Christmas Month

December was eventful as usual. I always look forward to it as our fun month. First we had our anniversary. On December 11, 2008 it was our fifteen. It was a Thursday, but I wanted to do something special on that day. I realized it was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra's annual concert that day featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell. He is my favorite Broadway singer. I had a little problem. I hadn't planned ahead to try to get the "lottery" tickets for this concert. I put an ad on KSL to try to get for free or buy some tickets for that night. A girl from Layton, saw the ad, had extra two tickets and mailed them to me for Free! She was so nice. We planned to eat dinner downtown and tried to get a reservation. It was too late to get one or no one would take reservations due to holiday parties. No problem right? It turned out to be a huge problem. We started at Christopher's Steakhouse and they had a 45 minute to one hour wait. We had to be in our seats 30 minutes early to make sure we didn't lose them to standby people. We decided to walk to Gateway (not lose our great parking spot) and go somewhere there. It turned out to be a looonnngggg way. Of course I was wearing high heeled knee high boots. My feet were killing me, by the time we arrived. We walked from end to end of Gateway looking for a good place to eat and settled on McGraff's Fish House. They told us a 15-20 minute wait which turned into a 40 minute wait and knew we wouldn't make it. We left there and finally ended at Costa Vida (romantic right). By now I was flustered and Mark was worse. He was stressed and in a foul mood. We scarfed down some substance and realized that now we were to far to get the car and had to take Trax to the concert or closer by. We barely missed Trax and ended up running to the concert. My feet were in absolute AGONY by now. I could feel blisters forming on the bottom of my feet. I didn't want to give up now. This concert was the last salvation for a good time and the whole reason we came downstairs. We were really late and I was sure we wouldn't have a seat. We arrived and of course our awesome 8 row seat in the conference center were gone. I said a little prayer when they directed us to go ALL THE WAY UP TO THE TOP IN THE SECOND BALCONY. I feared that by the time we got up there any seat would be gone as well. I decided to find us each a separate seat anywhere we could. A lady was saving seats nearby. We had sat down in different sections and at the very possible last moment before the start of the concert, the saved seats were freed up when there party didn't arrive and we had a great view together. The concert was absolutely fabulous and I enjoyed it immensely. It brought me into the season, I felt the spirit and was sitting by my honey.

The next couple of day I was running around trying to get things ready for Westley's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. We would combine this with Mark's family birthday party. It was insane. Court of Honors are a lot of work. I wanted to make it special and had to bring refreshments, decorations, programs and invites. We pulled it off even though it almost was a disaster when the paid presenter was very late and almost didn't show up. I was so proud of my son Westley and all the hard work he did to earn the award when when he was only thirteen.

A couple of days after the court of honor, my friend, Ingrid came to visit from Norway. I had her another of my friend's Margerate over for Lunch. It was a pleasant time. When I was entertaining, planning parties and events and holidays I was subbing school everyday. I really was exhasted.

The very next weekend we decided to make another go of it and for Mark's birthday and our anniversary we would go for a little trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. We thought it would be fun to visit friends, Cydnee and family and our neighbors who moved there, the Synders. This time, our plans were a success, although we didn't get to see Cydnee's new house because she was coming to SLC. The Snyders, however, were great hosts and showed up around their Summerlin neighborhood and especially the new Red Rock Casino. It was all very posh and cool (the movie 21 was filmed there). We had dinner and tour the Snyder's gorgeous new home. The rest of the time we relaxed, shopped and ate and it ended all too soon. On the way home, we went to a family Christmas party where we picked up our kids.


The next few day before Christmas were a whirlwind of activity. Shopping, wrapping and cooking every available second took place when I or Mark wasn't working. I didn't think I had enough to do already and thought it would be fun to invite some of our new neighbors over for a turkey dinner on December 23rd. It ended up being a lot of work and not as much fun as I had anticipated, but it was all in good will. (later a neighbor we had invited over snowplowed our entire driveway on Christmas Day and I was glad I had invited him over).
Christmas day was very weird when we woke up to a complete white-out. The power went off for an hour while we unwrapped presents. Luckily the breakfast casserole got done in time and it was all very cosy. We spend the next 2-3 hours shoveling our way out of 15 inches of snow in our driveway. They closed the road by our house due snow drifts. Mark's side of the family's annual Christmas day party was cancelled because no one possibly could have gotten there. The next day was more of the same. We tried to go to the temple and got stuck several times in the process. We enjoyed a near empty temple (a first) and have a good sealing session. I really felt the Christmas spirit this year. We were able to helped a few people in need and not go overboard on the presents.

