MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas!  We hope everyone is having a great holiday.  Thanks for the phone calls, many of them instigated by Taylor on her brand new Cell Phone....she is very excited...it's "almost as good as heelies"...her words.  Shaylie has dubbed this Christmas, the BEST EVER!  I guess it doesn't get any better than that.  Hopefully, she won't remember how great this was next year.

Santa brought Shaylie a Snuggler, a Biggest Littlest Pet Shop, and a Kobe, the Study Buddy.  Taylor got her Cell, and two Avatar games, and a almost brand new puppy named Blackberry.  Scott is donning a new studly hat (a la Indiana Jones) and I'm happily studying my Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook.  We've watched new movies....Cars, Air Buddies, and Ice Age the Meltdown, and next we'll head in to play some new games.  Last but not least, we've all been gifted with Gift Cards and cash, so we will have plently of shopping to do when we head up north for our New Years' bash. 

We had a traditional Ham Dinner with all the fixins.  My family now thinks I can cook, which is too bad.  For them.  And we are all stuffed to the gills, and we haven't even eaten the pie, the apple crumble, or the crackers/cheeseball and chips/dips. 

Thanks to all of you for making our holiday so special!  We have been blessed this year in so many ways.  We pray for you all everyday and especially at this wonderful time of year.  May the Lord bless you and keep you safe and well.  May He give you everything you need to be happy and content in the coming New Year.  We love you and we are so grateful to have you in our lives.  Be Merry, Be Bright.  We'll see you soon.

Family Picture 2006

After six years, we have finally taken another family picture.

Last day of school...Vacation begins!

The girls took off for their big party day today.  I'm helping with Shaylie's party at 1:00.  SHe is very excited.  Taylor just thinks today is a big waste.  Her words not mine....I told her to just go and have fun.  She might even do it.  :-)  They both took gifts to their teachers today, just a little something.  Scott has the whole break off work too! Yay!  I am looking forward to spending Christmas together with just us.  Scott wants to go out to eat on Christmas day....maybe find a Chinese restaurant (Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra!)...but the girls want HAM DINNER.  They had their whole menu planned out...even down to the Strawberry Shortcake.  I guess I'm the deciding vote.  We'll see. 

For New Year, I think we'll head to Mom's on Thursday to see Christmas stuff, visit Greats, and get haircuts...then up to Dad's on Friday to help with getting ready for our big Bash!  I'm a little worried about Blackberry...how he'll do on the trip up, how he'll do with sleeping, and how he'll do with the other dogs, and how he'll do with housetraining....I suppose there's no sense in worrying about it.  I just don't want to cause everyone grief, especially me.  ;-)

I'm excited for the Holidays to begin...I'm actually ready, I think...there's always more to do, but I'm drawing the line!  As soon as I buy gifts for a couple more friends, I'm done. Nothing more to do after that but shop for Christmas dinner.  Oh, I might have to buy some batteries too.....WELL, you can see what I mean....never ending.  I will enjoy the holiday!  Merry Christmas to Everyone!  Hope your holidays are as hectic and filled with love as mine are turning out to be!

One week until Christmas...

We have been having a good visit with Grandma J.  She came Friday morning and will be leaving tomorrow after the girls head to school.  We've been to the girl's dance concert, Taylor's basketball game, and Beauty and the Beast at St. George Musical Theater.  It was a nice production and we all loved it. 

Mom and Anissa came to support the girls this weekend too.  Monday night, I am watching Anje while Anissa finishes up some Christmas shopping.  I thought I was mostly done until we went to Cracker Barrel and saw some great stuffers and holiday decorations for pretty nice prices.  I going to have to go back and see what I can tell Santa about.

The girls only have four days of school this week.  Break starts on Friday.  It seems like a much shorter break than usual since the holidays fall on the weekends.  I'm not overly sad about it though.  It just means I have fewer days to entertain the children.

Dad, you're going to have to let us know when you'd like us to come up to visit for New Year's.  We can come whenever you like.  Just let us know the schedule.

More posts coming.  I loved all the poems everyone posted.  I wish all our entries could have that much interaction and fun!  Thanks for making it so memorable.  Love to all!

Happy Birthday to Chad!

Today is Uncle Chad's birthday. 

He is getting very old.

Soon he'll get real wrinkly

and then he'll start to mold.

He won't remember you or me

and soon he'll start to drool.

So I guess I better tell him now...

We think he's really cool.

Love you Chad!  Happy Birthday and we are going to eat cake in your honor tonight as planned.  Come visit us when you have a chance!!!

2 Weeks and Counting...

NOTE: The I key on my keyboard is sticking, so if you notice some missing letters below, you'll know why... 

Christmas is only two weeks away!  I am almost done shoppng, but not quite...I am actually doing better this year than previous years...I'm usually still doing some shopping even after Christmas, but hopefully not this year. It helps that we are doing Christmas light this year...not half as many gifts as usual.  It's actually nice...we are trying to get the kids especially to focus on giving instead of receiving.  That's actually my favorite thing about Christmas.

