Happy New Year!!

The past couple of months have been so crazy. I am sorry that I haven't updated my blog lately. Let's catch up:

Well the biggest news of course was Kambry joining our family. It has been so much fun to watch Kevin and Tenille with her. They are the cutest parents and Kambry has successfully wrapped both of them around her little (long) pinkie finger. She is a growing every day and, while they have had a bit of a problem finding a good formula for her, they have it figured out and she has settled down. She is such a smiler and melts all of our hearts when she is around.

Halloween to now feels like it's been a major whirlwind. I love the holidays but every year it feels like it passes too fast!! Thanksgiving was wonderful. After that, it's been a bit of a blur.

• Right after Thanksgiving, I went to the Oak Ridge Boys Christmas Concert with Dad and Marilyn. It was great!! We were up in the rafters and couldn't see the videos they were showing very well, but they still have it with their singing. It was great!
• That Friday was our Ward Family Christmas Party. They decided to do both a family one (mainly for the kids) and an Adult one later in the month. I didn't make it for the Adult Christmas Party. It was on the 21st and, I'm sorry, but that week was entirely too busy!
• December 11th was our annual tradition with Mom and family to go to "The Forgotten Carols". This show sets such a beautiful tone for the Christmas holiday. It's always interesting to see how Michael McLean changes the show each year. The past few years end on a very different tone than the years before. It used to end with such a high, happy feel. Lately, the show ends with a much deeper more sober feel. Beautiful either way.
• The next week I went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert twice. David Archeletta was the guest vocalist. He did a fantastic job. This will definitely be a CD I buy next year. I must admit that I had never really heard David Archeletta sing. I am not an "American Idol" fan, so I had no real reference for what he sounded like. I knew he must be good because when he was on that show, that was all anyone really wanted to talk about. I was pleasantly surprised. He has a very clear voice.
• The next week was Christmas week and finishing everything that needed to happen. I had in mind what I wanted to do for my mom and for my dad. I really wanted to make something. I was unable to finish Moms project and never got around to Dads gift. I felt so terrible because I had to give Moms gift to her unfinished. I have been working on it as I could since then. I'm nearly done and I am so happy.
• We had our family Christmas party on the 23rd. It was fun to be with everyone. Spencer was going to come over and spend the night at my house. He was a bit excited...so excited that all evening he was ready to leave and go to Aunt Alisa's house. We had a lot of fun. Spencer is so cute. The next day we ran a few errands and Spencer melted the heart of more than one grumpy Christmas Eve shopper. He had decided to wish everyone he saw a "Merry Christmas." We walked around and he would smile, wave, and say "Merry Christmas." Between that and the jingle bells on his shoes, we were both having a great time!
• Christmas morning was spent with Mom. That afternoon I went over to Dad's house. Both were a lot of fun! Christmas was a great day!!
• In addition to all of this, December is a busy month for Primary as we start to organize for the new year. Preparing for the new year includes new classes, shifting kids, manuals, lists, CDs, teachers, etc, etc, etc. It's a lot to prepare for but we are ready to go (thank goodness since this Sunday is the first Sunday of January). We are off and running. Sunday will be interesting but we'll handle it. I've got a great presidency and each of them are such wonderful women and friends. We all get in there together and battle through the busy times. Our teachers are great, and the kids are a blessing. I love being down there with them. It's been five years, six programs, and I'm looking forward to another year with them.

Overall, this holiday season has been a great one. Lots of activity. Lots of family. Lots of snow (Unfortunately, we didn't have a white Christmas. Oh well, the snow came the day after and has been coming down since. It's been beautiful!). I've had almost a full week in jeans which has been strange. I was called in to work yesterday but now am off again until January 4th. I am looking forward to 2011. I'm so grateful for all of my blessings. I hope you each have a wonderful New Year's Eve and Day!! Happy New Year!! I hope 2011 brings loads of laughter, joy, love, warmth, and all that your heart desires.

Happy New Year!!!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Kambry Faith is here. Kevin and Tenille have a daughter who has already wrapped them around her small fingers. I went over tonight to visit them and meet my new niece. It was their first day together as a family. Kambry is adorable!! It was so wonderful to see a change in Kevin and Tenille as they were with her. Of course, with all the family there tonight, they didn't have her a lot. Poor little Kambry was passed around so that we each had time to hold her and love on her, including her little cousins. We all love her so much! I wish I could fully express my thanks to her birth mother. She is one courageous young woman. She has given the greatest gift of love that one person can give to another and with that beautiful gift a hole was filled for Kevin and Tenille.

