The Despain Review

The day after Christmas our family enjoyed the "cinemark theater" gift certificate that was given to us to see "Bedtime Stories". What a cute movie. We all enjoyed it and can't wait to buy it when it comes out on DVD. We got home in just enough time to have Uncle Travis, Aunt Betsy and the kids arrive at our home. We enjoyed the evening with them eating more food, playing games, and watching movies. The adults enjoyed staying up until 2:30 in the morning talking..... but were reminded the next morning that we're not as young as we use to be! The kids don't wait for Mom & Dad's to wake up.......we roll on their schedule! :-)
Since we had received so much snow the Dad's took all the kids, (plus a friend), but (minus the baby) sledding at a nearby hill. They were gone several hours. The kids had a great time. When arriving home.....we made soup, and hot chocolate for all of them to warm their tummies! Then the next activity of playing and jumping at "jump on it" came soon after. We had a great time with Trav's family and all the many hours we got to spend with them.

Santa Claus came!!!!!
It was a relaxing day......full of presents, food, food, food & food! :-)
We anticipated the arrival of Uncle Travis & family but unfortunately they got snowed in and arrived one day late! I will post more pics of our fun adventures with Aunt Betsy, Uncle Travis & cousins!

This year we decided it would be easier to stay home than to travel away to Grandma & Grandpa's house for Christmas. Even though it was a quiet day and evening it was an amazing day!
We wanted to spend the day as a family, doing a service for someone else. Our family always looks at Christmas time not only as a time to reflect on our Savior's birth, lots of food, time with family & friends & Santa's visit, but we look for a way to help those in need. Each year we do something different. This year we had given food to the food bank earlier in the Season, but time passed us by and we realized that our family had done nothing for someone else.
Darrick and I called the kids into the family room early Christmas Eve morn to discuss what we could do! We had lots of ideas, but nothing was coming together...so we decided to say a prayer and ask for help!
We were amazed when the kids went into their rooms and grabbed their own personal money to donate towards "the service" we were hoping to provide.
After driving around and running errands......we stopped by our local "community action" and asked what needs they had at this time. We decided we would buy lots of diapers, wipes, formula & baby soaps for the babies who's families have fallen on hard times. We headed to Sams Club....loaded up on these items and headed to the register with the money we had in cash. When all was totaled up.....we had $.08 to spare. The kids were excited and we all felt better and happier by "Giving" a gift to a stranger for Christmas. We headed home, cooked a great dinner, read the story of Christ's birth out of the Bible, opened our 1 present (pajama's of course), sang Christmas Carols and ended the eveing by watching Scrooge! We couldn't have asked for a better day! Well.....we wish we could have had more family around to share the fun with. :-)

Shay wanted to get 10 of his friends together and play a football game down at the school's field for his birthday party. Fine by me. The whole party consisted of opening presents...eating cupcakes....driving down to the school.....watching them play.....and taking everyone home. A party a Mom loves to put on! :-)

We let the kids pick where they want to eat for their b-days and Shay picked Panda Express. We even give them the option of going to Outback Steakhouse......but no....it was Panda Express tonight, and not only Panda Express, but Panda Express at the Mall's Eating Center. I had to get a picture of our fine dining!


Here is the cake to go along with the theme of the birthday party.

Happy Birthday Shay! We are so glad that you came into our family 10 years ago. You caused a great scare when you decided you would try and come into the world when I was only 7 months prenant, but by the time you arrived and with the great help of life flight and great doctors and nurses....you are still here with us. You are a great kid with a big heart. You definitely entertain us with your talents in skateboarding, rollerblading, bike riding, and scootering. Our heart skips a beat when you fly off your jumps and we're thankful that no big injuries have happened so far. We have seen you succeed in all you do and we are proud of you! We love you and hope you had a great b-day!

This is my gingerbread house. It reminds me of a Grandma's Gingerbread house. I love the Old Fashioned candy used for the roof. It reminded me of the candy I use to eat at my grandma's and great grandma's house.

