Christmas in Las Vegas!

This post is dedicated to Sandi who threatened to remove me from her blog list if I didn't post an update soon.

Since yesterday (when I started working on this blog) was July 25th, I figured this would be a good time to write about Christmas! I have been trying to be more positive on my blog, so I won't go into the details of why last Christmas was so difficult for our family. Honestly, it isn't even necessary because last Christmas, we were reminded that people are amazing. They are kind and generous and mindful of others. All throughout the month of December, friends and neighbors anonymously left food and gifts for the kids at our doorstep. We were so grateful.

Mike and I weren't able to afford any presents for Christmas, so we relied on family activities to make the holidays memorable for the kids. We spent one weekend decorating our house. Thanks to our mischievous kittens, Buyo (the black one) and Diaho (the orange one), the tree was never decorated. The tree was a hand-me-down from my aunt Judy and has been getting progressively more ragged every year. Thanks to our wonderfully thoughtful kittens, we will probably be getting a new one next year. Someone should invent a kitten proof tree. They'd make millions.

Another weekend was spent making gingerbread houses from two kits which were left on our doorstep. One kit was a traditional ginger bread house while the other was made of Rice Krispies. Both kits were so stale that we couldn't eat them, but we had fun decorating and making a mess!

The Rice Krispy Treat house turned into a large amorphous blob, so we ripped it up and turned it into snow men... kind of. The weird looking one on the far left was Emily's.

On December 20th, we were driving around Pocatello looking for something Christmas-y to do. I think we were contemplating heading to Idaho Falls when I got a phone call.

"This is Alex Guerrero calling on behalf of the Ryan Clady Foundation."

Now, in the back of my mind, I knew who Alex Guerrero and Ryan Clady were, but I couldn't think of any possible reason why they'd be calling. As a result, all that came out of my mouth was a skeptical, "Uh-huh...?"

"Would your family be interested in going to the Las Vegas Bowl?"

"Very much..." I remembered hearing that Ryan Clady had asked for names of Boise State fans who might be having a rough year and would appreciate a trip to the bowl game, but a family had already been chosen.

"Well, we'd like to invite you at our expense."

"...Seriously? Um... yeah... I mean... yeah! That's amazing!!"

Our conversation continued while Mike remained oblivious in the seat next to me. Apparently, after seeing how well things had worked out with the first family they selected, Chris Carr decided to fund a second family's trip and asked for the list of names. Our family was on the list. Alex told me that Mike was selected because they were impressed by a congratulatory note Mike had sent to the winning family. Alex asked how many were in our family, what our kids' ages were, and what size shirts they wore. Then he told me that, if we were going to go, we needed to be in Boise by 5:00 am the next morning.

Yikes! I handed Mike the phone so he could work out the details. I don't think he believed me when I told him who was on the phone. It was fun to watch him go through the same disbelief I had just minutes before. He turned the car around, and we headed home to pack. We debated whether we should leave then and ask our friends and family in Boise if any of them could put us up for the night, but we decided it was too short of a notice, and opted to sleep early and leave at 1:00 am. Wrong decision. We couldn't sleep.

We arrived in Boise early and had to wait for about an hour and a half in the cold car for the charter bus to show up. When it finally came, the bus was as cold as our car! We tried to sleep in the bus, but it just didn't happen. The drive was long and terrifying as we drove through some horrible snow storms with white-out conditions. Luckily, Alex had all sort of fun activities to help pass the time. We had raffles and trivia contests. Mike and I had brought DVDs for the kids which the bus driver let us play on the bus's system. Thankfully, the other passengers didn't mind watching Cars and Toy Story. We had brought snacks, coloring books, and video games as a preemptive measure to keep the kids entertained on the long drive, but they surprised us by being incredibly well behaved. The other passengers kept commenting on how they were worried when they saw such young kids board the bus, but were impressed by how well behaved they were. Emily would always answer them by saying, "Nobody wants to hear me cry, so let's all have fun!" Despite the long drive and lack of sleep, nothing seemed to upset the kids except when Emily misunderstood and thought that we were going to Lost Vegas. She insisted that she didn't want to be lost, she wanted to watch Boise State.

We arrived in Vegas that evening. The rest of the passengers took a shuttle from the hotel to the strip, but we didn't have any money for the taxi ride back. Instead, we stayed in the hotel, ordered a pizza, and took hot baths to warm up from the cold bus ride. We were all too exhausted to do anything else anyhow!

The next morning, we hit the strip. We figured there must still be plenty to do without spending money. What we didn't take into account was the amount of walking and the amount of rain. Our hotel was "just off the strip," but we didn't realize how far off the strip it really was! The kids and Mike had their fun at my expense as they watched my hair get curlier and curlier from the rain. I don't look good with curly hair. It only got worse as the rain stopped and my hair dried into a nice gravity-defying frizz. However, we were much more concerned about our shoes and pants. It wasn't until after we got back to the hotel that we found out that Vegas was under a flash flood warning. All we knew was that the water was often ankle deep and we were soaked through from all the walking. Still, we were enjoying ourselves too much to care.