Here are a couple of pictures that Kev sent me of Kambry. She has black hair, skinny legs and arms, and very long fingers and toes. Tenille said, "Look at these." (She was showing me how long Kambry's toes are.) "She has toes like Kevin!" We all laughed at how great that was and then I told her that I was sure Kevin would show Kambry exactly how to pinch with them. She agreed. It was funny!

Congratulations Kevin and Tenille!!!

General Conference

Just a quick note...

General Conference is tomorrow and Sunday. I love General Conference! For six long months, I look forward to it. I love listening to the messages which seem like they are tailor-made for me. I am lucky enough to be able to be there. Yes, the crowds, parking, protesters, security lines, and waiting are not all that fun, but it is so worth it to be there in the Conference Center. To be surrounded by so many of one heart and mind, it's wonderful! The Spirit is so strong. I love people watching while in there. Watching everyone interact with each other. Meeting and greeting, mixing and mingling before the session. During the meeting, no interruptions: phones are off, no distractions, total focus. It's great!!

I will post my some of what touched me next week. If you had any thoughts, I love to hear them.

A Crazy Moment

OK, so anyone that knows me knows that I don't exactly sleep through the night solidly (unfortunately). Well, I had a crazy moment the other day:

Wednesday morning I awoke to my alarm. I laid in bed weighing in my mind which was stronger: the need to take a shower or the need to stay in my comfortable, warm bed. I eventually decided to bite the bullet and go take a shower. I was so awake. Felt better than I had in weeks. I went and took a great shower. Stayed it a bit longer than usual. I was awake and looking forward to the day.

When I got out, I went over to look at my clock on my nightstand. "7:25" I panicked. It couldn't be 7:25. I mean, after all, I know I enjoying my shower so I took longer than normal, but I wasn't in there for 2 full hours. Sheesh, I would have been very pruney. I looked a bit closer at my clock. It didn't say 7:25... it said 1:25! "No way." I thought. "The power must have gone out and the clock reset itself." I grabbed my cell phone to look at the time on it. 1:26! I still didn't believe. I decided to walk to the kitchen and look at the clock there: 1:25. UGH!!! All of a sudden I was not only cold and wet, I was now upset and WIDE AWAKE. I couldn't believe it. I quickly checked my alarm to see why it went off. Nope, nothing was set wrong. I laid back down on my bed for awhile trying to figure it out. I thought that I'd better try to get back to sleep but before I did, I'd better go dry my hair. Once back in bed, it took an hour or so before I fell back asleep. When my alarm went off later that morning, I was SO tired. So what woke me up??? No clue. I thought I must have been dreaming and in my dream an alarm went off and so I woke up with it. I thought I must be losing it.

Now...the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey would say):

Brian and Tena came and had lunch with me today. Toward the end of our lunch I received a phone call from Jonsie. She said that I had purse called her again (my cell phone must have gotten hit and dialed her number). As I hung up and was walking out with Brian and Tena, I told them about my conversation with Jonsie. Brian started to tell me that his phone and Tena's phone do that all the time. He said that his phone had actually just done that the other day. He said it was the middle of the night when he was getting ready for bed. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and noticed that it was calling my number. He freaked out and hurriedly tried ending the call knowing that I was probably sleeping. (OK...don't jump to it...wait for it.) All of a sudden, it was like a light bulb turned on for all three of us. I asked him when this happened. He said that it was a couple of nights ago. We immediately started pulling our phones out to look. At the same time we each found the record. 12:42 a.m. When? You guessed it...Wednesday morning. That's right dear readers, Brian's phone had indeed called me. It was the ringer that I woke up to thinking it was my alarm. We all started laughing so hard and I told Brian that it was his fault! So, I told Tena she was responsible for punishing Brian for calling me in the middle of the night and causing me to become clean, sweet-smelling, and sanitary by 1:26 in the bless-ed a.m. (M*A*S*H reference). (If you ask me, I think he was looking forward to her punishment. Perhaps I will have to go a different way next time.)

If anyone has any idea how to keep phones from dialing on their own, please let me know.

Basement Windows

GOODBYE OLD...

...AND HELLO NEW!!

The basement windows are in!! CELEBRATE!!!

