Winter days

Well we are working our way into the new year. It is still a very white year and I expect it to be for awhile. This is a blessing and a curse. We love the water but now know where the "hot" or "cold" spots are in our house. The front porch seems to have a magnet for the water run off and the steps and walkway dont get warm enough to keep the water warm thus we have a block of ice at our front steps. I guess next year we will get our heat tape on better. Not just thrown up there-yes literally thrown up there.

Our family activities have slowed down as far as traveling goes. But the other activities have started up again. Basketball is in full swing. Patrick seems to be doing really well inspite of his feet. Hopefully soon he will grow into them but not too soon. He made 4 points out of the 14 the first game he played. Ireland is definately one of the tallest on her team. She is also pretty fast and alert when she is watching the ball getting thrown around so fast. She has the luxery of Dad as her coach again. It is fun to watch them figure things out. Liam started his last night. He towered over most of the kids and did better than most. I am sure we are not bias at all. But his is more of a learning year. Hopefully, this will decide if he even likes basketball as most of the other sports have been weaned out. *Whew*I think next year he would rather take piano and guitar. He has the gift as the other two do.

Benjamin is still very much an active homebody. He would rather be home then anywhere. I can appreciate that. Today we will be working on making special cards for our family and friends. Its our little secret. Then tomorrow we will work on a few decorations to stash on windows and doors. Really he is working on his scissor skills. He dosent know that though. All he knows is he has to write his name 3 times as well as "Mom" and "Dad". Oh and "K" seems to be a hard letter.

Shea is still not talking and still has no need to. She understands everything and will do most everything you ask. She is entering into her 2's and we are feeling it. She comes to us with a new diaper when she . . .well you know. I think in a month or two we will give potty training a try. I am so glad girls learn faster then boys.

Thats mostly it. Sean and I are just doing the family thing. We enjoy when family comes to visit. We enjoy sitting on the computers at night playing Settlers of Catan and he usually is rubbing my feet. I really enjoy that. I think the only thing we dont enjoy is the dishes we have to do every night. I think I shall never buy an appliance off of ksl again. So at tax time we will finally have the dishwasher we thought we had.

Merry Christmas.

After almost 13 years we finally stayed home for a Christmas Holiday. We did miss seeing family for the day but we also equally loved watching the kids get to play with their new toys. I think we were happy with the path we took when we got more family gifts and less "stuff" for the kids. Yea we are just buying entertainment but I think we did pretty good. It was also nice to pay cash for everything.

The kids got plasma cars. What are those? I dont really know except they go on their own and they just go-Not sure how but hey- cheap fast and easy. They also got the Sunday clothes and socks. They were happy about those-well they said they were. Sean and I took them up to the hill behind the school. It was small enough that Patrick could try out his new snowboard and the others to burn off energy. It was fun and the kids came back ready for a big dinner. Thank goodness I started it before we left. It was a big one! That finished off the kids and they all kinda trickled into their area and did their thing. It was a great day.

So-Sean and I are walking through walmart getting some of the last of the things-Yes Walmart-that is ALL we have in this little town. So, anyway, I am getting ready for a game night with friends and looking at the chocolate for the chocolate fountain we are setting up for that night and a guy comes walking up. About 25 and very G-Q. Very much like my little brother. He gets so close to me I start backing up and he tells me "I have had a good year this year with my business. Use this or I am sure you know someone who would need this. But if you need it you use it. Merry Christmas" and walks off. He just put a $100 bill in my cart on my jacket. Like the highly intelligent person I am I just stood there staring-

By the time I got myself together he was gone. So I stood. . .and stood. I heard a woman say thank you around the isle-I went over there as he said " you dont need to thank me" to another person and I hugged him.

Talk about Christmas Spirit-

Its paying it forward and I was on both ends of the spectrum. It was weird and very cool at the same time.

