Merry Christmas!

I'm so slow at everything this year, and so there are NO Christmas cards coming out. Please just know that we do want to wish you ALL a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Things have been very busy for us, but that is part of the holiday season.

Kaden finished up school basketball, and tonight starts a competitive b-ball team. Funny thing about that is, my cute husband with ALL of his spare time from work, school, YM, and farming, is going to be there coach. Wish us all LUCK! Kaden is excited, and there first tourn. will be the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas in Malad.

Ali is going to sign up for Preston's Recreational b-ball again this year. She's a good little player, so I am excited to get to see her play again. She has been counting down the days to Christmas (along with all the others), and is excited that today is the last day of school.

Paige has been going about wrapping anything she can find, or making cards to give to anyone and everyone. Now that is the giving spirit of Christmas. I am trying to talk her into trying b-ball this year too. It's her first year, so she's a little unsure, but she's not dancing this year, so I think it would be good for her to play.

Tyce was done with school yesterday, and is so excited about it, that he's sleeping in this morning. Tyce has been counting down the days to Christmas, but he's also been counting down the days to XBOX. Let me explain...2 weeks ago, we had quite a blow up at our house over NOT watching the Christmas Devotional from the 1st Presidency. We decided that our children are just down right spoiled, and ungrateful for what they have. I came up with an idea, and Jody and I decided to try it. Monday while all the children were at school, I played the grinch...I packed up their shoes, clothes, toys, and whatever was in their rooms that might be entertaining. I left only a few items of clothing, and school shoes, and church shoes. When the children came home there was gnarling and gnashing of teeth, (I believe that's how my sister put it.) Tyce was however, the MOST devistated seeing as he had the most toys to be taken. I allowed board games ONLY, but NO VIDEO GAMES! I know, Tyce was stricken with unbelief too. Long story short, they all survived quite easily, and we will be getting rid of a lot of excess things that just make us ungrateful. Tyce was SO EXCITED to get to play the XBOX yesterday, that he played for over an hour.

Danica has had much holiday cheer, as she loves SANTA. She wants to go and see him everyday. At the ward party she sat right on his lap, told him she wanted a surprise, and then took her bag of candy, only to return to him a few minutes later and tell him Thank You! Oh- she does have precious moments. Unfortunately, they are becoming fewer and fewer. I'm really just kidding. I couldn't imagine not having my baby girl with me all the time. She's wonderful!

Jody and I have started a gym membership at Crossfit! We thought we'd try it for a month. We enjoyed going, but have had days of not being able to move. It's funny that your arms feel like you've ripped them apart when you go from doing NO push-ups, to doing 200 in 30 minutes. Hopefully it makes us look all that much better when we head to Mexico next month.

Merry Christmas to All! May we all remember the wonderful gift that has been given to us...The birth of our Savior!

Look to the Right!

I mean it, look to the right, and you'll see that I have finally updated my kids' pictures. It took me over an hour to do it, and I guess that's why I haven't done it before.

A quick update is that we are ALL doing GREAT! Kaden's loving basketball, and playing well, Ali's loving ballroom and is excited to see their costumes for the year, Paige is loving acheivement days and has a great leader, Tyce is learning to cope with school, and is doing great with his reading, and Danica is loving her new found bossing abilities. The rest of us don't love that quite as much. Jody is doing so good with school. I am quite proud of the grades he's been bringing home, and I am just here always thinking of things I should be doing else where! Sorry for the shortened version. Just remember...ALWAYS LOOK TO THE RIGHT!

We've had some BIRTHDAYS...Shout Hurray!

We have had a couple of important birthdays, and one not-so-important birthday. Starting it off on the 23rd of Sept. was my sweet baby girl who is now 2. Can you believe it? Her birthday was very interesting. We went to a ward fundraiser for dinner where she wouldn't eat, and kept saying her tummy hurt. We finally went home to celebrate, and she made it through presents, and blowing out candles before she threw-up! We therefore saved the cake to eat another day, because who wants to watch everyone else eat your birthday cake. Although she was not feeling well, she sure love the whole celebration, and smiled through the whole thing. We are so very grateful for this sweet little girl in our home. She can sure turn a frown upside-down. Happy Birthday you sweet baby girl!

Next was my birthday which came with Tyce having the flu, and having to go pick potatoes out of the field for the cannery the following week. It was nice to be able to relax a bit though, and pretend I'm not really as old as the number says, I'm only as old as I feel...56!