It is so weird not to see the old windows. The new ones are great. As they put the screen in the last window, and opening and closing it, I noticed the disappearance of the street noise as it was closed. HOW FABULOUS!! There are still some clean up and other issues to finish before the window process can be stamped "DONE" but to have them all in is great. This is a long-awaited check off of my house updating wish list. It's thrilling!

Temple Square with the Boys

OK, so a couple of weeks ago, Janine and Jason had a family wedding to go to at Salt Lake. It was right after my shift so I volunteered to watch the boys while they attended the sealing. It was after a very BUSY day but I was so looking forward to seeing the boys. I was able to take some cute pictures of them which Janine has coveted. Lincoln was totally out of it. He sat totally limpless in his stroller until until we got him out to take a picture. Then it was a "Cheese," and a cute picture.

I love this one. It's right on the corner of one of the fountains.

Lincoln was sitting there with his leg up on the edge so Spencer put his up too. I thought this was such a cute picture of the two of them.

We were walking around and when we got close to the fountain, it was not on. While we were standing there, the fountain started to go up. Well, it was windy and carried some of the mist toward us. Spencer freaked out like it was drenching him. I thought it felt really good. It was, after all, mid August and blazing hot outside. Well, poor Lincoln was trapped in his stroller. He thought we left him to drown in the mist. It was funny. They were both fine once we started to walk through it. They realized that it felt really good.

For some reason, Spencer and Lincoln loved these benches alongside the flowers. They would climb up and look at all the flowers. Spencer kept pointing out that we could see the moon even though it was daytime.

We made our way around to the temple. We found this little bitty path right by the temple. Spencer decided that every time we saw a bench, they were going to take a picture. We only saw two benches but the pictures turned out REALLY cute!

We were going to find more little paths but then Jason called and it was time to go. I turned them over to their parents and headed home to get dinner. I love spending time with all of my nieces and nephews. Thanks Janine for letting me take the boys for a bit that day. It was a great cap to the day.

New Windows...Yeah!!!

All of you know how much I've been wanting new windows in my house. Well, with interest rates being so low, I decided it was time to refinance. I also added some in to the loan so I had money to redo my windows. Upgrading from my wood framed, single-pane windows to vinyl, low-e, double-pane windows has been a while in the process! Here are some pictures during the process:

I decided to go with Clear Choice Windows. It's a company owned and operated by one guy. He gets his friends and family to help him. He came with his son. They showed up shortly after 8:00 a.m. and by 9:30 they had the two front windows gone and one replaced. Do you see anything missing?? Perhaps the entire front window. I'm just glad the weather was nice and cooler. My house would have been steaming.

Here he is ripping out one of the side windows in the dining room.

I tried to just stay out of their way. I spent the day weeding, mowing, weeding, watering my garden, and oh, uh, weeding. It was nice though. I don't have a lot of days to spend in bluejeans. I love what I do with work and other responsibilities, but I do so enjoy and take advantage of these "Saturday"-type days when they happen.

Here's the final outcome!! Main floor done. Basement to be replaced in about a week. Yeehaw!!!

First day home from work after the windows were in I was greeted by something I never had before during the summer...cool temperatures. I couldn't believe it. It was AWESOME!!!

Hello World!

It's amazing how much people put out there in the Internet world. I thought I would start to add my voice to the mix.

Mom, Joni, Janine and the boys came over tonight to spend some time. Joni needed a place to store a little of her furniture for the next few months while she transitions from college to real life. She only has one more semester and she graduates. I'm so proud of her. Spencer took these pictures of Jonsie and Mom.

Janine and the boys...what can I say. It is so much fun when they all come over. They boys are so cute. I love spending time with them. Janine is such a good mom. I try to help as much as possible.

Here is Lincoln showing his "CHEESE" smile. He loves to look at the camera now and say "cheese." Immediately after taking the picture, he will walk over and say "I see" then immediately "Ohhhh." He sometimes gets the "oh" out before he even sees the picture. It really cracks me up.

The boys love bubbles. Who's kidding who??? Don't we all love bubbles? Watch both of their faces. It's really adorable! Lincoln did not look up at the bubbles a lot. He would wave his arms to get them but wouldn't look up. He didn't want them to pop in his face. Spencer on the other hand would run around and try to knock them all down. Crazy boy!!!

It's almost like I'm getting ready to throw in a pass at a basketball game the way they were ready to defend their territory.

I had a great time everyone. Thanks for coming over!!