The month's fun ended with New Year's Eve. We aren't cool enough to be invited to any one's party or maybe our friends are cool enough to have a party (hee, hee) so we made alternative plans. We had a great time. We went first to Park City to do a little outlet mall shopping. Later we went back to downtown SLC and saw a Rock Laser light show at Clark Planetarium and walked around Gateway Mall. We took in some music at First Night and went to dinner. We enjoyed the Christmas Lights on Temple Square and headed back home to get Westley to a New Year's Eve dance. We enjoyed being home and finishing out our year watching "21" and saying "Happy New Year" at midnight. What a blast!! Now I can rest.

Thanksgiving

Ahhh, my favoritist holiday! There is nothing bad about this holiday. I love this harvest time of year. All of my garden beds are cleaned out. all of the Halloween Candy is gone. Technically it is not Christmas Season yet, so we have this delightful lull. I like to sit back and reflect on the year. Did I accomplish any of my New Years's Resolutions? What happened to my family during the year and best of all, what am I thankful for. In a time when the ecomony outlook is bleak, I realize that it could be so much worse. I am happy to be alive. I am healthy and so is my kids and husband. This is good because my kids are temporarily uninsured. The good blessing is that they will have insurance next month. Yes, it will be very costly, but it's insurance!

My cars both thankfully run. One needs a major repair, but it runs. The other one had a problem, but it was easily fixed by my husband. Our cars are not Escalades, but they are paid for. What is better than that?

My husband has a reliable job. It is not the most glamourous or perfect. He has to work most weekends, bummer, but we know where the next paycheck is coming. Most importantly, my husband enjoys it most days. This reminds me of something else to be thankful for.

I love the fireplace in our house. It is nice to turn it on when it is cold. I love to get a pillow and a good book and lay in front of it when no one is at home. It is so quiet and peaceful. The warm glow of the fire always comforts and cheers me.

A few more blessings to be thankful for are good friends to have lunch with; absorbing books to take me to another time or place; memories of vacations past that were so perfect; Running in the morning and feeling my body work so effectively. I love to feel my lungs fill with clean and precious are and to have my head clear; A small and simple pleasure is my ipod. I am thankful for freedom.

I can't forget the food. Turkey is the best. My favorite is fresh cranberry sauce and from scratch yams. It's all good. The potatoes smothered in gravy; the veggies, relish trays and salads; the cranberry juice and rolls; the pies. Yum. Eat it all and enjoy, but don't overdo it. It will ruin the experience.

I appreciate so much talking to friends and neighbors about their holiday plans. Hearing all the different traditons is so fun and enjoyable! When I talk to others about the holidays it gets me so excited about them. When I talk to others and hear their love for their families I know that this is what I love about Thanksgiving. There is no stress and pressure to buy perfect gifts. Family, neighbors and friends are the gift. It is a great thing to celebrate.

Our time

Mark and I got away to Snowbird for an evening during UEA. It was so beautiful up there with the changing leaves and crisp air. We went on a hike up Bells canyon. It was all fine except Mark kept getting work phone calls (anyone else have this problem with their husbands not wanting to turn off the cell?). I got sick of waiting as call after call came in. He would stop and talk, not walk and talk, so I left him and went ahead. He went the wrong direction and we got separated for an hour and a half. I almost got up to the waterfall, when he didn't call (I guess the reception was spotty). I ended up turning around because I had no food or water and didn't know if he was even coming. Halfway down I found him and I wasn't happy. Oh well, you win some and lose some. I guess I should have been more patience. I did enjoy the quiet hike and stream gurgling along the path

Lyndsey shoots a gun

Sarah goes down the inflatable slide face-first

Scarecrow festival

Westley hangs with his sisters

Fall is Fun

My girls have been off-track from school for the past two weeks. We had plenty of fun. We went to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point over UEA. Sarah had a preforming for Academy West Gymnastics Show Team there. Everyone was there except Mark who had to work. We did the inflatables, bungee cord ride, haunted house, games and BB Shooting. We got cotton candy, carmel apples, donuts and even saw Basketball player Sean Bradley Sarah had fun preforming her routine with the team.

Birthday Mania

Birthday Month has come and gone. Three birthdays between the 6th and 16th...thank you very much.

