Christmas update

Hello everyone. I hope you had a great Christmas! I just have time to post a quick page or two reviewing our week of Christmas. Enjoy!

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

What a wonderful experience we've had these last 12 days. Each day, a small gift has been left at our doorstep, leading up to today. We were certain that our Secret Santas had to be a family in our Ward. Imagine my shock when I opened the door today to 15 caroling teenagers and their seminary teacher. We were blown away that number one, they'd chosen us, and number two, that they had been able to coordinate all of these gifts for the last 12 days. We were so touched! A special thanks to each and every one of them...you have made some lasting Christmas memories for our children! Details are below...

finally, here's a recap of our last week's fun....enjoy!

ughh, pardon the typos on the first page. I seem to find them only when I post them on my blog. I'm off to fix them before I forget!

Everything is breaking!!

and the hits just keep on coming....yesterday, the dryer broke. If these thing happen in threes, I'm just waiting for the next thing to go wrong. Luckily, my hubby is willing to try and fix things himself. I did the research on what to fix and he did the labor. Tonight, after an hour of work (and $75 in replacement parts), my dryer is once again quietly drying my clothes. If only fixing the business database was that easy (and cheap)

Listen to those promptings!

Well, Casey and I learned a very hard lesson yesterday. We've been hearing these commercials for "Carbonite"; the online back up of your computer data company. Almost every day, I have received a prompting to remind Casey to back up all of his business stuff with an on line company..just in case. He has also received similar promptings, but ignored them. Yesterday, his entire business database crashed. Everything is gone...his clients, his upcoming bookings, brochures...everything. Now he has to pay another company a hefty sum to try and resurrect his database. In the meantime, we are frantically re-entering all of our contracts that we have hard copies of. A challenge and expense that could have easily been avoided. Next time you receive a prompting to do something, do it right away...there's usually a good reason!

Non Stop December

Hello everyone. I thought I'd pop on and update my blog with what's been happening over the last week. Does every December seem to get busier and busier? Casey was saying the other day (after a non-stop day of church, tithing settlements, and singing practice) that the month of December feels like a "marathon" that he can't rest from until the year ends. If he didn't enjoy being a Bishop so much, I'd feel bad for him. He is there from dawn until dusk...home for a quick dinner and back again. The good thing is that during tithing settlement time, people bring him plates of cookies and candies which he brings home to us! Yum!

Parenting, then and now

You ever get that feeling that you can't possibly be as old as your parents were when they were raising you? To me, my parents seemed so old and wise when I was a kid. They could do nothing wrong...they had all the answers, they were safe. Now that I'm a parent, I realize that they were exactly my age when they were raising me. Therefore, my kids must see me the same way that I saw my parents. For some reason, I don't feel wise and all-knowing. I feel like I'm still a very young adult...just winging it from day to day. Did my parents feel the same way about themselves? If so, they sure hid it from us kids. (or maybe they didn't and we were just too young to pick up on their insecurities.) Today was one of those days when I pondered how my kids would describe me, as their mother, when they are adults. Would they describe me as loving, patient, wise, safe? I honestly don't know.

I have the greatest parents on the planet...don't even try to compete with them, you can't. :) How was I so lucky to be born into the strong, righteous family that I was blessed with. Had I not, what would I be like now? Everything that I have, everything that I am is a direct result of their tutelage, kindness, and example. I hope that someday, my kids will feel the same way...lucky to be born into our family...it's a lot to live up to.


This is the scrapbook page that I finished today that set off my reflective mood.

this quote kind of sums up how I've been feeling today!

Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We had a pretty quiet one with just a few grandparents and friends over. Casey as Bishop likes to make sure that everyone has plans for major holidays like this. We usually end up with a few Ward members at our house on Thanksgiving and Christmas...those that have no where else to go. We love getting to know people and sharing our house (and food) with them. Anyway, everything turned out great and we especially enjoyed our family tradition of putting together a big puzzle all day. I am truly grateful for the rich blessings that I have been given!

The next day, instead of braving the crowds on "Black Friday," we braved having our house stuffed with 12 kids! Our friends, the Andersons came in for a visit and the kids (who are of equal ages) spent the day riding bikes and going to the park. They had so much fun together! Einar, their father...and our friend for so many years, is reporting to basic training two days after Christmas so we're not sure when we will see him again. It was nice to spend one very quick weekend with them!

riding bikes and scooters on an absolutely gorgeous November day!

Allison rides without training wheels for the first time!

Madison (Randi and Einar's oldest) at the new playground behind Splash. This playgroud is HUGE! My kids love it! Madison and Charlotte have been friends since the day they were born!