When we got back from the strip, we all changed into dry clothes. Mike and I used my hair dryer and the hotel's hair dryer to try to dry out our shoes. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort. By game time, it was raining again, and it only took seconds of being outside before we were soaked. We headed to the stadium early and went to all the free tailgate activities we could find. We didn't have ponchos, and vendors were selling them for as much as $20 a piece. That's a bit too much for a garbage bag with arm holes, if you ask me! We finally found someone who offered to sell us a two pack for $5, and give them to the kids. Later, we saw a kid pull off his poncho and throw it on the ground because it had a hole in it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I snatched it up and put it on right then and there.

The game was the coldest I've ever attended, but it was totally worth it! Hyrum kept telling the Ute fans behind us, "Boise State wins by far." He wasn't trying to taunt them, but I don't think they appreciated it much, and they changed seats before the fourth quarter. An older couple in front of us kept fawning over Hyrum and Emily, and the kids ate it up. Best of all, Hyrum was right, and Boise "won by far."

After the game, we went down to the field and managed to get pictures with Joe Southwick the backup quarterback. Hyrum begged for the chance to meet a real football player, but he was stunned into silence when he saw just how tall he really was. Also, although we didn't get any pictures with the real Doug Martin, we did get a picture with the Muscle Hamster. Back at the hotel, we dried off and piled our beds high with warm blankets.

The next morning, we boarded the bus to Boise, then drove to Pocatello. We arrived home at 1:30 am Christmas Eve, and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up, it was to another surprise. Someone had given our family money to buy Christmas presents! Mike and I dumped our kids off with my parents and went shopping. We all met up at my Grandma Sears's house that evening for presents with the extended family. That night, we gave both kids new pajamas. Hyrum's had Mario, Luigi, and Bowser on them, and Emily's had zebra pants and a zebra applique on the shirt and came with a stuffed zebra. Hyrum ran around pretending to be Mario, collecting coins and jumping on blocks. Emily was in heaven pretending to be a zebra. I think that in her mind, zebras are as close to perfection as anything on this earth. The next morning we opened presents and enjoyed a nice Christmas at my mom's house. I promise you we had a good time even though I don't have pictures or videos. I didn't have time to recharge my camera after Vegas. Oops!

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! Sadly, I don't have any pictures of Christmas Eve or Christmas day. But, not to worry! I still have plenty of pictures courtesy of my Mom and Sherwin. I even have a video to post!

My brother Jacob came to visit from Arizona. He has been seeing a girl, Erica, from Idaho. In fact, they went to grade school together in Lincoln (a township in Idaho Falls) and her parents are my Grandma Sears's neighbors. She lives in Boise now, but she and Jacob have made a few trips to visit each other. She came to visit her family here in East Idaho for Christmas, so we finally got to meet her.

On Christmas Eve, we went to my Grandma Sears's house for dinner and presents with the extended family. The kids loved seeing my brother James's kids again. Piper and Hyrum have always been close friends, and lately, she has taken quite a liking to Emily. She insists that they're sisters, not cousins.

Grandma Sears got us some much needed towels, toys and clothes for the kids, and new silverware. It is so great to have good silverware. Ya know, the kind that match? The kind where the spoons don't bend when you dish up ice cream? Yeah, that's the stuff... Thanks Grandma Sears!

Some of the cousins at Grandma's house. Top Row: Piper, Monkey, Emily. Bottom Row: Isaac, Hyrum, Savannah, Mason. If you're confused about the monkey, read this entry for more info.

I helped mom make matching Christmas dresses for her granddaughters this year. You'll have to check out my brother's blog if you want to see his girls in theirs. His blog is linked on the side bar. Here are some of the Christmas pictures of Hyrum and Emily. If you want more Christmas pictures, you can find them on Facebook.

I wish I had pictures of opening presents on Christmas day, but my camera wasn't charged. I can assure you though, it was wonderful! The kids got talking Woody and Jessie dolls from us. They were a huge hit!

The kids also bought small presents for each other. Mike and I decided not to give each other presents this year so we could afford the dolls, but he cheated and got me a vegetable steamer anyhow. Mike's sister Jen and her family had our names for Christmas. I'm very excited to spend my Jo-Ann's Fabrics gift card! I'm just having a hard time deciding which project I want to make. Mike's Best Buy card is as good as spent, and it's going to take Hyrum and Emily years to finish all the activity books they got. Thank you, Golding family! Dan and Cristtin also sent us a package, although it wasn't for Christmas. We saved it for Christmas anyhow. I cannot tell you how much I love hand-me-downs! Thanks guys! A Secret Santa provided our kids with new coats, snow boots, snow pants, school clothes, and plenty of toys. In fact, there were 3 large boxes of presents and food. I guess he must have known how tough it is to be out of work for 5 months. Thank you, Santa!