Lyndsey's was the first. It was September 6th. She was turning eight!! Of course she was lucky enough to have it land on Baptism Saturday. I noticed this would happen about a year ago. The wheels turned in my head and I though how cool and convenient it would be to have a kidlet birthday party/ extended family party for all three kids/ baptism celebration all in ONE DAY! Yea!!! Months of planning...First the perfect dress for my last baby and of course a cute photo of her in it.

Then we made the perfect invite (two kinds of course- one for the baptism and one for the kidlet party). Then I had to arrange all the food: Pizza, salad, veggie tray, fruit, bread sticks, appetizer, drinks, cake etc... for an army of 40 people. Then Lyndsey decided it would be fun to have a tea party complete with a craft for twelve little girls. They would make tea party bonnets (supervised by 6 adults). The straw hats turned out to not be easy to find and when I did, I bought out two stores worth. I had to also find the perfect flowers, netting and ribbon. The logistics of the party were mind boggling: be at a niece's wedding the night before, get everyone up and in church clothes and to the church at 9:30 AM on the morning of. Then someone thought it would be nice to have "a display table" with a book to sign for visitors. Please, this was supposed to be simple. It feels like a wedding.

After three loooonnng baptisms with over a hundred people in attendance, we finished and moved onto the party part. We had invited the little party girls to the baptism and had to transport them to the party.

Once we got there we had kids running all over the house; we were trying to bake 6 pizzas and get the food ready and I was trying to round up little girls to make there craft. We had a bit of dilemma with a father asking if his younger daughter could come to the party too (what??? why do men create such social blunders. What could I say? Of course I graciously said sure) now I wouldn't have enough hats. It was stressful but worked out in the end when a girl who was at the baptism didn't show up to the party (whew!)

Several adults wrangled hot glue guns, flowers and bows onto hats and we settled down for a tea party with china and lemonade. The girls looked adorable and finally we were able to feed the crowd who was patiently waiting for the cooking pizzas to be done and the craft to be finished.

There was lots of food and more people kept showing up (I will save you from the details). Now it was present time. Relatives brought presents for all three kids. We had our presents for Lynz and her friends of course brought gifts. Then there were more baptism gifts and cards. Wrapping paper, tissue paper, plates, cups and napkins of paper. A new hamster for Lynz running loose in his ball. Kids and people in my house and yard. FINALLY, the joy was over. It took the whole rest of the weekend to recover and then... and a few days later...It was Sarah's birthday.

Our New Dog (Mutt) for the day

Our neighbor Gwen's daughter found a dog hanging around one day. They already have a dog and we had been thinking about getting one, so we asked if we could keep it while trying to find it's owner. We posted ads on KSL and signs around the area. We held this dog and played with it and really thought it was cute until night came. We had recently fenced our yard and it is summer, so we left the dog in the back yard. In the morning it was gone. It had dug under the fence to visit our other neighbor's yorkie. We put the dog back in our yard and placed a rock over the hole it dug. Within minutes, it had dug another hole and gotten out. Our neighbor was getting annoyed. We borrowed a leash for the night. Mark didn't want the dog in the house. All was quiet until just as we were falling asleep the crying began. First the dog yelped, then he whined and then the yowling started. Nothing would shut the dog up. This went on for a couple of hours. I turned to Mark in bed. "What should we do? Should we let him in?" Mark replied, "No way, let him go...perminently." I was upset he would suggest such a thing. Another half our of crying went on. We both couldn't sleep and I quietly slipped out of bed and let the doggie in. I put him in the mudroom where he couldn't hurt anything and slept in quiet the rest of the night. In the morning we let the dog out and he was once again on a long leash. He wasn't liking that, but what could we do. The little escape artist wouldn't stay in the yard. The crying began once more. Meanwhile of course no one had called to clain the mutt. I think someone had dropped him off far away in hopes he wouldn't come back. Gwen showed up on my doorstep and asked what she could do to help. She said her 15 year old daughter was crying in her room because of the dumb dog's crying and they hadn't slept all night. I was pulling my hair out by then and really regretted asking for the dog. I didn't say one word to Gwen, but silently handed her the dog and shut the door. Goodbye doggie!

The first day of school came too quickly for Sarah and Lyndsey. Sarah started the
5th grade in Mrs. Ketcher's class and Lyndsey started 2nd grade in Mrs. Jarman's class. It was a sigh of relief to have the house back to myself.