Last night the snow started. It was fun...to watch...up close...as we were putting up lights...still. So we finished the lights and spent the night settling down. Getting things done for the house to look like we are actually moved in. We all spent some time at a drug prevention night at the high school. It was alot of fun and I do think that the message came across to all of the kids. Then there was Pizza and kids singing-Patrick opted out thinking that the song sounded like a girls song. ok-I get that.


We are excited for the holidays. We are really hunkering down and spending time with the kids. We are seeing that at only 11 Patrick is closer to leaving us then staying. That scares us a little.

Sean and I also got to see Glenn Beck thanks to a little sister! She talked with a guy doing interviews and by the time they were done I think he had to leave the interview line because he had no tickets left. She milked him out of not 2 but 8 tickets for all of us to go to his "Christmas Sweater" show. We tried to wait for him but he took too long and after a while you just gotta teach those celebrities a lesson in manners. Ha Ha!!! I left feeling like Christmas could come and I was ready. I felt the spirit and I felt a great amount of love for my family. It was a great boost for our Christmas holiday cheer. I am so glad for this time of year and so glad for the feelings that come along. Being in the great mood we were in I guess we were being challenged. About the time we hit Thistle -1 in the morning-we saw two college kids walking clumsily along the road. They had swerved to miss hitting a deer and rolled off of the side of the mountain. It is a serious drop. Good thing we had 2 cars and switching kids around made it so we could take these guys to the local hospital. We dropped our kids off and I went with them to the hospital. They were pretty out of it so I just talked to them hoping that their shock would wear off soon. It did and by the time we got there they could carry on a conversation. About 3 :30 am Sean and I hit the sack for a quick nap before church. It was a good day-everyone was safe!

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

I am so glad that today is today. It was a good day. It was a good Family Home Evening night and we were able to spend some time with the kids. The fire is going and the Christmas lights are on. All the lights but the tree lights. Maybe tomorrow I can pull things together to get those up. Sean is about tired of all the of the lists of things that need to still be done. I hope after the holidays we will be able to get on the list that will make the list go down. Does that make sense?

We are in that place now that says-come in to this house and relax. Smell that Christmas smell? I don't feel like its ours yet but maybe after the first house payment we will get a better idea of the obligation we have to the house because it has fulfilled its end of the bargain. It is serving its purpose-right now.

More pictures as I reminisce-

I am so glad that today is today. It was a good day. It was a good Family Home Evening night and we were able to spend some time with the kids. The fire is going and the Christmas lights are on. All the lights but the tree lights. Maybe tomorrow I can pull things together to get those up. Sean is about tired of all the of the lists of things that need to still be done. I hope after the holidays we will be able to get on the list that will make the list go down. Does that make sense?

We are in that place now that says-come in to this house and relax. Smell that Christmas smell? I don't feel like its ours yet but maybe after the first house payment we will get a better idea of the obligation we have to the house because it has fulfilled its end of the bargain. It is serving its purpose-right now.

More pictures as I reminisce-

On the 16th of November Sean and I headed out for our 4th cruise. It was a very relaxing cruise this time and we slept alot! Our boat left out of Ft. Lauderdale Florida. We cruised Sunday evening and all of Monday. Tuesday, after being stood up by our guy, we managed to score a similar excursion to snorkel. Well we snorkeled and the rest of our group scuba dived. Sean and I had big fun watching all of the fish come out of hiding. We shopped a little and then boarded the boat for Honduras. Wednesday, after breaking down and getting a new car, we went cave tubing with a wonderful guide and actually jumped off a little cliff into the fresh spring water. Sean and Jeff had lots of little fish eating their fish hairs and Sean managed to offend the other couple with us. Ole' well you win some and you lose some. The jungle was sooo green and so full of "what ifs?" What if we lived here? What if we came and just walked through the jungle for a few weeks? What if we brought the kids back to visit? What if we. . .??? Yea we had alot of those. It was just a fun place to see and such a different life style then we are used to that it made us imagine.
In Cozumel we had massages on the beach. We ate lunch right there and watched every one playing in the water. Then we found out we were short money!!! We needed $15 to get back to the boat and we only had $11. So thanks to the other American couple we were able to get back to the boat. They will be getting some Utah candy soon. After running all around we got to the ATV excursion and they told us because we didn't have a drivers license we couldn't go. Crap-I was ticked. So we walked the 3+ miles back to the boat and did some shopping and we saw some monkeys. They were so cute.