After opening presents at our house, we headed over to my mom's house for breakfast and more presents. It was a full house with the four of us, Mom and Sherwin, Sherwin's son Dale and daughter Suzanne, and Jacob. Mom and Sherwin got me new pots and pans. Does it mean I'm getting old if I'm excited about that? The kids got more books and more toys. Hyrum was excited to get The Sound of Music from my mom. That is by far his favorite movie, but we've never owned it. Emily got an Aristocats DVD. Singing and dancing cats? Doesn't get much better than that! Even Jacob spoiled them with an enormous Lego set for Hyrum and a Playdough activity table for Emily. Jacob spoiled us too with a Nintendo DS game each. It was hard to resist the urge to hold The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks over my head and sing "Du-nu-nu-nu!" (If you haven't played any Zelda games, you won't understand. It's ok, we forgive you.) We spent the rest of Christmas playing with the kids' toys. Dang, Lego is still fun when you're 30!

The day after Christmas, we went with Jacob and Erica to visit my Grandma Page and Aunt Pat. It was nice to see them again. I really need to visit my grandma more often. It was good to hear how my cousins on my Dad's side are doing. That evening, we had dinner and game night at my mom's house. We taught Erica how to play Pinochle and had a great game of Balderdash.

Now, I promised you a video. If you're still reading after that long post, here's your reward. Last week, the kids got a belated Christmas present from Mike's friend Kit. We'll forgive the lateness since it was on backorder and shipped from Japan. Besides, it's just too dang cute!

Let's Review Part 2: Christmas

Christmas Eve we took a break from our unpacking to spend the evening with my extended family opening presents to and from my Grandma Sears and eating pizza and junk food. We had a really great time. On our way home that night, we needed to stop at my mom's house to pick up some of the stocking stuffers we had left there. We could see that the roads were already starting to drift over a bit, and the thought crossed my mind that maybe we should spend the night at my mom's house. I brushed aside that notion, and we went home.

I must say, I love Christmas. I love it even more after this year when the, "You'd better go to sleep or Santa won't be able to come," threat worked so perfectly. There was not even one peep from the kids that night. In the morning, the kids looked in their stockings and played with the toys from Santa while we waited for word from Mom and Sherwin about if we could get through the roads to their house for breakfast and presents. The news wasn't good. All the roads to my mom's house were completely closed, and there was little hope that the snow plow drivers would want to take time away from their own families on Christmas morning to clear the roads. Eventually, one of their neighbors shoveled out a corner, and Sherwin was able to get through in his truck to pick us up. We packed an overnight bag for our family, anticipating the possibility that we would have to stay the night.

Christmas breakfast was great, and soon we were opening presents. The kids had a great time. Hyrum is just the right age to really enjoy it. Among their mountain of presents were dishes (which go perfectly with the kitchen Emily got for her birthday), Legos, a race track, walkie-talkies, and a fridge toy to help Emily learn letter sounds and help Hyrum spell 3 letter words. Hyrum is now a spelling pro, and Emily knows nearly all her letters. Mike got me a NintendoDS Lite, and I got Mike a computerized telescope. The snow continued to come, so we spent the day playing with the kids' new toys. After they went to bed, we adults played board games.

The morning brought visitors in the form of stranded drivers on their way to work. Someone who was obviously mentally unbalanced had told them that the best way to town was through those country roads. The driver called a cab, which of course, couldn't get through the snow. However, they were able to get out with a truck, and soon the plows came through to clear the roads. Mom was able to get to work, and Mike and I were able to return home to our lonely cat.

I was able to play with my DS right away, but Mike has had some trouble with his telescope. It has been too cold, windy, and cloudy to use it much since Christmas even though he has taken it out nearly every night. He hasn't been able to train the drive or set it to the alignment stars yet. The telescope has an on board computer that will search out stars, planets, and galaxies for you once it is aligned correctly. It has just been entirely too cold to stand to be outside for that long, and the lenses freeze and fog if we're out too long. However, we did get one video (there's also a camera that fits into the lens drop in) of the moon a couple nights ago when we had a clear night. It's not super great. The best part to view through the lens without the camera is the line between the dark and light side where the shadows define the craters well. However, the camera went out of focus and began shaking at this point in the video. Mike tried to adjust the focus as we filmed, but that only made it worse. There was also junk on the lens. Probably fuzz that fell off our gloves as we switched to different magnification lenses and the camera. It looks so much better through the telescope than through the camera. Mike added music to cover our geeky sounding voices the camera had picked up while we filmed. By the way, the camera/telescope isn't panning. That's just how quickly the moon moves in magnification. When the on board computer is turned on, it'll track objects across the sky gradually so that they won't move out of the viewer.

Ta da! Ok, not the best video... We'll take better pictures and videos when it gets warmer. Maybe we'll post a picture or video of one of the planets. The telescope can supposedly see Jupiter at about the size of a dime.

Christmas in Shelley

As Mike said in his entry, I spent Christmas with my family in Shelley and Idaho Falls. Mike and I had agreed that I would take the camera so I could get lots of pictures and videos and blog every day I was gone so he could feel a little more like he was there. Unfortunately, one of the first things I realized when I got to my mom's house was that I had left the camera at home. Instead, we had to settle on lots of phone calls and emails to get us through. I don't think I want to do the whole Christmas apart thing again.