Oh yea, Westley is still here...For one more month...Someone help me!!! JK...Wes and I enjoyed the house quite together due to the fact of
1. Westley no longer had anyone to tease.
2. Westley slept in until noon most days.
3. I snuck out to shop ALONE before Wes woke up
4. We made lunch together and quitely read the paper
5. I hadn't given him any chores to do yet that day
6. He was off mowing lawns
7. I was off to work.
We celebrated the end of the summer together by going to a movie right before School started,(eighth grade)!
"Please come see Mama Mia with me...I'll pay...and bring treats...and increase your allowance..." (WE) sort of enjoyed the movie.

24th of July Camping at Albion Basin

Albion Basin's flowers are incredible especially if you check them out in July/August. Apparently everyone else in the nearby region decided to as well. That being said, we attempted camping over the 24th of July holiday. Two days turned to one after a sleepless night of partiers in a cabin above our campsite. We were in the campground in Alta's Skiing basin in Little Cottonwood Canyon. So much for getting back to nature. Although it took one day to pack and one day to unpack, we trimmed our stay to one night. I swear I will never tent camp again. It is too much work and the kids really do hate it! The hike was fun though. The other great part was Emily, my sister, and her family coming up for dinner. We looked forward to their coming all day. We left on the 24th of July and went to my Mom's instead to help her out after she broke her leg.

My Hubby, Mark

Mark is my best friend and soulmate. He was feeling bad that I didn't put anything up about him, so here it goes. Mark loves to play and watch basketball. Man can he jump. Westley told me in confidence that his dad was 'getting old and could hardly dunk anymore,' but I know otherwise. The truth is he can still outplay if not outlast his almost 14 year old son. I think there is some rivalry going on between them. The time of teenageness is coming to Wes. He use to look up to us, but now thinks he knows everything.

Mark also loooooves music. He is a killer guitarist and finally has a small home studio. I "let" him have a bigger room in the basement to house his growing collection of guitars. He wishes he has more time to play, compose, record and learn new music, but he is very unselfish.

Mark is a jack of all trades. He refinished our basement, built me a storage room, built me a fence for our yard, put in tile, remodeled the other two floors top to bottom and keeps the yard work up. He is a hard worker and good supporter of our family.

To keep me happy he goes on hikes with me so I don't disappear one day, listens to me talk, complain, dream and gossip for hours. Sometimes he helps me do my jobs when I need it. He helps out with the kids and occasionally cleans the house (especially if family or friends are coming over). He lets me do whatever I want, even if it isn't the best choice. He lets me learn from my mistakes. The best part is he loves me despite all of my shortcomings. I am glad he honors his priesthood and is a righteous man.

Saturday's Date

Mark and I went to the Sandy Ampetheater on Saturday to see Richard Marx. He is like one of my fav-o-rite artist from the eighties. I have seen him four times. Anyway, we first went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and when we came out and got into the car...click...no start the engine. Our battery passed on to the other side. We asked someone for a jump. Nada. They offered a ride down the street to the concert. We barely made it just in time. Yes, the concert was awesome! I was really to the stage and standing and singing and jumping around. Richard Marx waved at me!!

Well, after the concert we called a tow truck to get our car at Outback. We thought that we had some time, so we hung around the back by Marx driver hoping to catch a glimpse of the man. He was busy with the people his manager had given backstage passes to, and we decided we better leave.

We started walking down 13th East to Outback. We thought it wasn't very far, but did the math and figured we were about two miles away. By now it was 11 'O Clock at night and very dark. We got a call the tow truck was there and waiting for us, so we started running in our sandles! Mark was struggling with his footware, so I gave him all my crap and started booking it. I finally got to my car and eventually Mark did too. We both have blisters to prove it. Hey it was all good. We had just got back from the Grand Canyon and was glad that we didn't break down there! It must of been all those prayer we said... "Please help us not to fight and be safe..."

Our Grand Vacation

Our trip was great. We hiked to the bottom of Bryce and back up the first day. The kids whined...alot. The hoodoos we saw were so cool, but the change in elevation made the 3 miles feel like ten. That night we stayed in Cannonville, a tiny town. We had to call the manager to come and let us into our room. He arrived on an ATV in about a half-hour. You've got to love Utah. The next day we went on a wonderful 6-mile roundtrip hike to Calf Creek Falls. It had a cool clear gurgling stream all along the way. We even saw a petraglyph. We were rewarded at the end of the hike with a 128-ft. waterfall! We were having someone take our picture in front of the falls and a big black raven had the nerve to steal Lyndsey's unwrapped granola bar and take off with it. We all laughed, but Lyndsey was sad. I made her feel better by telling her about my lost yogurt parfait in a stream when I hopped over it, and it was unsecured in my fanny pack, on a previous hike.

