Afghanistan for the Holidays

Wow, does he look amazing or what!

Ok, so the holidays in Afghanistan actually mean pretty much the same thing as any other day in Afghanistan. Time to work and do what needs to be done. Paul is really having an amazing adventure and is keeping busy.


These pictures are just a few from a mission he went on in November. This stuff all scares me a little, but I think he loves it. We are so proud of Paul for his hard work and the many sacrifices he makes for us.

December-2009

Yes, I am still catching up from the holidays....

Emily, Noah and Lucy decided to sing in the Swiss Christmas choir this year. They sang at the creche and at Swiss Christmas. How cute are they?

Lots of friends joined the fun, Madison and Melissa Fellows, Elle and Kennedy Dalsing, Macy Risto, and Savanah Ralph. My children are blessed to have wonderful friends.

Decorating for the Holidays. I was very proud of myself and Jack for getting that ginormous tree put up without Paul here. Noah thought he was pretty cool going up on the ladder. Yikes!

Jack and Emily got a little money-making job for their holiday break. They made 400+ bratzlies for a wedding reception. I was a little worried that it might become overwhelming, but it actually went really well. I helped with the dough and they sat there chatting, teasing, and watching some of the Christmas classics on TV while they worked (like Christmas Story, and the Year Without A Santa Claus). We love that Heat Miser!

Some more must do traditions at the Colton home in December: cookie decorating and reading Christmas books and stories. Just put on warm, snuggly jammies and cuddle up with a blanket or even sit on the heater vent (as we are always doing this month). Just trying to stay warm any way we can!

Snow Time

Early December means kids who are very excited for the snow to come. They can't get enough of it. I remember those good old days when I could play out there for hours and never feel cold. Now I am much more of a baby. I do go play in it with the kids, but I wimp out after about 45 minutes.






Lucy, Zoe, and
Caitlin


































Playing in the snow has become a tradition at the Rasband family Christmas party every year. It includes sledding down Memorial Hill, riding around the house being pulled by the 4 wheeler as well as with a few random snowball fights and frozen toes.

Playing with the neighborhood gang for hours in the back yard. Who can build the biggest snowman is always the first question.

Holiday Festivities

Ok, time to play catch up. Let's start with Thanksgiving, 2009. We had a pretty calm one compared to most years. With Paul gone, we just felt like staying home and stuff. My parents and Kevin came over. So it was nice but pretty quiet. Kevin brought over a cool remot-control contraption he had made and we had fun playing with that. A highlight of the day was of course the tradition of making our gingerbread houses that evening.

They made some pretty fine houses. It was a fun weekend.Jack and Em had a sleep over with Jeremy and Lucy had one with Zoe and Caitlin and then the Martins visited from Las Vegas so it was a fun weekend.

Early December; time to get excited for Christmas. A classic, visiting Temple Square to see the lights. We met up with Grandma and Silvi, Wendy and Wil, Jaci and Tanner. It was lovely as always and we went to Crown Burger after. YUM!

Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween! It is the spookiest night of the year!

Two scary vampires.

Obi wan is ready for action. Maybe he will protect us from the many vampires lurking in our neighborhood tonight!

It is called candy corn pizza. Get it? Kind of hard to tell in the picture. It did look like candy corn. I thought it was a cute idea plus the kids love pizza, so how could we go wrong? Yummy dinner to start the halloween festivities.

Carving pumpkins-- October 09

Carving pumpkins is one of our favorite fall activites. The exciting thing this year was that we were carving pumpkins that we grew ourselves. We found out that fresh pumpkins are much easier to carve too! They turned out great. We also put on the great halloween music Paul sent the kids and danced while carving. Note: we don't recommend dancing with sharp knives in your hands of course, but it sure was fun!

Jack fondly named his little pumpkin "peanut" .

I think he was all of our favorites.

Yikes, I just noticed a ghost behind the blinds... spooky huh? Who could it be?

Our favorite army man

Since our favorite soldier has not been able to put these up himself (the internet isn't so reliable in the middle of a war I guess) we chose a few of our favorites that he has sent us and hope to be getting more soon. This last one is the place where he calls home for the next year. We are so proud of him and are thankful for his sacrifice. While we sleep in our comfy beds, he has given up many of life's modern conveniences. He is tougher than us! We love you Dad!