Flake Family Christmas

A group shot of the whole gang. Keep in mind that most of these people stayed in one house, and the rest of us where there during the days.

Ty being contemplative, pondering on the real meaning of life, I'm sure.

Ty and his cousin Maya, they are about 6 weeks apart.

The bonfire tradition with the Flake's. Troy with the blower to make the flames bigger. Not as if they weren't impressive enough.

I love this picture of Austin not cooperating as baby Jesus.

Sumsion Family Christmas

We got our family picture taken this year since everyone was present. I don't know if you can tell but we were all FREEZING, we really should have just worn coats. Before the picture we were all wearing coats and threw them to the side right before it was taken. Everyone was a good sport, and the kids did remarkably well. Melanie Paxton did a great job!

I put together this New Years card for my mom to send out.

Here is our little family. I love Austin in this picture!

The biggest news from Christmas is that my sister, Suzanne, found out that she is having a boy in May! I am overly estatic about having a darling nephew, and for my boys to have a boy cousin on the Sumsion side. A week before Christmas Suzanne went in for her ultrasound to find out the gender of her baby. She had the doctor write it on a card that she opened on Christmas day. I think I was more excited for this than for Christmas!

All of the "Originals" of the Sumsion Family.

Christmas Eve with the Oates. (My mom's side of the fam)

My dad receiving the book I made him on Snapfish. It has pictures of him being a Grandpa to Ty and Austin.

The guys playing basketball on Christmas Day.

It was so much fun to see Aunt Melissa and some of her family!

Aunt Suzy was so cute with Ty. He wouldn't let her move from that spot.

Sam and Bryce (aren't they cute). We loved meeting him for the first time.

Christmas Card 2008

Sorry it is coming out a little bit blurry. You can click on it and enlarge it if you want. I can't figure out how to post a pdf instead of a jpeg. Anyone know? If you still can't read the text I will put it right here:

The Tyler & Shantelle Flake Family Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas! 2008 has been a fun year for us. We wanted to give you a little update on what is going on with our family.

We had a new addition to our family this year; he was born on Valentine’s Day. We resisted the urge to name him Cupid, and settled with Austin Dennis (or Lil’ Pumpkin as Ty calls him). They are a super active pair, which keeps me very busy at home.

We are so blessed to live near both of our parents and two of Tyler’s brothers. We are never short of babysitters with all of the family around, nor are the kids short of attention! Ty is bewildered when people at the grocery store don’t gawk over him singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. Since Ty turned two in August, he is pretty sure he’s got everything figured out. When I compliment him on something he has learned to do, he responds, "I teach you, Mama."

The other day his grandpa showed him a Charles Russell painting of a grizzly bear attacking a cowboy on a horse. The horse was bucking and the cowboy was almost to fall off. When grandpa said, "The cowboy will get hurt when he bangs his head on a rock!" Ty declared, "Then he'll say, 'I want my mommy."

This past year I have enjoyed playing volleyball several times a week. I play any chance I get whether it’s with friends, on a city league team, or in an outdoor tournament. In fact, the city league championship game is what sent me into labor with Austin. In October, I went to Indiana to see my sister, Samantha, play in the National Volleyball tournament for Southern Virginia University, where they placed third! It was especially fun to be with my parents and all three of my sisters.

Tyler is enjoying his job. He keeps busy with school as well. He is getting his MBA and is looking forward to graduation in the spring! He also really enjoys playing football with his cousins, and pick-up basketball.

The past year we have been on a few vacations as a family. One of our favorites was traveling back East with Tyler’s parents. We went to Virginia where they spoke at Southern Virginia University. We also went to Suzanne (my older sister) and Nelson’s new home, and had a lot of fun spending time with them. We spent a few days with Tyler’s sister Melinda in Baltimore, and on our way home we spent a night with Tyler’s brother Read in the Chicago area.

As I’m sure it does for you, the Christmas season heightens our awareness of the many blessings the Lord has blessed us with. We are so grateful for family and friends, and most of all for the gospel of Christ.

Love,
Tyler & Shantelle, Ty & Austin

Lately...

We had such a great Thanksgiving dinner (or more like luncheon, because we always do it early). We had tons of food and fun at my parents house with all the family. I have never had such good turkey. My mom has got it down! Then something I want to make a tradition that we did this year is to go on a walk after the meal. It isn't always nice weather for Thanksgiving, but we lucked out. Then we came back and ate pie. My mom's coconut cream, and Amanda's buttermilk and tollhouse pies were a BIG hit. Yum, Yum!

Ty showing off his new trick, Uncle Grove taught him.

I thought I would post a picture of our Christmas tree. Ty gets so excited about it. Every morning and after his nap, the first thing he wants to do is to see the tree. He was extra excited when we put our first presents under the tree. We will see how long they stay wrapped for. I remember last year it was so hard to keep Ty from pulling the tree down or undecorated it. This year it is Austin. Fortunately the treee hasn't fallen, and we just decorate the top half of the tree.

My dear sweet husband risked his life putting up our Christmas lights. When we moved into our house, the owners had them professionally wired. They said that they were the kind that you can leave up year round because you can't see them. Ha. It was the first thing I noticed when we drove up to see the house. So because I am so picky we have to take them down and put them back up again. Maybe I will take a picture of them sometime.

A couple weeks ago, Ty got invited to his first Bday party. It was for one of his friends in the ward, named Jens Cutler. It was so fun, because I got to go as well. Holly did an incredible job on decorations and planning the party around a theme. She is so dang creative. She did a construction theme. She had plastic yellow hard hats and yellow lunch pails for each of the boys with their name on it. You can see in the pictures the dump truck brownies and little orange cones (made out of ice cream cones, graham crackers, and chocolate frosting, with skittles inside).

A couple days later we went to another party. It was Ty's cousin, Ethan's party. I didn't take many pictures at this party but Amanda did a fantastic job as well. I am always in awe of people's creativity! I have a picture of all the kids with Ethan's awesome birthday cake, a treasure chest! They played one of the best games that I need to do with Ty again at home because he loved it so much. Amanda got 500 pennies and scattered them in the grass. Then all the kids went on a treasure hunt to find them. Whatever "treasures" they find they keep. The kids looked for about 20mins and didn't even get them all. This reminds me of a joke my father-in-law tells. If your kids are driving you nuts, you throw 99 pennies outside and tell them not to come back inside until they find all 100 of them. I will have to try this one when Ty can count higher than 10 and not skip 5 and 6 everytime.

Way too much writing, not enough watching my kids.