The kids and I packed up and left Nampa shortly after Mike left for work on Christmas Eve. I had opted to leave on Monday because we had to sing in our ward's Christmas program on Sunday and I didn't want to drive in the dark. It only took until I got on the highway to realize that this was a mistake. There was a storm. A pretty big one. The highways were snowy and the traffic was bumper to bumper with last day shoppers. It was pretty treacherous nearly all the way out to Mountain Home. Once I got out of the Boise area, the roads were clear. I thought I had beaten the storm, but boy was I wrong! The storm caught up to me again around Fort Hall. By the time I got near Blackfoot, there was about three or four inches of unplowed snow on the highway. It only got worse the closer I got to Shelley. Near white-out conditions slowed highway traffic to around 30-40 mph. I followed a semi figuring they probably had a better view of the road than I did. However, I couldn't see the Shelley exit at all until I was already past it, and had to take another road from an Idaho Falls exit. This too was a mistake. By now, the snow was reaching 8 or 9 inches on unplowed roads, and I couldn't see where the edges of the road were. The car bounced in and out of ruts made by other cars driving equally as blindly as I was. I couldn't slow down or I would have risked getting high centered in the deep snow. Every now and then, I could hear grass or gravel under my tires signaling that I had drifted a bit off the road, but there was little I could do to get away from the old tire ruts. It was that way all the way out to my Mom's house. By the time I got there, I was pretty shaken up and didn't even want to go to my Grandma Sears's house for presents and dinner with extended family that night. The storm didn't let up until we had 10 new inches from that one day of snow. It snowed the whole time I was there. I think the news said we got up around 14 or 16 inches total that week.

We took Mom and Sherwin's Jeep to my grandma's house. I was glad not to be driving, but I was still quite nervous riding in the back seat. As I walked in the door, I was met with applause and cheers of, "There's the brave girl!" Nobody could believe I had been so daring (or stupid) to make that drive alone. We had a great time at Grandma's house. Hyrum got to see his cousin Piper again. They haven't seen each other in a long time, but it was like no time had passed at all. Hyrum gave her a big hug and kiss and they took off hand-in-hand to play together. He also got to play with my cousin's kids... what does that make them? Second cousin? Cousins once removed? I've never been able to figure out that cousin thing... Emily was too shy to let me put her down, but still showed off playing and dancing in my lap.

I was at fault to us getting off to a late start on Christmas morning. Emily hadn't slept well that night, and I got up early when Hyrum woke up. However, after my mom woke up, I dumped Hyrum off on her and tried to catch a little nap since Emily was sleeping. I slept longer than I had meant to and everyone had waited on me for breakfast. I felt pretty bad about that. We had a nice breakfast and were about to start opening our presents when Emily got sick. Very very sick. The poor kid spent the whole morning throwing up, and Mom, Emily, and I went through several changes of clothes in the process. Luckily, Hyrum enjoyed himself enough for both kids. He couldn't stop talking about Christmas and Santa and singing "Jingle Bells" over and over. We spent the rest of the day playing with the kids' new toys. Hyrum especially liked the preschool software my mom had gotten for him. Emily enjoyed playing with her new doll.

Mom had to work a half day on the 26th. When she got home, we went to the Wal*Mart photo studio to get pictures of the kids. I think they turned out pretty cute and can't wait to get them back. I also got to see our old friend and neighbor Dan who is the manager of the optical center there. He showed me pictures of their kids including their newest baby I haven't yet seen in person. I tried to set up a time to go see his wife Carissa and the kids too, but the weather kept me from ever going out that way.

Mom got off early again on the 27th, and we headed out to see my Grandma Sears again. Mom helped her with some stuff on her computer while I tried to program a stubborn universal remote for her. The kids decided to play cute and show off. Emily even got brave enough to let Grandma hold her for a while.

The next day, I went out to visit my high school friend Sandi. She's expecting a baby in April and looked so cute! I'm so excited for her! My kids really loved her husband. Especially Emily who will usually never go to anyone but me. I'm sure they will be incredible parents.

Mom decided that Hyrum needed some mittens for that freezing cold East Idaho weather, and we had gotten some fleece to match his coat at Hancock Fabrics on one of our previous trips to town. So on Saturday, we stayed in and made mittens. Hyrum loved them!

Early Sunday morning, we got a call. Church had been canceled due to snow. Nearly all the country roads were closed until plows could get out. There was even talk on the news about the possibility of closing East bound I-15. I had been looking forward to showing off my kids in their cute Sunday clothes, but it turned out to be a good thing anyhow. I was very sick throwing up all day Sunday. I spent nearly the entire day in bed. After the roads cleared a bit, Mom and Sherwin took the kids on a drive while I slept.

Monday was my birthday! My Grandma Page and Aunt Pat came to visit that afternoon because they knew my car wouldn't have made it through the snow to their house. It was really good to see them. Hyrum was in the mood to show off, but Emily was sleepy and wouldn't play or even leave my lap. Still, she looked cute in her pigtails!

