Introducing.......

#11!!!!
This perfect specimen of new human-ness is my sister in law's daughter, our niece!
Otherwise known as
Delayna Jewell McEwan
Born on her Daddy's birthday, December 30th,
9:40 p.m.
9 lbs. 2 oz
Gorgeous.
Welcome to our family, sweet girl!

Joe meeting his new niece

Suzy took this gorgeous pic of her daughter.
I LOVE DA BABIES!!!!
And boy oh boy, do I want a girl oh girl one day!
But if not, get ready Layney, I'm a great aunt!

We would definitely survive an Ice Age

It may have snowed earlier this year, but this is still the desert.
As such, when our family went to the park last week, some of us decided to strip down to our shorts. Only in Hesperia. The second week in January. The dead of winter. And here in California, HOT!

Look at this! 40 below zero on the East Coast, and it was 80 degrees here!

Whoohoo!

Some of us think slides are way funner.

They are having a blast! I want more snow.

The ambidextrous freak of nature (my mom)

My mother IS an ambidextrous freak of nature. She really CAN do everything, because she uses both sides of her brain. You name it, she can do it. I wanted to do a feature on everything she can do, but then this post would take a couple of days to read. So, here are a few of the thousands of talents she has. And not only can she do it all, she does it all better than everyone else.

My mother paints....

A portrait of Kathryn

This is a painting of a stripling warrior getting ready for battle. She won an award in the church's art contest when she painted it!

Cross stitches (incidentally, she also plays the violin beautifully)

Knits...

Look at this shawl!!

Crochets everything, including trees full of snowflakes

Sculpts.
In just a couple hours, my mom sculpted this figurine of Christ. In a couple hours!! Out of cheap sculpey you buy at the craft store!

Look at the details!

Has a mass producing garden

And, not pictured, she sews the most gorgeous clothes (she made my wedding dress) cooks the most DELICIOUS things, does car repairs, INVENTS things,
goes to the temple all the time, is ALWAYS in a good mood, and is the best grandmother ever born. Sigh, why do some people get all the talent? (And NOT genetically pass them on!!!)
I love you, mom!

Why dad never gets cold

On our first official day in Utah, after my mom traversed the entire state looking for snow clothes for our whole family, we hit the slopes! These pics look blurry because thats what happens to my camera when it is snowing outside!

"Despite my outward appearance, I can't walk!"

But heck, making Dad do all the work? Better, anyway!

Woah!

Can't walk, but I can sit!

The Yeti of our family. This boy loves snow!

Dad gained a few more pounds on the way home.

Auntie T's

Most of my photos from Aunt T's are foggy, because I did not realize that a camera in cold weather, equals foggy photos! But, here are,
The cousins

and sweet Kyle, sitting on Aunt T's hope chest.

'Twas the night before Christmas...

...and all through the house..

...all the kids were adorable...

...especially the mouse!
(Leah has the most adorable tiny little voice)

Wyatt, the coolest (and sweetest) dude in the west.

This is what we, and probably every other parent in America, do after the kids go to bed!

James put this together the night before, "for Wyatt" yet mysteriously one of the bullets was nowhere to be found the next day! Hmmmm....actually, James pelted me in the head with that thing after putting it together. Foam bullets my bootie! Those things hurt!

James takes a full day to put his tree up every year, and as you can see, it looks amazing! Especially that rockin' awesome Santa!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all without babies a good night!

Santa knew we were at James and Tammy's house, so Christmas was great : ) Thank you guys so much for letting us spend Christmas with you! This is seriously the coolest family on Earth!

Bleary eyed on Christmas day!

From mom and dad....eh...

...from santa...sigh...

...from James and Tammy! Heck yeah!!

The most popular present of the day was the one we gave the baby!

Mmmm...creme brulee french toast, a delicious tradition!

It snowed all day, hooray! But it was so windy, it snowed sideways. I tried to capture that, but just realize all of those snowflakes were going from left to right!

And since it was so COLD, the snow was sparkly! Like glitter!

Around bedtime, Joe and the guy in charge of his national guard unit started putting this up. The National Guard man did a better job (sorry Joe!)

Kyle did not want to go to bed until I handed him this vibrating back massager! When I tried to turn off the lights and take it with me, he screamed, so I turned off the lights, left it with him, and off to lala land he went, without a peep!

Cutie Kids!

Tada!!!!!! Only 360 days until next Christmas!