Tyce just celebrated his birthday yesterday. He has had a countdown going on for over a month. He shares his birthday with one of his friends, so they had a little party and he loved that. He had to go to school on his birthday, and so he took doughnuts to share with everyone. (That made him feel better about having to go to school on his birthday too.)

One of the gifts Tyce got from his grandpa and grandma, was a BB gun. He's very excited about that, but also about the soccer ball he got too. I have to brag a little about this little man on the soccer field. He has really got the hang of it this year, and was so fun to watch all season. We learned something about him during this soccer season as well...HE IS SO FAST! He could beat anyone to the ball if he felt like it. He would put his chin down, pump his arms, and with a complete look of determination, off he'd go. So cute to watch. Happy Birthday dude, we love you tons!

A couple other catch up things...Kaden just made the Jr. High Basketball team, and is so excited. He is trying to juggle things a bit though because he still has 2 soccer games this week as well. His coach is still coaching football after school, so they are having 6:00am practices this week. He and his dad leave here at 5:30 and he gets home off the bus at 4:50pm. It's a long day for him, but I don't think it will last forever. Football can't last that long...Can it?

Ali and Paige have been helping me out a lot lately. They have learned to do laundry, and they do a lot of babysitting too. They had their first OFFICIAL babysitting job for their Uncle and Aunt while we all went out to dinner. They were so excited, but I learned that I need to teach them a little bit about cleaning up after the kids before the parents get home. It just makes it so much easier on the parents. Right! My girls remind me a lot of me and my sisters when we were young. Best Friends, or Worst Enemies! I sure hope they end up with the same kind of relationship that me and my sisters have now.

Jody finished another class a couple of weeks ago, and is starting a new one this weekend. He is still doing really well, and hasn't complained about anything yet. So grateful for him all the time. What a rock he is! I on the other hand am a mushy mess most of the time. They just took our Bishop and made him the Stake Pres. I'm not too excited about a switch already. I've only been the R.S. Pres. for about 2 months. We do not have a new Bishop yet. Our Bishop is doing double duty until a new one is called. I sure hope it's someone who can put up with me. I may be his biggest challenge! LIFE IS GOOD, AND WE ARE BLESSED!

Another language!

I know it's been a long time, and you're all sooo anxious to hear about our trip to San Diego, but you will have to keep waiting. The pictures are still on my camera, and it would be a much better update with pictures. I am blogging this time to let you all know that we are still alive, but maybe just BARELY! Life is very busy at our house, and I'm not sure it's going to get better, in fact, probably worse! 5 or 6 days before we left for California, I was called to be the Relief Society President! I know, I gasped just as loud as all of you did. I guess the Lord decided I was being lazy, and it was time to whip me into shape. I don't know if there's more to say about that, so we'll move on.

School is stressing me this year already. Kaden has a very tough year this year, with teachers who expect a lot, and send home lots of work. I feel like I may be burned out way before school is over. In fact, I may be burned out before the first semester is over! Thank goodness that the girls teachers, and Tyce's teacher don't send much homework home, I'm not sure we'd make it!

Well, I didn't mean to get on here and make things sound like I'm miserable. I'm really not, I think I'm just a little stressed, and a lot tired. I do feel like I'm in a calling where people are speaking another language. One funny to end on - At the table last Sunday after church, Tyce announced to us all that he could speak Gernamin. We got a good chuckle out of his pronunciation, and the Gernamin that he was speaking. I asked him who taught him Gernamin, and of course, he taught himself!

Nothing but FUN!

Towards the end of July we had sooo much fun when we got the chance to have Linda come for several days. We went to Lava Hot Springs and had a great time, we had great dinners, ice cream, and lots of visiting. We loved having her come stay with us, and you can tell that from the looks on my kids faces! Next up for FUN was the Preston Rodeo, carnival, and Parade. We had a great time going to them all, but we did get poured on during the rodeo. It passed by quickly, and the kids refused to go home, so we toughed it out like true cowboys, and had a great time.

To end the summer FUN with a BANG, we have decided to take the trip to San Diego that we've been talking about doing for several summers. We are leaving this Saturday, and coming home Wednesday night after wearing ourselves out from the Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, Disneyland, and many parks, restaurants, and maybe even a trip to the beach. (It's been so cold in San Diego this year, so getting in the water is not an option, besides the big black poisonous jelly fish they all the sudden have as well.) Never the less, my children want to LOOK at the ocean. It's so neat to them, and me too. Anyway, it won't be many days after we get home that the kids will be sitting in a classroom for another year of routine and structure. Now, doesn't that sound FUN too!

