New Haircut

Thank goodness for professionals who can fix self-haircuts.



I tried to take a picture at the salon, but my camera batteries died. The hair stylist told Lucy that she had to go to school to learn to cut hair, and she showed Lucy her beauty license.

Her haircut really turned out cute, short, but cute. Then we went straight to gymnastics, but she clung to my leg and said she just wanted to go home. So we left. We went to JCPenney and she had to go to the bathroom, and when she looked in the mirror again, she said, "I look cute. I like my haircut. I want to go back to gymnastics."

Never Say Never

Guess where we are headed first thing in the morning...


To the hair cutter to have her fix Lucy's hair.


She said she wanted to look like Hannah Montana.
It is going to be mighty short when we are done tomorrow.

A Saturday With Us

Here is what we do on a Saturday...

Jill & Hanna got bundled up and Austin took them to bottle feed calves at a dairy in our ward. They do it for a little extra spending money.

I went to my first day to pick up my Bountiful Basket. It is a non-profit co-op where you pay $15 and get 2 round laundry baskets full of fresh fruits and vegetables. It is becoming a big deal around here. You sign up on Tuesday on the internet and then you pick it up on Saturday(most sites are at elementary schools). They have sites all over Utah, Idaho and Arizona (and they are adding more all of the time.)

Austin went and rode our horse, Lena, in the snow at our friend's arena.

Jill had two basketball games. She is on a competitive 5th-6th team that Austin coaches. Her team played so good, so much better than their first game in this league. They won the second game. Hanna sits on the bench with the team, and Lucy fell asleep on the bleachers right behind the team.

I went straight to the team roping. I started my job again of being the bookkeeper at a team roping that they have at the indoor arena every other Saturday night. It is my way of earning my spending $ for Hawaii.

Austin went to the priesthood leadership session of stake conference, home to fix the girls some scrambled eggs, and back to the adult session. I made it to the end of stake conference after the roping was over. We have an apostle visiting our stake, Elder Neil L. Anderson.

Jill and Hanna stayed with Lucy and Carly for the afternoon/evening. I can't describe what a feeling of freedom it is to have kids old enough to babysit and to have a baby that doesn't cry anymore when Mom & Dad aren't in sight. They decorated the house for Lucy's birthday and watched movies.

Then we all went to Arctic Circle for milkshakes after we got home from stake conference.

January

It is time for my monthly report.

My exciting news that is keeping me going through the fog and inversion is that I am going to Hawaii with my roommates from college. We have one adopted roommate that lives there. Let's just say it is really a huge accomplishment that all 5 of us found a date that would work and have great husbands that assured us they could live without us for a week. It is going to rock (metamorphic)!

I got called to teach CTR 8 in Primary. There are 16 kids in my class, and about 12 of them come. They did just call me a team teacher. They are funny. They can't stop bugging the person next to them and they say every thought that comes into their head. I am still the Enrichment leader, too. Luckily our ward is pretty laid back, so it is not too intense.

In other blog-type news, I had to use 1 of my 100 texts this morning to have Austin come home from school to jump start my van because the battery was dead from having a door left open all night. Thank goodness we live close to his work.

This month, my family has been to the orthopedic surgeon, the rheumatologist, the dentist, the chiropractor, and the orthodontist. We really are a pretty healthy family.

Austin did the Polar Plunge for the 4th year to raise money for Special Olympics. Don't you like the hat?

This is Hanna waiting at the edge of the water with Austin's towel.

We definitely live in a girly house. One night over Christmas break, the girls performed a whole dance show. They even hooked up a curtain thingy to the ceiling fan so they could stand on the kitchen table and make a grand entrance. Carly is right in the middle of it all. They are training her well.


Also, in her spare time, Jill decided to do a photo shoot of Lucy and Carly.


Going back a few weeks, we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma during Christmas break. My Dad recently had back surgery, so they had Austin put in a new dishwasher for them. It turned into in all day experience, but now they have a new dishwasher. We will frame this photo of Austin because his home-fix-it projects don't come around very often. (I hope he doesn't read this:)

Merry Christmas!

I love everything about Christmas. I am sad that it is over. I look forward to it and plan Christmas gifts for months. Now what am I going to do?

Here are some of my favorite parts:
- my wall of Christmas cards we received
- treats (making and receiving)
- Christmas music (favorite of the year: Internet radio pandora.com Faith Hill holiday)
- Christmas lights
- treats
- my kids' excitement for Santa Claus
*they wrote notes, left cookies, milk and carrots for the reindeer
*the reindeer left chewed up carrot pieces on the lawn
*Hanna asked Santa what her elf's name is, the answer was Jasper the Man
*we tracked Santa's trip in Google for hours on Christmas Eve

A few days before Christmas, Lucy decided she wanted a protector dog (who knows exactly what that is?) for Christmas. She mailed him a letter, he wrote back and said she had been really good this year and that he would bring her a protector dog. Santa brought her a webkinz dog for Christmas so she could have a "protector dog."

Christmas morning was so fun. All of the girls slept downstairs in Jill's room, and we told them they couldn't come upstairs to get us because they would see the Christmas tree. So they called us from Austin's cell phone to tell us they were up and ready. We had to wake up Carly and she was actually happy. She loved her new doll and stroller. Kids make Christmas magical.

Sleeping under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve Eve

Austin's guitar solo for our Christmas Eve program


Making homemade root beer in our garage on Christmas Eve


Carly, Lucy, Hanna, Jill ~ New pajamas on Christmas Eve

Carly & Hanna on Christmas morning

Lucy in her new hat in front of her new tent


Kaylynn in her new apron, new shirt, new necklace, new watch
Thanks to my family!

We have had a fun Christmas break so far...
-Sledding (behind the horse and down some cool hills at the park)
-Watched movies
- Played basketball at Austin's school
- Eat and eat some more
- Play with, read, and try on our new things from Christmas

Birthdays & Christmas

We can add this male pattern balding hairdo to Austin's list of crazy things he has done at his school. This was an incentive for the students to raise $2,000 for Christmas for those in need. They did it, so he had to wear this quality hairdo today. It is now currently all shaved off.


In other excitement, we love Christmas. We love giving and getting neighbor gifts. We love Christmas music. We love the lights and decorations. We love the treats.

I decided to add red balls to our cowboy Christmas tree the other night, so as each one was ready, Carly took it and put it on the tree. All 12 of them ended up in a very small space right in Carly's reach.



And I celebrated my birthday this week. I don't recommend having birthdays so close to Christmas, but it really has been a great birthday. We had this delicious cake, we have had 3 dinners that we have called my birthday dinners, I have had 2 friend lunch dates, I got new jeans from my husband (not from the D.I.), and I got like 15 birthday wishes on Facebook, plus some quality phone calls.

Christmas Party

We had a super fun, very snowy family Christmas party. We have grown to the point of not being together on Christmas morning anymore, so I suggested we have a party and exchange gifts from our name drawing (which happens every July - no procrastinators here).

Everyone came during the worst blizzard we have had all winter. It just added to the memory. There always seems to be extra memories when I am in charge of family activities (remember Green River, Utah at 100 degrees in a cabin with no air conditioning; poison ivy on the kid hike; and now bulldozing through almost a foot of snow to get into the church parking lot where the party was.)

We had delicious food, a birthday party for my Mom, a white elephant gift exchange game, Santa Claus came, took a family picture, enjoyed a chocolate fountain, and exchanged gifts from our name drawing.