This one is Naomi's. She finally decided on a flat roof since her graham crackers kept falling.

Naomi hates when I take pictures of her.....especially when her hair is wet and undone! She's a cutie anyways.

Shay's gingerbread house collapsed but he was okay with that and Nate decided at the last minute that he didn't want to do one. He helped me out in the end with mine.

We had a very busy Sat.
Sat. morning we got ready for Steve's Baptism. I have never been to a baptism where someone was being rebaptized. It was amazing....the Spirit was so strong and of course we love Steve. We were all so happy for him on this special day! We know that he has gone thru a lot and we welcome him back! Yeah!!!!!
After the baptism...Brenda and Steve had us back to their place for a luncheon. We had to hurry and feed the kids, feed ourselves, pick up Grandma Bufton, change clothes and get Naomi ready in hair, make-up, costume, etc while we headed up North to the Festival of Trees. Naomi and her dance team performed their Christmas dances and Naomi was able to dance. Yeah! WE are glad she is feeling lots better and able to perform once again. Her team and the other teams did great.
We walked around and looked at all the trees that are donated for this occasion. If you don't know what the festival of trees is.........it's a chritmas favorite around here. People donate trees that are decorated, gifts, wreaths, gingerbread houses, etc for display. People then buy these trees and all donations go to the Primary Children's Hospital here in SLC. All proceeds (entry fee, donations, food) go to the hospital. It is an awesome sight and the building is huge and full of all these amazing trees usually dedicated to a loved one who has died of cancer or has been a patient of Primary Children's. It is emotional as you walk around and see pictures displayed of those who have passed away. It is also amazing to see how many trees have been sold and how many times you see the same family name that has purchased these trees. I love Christmas and the Spirit that comes out in everyone during this time of year.
We then met Darrick's family at a restaurant in SLC for dinner. We had a great dinner and were planning on heading to Temple Square to see the lights when we found out that Darrick's brother's van had been broken into. They broke the passenger front window, stole my sister in laws purse and cell phone, their daughters coat and a brand new can of formula. There is nothing that upsets me more than people stealing from others. After cleaning up the glass from inside and outside of the van and taping platic in the window...we decided to call it a night and headed home. Sorry guys!
Sun. night we had several of Darrick's cousins over for Soup and Hot Rolls. It was fun to see them and visit with them.
Today I am watching it snow outside. Luckily it's not sticking to the ground, but I can say without a doubt....I am not ready for snow. We have had such beautiful weather and I was hoping it would last.
There's our weekend in a nutshell!

Here are a few more pics of our Thanksgiving morning fishing trip. I would be doing an unjustice by not commenting on R.D.'s PINK hat. I let it slide both days that we went fishing, but I just can't take it anymore. It's a good thing he is the Master Fisherman that he is because most men can't get away with that look. Spencer was completely unwilling to take his shirt off. R.D. was trying to get us to take a picture holding our fish with our shirts off.....I didn't feel it was appropriate. Spencer was all for it.....he was just scared the pictures would get loose on the internet. He was afraid of the constant ringing of his telephone from Modeling Agencies! I can relate. Thanks for a great time guys!!!!

Darrick started his Thanksgiving Holiday a little early with some buddies Wed & Thurs. morning by meeting up with them and fishing for Browns & Rainbow trout. They had a lot of fun.
After Darrick returned home on Thurs. morning we packed up the food that we were in charge of, the drinks, the luggage and kids and headed North to Darrick's brothers house for Thanksgiving. We had a great time with family. Travis and Betsy were great hosts and had lots of fun activities planned. The weather was beautiful and the kids had fun playing with their cousins. I had my camera but not the battery so I didn't get any Thanksgiving dinner pics. We did get a few later on but I will post them later.
We played frisby golf, hide and seek in the woods, football, etc. We played games at the house, ate lots of food and attended the Christmas Light Parade. Most of Darrick's family was there and it was really good to see all of them again!