Blackberry is doing fine!  We are slowly but surely getting used to each other.  He mostly is sleepng through the nght but we aren't having much progress n the house training business.  I'm not sure f we are supposed to though untl he is a little bit older.  We just keep taking hm out as often as we can.  We have got him trained to Sit, Down and we're working on Roll Over.  I cannot get him to walk on a leash though..he just sits and makes me drag hm along.  Maybe that wll happen as he gets older too.  The grls are doing really well with hm. 

Tomorrow, my friend Amy and her family are moving up to Salt Lake.  We wll miss them so much.  We got to have a night out last week and our neighborhood threw a party for them last nght for everyone to say Goodbye!  I'm very sad, but t's going to be a good move for them.  Our house is going to seem a lot emptier without the Miles kids over all the time.  We wish them every good thing and I hope they find friends as good as they have been to us.

Hope to hear from you all soon.  Please post!!! We love to see comments on our page...PAS...

Early Morning Mishap

Scott left for work this morning on his bike and not 15 minutes later, I saw a police truck outside of our house. After a moments' panic, I saw that Scott was getting out and unloading his bike from the back.  He was okay, but it turns out his front wheel got stuck dead in a trench on the side of the road and he went tumbling over the handlebars with his bike landing on top of him.  His helmet is cracked (thank goodness he was wearing it) and the front head lamp is toast.  But it could have been so much worse.  He came home and rested for a few hours.  He has a bumpy bruise on his head and some cuts and scratches on his legs, but after some sleep he felt better so he headed back to work...in the car.  I guess it was only a matter of time before he had some kind of accident. He's been riding his bike for so many years now with no major problems...I'm just glad he's okay.  Post again soon...

Off to a Good Start...

December is off with a bang! We've had so much going on and it is only the 3rd...the week ahead is busy as well.  Yesterday was the Dickens Festival...the girls performanced were awesome. Afterwards, we went to lunch with Anissa and Anje. Tonight, our good friends the Miles invited us to dinner and to watch the Christmas Devotional together.  The meal was SO yummy. She made a very traditional pot roast dinner from scratch...but before you think she did it just on our account...she does it every week! What a woman...I'm sad that they are moving in just over a week. :-(  Tomorrow night, the Sabaitis family is coming for Family Night and on Thurs. and Fri. and Sat. Scott and I have Christmas parties to go to....DWS, Train Club and Ward Party respectively.  With Dance, Scouts, and meetings in between....definitely Tis the Season!  The miracle will be to get it all done and then some between it all...

Hope Mom had a safe trip back from Atlanta..heard she was sick. Yuck!... Grandma Rose is coming to visit on the 15th so she'll be here for the girls' dance concert...Got to see Bella for a while at the Dickens Festival yesterday...talked to Chad on the IM and to Dad on the phone...no word from Mike, but I have to send him his Christmas present (from last year) before this Christmas comes. I've made many attempts to get it there, but alas, I will have to resort to using the MAIL.  It will be good to see everyone over the holidays....

MIKE, are you guys bringing Odin with you to visit...Dad suggested that I send you a toy with Blackberry's scent on it & vice versa to get them familiarized with each other a bit, if you are....Let me know! 

Have a very merry....talk to you again soon!

It's been a long week!

But progress is being made!  Blackberry's first week with us has been full of ups and downs.  He is a very good puppy and we are slowly, but surely, learning how to live together.  I had a couple of sleepless nights, but last night (following some advice from my Dad and learning by trial and error) I finally got to sleep through the whole night.  I am anxious to see if it is a repeat performance.  And...after giving in to the idea of using a squirt bottle...he is learning not to bite Taylor's and Shaylie's feet as they walk.  He is such a smart little puppy.  He picks up on things very quickly.  It will be a very fun to see what he can do. 

Taylor and Shaylie are excited for Christmas, although it's been tough to get Taylor to tell me what she wants from Santa.  She already got Blackberry and I think she is satisfied with him, but she still needs something from Santa....we just don't know what.  Shaylie on the other hand wants everything.  If we can narrow it down, we'll post a list of suggestions here.  One thing Taylor did tell me is that she wants to start "collecting" gift cards. Take that for what it's worth... :-)

Tomorrow is the Dickens Festival performance for the girls' dance team.  They have new costumes this year and I think they both have their dances down pretty well.  Both classes are pretty small so they'll get a bigger share of the coveted spotlight.  We'll try to take pictures, but we haven't got a video camera anymore since the battery died and it costs a fortune to replace it since it's so old.  Our digital takes video but they're not very long. It takes too much memory.  Maybe Anissa can video tape it.  The Festival itself is always fun...lots of music and neat gifts and crafts.  We'll probably be there for the better part of the day tomorrow...with a quick trip home to check on the puppy sometime.

Upcoming weeks are getting busy too! Hope you are all having your fair share of parties, and holiday cheer!  Let us know what's going on and take care!

 EDIT: You can tell it has been a long week because Tonya forgot that we bought a new video camera three years ago that works just fine, as long as we keep the girls from using it to video tape all of their newscasts and plays.