More Summer FUN

I'm going to start this post where I ended the last time. Kaden and I took our trip to the Summer Games in Cedar City for Basketball. We had a really good time minus a few mishaps with motel rooms. His team played really well, and beat teams from all over the Salt Lake area, as well as a team from Las Vegas. Long story short, we ended up winning the bronze medal in our division. We were very excited. Our little country hick team did Great! I was very excited to see this be the end result of a long, but good, season. Great job Kaden.

I don't know what happened to this next picture, but what it's suppose to show is the kids with their new black kitty. They got it yesterday from their cousins, and have hardly left it alone since then. They are calling it fluffy, mostly because that's what Danica calls it. Hopefully the kitten will do well as an outside kitten, because it has been use to being indoors. That is not allowed at this house.

We have many other things that we have enjoyed in the last few weeks as well. Kaden got to go with his cousin to another scout camp, and was able to get 5 more completed merit badges, so now we just need to work on the unfinished ones. We have enjoyed 2 Reunions, one with my family, and one with the Shumways. Both were lots of fun. I loved getting to see my new neice be blessed. She is so beautiful. It's Cody and Jessica's 3rd little girl, and she looks just like the other two. A few weeks ago we got the AC put in the house, and that has been lovely. I feel like I can bake in the summer time and don't have to worry about heating up the house.

Jody is going to go to Heber City to a golf tournament for work this weekend, so I'm going to take the kids and go see my parents. I'm excited to get a trip to Dubois again. Then over the 24th of July, Linda gets to come and spend a few days with us. We are really looking forward to seeing her, and spending some time with her. After that, it will be the big Preston Rodeo. It's always a good time if anyone wants to come! The one thing about rodeo is that when it's over, it's kind of like the countdown to school has begun. I cannot believe how quickly it goes. Summer will be over before we know it. I think we have decided to do a NO dance year. Neither of the girls were too excited about it, so we're going to take a break and get use to the new 4 day week schedule. It might be nice to take a break, I just hope they decide to go back eventually. I love watching them dance. I guess that's it! Until next time....

Catching Up

I have tried sooo many times to get on here and get this all done, but it just never seems to work out. We're going to start off by going WAY back to the end of May. Ali had her dance recital, and did such an amazing job. We LOVE to watch her clog, and she's soooo good at it, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to convince her to do it another year or not. She doesn't think it's her favorite, and would like to try ballroom. I will keep you all updated on what the decision is. If you will notice the long beautiful curls in the clogging picture, we are going to use that as a before picture for her big haircut. Ali cut off 11 or more inches just after school got out. She had been wanting to do it for awhile, so we let her do it. She donated the pony tail to Locks-of-Love. We were very proud of her for that. She looks very grown-up and adorable in her new hair-do, and she has been enjoying the new look. As for me, I didn't cry, and I think she looks GREAT, but I sure did Love that long hair too!

Our June has kept us busy running. Kaden had a basketball camp here in Preston, then he ventured to Scout camp the same day that Ali left for 4-H camp. Both had a good time. We enjoyed a visit from Natalie and her children one weekend, and Oh she's a go getter. She helped me accomplish more in 2 days than I've done on my own in 6 months. We cut out some vinyl for Ali's wall, and also some sayings for some walls upstairs. We did a bunch of Strawberry freezer Jam that is So Yummy, and put together some of my new bedroom set, along with several very interesting fixer upper jobs too. I won't list everything we did, but I do want to tell her that I think she's wonderful, and thanks a ton.

Kaden and I just got back from a trip to Cedar City Utah, and we had a great time. I'm going to blog the details of the trip next time, because I still need to get the pictures off my camera. We have now slowed down a bit, and are looking forward to the Jacobson family vacation over the 4th of July, and also the Sumway reunion the following week. We hope to enjoy Bear Lake at least once this summer, and maybe some swimming too.

I have been taking a little me time to walk in the morning with one or more friends, and feel like it's a little therapy session every morning. Jody is as busy as usual with School, Farm, Work, and Young Mens. He has 2 weekends off from shcool now, so hopefully he can help catch up on some farm work so they won't be behind all summer.

I did forget to mention that Danica is Potty Trained (mostly) and we are Very Happy about that. She's done such a good job, she my youngest to potty train, but maybe my easiest as well. Yeah for me!

I guess that is a good enough catch up for now, I hope it won't take me this long to post again. It's way too hard to try to remember everything.