee, and brady. here is how it turned out...


they were so proud of what they created (and only fought with eachother a little)

look at the lovely costco prepackaged kit we so masterfully put together

"not the buttons, not the gumdrop buttons" (for linzi or shishi)

and look who is being extra good for santa, she has her scriptures with her and a smile on her face.

how to party (like a mormon)

for our WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY we went to CAMP TRACY last saturday night. it had been snowing all day so it was perfect for TUBING, our kids were overjoyed. so we lugged up our tube, snow clothes, and obligatory pot luck side dish and had ourselves a good old time (mormon style).


come on hun, tell us how you REALLY feel about having to TREK up the tubing hill with the kids over and over after working out at home for 2 hours? (don't say i didn't warn ya!!)

all the PRIMARY KIDS sang us some christmas songs, so happy and full of belief in the MAGIC of christmas at this age.

here is tessa with her cousin Grace. this is proof that as long as she has her BINKY and mommy's CELL PHONE in her hand, she can sit with anyone.

notice the rosy red CHEEKS that b man has. that is from TUBING outside in the freezing COLD for almost 2 hours (and running around the lodge like a wild man right before singing).

ps saw yes man tonight, very funny!!!

dog lovers unite

tonight i had the opportunity to go see the movie MARLEY AND ME (thank you lisa) for FREE. it is such a touching story that will even get to those who are really NOT dog lovers (like lisa). i recomend it to all (yes hunny you really did miss out on a good movie)!


our ROXYDOG in the snow (they mention LABRADOODLE in the movie!!)

i LOVE you roxydog, i am gonna let you in the house more often (i promise), even though your dogfarts REALLY stink.

love, marci

ps i am feeling much better now...

WHY ME

i am so so so soo soooo sick with the flu, blah blah blurgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please pray that none of my children will be affected. this is a very painful flu!i will post later when i am feeling better.

santa baby

last week we went to THE MALL to see SANTA. now before we saw SANTA i was trying to prep them on what it was that they were ASKING FOR. we have been trying to prep them for a wii and a couple other little gifts. brenton has been asking for a CAR SET and ky has been asking for the CUPCAKE MAKER. i believe that SANTA can probably swing that but the BIG ONE to ask for is the wii, right kids??????



so far we have never had a child do the SANTA FREAK OUT. tessa actually only whined for a minute and was ok. my nephew BRADY and niece SAYLEE are also in the picture. cute cute cousins!!!!!

so SANTA asks my kids what they want for christmas...

brenton-i want a PAINT GUN. notta once has he ever uttered the words PAINT GUN!!!!!!!

kylee-i want a wii (thank you, she was totally fighting me on this while we were heading to see santa, she wanted a $100 doll house (got her talked out of that one for the cupcake maker, thank you very much).

HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS

temple of LIGHTS

we went to the "temple of LIGHTS" as Brenton kept calling it, which is really the Salt Lake City Temple all lit up with Christmas lights. here is how our NIGHT OF LIGHTS went...

walt is teaching the kids about the TEMPLE, finally brenton is to the age where he is really interested about this kind of stuff...kylee, not so much

at the refelctive pool, why are kids so tempted to touch WATER when it is FREEZING outside.

oooohh it was soooo COOOLLLDDD!!!

POSIN in front of the boootiful lights.

all together now,"I CAN'T GET UP, I CAN'T GET UP". yes, tessa was so bundled in her coat that sometimes she would give up and just lay there.

we ended with the NATIVITY SCENE, which is really what this hoopla is all about. at the end of it brenton turned to me and said, "look mom they are sending out THE BAT SIGNAL". he was of course refering to the light that is supposed to represent the STAR (yes he is still a 7 year old boy).