Russell Family Reunion

My Grammy turned 85 in February and so we decided that was a great reason to

P-A-R-T-Y!

Uncle Cliff, Mom, Grammy, Uncle Terry

I love 'generation' pictures.

~GRANDKIDS NOW~

L to R Back row: Kurt, Brett, Kara, Cory, Jason, Kyle, Leah, Joel, Scott, Brad, Chris

L to R Front row: Trisha, Amy Erin

GRANDKIDS THEN

(1984ish. Kurt & Brett weren't even born yet!)

L to R: Laurel, Amy, Kara, Scott, Erin, Kyle, Chris, Brad, Leah, Jason, Trisha, Joel, Cory

~GREAT GRANDKIDS~

Family came from across the country to celebrate with us. It was a blast!!! We haven't all been together like this since the Christmas of '89, I think. (That's the year Gram got each family a Nintendo for Christmas! Which was the greatest present ever!) Let's just say there was a lot of food, laughing, noise, arm wrestling, basketball, picture taking, talking, chaos...and very little sleep.

I just added this picture because I can!

Media Fast

Every year our ward does a Media Fast in preparation for April General Conference. For us, a Media Fast is where we turn off the electronics and spend more time as a family. That means no TV, video games, blogs, internet surfing...anything that is just basically a waste of time. We still check email and occasionally check the news but other than that we try to be technology free. Monday is usually the hardest day for everyone but by Friday we are all usually surprised that we did, in fact, survive a week without movies, Wii, DS's & Disney Channel. Here are some of the fun things we did.

Parker & I made playdoh and played several rounds of Memory. I also got him set up outside with some wood, nails & a hammer. What boy wouldn't love that? We played soccer, read books, cleaned bedrooms, organized closets, canned chicken & potatoes, went for walks...

We played outside A LOT

We made personal pizza's on the grill. It was so fun and the kids loved it. Not to mention they were DELICIOUS!

I love that our ward does this and am so glad we only do it once a year :-) It's a much needed wake up call to how much time I spend doing things that really don't matter. When I take those distractions away, I do so much better at accomplishing the things that are really important.