I left for home on Tuesday. It was too bad I couldn't spend the day with my mom since she had it off, but I was afraid of missing a window of opportunity. There was no snow and no wind. Perfect driving conditions! Surely, the drive back would be much less eventful than the drive there. Right?... Well, for some reason, I wasn't paying much attention as I came out of Shelley. I missed the turn to get to I-15, and instead, kept heading down 91. I realized fairly quickly that I either needed to find a crossroad that would get me through to 15 or turn around and head back to the missed turn. After passing a couple of crossroads that ended in dead ends, I realized that you could probably only cross the river from Shelley or Firth. 91 was fairly snowy, and I was still closer to Shelley than to Firth, so I decided I would turn back. I turned down a narrow little country road looking for a driveway to pull into so I could turn around. Well, there weren't any driveways for a while. But there was a one lane bridge which I crossed followed by another intersecting one lane bridge that crossed a small canal. Since there were no cars on the road, I decided to use this little bridge for my three point turn. I pulled over the top of it and backed out the other way. The problem was, the second bridge was on a hill. The incline was so gradual, I hadn't noticed. The car couldn't grip the road well enough to climb the hill. The wheels just spun. I tried to back up a bit to get some momentum to get me over, but it didn't help. Finally, I decided I would have to push the car over the top of the hill. I was worried about it drifting off over the edge of the bridge into the canal, so I stood in the driver side doorway to steer as I pushed. It started out well enough until I lost my grip and the car started rolling backwards. I couldn't stop it. I tried to jump in, but I lost my footing in a bank on the side of the road. Now remember, the snow was really deep. Anyone who has lived in snow areas knows how it works. When it gets cold enough without new snow, the top layer of the snow freezes and forms a crust over the top of the softer drifts of snow. Well, my left foot broke the crust and I sunk in nearly knee deep. Meanwhile, the car kept rolling until I had been knocked face down into the snow by the open door of the car. I was waiting for it to slam into the back of my head, but before that could happen, the car came to a stop in the bank. My left foot was under the front tire. However, the car hadn't broken the crust and had only pushed my foot deeper into the snow rather than running over the top of it. I was easily able to pull it out and drag myself out from under the door. I stood up, shaking. My legs felt like Jell-o as I walked to the nearest house house for help. I knocked. No answer. I started out to the next house, but realized it was too far to walk as my legs were shaking so badly that I fell every few steps. So I went back to the car. Emily was asleep and Hyrum was just singing along to a Tabernacle Choir CD, completely oblivious to the fact that we were stuck. I was literally covered head to toe in snow and quite panicked. Luckily, just as I called Sherwin to tell him how to find me, someone came along in a hay truck. He had a chain with him and everything and was able to pull me out with no trouble at all. I quickly realized how lucky I was. But after the shock, adrenaline, and the numbness of the cold wore off, I realized how sore I was. Upon further inspection, I found bruises on my legs, some nasty scrapes on my forearms, bent up glasses, and for some reason I can't recall, a swollen pinkie. Curiously, the least sore part of me is the foot that was caught under the tire. Good thing I had prayed before leaving. Heavenly Father must have known that I have no health insurance! Thankfully, I can still say that I have never broken a bone.

The rest of the trip was uneventful with nice clear roads. I was so glad to be home again. The house has never looked so good to me. Mike had done some cleaning and organizing while I was gone. He had done quite a lot of work in the garage, taking advantage of the car being gone. Mike and I decided to let the kids open their presents on Christmas, but to wait to exchange our gifts to each other until I got home. I couldn't avoid seeing my presents as soon as I came in. For Christmas, he had gotten me a new computer desk. Sitting on top of it, he had wrapped the screen of a new monitor. I took off the paper to find this:

So maybe he can't spell "birthday" well and his shirt is stained (thank goodness I'm home!) but I still thought it was clever. He also did a great job finding an awesome deal for it on Craigslist.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. As for me, I'm happy to be home again!

One final picture of my mom with the kids.

Christmas in Boise

I didn't think that I'd be too affected being alone this Christmas, but I really missed my kids and wife yesterday. I don't want that to sound like I'm searching for a pity party, it's just how I felt. It's nice to know I still do love my family!

It was nice to have the cat with me. Deed was so cuddly with me all day. For the most part I slept and watched movies just because I didn't want to get up and move her from my lap. When I did get going, it was mostly basic cleaning to prep me for the larger cleaning of the garage and "office" (the other 1/4 part of our bedroom).

I had eaten the rest of the lasagna leftovers Jay made before she left -- it was suppose to last for 2-3 days. It didn't get past Christmas Eve (I didn't want to share with Santa). Anyway, after I had chocolate truffles and a few Idaho Spuds for Lunch, I decided it was best to have a healthy meal for dinner. Working and sleeping all day didn't have me very motivated to do any cooking, so I debated whether I could/should go get take-out. The pros were obvious: laziness. The cons... Jay would probably kill me because we vowed to not waste $ on eating out. But I had an Ace up my sleeve: Justification!! I mean, Jay was in Idaho Falls with her family, eating wonderful meals by Sherwin and having pot-luck-ings on Christmas Eve at her Grandma's house. Didn't I deserve to have a nice meal? Of course I do!! Chicken noodle is not going to cut it for a Christmas dinner!