We drove through the beautiful Escalante Staircase Monument. The landscape would change from red cliffs to light colored slickrock swells. The next few minutes were driving through a forest of pine trees. After stopping at the Petrified Forest and Anasazi State Park we drove to Kanab that night. Kanab is the cutest little town with red cliffs. It is famous for the western movies made there. We stayed in historic Parry's Lodge. It is a beautiful colonial home with "boarding house" style rooms where all the stars stayed in the fifties when they made all those movies. It was so fun. The have an old barn where they show a free western movie every night. The movies where made in Kanab and the stars all stayed at the lodge. We stayed there two nights (in Sammy Davis Jr. Room) and didn't even use the ITEX voucher for the second night I had prepaid for ahead of time. We couldn't face back- tracking all that way just to stay there on the way home. The kids wanted more time to swim in the nice pool that John Wayne had built there at the lodge.

We drove to the Grand Canyon the following day. We took a wrong turn (how dare they not mark the right way with a BIG sign?) We almost went to Flagstaff. Everyone (even ME) was exhausted from the heat and all the hiking. We took a little hike (5 miles of mostly flat ground) around the rim of the canyon. It is really an amazing, huge hole in the ground. It is hard to fathom. I really want to backpack overnight someday there and go rim to rim. I don't think I will have any takers in my family though. After the hike we went to the lodge which is perched on the cliff of the canyon and sat in the rustic chairs and took it all in. Everyone was sick of hiking, so I went on a paved half mile hike to Angel's landing which went off on a little ledge overlooking into the canyon. The height really takes your breath away and makes you feel dizzy.

Yesterday morning we were ready to leave. I woke early to go running and ended up running up a trail to Squaw Peak. It was 1 1/2 miles to the top of a cliff overlooking Kanab and the whole surrounding area of beautiful landscape. You could see for miles. I was really trying not the run off the cliff when the sun came peaking up over the top of the ridge. There was a bench up on the top of the mountain. I stood on top of it and yelled "wheewwww." Know one could hear me, but it was fun to do.

I really enjoyed this trip, even if I dragged the rest of the family along. Sometimes you have to do what you want to do, when you don't get to do it very often. Mark called it my "dream vacation" It was in a way, but in my dreams I would have hiked longer, faster, and more often...hee, hee.

Lyndsey

Lyndsey is a very sweet seven year old. She makes friends with everyone and tries to not hurt anyone's feelings. I was able to sub in her first grade class this past week.

When some boys who were friends starting fighting and got in trouble, they

started crying. Later, Lyndsey said she liked having me be her teacher, but

didn't like the boys crying so much. She was distressed at the fact I had

to discipline the boys by writing their names on the board! Lyndsey likes

to play the piano and practice art. She is turning eight this fall and starting

second grade.

Sarah

Sarah is our little monkey child. She is ten years old and LOVES gymnastics. Sarah also is good at piano and school. She always has her head in the books. Sarah is an
independent child. She tries to hurry through projects and housework to
get to the better things in life, but the not always great quality shows. We
are trying to decide what to do about her gymnastics abilities. We are sure
we can afford the huge expense of competitive gymnastics, but want to not
extinguish her love for the sport. She is in the top level of recreation gym. She is considering going for the show tumbling team and repeating level 6 optionals before moving up to the competitive team. It is a huge time and financial commitment. I find it hard to find that balance between school, family, church and extra activities for the kids. Church leaders have urged us to carefully consider not over scheduling our kids or ourselves!

Westley

Westley is our oldest child and at the beginning of becoming a teenager. He is a great kid. He just finished the seventh grade in his first year at the middle school. Westley's biggest concern

right now is not being tall enough. Mark and I were both late bloomers and Westley is following in our footsteps with that. Someday he will shoot up to a great height, but not soon enough in his book. He surprised us all by getting excellent grades this year. He hardly had any homework by getting most work done in school. Wes love basketball and pretty much any other sport. He love music and is learning to play the guitar. His dad is a great teacher for him. Westley and his dad pretty much talk sports every waking moment they are around each other. They are buddies to each other. Westley is making us proud by starting to work on his eagle scout project. He is a little bit frustrated by having his first idea not approved by the council. We are working on plan B. He is going to be busy this summer with this and mowing lawns.

Family Five