I must say seeing another ones culture is really eye opening. There were young girls riding bikes down a very busy road with a baby on their hip. Or if you were lucky you were on a scooter with the baby on your hip. There were no real road rules or speed limits and the roads there were almost big enough for two cars to pass. We noticed that there was alot of cinder block used to build everything. It because of the hurricanes and the amount of termites. It was fun to be on the boat and see the missionaries walk by on land-we waved and yelled. But to see the gospel spread was a little moving. We realized how small we can be in that big ocean and how rich we are having so much in our lives. Made us a couple of grateful parents.



Over all we had fun. We relaxed and we enjoyed each others company doing lots of walking together and lots of laughing. Now we are ready for a quiet Christmas together with the kids and the snow in our new home.

So quiet

Today we had a much quieter day. The laundry is done *shivering glitter* and the kids are all clean and in bed. It seems that those two simultaneously is almost impossible. I know I have tried alot. Anyway, I am sitting here watching my sweet husband fold the last of our laundry, until tomorrow when everyone has new dirt to add to the washer, and finding him more and more manly.

We are slowly getting excited, dare I say, to get on the boat. Maybe, that is because we know what is waiting. . .we got an upgrade to a mini suite. I think we will suffer through this brilliantly. We will miss the kids the whole time we are gone. I just hope they notice we are gone.

The kids are ready for us to go I think. Not just to get rid of us but to have a sort of vacation. Patrick asked tonight why I was making a schedule for Aunt Rachael and I responded with "So she knows how to boss you around and you can feel like I am home. . . just in Aunt Rachael's body" He then asked if this was a mandatory schedule and I said "no" just an outline of what I do on a daily bases and she can do it if she wanted or not. It was up to her. The biggest grin came across his face and I could instantly see the wheels turning in his little noggin. I am a little worried about Aunt Rachael. I think we are going to brief her a little more then originally thought.

Ireland was playing with Shea and after many weeks of not responding, mimicking, talking, giving kisses, playing around or talking **did I mention that??? Humm***she did "the chicken". Yes she pulled her arms up like Ireland and did "The Chicken" It was SO cool. So, we decided at family prayer we would all watch the baby do a trick. "The Chicken"- Yea, I guess in all of our excitement we forgot that babies don't do anything on command. Today was no different. But it was great to watch everyone cluck around like a chicken. That is what I should of gotten on video.

So, we will have more pictures of exotic places next week. Until then enjoy the cold and we will enjoy the warmth for all of you.

Yesterday it rained a little. Then we woke to a winter wonderland. Its amazing that everything can be nice all year and when it snows it seems like a renewed spirit has been added to the earth and it is a more beautiful place. It feels like a renewal of things. I love when it snows.

The kids are adjusting to the new house really well. They are muddling around now and that is nice. It is nice to be at home with them. Life seems to be getting back to normal and I am enjoying the things I used to do again. Its funny that when you are so wrapped up in building a house that the enjoyment of other things can be lost. But we are back. I think we will settle down for our long winter now and just take a break from all of the chaos. Yea-

Baptism

Liam was baptized on November 1-as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints-and that was cool!!!
It was pretty calming to watch him be baptized. When Patrick and Ireland were baptized I was nervous. This time it was great. I think that goes with the "Broken in" mom thing I have going on. Thanks again Jeff for these pictures-you should work for JcPenny!!!

Can any of you find Ben. Look at the picture of Sean Shauna and Liam-you will find Benjamin too.