So, out I went. Seeing as Deedee was being so cute and affectionate with me all day, I decided to take her on a car ride with me. We got in my bosses car I had borrowed since Jay had the Toyota in Idaho Falls. First stop: Jack-in-the-Box... Why does JitB have their lights on when they are closed?!? Pulled up through the drive through just to check ... yup, closed. McDonald's would never be closed.. they're a large corporation without personal values, right? Wrong! They did have their lights off, but their drive-thru menus were still flashing advertisements making me even more hungry. Well, if McD's is closed, not much else was going to be open. I knew there had to be Chinese food open somewhere. They're typically more expensive and don't have $.99 - $1 menus, but I was hungry. It's amazing how generous my wallet gets when I get hungry...

All this time, Deedee was sitting in the passenger seat. On the search for a Chinese restaurant, she had come over to lay in my lap as I drive. She used to do that when she was a kitten and we'd go on long trips to Utah with her. Then I heard it. A muffled *huck, huck, huck, wreetch!* ...I suppose this means Deedee doesn't like driving anymore. I began to feel a warm spot on my leg under her mouth. Passing under a street light, I got to see the goods: About 3/4 cups of expanded and mushed kitty food dancing partially on my leg and some spilling over on the car seat. I didn't panic for I knew there was nothing I could do. I didn't have any Kleenex within reach and there was no way I was touching it. Then the noise came again... desert decided to join the regurgitated dinner on my lap.

By this time, I had lost my appetite for the moment (as have you if you're eating reading this, right?). I pulled a U-turn (sorry, Jay... I know it's illegal in Idaho, but I didn't want to wait until the next intersection) and headed back home. It was a cold night, but that didn't stop me from cracking a window once the aroma of condensed kitty spew began to permeate the car.

This is what I looked like when I realized what the cat had done.

Poor cat. The moment I opened the car door in our garage, she weakly got out of the car. I had to keep my right leg in sitting position while getting out of the car. Once our, I left it splork to the concrete floor where I found a plastic spoon and Wal*Mart receipts to clean it and what was still left in the car. No sooner had I finished when I heard crunching by the cat dish... At least someone got to eat!

Well, I did eat, eventually. I found eggs in the fridge, so I cracked 4 and mixed them together. Then I found a cut onion we use for cooking with our ground beef in the fridge... There were also leftover olives from tacos we had the previous week, and a lone tomato as well!!! Wrapper in 3 tortilla shells, I had a nice omelet for Christmas dinner. And to top it off? Egg Nog!

In the words of Bill Cosby, "I told you that story to tell you this one."

We haven't really taught myson about Christmas. So we wanted to share what had happened at our Christmas party in an attempt to show you all how cute our son is (cuter than yours, Nyah, nyah).

--I just broke my delete key...--

We were in the very front of our ward cultural hall, being furthest from the stage. When Santa came to visit, jingling his bells, we asked myson, "Who is that?" I was mildy surprised to see him get excited, figuring it was just because I asked the question with enthusiasm --there, it's working again--. I lifted up Hyrum so he could see who it was and you could tell that he locked on the man in red once he was past adult head levels. They announced that they would form a line at the front and you wold have to go through the door to get on the stage to see Santa. I put myson down and asked if he wanted to go see him. "YEAH!!" was his exuberant reply and off he darted down one isle of tables without us. He got near the front only to see that the way was mostly blocked by adults in chairs and big coats blocking his view. He ran back to us where he veered of to his left having no regard for any obstacle that would get in his way down another idle of tables. I would have warned him had I not been so amazed at his excitement. It was not long before he had reached the stage where he realized he could not get to Santa that way. He burst to the back of the line of kids which had already begun to form. Once he saw that the door to the stage was open, he darted through two kids in line and dashed into the open door. Seconds later you saw a red faced, bashful Hyrum standing next to Santa's chair -- the first kid there. Santa hadn't even gotten comfortable to accept any children yet and there was no adult to monitor the on-flux of kids -- myson had beaten them all.

Oh, it was so cute. We felt a bit bad about not teaching him about Santa, but he obviously picked it up somewhere. I'm sure we've mentioned him a few times, but never in the "Santa rides and sleigh with reindeer and he comes to give you presents if you're a good boy and he eats cookies left out at night and kisses your mum and laughs jollililly" way. I would have taken pictures but by the time I got to the front to get a good one, myson's turn had been done, had his candy cane, and my phone was out of memory, anyway.

New Pictures

This one's for all of you who keep bugging us for new pictures of Emily. We've been putting off posting any because we can't quite get the right shot of her to show off how pretty she really is. She always either slouches down or has weird hair or a pacifier in her mouth.

