Christmas Vacation...Denning Style

We hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!
You can't put a price on having family home for the holidays... We had so much fun with our kids, our grand kids and just being kids ourselves. Despite the fact we adults caught the stomach flu a few days before Christmas and spent a few of our precious days together sharing a bed while we listening to each other wretch with illness...we did get in some sledding, seeing lights, going to family parties and watching movies and playing games. Here are a few fun Kodak moments we decided to share.

Joe and I took Mason sledding while Zach and Sara went on an all day date....

Bucca's turn....Then Munga's

Then....Zach and Sara decided they'd go one run before they left on the 'date'

Weeeee...Again, Again....

Sara and Mason trying to beat Rawley down the hill

CHRISTMAS DAY

Mason and Carter ripping into the gifts

(Zach, Sara, Mason and Carter)
Coming up the Stairs to see what Santa brought...

YES!!! I got the mermaid I asked for....

(uh, yes...he did want a mermaid along with his robot)

Carter had as much fun with the boxes as the toys, but was all smiles

RANDOM PICS

Bucca showing Carter how fun it is to exercise on the treadmill

Carter sampling the cookies we left out for Santa

He loved them...and he has NO teeth, but found out that he

can gum them just fine.

Mason showing how excited he was for Santa to come

"CHEESE"

Mason couldn't resist PresLee and kept kissing her

"Kissin' Cousins"

Christmas Magic Begins With Kids!!! (Grandkids That Is)

Isn't Christmas magical because of little children? We think so, especially this year when we are missing those we no longer have. It has been a joy to have our 3 little grand children's faces to keep us smiling, laughing and of course keep us picking up after them, chasing them and just enjoying the chaos that little kids also bring to a home. KayCee came down to spend a few days while Zach and Sara are here for the Christmas holidays and it was awesome to have the family together if even for a short while. We had so much fun playing games, eating, eating, and eating...oh and going to temple square to see the lights, shopping, going to family parties and just letting the kids get acquainted.

I am sure we will have ton's of cute pics to post for Christmas too, but we couldn't resist this post since we are so proud of the next Denning generation. To think that 31 years ago yesterday (December 20th) we walked down the aisle and now we have grandkids! It's like the sign says..."All Because Two People Fell In Love"....

Carter, PresLee and Mason

Our temple square outing...All bundled up but still freezing!



Hanging in the kitchen with the kiddies...
They love their Bucca and Munga~
(And...surprise!!! We LOVE them to pieces!)


Yup, some of the chaos while visiting with the
great grandparents
Judeen, Stephanie, PresLee, Mason, and Zach (Sara in front)

Joe (Bucca) had PresLee wrapped around his finger...

Or is it the other way around?

Sharing Munga and it was fun to get a pic

of everyone on my lap

Yeah, even if Carter pulled PresLee's hair

and Mason was tickling her

Cousin' Bath Time

(bet they hate this pic in 20 years!)

Cherish The Family... Some Times They Are Here Today, and Gone Tomorrow

Just a week goes by and the next thing you know you've lived through another historical event in your own life. Saying good-bye to yet another precious family member. Gathering together with the loved ones you have here and remembering the ones that were just here last year. Our family has certainly had it's fair share of emotion in 2009, yet...we are thankful for all that we do have, and most especially for the strength that we didn't know we had inside of us to keep going. We love our family so much, those that are here, those that have left us to live in heaven and those that we wish we could see more often because of the miles between us.
This week was a bit chaotic, we lost Grandma, had the funeral the day before Thanksgiving, had Thanksgiving, went to the Black Friday sales, and had a game party at our house for the

Here are few candid family moments this past week. Not necessarily in order...but they depict some of the history we lived this last week.

Saying "Good-Bye" to Grandma Carma Helmcamp. Stephanie's Grandma by blood, and Joe's by chance. She was a wonderful lady and will be missed!!

December 3, 1920-November 22, 2009.

reunited again with Gene

Rawley, our Standard Poodle is back to his "Normal Self" after his conquering the taste test with Rat Poison. Luckily the dog won, with the help of our vet... (to the tune of $2100 I may add) Being weird and silly after our Thanksgiving Dinner we enjoyed at Grand America this year.
We opted to break tradition in lieu of emotions not having Josh, Dean and Grandma this year.

Ashley's hair is so long, it kept tickling my face, so I decided to make that hair
useful and see what I'd look like as a man. LOL. Not so cute.



My brother Darren making some fun of his own, by showing off his talents lifting his eyebrows...Dr. Spock? Or perhaps he inherited the talent from Grandma Carma? She used to do that when she was mad at ya. lol. Watch our Darcie and Ben....Dad has that look!

Joe and Ashley letting the food settle. The food was awesome at 'Grand America' I must say!

