New Beginnings Program

Christtina has told me it has been a while since I've posted anything on here, so I guess I've been slacking.  It has been a crazy month with Jeremy's Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts, Valentine's Day, our anniversary, and all of the Young Women activities this month.  We had our annual Young at Heart dinner for Valentine's Day, which was very nice, and then we just had our New Beginnings program to welcome the new girls last Tuesday night.  This year's theme was "Life Is a Canvas, Paint Yours a Masterpiece."  It was so nice.  I work with some truly creative and gifted people, and I just adore all of my friends that I serve with.  It is so much fun being a part of that program, that it doesn't seem like it is work at all.  I also love and adore all of the girls, and want to help them become the masterpieces that I know they are capable of becoming.  Here are some of the pictures from our New Beginnings night.  We set up ladders with paint buckets on each step.  In each bucket was a different colored tissue paper to represent all seven of the YW Values.  Then we set up tables with each value.  My table was good works (yellow), and finally we had fruit tarts for dessert with colored (one for each value) fruit topping. 

Enough Already

So, I know that it has been great for ID to get so much snow this year since we've had a drought and all, but enough is enough. Yesterday was sooooo cold. We had the worst wind too, which makes it even colder. I had to take my wreath down off the door because I was afraid I'd lose another one to this crazy wind. Don't even ask, I was so upset. Mallorie thought we were having a tomadoe (tornado). I guess, we have had more snow this year than they have had in a really long time. I know for sure that we didn't get this much last year. Right now I'm really missing 60 degree weather and wearing flip-flops in AZ year round. I can't wait until Summer. I'm starting to get a little tired of dirty cars, icy roads, pants that are always wet at your ankles, and of course the wind! On a brighter note, we did have fun yesterday (indoors). Some friends decided to have a craft day. So, we made cards and the kids all got to play together. I'm so grateful to have made such good friends here. They help to keep me from going stir-crazy in the winter. We're going to have another craft day next week too. Next time we're making these blocks that you put pictures on. They're really cute, so I'm really looking forward to it. Here's Jeremy for you Kilee, clearing our sidewalk after being dumped on. Just thought you might want to see what it's like here in the winter, so you know what you're getting into. Ha! No- I do really want you guys to move up here. Even if I sound negative, I do really love it here.

My New Neice

My oldest brother and his wife in CA just had their first baby yesterday. They named her Anabeth, and she is so beautiful. She is the 10th grandchild for my parents. (They now have an even 5 girls and 5 boys) We have been waiting a long time for her arrival, so we are very excited. Anabeth was born yesterday a little after eleven o'clock. She did have some problems at first. Apparently she had meconium in the amniotic fluid and needed oxygen. She is off of the oxygen now and doing well. She's in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and they will be keeping her for 48 hours just in case. It's such a scary thing to have your baby in trouble. The doctor's did a spinal tap on her too, to check for spinal menangitis. Kevin called to see if they gave the twins one when they were in the NICU, but they didn't. He sounded pretty worried. It sounds like she's doing better already, though. If she's off the oxygen and feeding well then things should be okay. In the meantime we'll all be praying for little Anabeth. Isn't she soooo cute?!

Favorite Christmas Moments

1. Kolby and Mal were old enough to really get into Christmas this year. They bought each other gifts and helped wrap them
too. When Mallorie opened her Barbie car from Kolby, she was so excited. She gave him a hug and told him thank you. It was so cute!
2. Kolby had just seen the movie Elf and came into my bathroom while I was in the shower. He started singing "Baby It's Cold
Outside" and told me what I needed to sing. He then preceded to act out the whole scene. It was hilarious.
3. After getting back from the store, the missionaries were walking by and offered to help me w/the groceries.
After they left Kolby said that they were sure nice. I explained that missionaries help Heavenly Father by teaching people and serving others. We then talked about when he goes on a mission some day. He said that he wanted to go on his mission to Idaho. After I told him that missionaries go somewhere away from their family, friends, and distractions, he thought for a minute, and then replied, "I want to go to the North Pole to teach Santa."
4 . Mallorie singing, "Have a happy holiday birthday" to me on my b-day.
5. Acting out the nativity with Jeremy and the kids - Especially getting to play the donkey.

Santa Came

So it snowed soooooo much that we didn't make it out to see the lights, but we did act out the nativity. Kolby and Mal had Jeremy play the various inn keepers, and then I was lucky enough to play the donkey. First Kolby tried to hop on, and I had to explain to him that Joseph didn't ride the donkey. Then he let Mal ride, but decided he'd guide me by my hair. It was quite funny, but not sure if we want to do this again next year. After drinking their "magic sleep" (hot chocolate) they went to sleep pretty quickly. Kolby woke up at 1 AM, though. He came into our room saying, "Mom, Santa already came. I saw my scooter!" I had to tell him to go back to bed. Then at 3 AM, he came into my room again saying the same thing. At that point, I picked him up and put him in our bed, and he slept in until about 8:30 or so. Mallorie slept all night without waking up at all until morning.

Kolby and Mallorie after church

Here are the kids after church. Grandma Terri bought them their outfits, and they did look so cute if I do say so myself. In most of the pictures I took of them, Mallorie had her eyes shut, and Kolby was being a goof-ball. Well, tomorrow's Christmas Eve and this year is the first time we've spent Christmas with just ourselves. It will be nice to have a laid-back holiday, but strange not to have family around too. My plan for tomorrow is to have Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight (tradition), open our one present (pajamas), go look at Christmas lights, then come home and read the story of Christ's birth from Luke. I thought Mal and Kolby could dress up like Mary and Joseph, and we'd use a doll for baby Jesus. I have fond memories of doing this one year as a kid, with our good friends, the Mays, and my brothers and sisters. Hopefully the kids will love it too, and maybe it can become a new tradition.

My Birthday Surprise

Well Jeremy was out of town on my birthday, so we celebrated the day after. He surprised me with dinner from Johnny Carino's. He set a table up in the basement with candles and he had sparkling apple cider with the little plastic champagne glasses and all. It was so sweet. He had wanted to get me out of the house while he set up, so it would be a surprise, but none of our neighbors were home to help him out. So, instead he had his sister, Jessi call me and try to distract me. She told me she wanted to plan a surprise for Jeremy's birthday, which is the 27th, and asked if he was home from work yet. I knew he was on his way because I had just talked to him. (In actuality he was in the driveway.) So, Jess told me to go in another room where he wouldn't hear me if he came home. Well, Jeremy had hoped I'd go in the bedroom to talk to her, but instead I went downstairs, to the basement. He wanted to set up in the basement, and lead me downstairs so I could see my birthday present, which was above the stairs as you go down. Oh, well I guess things didn't go quite as planned, but it was still a good surprise.