For those of you who want to see her in living flesh, we're having her baby blessing on the 11th of February. Anyone who would like to come is welcome. We're looking forward to showing her off and also hope to show Mike's family around the Boise area a bit too. If you think you're going to come, please let us know so that we know who to plan for.

In other news, we received a calling in our new ward to teach the 5 year old Primary class. I think they call it CTR 5 now, but it's what used to be called Star A. I thought at first that we would be teaching my nephew Isaac's class, but he's in CTR 6, one class above ours.

Hyrum is the best big brother to Emily. He loves to hold her, tell her he loves her, and give her an endless supply of kisses. He likes to help out by burping her and tucking her in bed, and loves to watch her take her bath and get dressed. Sometimes when we put her down for a nap, he'll carry his chair into her room and set it beside the cradle so he can watch her sleep. We were afraid he'd get jealous of the attention she'd get, but the only thing he's jealous of is when one of us holds her or gives her kisses. He wants to be the one to do that. We're really so proud of him.

Well, this blog entry was supposed to be for new pictures of Emily. So without further ado...

Emily learned to smile when she was about 2 weeks old. She loves to smile up at us when we tickle her neck and chin and cheeks. We still haven't gotten any really great pictures of it yet. This was the best we could do, but it's the cutest thing when you see it in person!

Here is a very happy dad with his girl and his cat. We have a very similar picture with Mike, DeeDee, and Hyrum.

I love this picture! So cute!! She had been sleeping on Mike's chest, but lifted her head up to smile at Mike when he called out her name.

This one was almost perfect. If only I had gotten the pacifier out of her mouth. When I tried to duplicate it, she kept sliding down on the couch or slumping over. By the time I finally got her positioned right again, I had lost the lighting.

This is the dress that Grandma Sears gave Emily when she was born. In the last picture, you can see the Christmas tree in the background. I was trying to get a good picture of her to include in our Christmas post, but just couldn't get the right shot. I put Emily on the floor to let her rest a bit while I tried to get everything set up again for a better shot with the tree. However, by this time, I had been trying to get a picture for quite a while and Emily was fed up. She fell sound asleep on the floor, and I didn't dare move her. I do think this picture shows her face pretty well though.

Christmas Day 2006

Ok I got the pictures, so....

On Christmas Morning, we opened presents, as usual. It was a good thing that the kids had gotten presents from Grandmas and Grandpas or it would have been a pretty scarce Christmas as far as gifts go. Mike, Hyrum, and I all got new matching pajamas made by my mom. They have bright colorful cats on them and cause Hyrum to go into meowing fits whenever he puts them on. I'm going to try to make some PJs for Emily from the scraps that Mom sent. Among the presents that Emily got were new church and casual shoes and some new clothes and blankets. She got her traditional sock monkey from Grandma Sears. It turned out really cute. She got burp rags and bibs and clothes, a cute firefly shaped rattle, and a picture frame with a figurine of a little girl playing with some kittens. Now I just need a good picture of her to put in it. Hyrum made a pretty good haul. He got a new video game for his Little Leaps system which has some great activities for vocabulary building and learning letters and numbers. He enjoyed playing it quite a bit. He also got some new books. Yay! Now I don't have to read "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar" as often! He also got a shopping cart and toy food which he pushes all over the house with a teddy bear riding in the child seat. He also got an ambulance which talks and makes siren noises. Luckily for me and Mike, it isn't too loud since he plays with it almost non stop from morning till night. We also got him a really neat fort building kit. All the pieces fit together with magnets and can be moved around and reconfigured in lots of different ways and can be used indoors or outdoors. That afternoon, we tried to play a game of Settlers with Jacob, Joseph, Mom, and Sherwin, but technical difficulties abounded. We ended up playing with Jacob, Joseph, and Mike's brother, Dave. We'll have to try again with Mom and Sherwin later. Mike and Hyrum wasted no time later that evening putting together a large fort with 2 towers that nearly filled our whole living room. We put a pillow inside the fort and Hyrum and Mike lounged inside it while we all watched "The Polar Express" until Hyrum's bedtime.

Christmas Eve 2006

Christmas this year was very quiet. We didn't have the money to go visit anyone and would have had nobody to visit anyhow, so we just stayed at home. In a way, it was very difficult for me. I'm used to having lots of family around for the Holidays. However, it gave us a chance to spend more time focusing on just our own little family. On Christmas Eve, we watched the First Presidency Devotional and the church video "Joy to the World" which is a video of different families reading the Christmas story from both the Bible and Book of Mormon while they show pictures of nativity scenes and different parts of Christ's life. Afterwards, we baked sugar cookies with Hyrum. I wasn't able to find a recipe that I liked for sugar cookies since my cookbook and recipes have disappeared. I'm sure they're still packed... somewhere. We ended up buying a tube of pre-made Pillsburry dough. The instructions were to open the tube and cut the roll in half inch slices, but the dough was way too gooey and wouldn't hold any shape. We decided we would try to roll it out and cut it since gingerbread men shapes (the only cookie cutter we have) are more fun than plain circles anyhow. It took a lot of flour to get the dough to a decent consistency. Hyrum really enjoyed rolling the dough and especially loved cutting out the shapes. We turned the oven light on so he could watch the cookies raise and get all puffy. He liked decorating the baked cookies too, but once he realized that the decorations were just candy, he ate more than he decorated. The cookies weren't all that great. I would have preferred homemade to the Pillsburry, but Hyrum seemed to like them. We spent the next several days hiding them from him so he wouldn't spoil his appetite for real food.

