New Years

New Years is not my favorite holiday but this year it was actually really great. On New Years Eve, my parents offered to babysit so John and I went out to a movie and dinner. It's been a long time since we went out so it was a lot of fun. We saw, "The Blind Side"--an excellent movie! John only cried a few times. After our date, and getting the kids home and in bed--we did not have them staying up until midnight. In fact, we didn't even try to stay up--we were almost asleep when we started hearing fireworks. It was somehow nice to not get our expectations up of an exciting moment at midnight that never really happens. Instead we just relaxed in our beds and let the last of the old year slip away...
New Years Day was much better this year too. We started off the morning with pancakes and then headed to my parents house for the day. We played some family basketball and then had a small present exchange. My parents surprised me with a food processor--hooray! Then everyone but my mom and me headed to Salt Lake to see "Avatar." An hour later, they were back because my dad accidentally purchased tickets for the day before. Oops. Then we built some huge snowmen, played scattergories, and had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner (we all missed since we were in Canada and they were in Las Vegas) followed by a traditional Christmas Eve program. We're all treasuring these moments together since Lige is leaving in a week and a half to go on his mission.
Here are some pics from the New Year holiday:

Auntie Ju having a snuggle with baby Isaac.

Lucy having a snuggle with Uncle Lige (she has a crush).

The biggest snowman and snowwoman ever built in the Hess backyard!! Jake was the mastermind--he is always so good to come up with fun activities for the girls.

Consquently--they LOVE Uncle Jake!

Hard to see--but this is the play kitchen that the girls got from Grandma and Papa for Christmas and birthdays. They LOVE it and we love it because it occupies them for large amounts of time!

Even my 94 year-old Grandpa Hess participated in the program. He is amazing!

The sleighride piano duet (Me and Julia), accompanied by Dan on the sax and my Dad on the belt is always the show stopper--mostly because we're laughing so hard due to how atrocious we sound. At least we improved a little this year.