A Winter's Wish

Better late than never(not really, just making myself feel better). A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Umbrell Family. Now, if we could only get some that Bear Lake snow down here my kids would be thrilled! Here are some highlights of the Umbrell 2011 year.






We moved! Again-seems every update has us moving. Well, we left our rental and found a spot to stick around for a good long time. It's just down the hill from our old spot, in Uintah. We love this little town nestled against the mountains. The good people welcomed us right in.












I(Emy-in case you were thinking Craig blogs hehe) grew my hair out! This may not seem like much to you but after 13 years of short hair I was thrilled with the change!






Craig discovered "Frogger" at Fat Cats. Insert big smiley face here. We love Fat Cats for birthdays at this house and Craig has found a way to make them extra special. Whenever he needs to take a break from work he and one or two other little boys(I mean guys) from work walk across the street to play a little Frogger. These office boys team up to "calculate" just the right timing to get as many tickets as possible.






Here he is after a good day at the "office". These additional tickets are then given to the next birthday person to add to their winnings. The kids love to watch the stream of tickets going into the counting machine. It's great birthday fun(and handfuls of cheap junky winnings) that keeps us returning.






My old flip phone broke and after two weeks of searching for the perfect clunky phone, I had to eat my words "I will never have an iPhone". And so began our collection of random, silly self pictures. Apple has a new fan!






My date for the big midnight opening of "Harry Potter". Don't you just love those cheeks! I love this boy! In a house full of estrogen, Spence is growing dearer to my heart with each passing roller coaster of emotions that fly around this place sometimes.













Kate and her summer of duct tape projects and cooking experiments. Rings, water bottle coverings, pens, bookmarks and bags of all sizes were made. Such a creative girl! And next time she makes cupcakes from scratch she is going to remember to use granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar. But we loved our dense as rocks, little bites of goodness.

Someone turned eight this year! Yessss!!! for friends birthday party, scouts, shopping for his first suit and getting baptized. Such a handsome young man. Spencer loves scouts! His baptism day was so nice. Good job on making good choices Spence.






Who would guess just seconds before(and after) this picture was taken they were arguing and not getting along. Loved the broom theme we had goin on this Halloween!























And....the announcement of a new Baby at the Umbrell house..................






Ok, not the sweet, soft sort of baby. But it still makes beautiful noises!






Craig is not an impulse buyer-ever!!! Which makes this story so much better!






We attended a Scout Charity auction this Holiday season. This lovely Baby Grand was up for grabs to the lowest bidder. Kaedell and I were up admiring this beauty and guessing the price it would normally sell for, thousands more than what we would ever pay for a piano. After dinner the live auction began. A very low starting bid was named and not a single bid was made for this piano, at a quarter of the cost! The announcer then said this item would not be sold and he would move to the next item. At that moment Craig raised his hand and said hold on. No contending bids were made and within seconds, the piano was ours! I was shocked and bouncing up and down I was so excited! It was delivered a few days later with the Piano Gallery employees saying "I can't even get a piano for the price you got it".












I played it and cried. My favorite Sunday pass time is playing church songs and putting my heart and soul into them, for the Lord "delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me". I was overcome with gratitude that we had been blessed with such a beautiful instrument that would bring music a little sweeter into our home.






Thank you my dearest Hubby! Thank you a thousand times over and over!






So welcome 2012! I look forward with a grateful heart to whatever comes our way!