I'll post about our Christmas as soon as I get the pictures off of my camera.

Jessica's Christmas Memories

So, Mike wanted me to post my Christmas memories so it didn't look like this was just his blog. As far as gifts, I usually don't remember all that I got for Christmas since it's always a bit blurred with my birthday gifts as well. We always left the tree up until after my birthday, so all my memories of opening presents are memories of sitting in front of the tree and having snow outside and all that other Christmasy stuff. I do have a few memories I can share, however.

When I was 6 years old, I got a gift from "Santa" that was too big for my stocking. I found it sitting under my stocking on Christmas morning. It was a Cabbage Patch Kid! I was never in to dolls much, but for some reason, I really wanted one. Maybe because all my friends had large collections of them. I didn't care about having a bunch, I just wanted one, and there it was! She had long brown hair in pigtails and blue eyes and when I opened the box and read the birth certificate, I found out her name was Joletta Christine. It was a Christmas miracle!! A doll who's name already started with a "J" so I wouldn't have to change it! (Everyone in my family and even extended family is named with a "J" name.) My oldest brother James helped me with the adoption papers and had me swear an oath to take care of her. From that point on, I took that doll with me everywhere I went. My Great Grandma Rock pulled the pigtails down over Joletta's nose, making a mustache, and gave it the nick-name "George" when I went to visit her -- a joke that caught on quickly with my 2 great uncles Jim and Harland. Uncle Jim even made me a doll cradle that had the name George on it. It was my Uncle Harland who first transferred the name from the doll to me. He called me George from that point on. He even labeled our wedding present, "To: Mike and George."

Another year my brothers and I were welcomed with meows at our garage door. We shared a cat with our neighbors across the street, but it wasn't his meow. We opened the door and in walked an elegant Siamese cat. We let him in and closed the door behind him, but the meowing continued from the other side of the door. We opened the door once again and a scraggly tabby cat walked in. We named the cats Jarvis S. and Jarvis T. (the initials designated their breed) after our home teachers Bro. Jarvis and Bro. Jarvis. As an adult, I've often wondered how they felt about having cats named after them...

I remember trying to wake up every year before my youngest brother Joseph. It wasn't really a competition, but it bothered me that every Christmas morning, I'd wake up and he was already up and opening stocking stuffers. I swear, he never woke up early the whole time he lived with us! One year, he got Donkey Kong Country in his stocking, and since we had woken up so early, we got a few good hours of playtime before my mom woke up for presents.

Most of my Christmas memories are memories of playing board games with my family, listening to carols as we decorated the tree, singing around the piano as Jacob played, and just enjoying each other's company. Every year, we tried to sneak some small present into my mom's stocking as a gift from Santa. Then, of course, there was Christmas morning at my Grandma Sears's house with all the extended family while we were living in East Idaho. We were always late -- something that my grandma bothered my mom about endlessly even though we usually beat my Aunt Jane. Christmas morning at Grandma Sears's house was a tradition that Mike and I still carried on until we moved away. This year, like last, we will be spending Christmas alone. It's kind of difficult for me to be alone like this for the holidays since I'm so used to having family around. But it gives us the chance to try to establish some traditions of our own. Hyrum will be old enough this year to understand what's going on, so I'm excited. It should be a lot of fun for him, and whenever he's having fun, it makes me happy. It'll be a while still before Emily will care about Christmas, but I'm already looking forward to the years when my kids are older and can enjoy it as much as I did.

A Christmas Memory

@ work, we had a team meeting. At the beginning of this meeting they had an ice breaker where we stated the most memorable present we've ever received.

First of all, I just have to say that I never knew that so many people received promise/engagement rings as Christmas gifts. Out of the 12 team members that were there, 7 of them mentioned having a promise or engagement ring as their most memorable present o_o

Then it was my turn, and I knew the answer well:

M.A.S.K. Boulder Hill! Based on the stares from people I was getting, I realized I was probably the only 80's child in the group. I had to explain how it was the secret base of M.A.S.K. (the Good Guys) and how when Venom would come along, the boulder on the top of the hill would crush their vehicles. I still got blank stares until one guy said, "Wait! Didn't they have a diesel too?" I was so excited, I replied, "Yes!! That was one of Venom's vehicles!"

I went on to explain how my siblings and I would wake up at 4 or 5am most every Christmas day and just sit and look at the presents and talk about which ones were ours and what we'd guess they would be. I remember that Boulder Hill got us most excited because it said "To: The Boys" and it was so big it could only be wrapped in a black garbage bag.