Stephanie and Ashley...Hmmmm? I guess we do look more alike than I realized

Our cute little family now that Ashley's brothers are on their own. Just leaves her to hang with her Mom and Dad...But, what a cute Kodak moment this was!

Bill and Judeen Hughes (Steph's parents) on Thanksgiving.

It was a fun family day even if the price of dinner was much higher than McDonald's. LOL.

Awwww... Isn't that the cutest couple ever?

(Stephanie and Patrick Swayze, oops I mean Joe)

A look at the dining table we had reserved. There was Bill, Judeen, Emma, Ashley, Ellie, Samantha, Matt and Colin in this pic.

(We had Mom, Dad, Matt's Family, Darren's Family and Joe, Steph and Ashley at dinner)

This is our "Neener Neener" face that we got to go to Maddox and you didn't!

A little sister comparison eating our chocolate covered mint sticks at Maddox

(Steph)

And....Andrea (my sis) Crazy how much we look alike now!! LOL.

All Stephanie's siblings together! And....dressed up!

in order of appearance and birth order-

Stephanie, Matt, Jason, Darren, Andrea & Adam

Pleasant Surprise Visit

This is the time of year we all ponder our blessings, and this weekend we had a surprise blessing that we were so very thankful for....KayCee and PresLee drove to Utah and spent the day with us! We haven't seen our beautiful grand-daughter much since Josh's passing, and we have been missing them so much. KayCee decided on a whim to drive to Utah and visit, and we can't begin to express how thankful we are for her coming to visit and for taking the time to drive down. Thank You so much KayCee, for making our weekend, and for making our Thanksgiving so much more thankful this year with the sweet, precious memories of PresLee's laughter and smiles. We love you and can't wait to see you both again.

Here are some of the fun pic's we were able to capture and a few videos too.... ENJOY!

Wow, what a big dog you have....

Hi Rawley...Are you going to eat me?


Bucca and PresLee

Mmmmm..Marshmellows!

Mmmmm....Ice Cream...

(She couldn't wait for the next bite, Bucca was a little naughty to give her so much sugar)

She loves ice-cream however

Ashley and PresLee hanging out

Playing a game with Munga and Bucca

Giggles with Ashley

A sweet princess with her "Munga"

Games, and laughs, and more laughs

Bucca playing a silly game (see video below for full experience)

PresLee was facinated with the dog too...

PresLee sharing a taste of her marshmellow with Ashley




Silly games, but lot's of laughs (a must see)

More giggles with Munga

Happy Birthday Joe! ( 49'r)

Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet hubby...

49 years young!

You have made me very happy for almost 31 of those 49 years and I hope you have a wonderful birthday. To help celebrate, I thought it might be fun to learn some fun facts you may not know about Joe. (Couldn't resist a little bit of a roast...hee hee)

Joe is the 7th of 9 children-

Michael, Marc, Diane, Linda, Wayne, Richard, JOE, David, Scott

Joe loves to watch UFC fighting (PS the fights are not cheap to watch either)

Joe LOVES chocolate treats...(brownies, reisens candy & dark chocolate)

Joe LOVES his grandchildren, his dog, his children and wife....I think in that order too...lol

Joe can fix and build about anything! If not, he has a great way of geri-riggin' it until it works again..Ü (This is Joe putting in Karen's wood floor, but there wasn't geri-riggin' here, he is such a perfectionist and does a fabulous job whatever the project may be) Um...I am making a list of a few new projects for ya sweetie...HA

Joe looks a lot like Patrick Swayze. He still has those hot looks going for him~

Amazing resemblence don't you think?




This is the real Joe Denning...lol

Joe has run 5 marathons!

Joe rarely gets sick, if he does we tend to have a party to celebrate that he is human..lol.

He has had a bad virus this past week....so yes, we are having a party! Luckily it coincides with his birthday, so I only have to bake one cake...hee hee (Poor Guy, he is miserable)

November Already?

Here it is, already November and we are saying good-bye to the warm weather (um yeah, we've already had snow), the shorts and the long days of sunlight (hate that it gets dark before 5pm!). I can't say I am too excited for the snow to fly, but it is that time of year so I'm sucking it up. Not much to post lately since Joe and I have been apart so much the last several weeks. I am feeling like I live alone lately...lol. Joe has had to travel a ton for work, and will be until December. Ashley works a lot and goes to school, or has a social calendar event to attend. Ugh. So, the dog and I are on our own mostly. And, I can't say that is my most exciting thing to look forward to, sorry honey...you're the dog person, not me.

WE MISS YOU JOE and look forward to seeing you again soon! Thought I'd post a pic incase you forgot what we look like! Yeah, um I'm the one on the left incase you forgot. wink...