One More Down...

January 2, my little brother was MARRIED. Weird. I know. But it's actually a good thing. I love his wife (what the?!?), Kelli, and hope she knew what she was getting into... :)


The weather was surprisingly good for a January wedding. Cold, but beautiful blue skies. Matt and Kelli were married in the Jordan River Temple and everything went perfectly. After the wedding came the family pictures. My little Abby would not cooperate. She wanted to play by the fountain and throw snow, NOT hold still for pictures. I just like this one of Matt trying to coax Abby over to them using Kelli's bouquet.

The wedding luncheon was delicious AND entertaining, as we got to see some of Matt's prized possessions auctioned off to raise money to help get Kelli and him off on the right foot. Brian and I obtained joint custody of an original Lindsay George colored pencil masterpiece (pictured above).

Lenny had to leave during the luncheon to make it back for work that night but the girls and I stayed and saw the whole affair through. By the time the reception rolled around, kids were getting pretty tired but I wanted Leah to be able to experience the bouquet toss, once again. We attended Lenny's cousin's wedding and Leah participated in the bouquet toss and loved it (she didn't catch it and her amazing Dad went and begged the bouquet from the girl who did!)

But this time was different. The flowers were tossed and fell to the floor right beside Leah. She ran over and bent to pick them up and then stopped and looked around like, "Is it okay if I do this?!?" I encouraged her, "Pick them up! Get them, Leah!" So she did. People started cheering and Leah held the bouquet up high, skipped back to me and gave me a big hug. It was worth staying, just to see that. Oh, and that's Aunt Shari's face, sneaking into the picture. Don't mind her; she does that sometimes. :)

It was a good day and I'm so excited to get to know "Aunt Kelli" better!!

First Days of Our New Year

Grandpa Scot was so excited about his meaty Christmas present he received from Brian and Rachel (well, mostly Rachel). Homemade bratwurst. As part of our New Year's Eve celebration, he cooked them up and even shared them with us. Hooray for Grandpa Scot's brats!!!



New Year's Day we were able to spend some time with Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Sharon. We decided to go bowling. There was a LONG wait for a bowling lane so we walked across the street for some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. (Baskin Robin? Baskin Robbin's?!? I've never had to spell that in my life! But it's okay because I know Brian will look it up and correct me if I'm wrong.)
While we were waiting, we also took advantage of the photo booth at the bowling alley. We crammed all six of us into that little booth and Leah LOVED it! Abby didn't like being crowded into that little space, hence her escape efforts (row 3, column 1).

Finally, time to bowl. Leah's been quite the little show-off lately, posing for pictures and such. It cracks me up! Leah got into the whole bowling thing. Abby was bored out of her mind. Not enough interaction for her, I suppose. Well, Lenny won and beat me by ONE pin in the final frame. Not a fun way to go down. But I think both Leah and Abby beat Grandpa Gordon. (Don't tell him I posted that on the internet!) Regardless of who won or had the fastest speed (yeah, that was ME, all the way!), we had a blast!

One thing Abby DID like: sticking her head in the air blower and feeling her hair go crazy.

A picture of ME. Just because those are kind of rare, since I'm usually behind the camera :)

A Pollock Christmas

Christmas this year was wonderful! We stayed in Cache Valley and had a simple holiday. Christmas Eve we ate Rico Chicken Tamales (bought them frozen at Smith's. Like I said, we went SIMPLE, but delicious!) and fruit kabobs. The girls got pajamas from Santa's doorbell-ditching elves and got to open one present each. Abby's one present was a bigger stuffed tiger to go along with her favorite tiger friend, Richard Parker. Abby opened up the present (from Leah, which we found at a thrift store for $.25) and immediately ran to Richard Parker and made the two tigers look each other in the eyes. We named the new addition to the family Mama Parker.


All night, Leah was SO excited it was finally Christmas and Abby was photographically uncooperative. Here is Leah trying to get her sister to sit up and look at the camera for two seconds!

Abby with Richard and Mama Parker.

I told you, Leah was ON something Christmas Eve. We got a bunch of crazy pictures of her getting ready for bed and going through the whole Christmas Eve routine. Christmas with kids is so much fun!!

Abby, showing off her stocking.

The untouched Santa haul. The girls got a newly remodeled dollhouse which Santa transformed from $3 yard sale find to a home fit for a Fisher Price Loving Family. However, Santa's elves got tired of staying up all night making furniture and such so one room was completely empty and the kitchen table was lacking in chairs. But Leah and Abby were excited about the house anyway. And even MORE excited at the prospect of getting to MAKE furniture with their dad!

Leah and the Loving Family Mansion

The haul. From Santa, the girls received: poptarts, Lucky Charms, Sour Patch Kids, marshmallow ropes, chocolate covered marshmallow santas, wooden puzzles, a half-dozen books, Winnie the Pooh fuzzy posters, coloring books, tights, MORE pajamas, animal crackers, a giant bag of pretzels and more! Oh, and Leah got three huge containers of parmesan cheese, one of her favorite foods. Simple. Just the way we like it!

P.S. That blue thing around Abby's waist is her Swiper tail (like Swiper the fox on Dora). It's a fuzzy blue scarf that she puts on almost every day. Lately it's been a puppy tail or a pikachu tail but it's funny to me how much she likes wearing it and staying in character. Fun kid!